A link to the Senia tradition is broken

Pt. Debu Chaudhury, who passed away recently, made it his life’s aim to popularise the gharana

Renowned sitarist Pt. Debabrata Chaudhury, disciple of Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan of Senia Gharana, who passed away recently, was affectionately called Debu da by the music fraternity. A well-known musicologist, author and academician, Prof. Debu Chaudhury retired as the Dean, Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, Delhi University. An authentic representative of the Senia Baaj, he maintained its purity, adhering to the practice of using just a 17 frets sitar in performance and teaching, resisting the convenience of more. Groomed by a guru who belonged to the lineage of Masit Sen, the originator of the Masit-Khani Baaj, Pt. Debu believed in innovating within the strict guidelines of the raga system, the hallmark of Senia Gharana. The practitioners of this gharana follow the purity of the raga with ‘Dhrupad style’ treatment, avoiding lighter adornments like ‘murki’ and ‘fanda’, and stick to the meend-like deeper embellishments. Talking about the principles of his gharana, Debu da would recall how his guru would say, “Senias are ‘yukti-vadi’, who follow the logic of any musical elaboration related to raga. Musical compositions flow from musical principles grounded in the fundamentals of the raga system”. He emphasised the importance of logical treatment of the raga. The application of a particular note in a raga, for instance, should be maintained throughout the presentation, without diluting the purity of traditional Indian classical music, especially of the gharana.