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Buddhadev Dasgupta was a sarod master whose influence, in the account of his former pupil Arnab Chakrabarty, reached beyond the concert stage: he developed a distinctive approach to fast melodic runs and helped widen access to serious Hindustani instrumental music. Chakrabarty’s description of Dasgupta as a “renegade pupil” points to a musician who pursued an individual artistic path while working within a deep musical tradition.
What made Dasgupta’s sarod playing distinctive?
Dasgupta’s early playing, Chakrabarty recalls, was strongly melodic and shaped by khayal vocal music. He admired the singing of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and the sitar playing of Vilayat Khan. His own teacher, Radhikamohan Maitra of the Seniya gharana, had also absorbed influences from contemporary vocal music, including Faiyaz Khan.
Chakrabarty argues that adapting khayal-inspired expression to the sarod demanded new ways to articulate and ornament a melody. As he puts it, “Playing khayal-inspired music required Dasgupta to invent – where needed – new ornamentations and techniques, and literally redefine virtuosity, particularly of the left (fretting or sliding) hand on the sarod.” This is Chakrabarty’s assessment of Dasgupta’s artistry, not a quotation from Dasgupta himself.
The ekhārā taan
The technique most closely associated with Dasgupta in Chakrabarty’s account is the ekhārā taan: a quick, continuous melodic run in which each note is played with one stroke. The challenge is to keep the line fluid as it crosses strings while coordinating the left hand’s movement with demanding picking patterns.
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Chakrabarty calls the technique Dasgupta’s “greatest gift to the community of sarod players.” That is a former pupil’s strong appraisal rather than a measured consensus, but it captures why the runs matter: they turn speed into a connected melodic line rather than a sequence of disconnected notes.
From melodic exploration to rhythmic interplay
Chakrabarty describes a later style that made greater use of the sarod’s percussive possibilities. In his account, the ālāp and jod give space to melodic exploration, while a gat played with tabla opens up more scope for rhythmic exchange and combinations of plectrum strokes. He says this could give tabla players a more involved role than simply keeping time.
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Why Chakrabarty calls him a pioneer
The word “pioneer” refers both to Dasgupta’s technique and, in Chakrabarty’s interpretation, to a change in who could pursue Hindustani instrumental music. Chakrabarty places Dasgupta alongside sitarist Nikhil Banerjee as a prominent artist whose career helped make serious study more accessible to young people from middle-class Bengali families.
Chakrabarty sets that change against an older musical world shaped by hereditary Muslim musicians and Bengali zamindar patrons. Drawing on Max Katz’s book Lineage of Loss: Counternarratives of North Indian Music, he invokes the phrase “Hindu middle-class appropriation” to frame the social shift. This is Chakrabarty’s historical interpretation, not a quantified account of how many students entered the field or a claim that older musical lineages ceased to matter.
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How Dasgupta taught sarod
Chakrabarty remembers a disciplined, progressive approach built around repetition and coordination. Students practised exercises intended to join accurate pitch with precise picking. Dasgupta would write down notation after a student had learned the material, and he encouraged students to record lessons.
As students advanced, they worked on medium-paced gats and substantial sets of pre-composed taans. These included unusual picking patterns and ways to enter or leave a phrase at different points in the tāla cycle. Chakrabarty says the process developed coordination, timing, tuning, and an understanding of raga grammar; students who progressed also received more detailed individual instruction.
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Chakrabarty names sarod players Debashish Bhattacharya, Prattyush Banerjee, Anirban Dasgupta, Abir Hossain, and Soumik Datta among Dasgupta’s disciples, along with sitarists Sugato Nag and Nayan Ghosh. This is the former pupil’s list, not an exhaustive roster.
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Born in Bhagalpur, Bihar, in 1933, Dasgupta began formal musical training in 1943, according to Chakrabarty. The Sangeet Natak Akademi identifies Radhikamohan Maitra as his sarod teacher and records Dasgupta’s work researching sarod technique and raga analysis. He also presented research papers on Indian classical music teaching and sarod gharanas.
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His international performances included Festival of India appearances in the United States in 1985 and the Soviet Union in 1988. The Sangeet Natak Akademi named him a 1993 awardee for Hindustani instrumental music (sarod). He died on 15 January 2018, aged 84, according to Chakrabarty.
Chakrabarty points listeners to performances in Raga Kamod, Maluha Kedar, Nayaki Kanada, and Chhayanat, as well as an early EP featuring Desi and Bhairavi. A dated archival entry offers one specific starting point: the All India Radio/Akashvani catalog lists Dasgupta playing a gat in Nayaki Kanada on 11 January 1990. The surviving references here do not establish a complete discography or identify a current edition for every performance.
Quick Recap
- Arnab Chakrabarty’s 2018 Scroll.in obituary and musical account
- Sangeet Natak Akademi’s official award profile
- All India Radio/Akashvani’s instrumental Hindustani music catalog
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