In the land that nurtured Gangubai Hangal and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, they still tune in to the masters’ voice
Every morning, at 6, the first sounds that Maxim Cadieux hears as he wakes up to another day are the strains of Raag Bhairav, dissolving sweetness into the crisp air. The notes travel to his ears from a small mud hut perched atop a nearby hill, where 12-year-old Sharda Lamani, a daily labourer’s daughter from Kolhapur, sits cross-legged on a coarse blanket, soaking her first lessons in Hindustani classical music. Her guru is Somnath Mardur, senior disciple of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and a renowned vocalist. Her voice rises in tandem with the sun and as the sounds of sitar and tabla from other huts blend in, it completes the acoustic experience at the Karkeli Music School, Dharwad. Here 150 underprivileged children learn music from the finest in the field.

About 30 km away, a state-of-the-art gurukul dedicated to Gangubai Hangal is under construction, a Rs 10 crore project initiated by the Karnataka government. Spread over 10 acres, with hi-tech studios, riyaz cubicles, an auditorium and an archives centre, the gurukul will, in about a year’s time, seek and train the best in musical talent from all over the country on a generous scholarship programme.

Between them, the two schools tell the story of Dharwad district, the official residence of Hindustani classical music, the land that has borne and nurtured legends like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Gangubai Hangal, Mallikarjun Mansur, Kumar Gandharva and Basavaraj Rajguru. “How will you find out in two days what makes Dharwad the seat of Hindustani classical music? Or how it honed the skills of great masters? I have been trying to find the answer for the past six years,” says Manoj Hangal, grandson of Gangubai, the doyen of the Kirana gharana who passed away on July 21.

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