Why the sarod gently weeps with Buddhadev Das Gupta’s demise

DHAKA: Sarod maestro Pt Buddhadev Das Gupta, an unmatched guru, an exponent of the Shahjahanpur gharana and a celebrated performer with a deep cerebral approach to music, succumbed to a cardiac arrest at his South Kolkata residence on Monday morning. He was 84 and is survived by his wife and two sons.
On October 25, he had gone to Sangeet Research Academy to pay his respect to Vidushi Girija Devi’s mortal remains.Deeply disturbed, he sat in one corner reminiscing about the veteran vocalist and how much he would miss her physical presence. “It’s rare to find a performer like her,” he said staring at Girija Devi’s feet before bidding her adieu. Little did anyone then fathom that Das Gupta would be joining her in less than three months.
Music, he used to say, is a “very jealous taskmaster”. Das Gupta was born in Bhagalpur on February 1, 1933. At an age of nine, when his father was transferred to Rajshahi, Das Gupta met Pt Radhika Mohan Maitra and became his disciple. Subsequently, he perfected a style of playing that displayed a rare accuracy of notes, rabab based bol patterns and fluent ekhara taans.
What set him apart from other artists of his generation was that he pursued a full-time career in music only after he retired from his job in a power distribution company. A meritorious student, Das Gupta had studied ISC at Presidency College and had stood second in Mechanical Engineering from Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur in 1954. In 2010, the institute had conferred an honorary D.Litt to him. He worked as a senior engineer, trainer and administrator with Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation for 32 years. With a demanding professional career, Das Gupta didn’t have the luxury to do as much of riyaaz as he would have wanted to. Instead, he perfected a style of ‘mental riyaaz’.
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her condolence to Das Gupta’s family. In a tweet, she said: “it is a great loss for the world of classical music”. Sarod player Pt Tejendra Narayan Majumdar described his music as a combination of “rare authenticity and wisdom with aesthetics”. His disciple Pt Nayan Ghosh said: “After my father, Buddha-da was my guru. He had a treasure trove of some rare traditional compositions. He taught me some ragas - “Kukubh Bilawal” and “Chhaya Behag” – that are hardly played on instruments. He was the last mountain that crumbled down.”

Sarod player Amaan Ali Khan said, “It is a great loss to the world of music and to the music industry. He was one of the finest musicians ever.”
If Satyajit Ray had his way, he would have got Das Gupta to play in “Pather Panchali” – the masterpiece for which Pt Ravi Shankar had scored the music. In one of his interviews to TOI, Das Gupta had said: “One day as I was coming back from office, I noticed a taxi waiting outside my home and a Bengali gentleman clad in dhuti panjabi sitting in it. My friend, the photographer Subrata Mitra, was also there and he asked if I would play my instrument for a film that Satyajit babu was working on. In those days, we could do nothing without the permission of our gurus. I said no because my guru had expressed his displeasure. That gentleman in the taxi was Satyajit Ray. I really regret it that this happened because of my gurubhakti! I consider it as part of my gurudakshina.”
Though Das Gupta never went on to work in movies, he didn’t shy away from experimentation. His raga based symphonic compositions are often talked about. During the times when Tagore’s copyright wasn’t lifted, he had experimented with Rabindra Sangeet. Inspired by Ustad Vilayat Khan’s experiment with ‘Bhenge mor ghorer chabi’, Das Gupta improvised with ‘Sedin duhone dulechinu bone’ that was set to Rag Pilu. In 1978, he sent this tune as the concluding piece for the national programme for All India Radio. Veteran singer Suchitra Mitra was so inspired by this composition that she brought up the idea of doing a show with him. In 1985, a unique show was organised with Dasgupta on the sarod, V Balsara on the piano and Mitra on vocals.
Known to speak his mind, Das Gupta had refused the Padmasri in 2011. His reason: Undeserving people who were half his age were awarded this award before him. “If I accept this now, I would become a comic figure to the whole music community,” he had then said. In 2012, he was conferred with the Padma Bhushan. The West Bengal government awarded him Banga Bibhushan in 2015.
With his demise on Monday, the sarod now gently weeps for the maestro who effortlessly transported the audience to unprecedented heights of musical ecstasy.