Vishnu Narain Bhatkhande (1860-1936)

It was through Jeevanji Maharaj that Bhatkhande started studying musicology, the training that led his making serious contributions to the theory of Hindustani music.

In 1884, Bhatkhande joined the Parsi Gayanottejak Mandali and became involved in conducting music classes. He too learnt a large number of songs in the dhrupad and khayal traditions from some of the leading lights of the day. (Years later, he was to emphasise to Prof. BR Deodhar the vital importance of dhrupad training to grasp the real forms of ragas). During the period 1900-1915, he got some iconic musicians of Jaipur to record a large number of traditional compositions. He was also studying several music texts like the Natya Sastra and the Sageeta Ratnakara in depth and listening to great musicians all the while.

Bhatkhande's first published work, Swar Malika, contained descriptions of all the ragas then prevalent. In 1909, he published Shri Mallakshaya Sangeetam, in Sanskrit, under the pseudonym Chaturpandit which meant a clever scholar. As he was averse to publicity and self-promotion, most of his writings were published under two assumed names, the other one being Vishnu Sharma. 

Bhatkhande's Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati in several volumes is often considered the last word on Hindustani music and the thaat system he developed equal in importance to the melakarta scheme of the south, which he studied in depth on his travels to the south. He arranged the ragas of Hindustani music across ten musical scales, which he called thaats, which cover the vast majority of ragas. This was Bhatkhande's vital contribution to music theory. 

His disciple S N Ratanjankar,  Dilip Kumar Roy,  Ratanjankar's student KG Ginde, SCR Bhatt, Ram Ashrey Jha 'Ramrang', Sumati Mutatkar and Krishna Kumar Kapoor were among the scholars who followed in his footsteps. His notation system became standard until  Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, Vinayak Narayan Patwardhan and Pt. Omkarnath Thakur introduced improved versions. 

In 1916, Bhatkhande reorganized the Baroda state music school, and later, with the help of the Maharaja of Gwalior, established the Madhav Music College in Gwalior. He prepared the course material for the the Marris College of Music that opened in Lucknow in 1926.  The college is now a deemed university with the name Bhatkhande Music Institute. 

Bhatkhande prepared the Hindustani Sangeet Karmik Pustak Malika as a series of textbooks. He also started the tradition of the All India Music Conferences to provide a common platform for discussion between Hindustani and Carnatic classical musicians.

Bhatkhande suffered paralysis in 1933 and died in 1936 on the auspicious Ganesh Chaturthi day, just as he was born on Gokulashtami day.

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Bhatkhande and Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, another great pioneer in the propagation of Hindustani music, did not come together to collaborate in this pursuit, and but for great efforts on the part of music historian BR Deodhar, a disciple of Paluskar (and an admirer and follower of Bhatkhande in his pathbreaking work), they might have stayed apart all their lives. According to Prof. Deodhar, Bhatkhande and Paluskar once discussed the idea of working together, with Paluskar teaching students and Bhatkhande lecturing on the science of music, and distributing books on music as well, but the two giants perhaps had serious differences of opinion on the manner in which the project was to be carried out. It never took off.

In addition to studying south Indian classical music and applying his understanding of the melakarta scheme, Bhatkhande studied Urdu and Persian with the help of assistants he employed for the purpose. In addition to republishing old and forgotten treatises, he invited senior and expert singers from different gharanas to perform in Bombay to be recorded for posterity. Though deeply religious and a daily performer of rudra parayana, he was above religious affiliations when it came to learning music or discussing it, often becoming the disciple of Muslim ustads. He was a model of financial discipline, spending institutional funds with even greater care than his own money.

A shy, retiring man, Bhatkhande had a few trusted friends whom he shared his thoughts on music with. One of them was Shankarrao Karnad. Whenever In the words of Deodhar, “Whenever Panditji came across a particularly rare cheej, he invariably made three copies of it: one for himself, another for his closest disciple Principal Ratanjankar, and the third for Shankarrao Karnad. Not only was he averse to pushing himself forward, he was almost allergic to publicity. He never craved for riches.”

Vishnu Narain Bhatkhande died on 19 September 1936, after a yearlong illness. In the words of Prof. BR Deodhar, he “formulated the scientific laws of music. The entire world of music owes a permanent debt of gratitude to Panditji for his unique contribution.”

By V Ramnarayan

Posted by Sruti Magazine   October 22, 2012