History of Kali Kirton of Premik Maharaj (Part 3) Andul Rajbari Andul Rajbari was a centre of the cultural milieu of Howrah and offered patronage to the spread of literary activities. Mahendranath was the Sabhakabi there and his friend Krishnadhan Mullick, a renowned classical singer adorned the post of singer in the king’s courtyard. H e added tunes to the songs composed by Mahendranath and soon formed a group to deliver this new form of music known as Kalikirtan to the audience. The first concert of the Andul Kalikirtan Samity was held at the Andul Rajbari in presence of Raja Bejoy Keshab Roy and with his patronage the Samity was set up at the Rajbari. The office however was shifted to violinist Harinath Bhattacharyya’s house for five years and then to Ashutosh Banerjee’s house at Dakshinpara for a few years. Finally in the year 1900, it was permanently shifted to Premik Maharaj’s House. The unique feature of the songs composed by Premik Maharaj is the fusion of Shakta and Vaishnab thought processes.Initially he didn’t use his name in his poems. Later on he used the term Premik or the lover of God in his poetry Bhanitas. Kalikirtan differs from traditional kirtans in the sense that there is superb blending of Dhrupad, classical music and Baul tunes. Far from the traditional Ramprasadi or Kamalakanta school there is variety in tunes and instead of the traditional talas of kirtans like lofa, Dashpayari the songs are sung in Ektal, Chowtal, Aarrachowtal, Jhanptal ,Teental or Teora purely based on classical ragas like Paraj Bahar, Darbari, Jhinjhit, Arana, Tori etc The songs are started in the Bilambit laya followed by drut and then again to bilambit.The dohar sings the mukhora or the first line of each verse and then the song is presented in the chorus form. Premik Maharaj was a composer and was engaged in nonmusical job. So initially tunes were added by his friend Krishnadhan Mullick. Later on Manindranath Bhattacharyya, Ratan Bhattacharyya and Umashankar Mullick added tunes to some of his songs. A book consisting of 181 songs composed by Premik Maharaj was published in the Bengali year 1324 by his fourth son Manindranath which has undergone nine editions. Mrs. Rachel Fell Mc.Dermott, a researcher of the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Culture of Barnard college, New york has translated some of Premik Maharaj’s songs and critically discussed about the moods of his compositions in her two books titled – ‘Mother of my heart – Daughter of my dreams’ and ‘Singing to the Goddess – poems to Kali and Uma from Bengal’ published by Oxford University Press in 2001. In the year 1896 Andul’s Kalikirtan enthralled the devotees at the Dakshineswar Kali Temple. The function was held on the occasion of the birthday celebration of Sri Ramakrishna. Since then on several such occasions the members presented their songs. But the most prestigious achievement is the uninterrupted music recital every year on the birthday celebration of Sri Ramkrishna at the Belur Math since it’s inception. Before his death Vivekananda himself visited Premik Maharaj’s house at Andul and requested the samity for their concert at Belur Math. Sri Ma Sarada Devi, Swami Brahmananda, Swami Akhandananda and several other mates of Sri Ramkrishnadev listened to their music. (To be continued.......)
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 06:51:22 +0000
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