A torchbearer who leaves behind wealth of ‘Dhrupad’ music
My first encounter with the word ‘Dhrupad’ was through the legends within my maternal family, but it was only when I heard Hussein Sayeeduddin Dagar’s eldest cousin, late Ustad Aminuddin Dagar that I actually started embodying this powerful musical.
Sayeed Sahab was also a resident of Kolkata until he left in the early 60s and took up a Dhrupad music teaching job at the Jaipur University.
Several years after he settled in Pune, I had the opportunity to listen to his Raga Shree in the late 1990s. The next encounter which was bound to make me his disciple was a workshop. His aweinspiring multiple exploitation of his voice in keeping with the lyrics and raga ethos was Dhrupad at its best.
Sayeed Sahab was the torchbearer of the Dagar Vani (or Bani), a vocalism chiefly inspired by the Sadharani Geeti that emanated from the Sama Veda.
Also known as Satyadev Pande, his forefathers were Brahmins. In fact, it is believed that Ustadji’s father Husseinuddin Dagar had reconverted to Hinduism and was renamed as Tansen Pande, although Ustadji had told me that since he was the court musician of the princely state of Alwar, he was given the title of Tansen Pande.
Ustadji had inherited a deep voice from his father who could not teach him much due to his untimely demise. Yet his father’s vocal qualities combined with the purity of note of his main mentor- the legendary Ustad Rahimuddin Dagar shaped his music in a unique fashion unequalled by his peers.
His two gifted sons Nafees and Anees, along with senior cousin F Wasiffuddn now represent the 21st generation of this vocal music tradition.
I am pained at the passing of my first Dhrupad mentor; the one who had gifted his coat following a concert that I had given vocal support to him in Aurangabad.