Ram Narayan (; 25 December 1927 – 9 November 2024), often referred to with the title Pandit, was an Indian musician who popularised the bowed instrument sarangi as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music and became the first internationally successful sarangi player.
Narayan was born near Udaipur and learned to play the sarangi at an early age. He studied under sarangi players and singers and, as a teenager, worked as a music teacher and travelling musician. All India Radio in Lahore hired Narayan as an accompanist for vocalists in 1944. Narayan relocated to Delhi following the partition of India in 1947, and moved to Mumbai in 1949 to work in Indian cinema.
Narayan became a concert solo artist in 1956, performing at the major music festivals of India. Narayan recorded solo albums and made his first international tour in 1964 to America and Europe with his older brother Chatur Lal, a tabla (hand drum) player who had toured with Ravi Shankar in the 1950s. He was awarded India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2005.
Early life
Ram Narayan was born on 25 December 1927 in Amber village, near Udaipur in northwestern India.Sorrell 1980, p. 11 His great-great-grandfather, Bagaji Biyavat, was a singer from Amber, and he and Narayan's great-grandfather, Sagad Danji Biyavat, sang at the court of the Maharana of Udaipur. Narayan's grandfather, Har Lalji Biyavat, and father, Nathuji Biyavat, were farmers and singers, Nathuji played the bowed instrument dilruba, and Narayan's mother was a music lover.Sorrell 1980, p. 13
Narayan's first language was Rajasthani and he learned Hindi and, later, English.Qureshi 2007, p. 108Qureshi 2007, p. 109 At the age of six or so he found a small sarangi left by the family's Ganga guru, a genealogist, and was taught a fingering technique developed by his father.Sorrell 1980, p. 14Bor 1987, p. 149 Narayan's father taught him, but was worried about the difficulty of playing the sarangi and its association with courtesan music, which gave the instrument a low social status.Sorrell 2001, p. 637 After a year, Biyavat sought lessons for his son from sarangi player Mehboob Khan of Jaipur, but changed his mind when Khan told him Narayan would have to change his fingering technique. Narayan's father later encouraged him to leave school and devote himself to playing the sarangi.
At about ten years of age, Narayan learned the basics of dhrupad, the oldest genre of Hindustani classical music, by studying and imitating the practice of sarangi player Uday Lal of Udaipur, a student of dhrupad singers Allabande and Zakiruddin Dagar.Bor 1999, p. 180 After Uday Lal died of old age, Narayan met travelling singer Madhav Prasad, originally of Lucknow, who had performed at the court of Maihar.Bor 1987, p. 151Sorrell 1980, p. 15 With Prasad, Narayan enacted the ganda bandhan, a traditional ceremony of acceptance between a teacher and his pupil, in which Narayan swore obedience in exchange for being maintained by Prasad.Sorrell 1980, p. 17
He served Prasad and was taught in khyal, the predominant genre of Hindustani classical music, but returned to Udaipur after four years to teach music school. Prasad later visited Narayan and convinced him to resign his position and dedicate his time to improvement as a musician, although the idea of giving up a steady career was not well received by Narayan's family. He stayed with Prasad and travelled to several Indian states until Prasad fell ill and advised him to learn from singer Abdul Wahid Khan in Lahore.Sorrell 1980, p. 16 Following Prasad's death in Lucknow, Narayan enacted the ganda bandhan with another teacher who gave him lessons, but soon left for Lahore and never performed the ritual again.
Career Narayan travelled to Lahore in 1943 and auditioned for the local All India Radio (AIR) station as a singer, but the station's music producer, Jivan Lal Mattoo, noticed grooves in Narayan's fingernails: sarangis are played by pressing the fingernails sideways against three playing strings, which strains the nails.Bor 1987, p. 30 Mattoo instead employed Narayan as a sarangi player. Traditionally, the sarangi is supposed to play after the singer and imitate the vocal performance, and play in the space between phrases.Sorrell 1980, p. 21 Mattoo advised Narayan and helped him contact khyal singer Abdul Wahid Khan, a rigorous teacher under whom Narayan learned four ragas through singing lessons.Sorrell 1980, p. 19 Narayan was allowed sporadic solo performances on AIR and began to consider a solo career.Sorrell 1980, p. 20
After the partition of India in 1947, Narayan moved to Delhi and played at the local AIR station. His work for popular singers increased his repertoire and knowledge of styles.Neuhoff 2006, pp. 911–912 Narayan played with the classical singers Omkarnath Thakur, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Hirabai Badodekar, and Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, and he accompanied singer Amir Khan in 1948, when Khan sang for the first time at AIR Delhi following the partition.Qureshi 2007, p. 116 As an accompanist for vocalists, Narayan showed his own talent and came to the foreground. Singers of the city complained that he was not a dependable accompanist and too assertive, but he maintained he wanted to keep vocalists in tune and inspire them in a cordial contest.Sorrell 1980, p. 20–22 Other tabla (percussion) players and singers, including Omkarnath Thakur and Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, expressed admiration for Narayan's playing.Sorrell 1980, p. 22
Narayan became frustrated with his supporting role for vocalists and moved to Mumbai in 1949 to work independently in film music and recording.Sorrell 1980, p. 23Qureshi 2007, p. 107 He recorded three solo 78 rpm gramophone records for His Master's Voice in 1950 and an early ten-inch LP album in Mumbai in 1951, but the album was not in demand.Bor 1987, p. 152 The Mumbai film industry offered a good salary and obscurity for work that would have lowered his stature among classical musicians.Qureshi 2007, p. 17 For the next 15 years he played and composed songs for films, including Adalat, Gunga Jumna, Humdard, Kashmir Ki Kali, Madhumati, Milan, Mughal-e-Azam, and Noor Jehan.Qureshi 2007, p. 119 Alt URL For "Chalte Chalte" of 1972 film Pakeezah, composer Ghulam Mohammad made Narayan give 21 takes for the desired effect. Narayan was considered a desired choice of film music director O. P. Nayyar.
Narayan performed in Afghanistan in 1952 and in China in 1954 and was well received in both countries.Sorrell 1980, p. 25 His first solo concert at a 1954 music festival in the Cowasji Jehangir Hall, Mumbai, was cut short when an impatient audience, waiting for performances by famous artists, drove him from the stage.Sorrell 1980, p. 24 Narayan pondered giving up the sarangi and becoming a singer. He later regained confidence, performed solo for smaller crowds, and was favourably received in his second attempt to play solo for a Mumbai music festival in 1956. He has since performed at the major music festivals of India. Narayan later gave up accompaniment; this decision carried a financial risk because interest in solo sarangi was not yet substantial.Neuman 1990, pp. 93, 263
After sitar player Ravi Shankar successfully performed in Western countries, Narayan followed his example.Bor 1992, p. 48 He recorded solo albums and made his first international tour in 1964 to America and Europe with his older brother Chatur Lal, a tabla player who had toured with Shankar in the 1950s.Sorrell 1980, p. 26–27 The European tour included performances in France and Germany (sponsored by the Goethe-Institut) and at the City of London Festival, England.
Beginning in the 1960s, Narayan often taught and gave concerts outside of India. On his Western tours he encountered interest in the sarangi because of its similarity to the cello and violin.Roy 2004, p. 206 The tabla player Suresh Talwalkar became a frequent accompanist for Narayan in the late 1960s. The music of Ram Narayan and Chatur Lal is featured in the 1965 anti-war film Good Times, Wonderful Times by American filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Narayan continued to perform and record in India and abroad for the next decades and his recordings appeared on Indian, American, and European labels. During the early 1980s he typically spent months each year visiting Western nations. A 1989 UK performance of Bhairavi was covered by the Kronos Quartet on their 2009 album Floodplain. Narayan performed less frequently in the 2000s and rarely in the 2010s.
Style
Narayan's style is characteristic of Hindustani classical music, but his choice of solo instrument and his background of learning from teachers outside his community were not common for the genre.Sorrell 1980, p. viii He stated that he aimed to please the audience and create a feeling of harmony, and expected the audience to reciprocate by reacting to his playing.Sorrell 1980, p. 29–31
Narayan's performances were strung together from the meditative and measured alap (non-metrical introduction) and jor (performance with pulse) in dhrupad style, followed by a faster and less reserved gat section (composition with rhythmic pattern provided by the tabla) in khyal style.Sorrell 1980, p. 125 He experimented with a style of jhala (performance with rapid pulse) developed by Bundu Khan, but considered it more appropriate for plucked instruments and stopped performing it.Sorrell 1980, p. 111
The gat section included one or two parts with compositions.Sorrell 1980, p. 123 When he used two gats, the first one tended to be at a slow or medium tempo, and the second one was faster; the gats were usually performed in the 16-beat rhythmic cycle tintal.Sorrell 1980, p. 126 Narayan often completed performances with ragas associated with thumri (a popular light classical genre), which are referred to as mishra (Sanskrit: mixed) because they allow for additional notes, or with a dhun (song based on folk music).
Narayan practiced and taught using a limited number of paltas, exercises in a small scale range that are used to prepare playing different numbers of notes per bow.Sorrell 1980, pp. 70–71 Derived from paltas are lengthy note patterns called tans, which contain characteristic "melodic shapes" and were used by Narayan for fast playing.Sorrell 1980, p. 75 He used his left (fingering) hand for runs and to play an extended melodic range, and his right (bowing) hand for rhythmic accentuations. Narayan's fingering technique, his low right hand position, keeping the bow in a close to right angle to the string, and his use of the full bow length, were unusual among sarangi players.Sorrell 1980, p. 63
Magriel described four stylistic choices by Narayan that deviate from tradition and were not commonly adopted by sarangi players: extended alap without accompaniment, replacing the usual fast section of the alap (jhala) with a set of tans, performing gats influenced by an instrumental playing style while the fixed composition is based on vocal performance, and a fast repetition of scales that expands the sound into the higher and lower register as a stylistic device.Magriel 2021, p. 27
Narayan was associated with the Kirana gharana (stylistic school of Kirana) through Abdul Wahid Khan, but his performance style was not strongly connected to it.Sorrell 1980, p. 27 Most of Narayan's compositions were from the singing repertoire of his teachers and were modified and adapted to the sarangi. He also created original compositions and in performance varied those he was taught.Sorrell 1980, pp. 127–128 Narayan did not favor the creation of new ragas, but developed compound ragas, including those of Nand with Kedar and Kafi with Malhar.