History of Senia Gharana
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The Senia Gharana follows the lineage of Tansen, the court musician and one of the nine jewels (Nav Ratna) of Emperor Akbar in the 16th Century AD. Being a Vaishnava, he received tutelage from Swami Haridas, a prominent figure of the Bhakti Movement and also from the Sufi mystic Muhammad Ghaus. Tansen rose to prominence due his Dhrupad compositions that have garnered a lot of stories and legends. His daughter Saraswati Devi (possibly later changed name to Husseini) married a Muslim Beenkar Naubat Khan which turned the Gharana's focus to a combination of Dhrupad and veena. Ustad Wazir Khan of Rampur, who was the Head of the Music Department of the Rampur State during the erstwhile Nawab Hamid Ali Khan, was a direct descendant of Saraswati Devi and Naubat Khan and taught some of the brightest students who became world renowned musicians. They included the likes of Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan (Ustad Amjad Khan's father and Ayaan Ali and Aman Ali Bangash's grandfather), Ustad Alauddin Khan (Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Khan's father and the Guru of renowned musicians like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Pannalal Ghosh and Sharan Rani). Amongst Ustad Wazir Khan's student was also his nephew Ustad Dabir Khan, a master Beenkar and Dhrupadia. Dabir Khan was based in Kolkata and produced numerous musicians and vocalists who are now household names, such as Pandit Radhikamohan Maitra (Guru of Pandit Budhadeb Dasgupta), playback singer Manna Day and Sangeetacharya Amaresh Chowdhury. Shamik Bose was extremely fortunate to have been a disciple of Sangeetacharya Amaresh Chowdhury, to have been blessed by him to learn the intricacies of the gayaki and a range of items such as laykari, chhandabhed, bolbaat, boltaan, taan and sargam.
Tansen
Ustad Naubat Khan
Ustad Wazir Khan
Ustad Dabir Khan
Sangeetacharya Amaresh Chowdhury
History of Bishnupur Gharana
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Bishnupur Gharana is the only Hindusthani Gharana of Bengal and surprisingly also has its roots in the Senia Gharana. In the 17th century AD, during the rule of Aurangzeb, Akbar's great grandson, artists and musicians fled Delhi due to religious intolerance and tyranny. One of the descendants of Tansen, dhrupadia and Beenkar Bahadur Khan of the Senia Gharana came to Bengal and settled in Bishnupur which was the heart of art and culture of Bengal at that time. He garnered a lot of interest from the Bengalis of the day and some became his disciple hence initiating the Bishnupur Gharana. The gharana evolved from more of a Dhrupad style to the Khayal style as it is known today. Sangeetacharya Satyakinkar Bandyopadhyay, one of the versatile musicians of the Bishnupur Gharana, became a foremost proponent of the gharana which was carried forward by his son Pandit Amiyaranjan Bandyopadhyay and grandson Pandit Santanu Bandyopadhyay. Srimati Kabita Gupta was one of the foremost students of Pandit Amiyaranjan Bandyopadhyay who continues to teach and perform in Kolkata. Shamik Bose was under her tutelage for several years of his childhood and adolescence, where he learned the specific Raaga roop and bandishes of the Bishnupur Gharana
Sangeetacharya Satyakinkar Bandyopadhyay
Pandit Amiyaranjan Bandyopadhyay
Srimati Kabita Gupta