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In a first-person essay published by Scroll.in on 20 October 2024, historian Ramachandra Guha describes more than five decades of listening to Kumar Gandharva. His memories move from an eight-volume CD set and a Delhi concert to “Jamuna kinare mora gaon,” a song he connects to the landscape of his childhood. The essay first appeared in The Telegraph, according to Scroll.in’s closing note. Read Guha’s essay at Scroll.in.
A listening life built around repeated returns
Guha writes that around 2000, Professor Anita Rampal gave him an eight-volume CD collection of Kumar Gandharva’s music. He listened to the discs repeatedly at home, then transferred them to an iPod for flights. The collection became less a one-time discovery than a companion he could revisit across settings and years.
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Kumar Gandhara | $9.25 | Buy on Amazon |
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Sangeet Sartaj Vol - 1 & 2 (Indian Classical Music / Hindustani Classical / CD) | $28.67 | Buy on Amazon |
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Pt. Kumar Gandharva - Vocal Classical | $19.99 | Buy on Amazon |
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Pt. Kumar Gandharva Vocal (Audio CD) | $33.00 | Buy on Amazon |
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Raga Bhairav Ke Prakaar | $12.01 | Buy on Amazon |
The repertoire he recalls ranges across bhajans, jod ragas, and khayals, including performances in Hameer and Shankara. He singles out the Raga Nand bandish “Rajan ab to ajaa re” and a 15-minute khayal in Patmanjari. These examples convey the breadth Guha found in the set; they are not offered as a complete catalogue.
“Jamuna kinare mora gaon” and the geography of memory
One song becomes the essay’s emotional thread. Guha says he did not have “Jamuna kinare mora gaon” in his CD collection, though it stayed with him as a performance he wanted to hear again. He connects its landscape to his boyhood home near a stream that, in his account, flows toward the Asan and then the Yamuna, and to family trips to Paonta Sahib.
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That connection is personal rather than a claim about the song’s definitive meaning. Guha hears the music through the geography he remembers: watercourses, childhood outings, and a place that remains vivid decades later.
Concerts, recordings, and different interpretations
Guha recalls a Delhi concert where Kumar Gandharva and Vasundhara Komkali sang bhajans and folk melodies adapted for the concert stage. He describes the experience in admiring terms; that response belongs to his memory and judgment, not to an independently established consensus.
He also recounts finding online a recording he identifies as a New Delhi concert by Kumar Gandharva and Vasundhara Komkali dated 20 August 1978. In Guha’s account, the upload runs 1 hour 50 minutes and a listener identified 19 songs. The essay does not independently authenticate the recording or its upload details.
Guha compares interpretations of “Jamuna kinare” as well. He describes Mukul Shivputra’s version as longer, slower, and more meditative than his father’s. Later, he hears Kumar Gandharva’s daughter Kalapini Komkali perform the song at a Bengaluru centenary celebration. Guha says she sang it with great verve in her father’s style; with his eyes closed, he found himself transported in memory to his boyhood landscape. These are Guha’s listening impressions, not technical rankings of the performances.
Institutional recognition and archival access
Sangeet Natak Akademi’s official documentation describes archival audio and video holdings and public facilities for access. Its published totals are dated through March 2014, so they should not be read as current counts. The Akademi’s 2017–18 annual report documents a tribute festival in February 2018 and identifies Kumar Gandharva as a Padma Bhushan and Akademi Fellow.
These records provide institutional context for his recognition and for the Akademi’s archival work; they do not verify every biographical detail, recording, or interpretation in Guha’s essay. For archive information, consult the Akademi’s archival documentation and its 2017–18 annual report.
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- Kumar Gandharva
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What Guha says the music gives him
The essay is ultimately a listening memoir, not a survey or formal musical analysis. Its force comes from the way a repertoire, a handful of remembered performances, and one song converge in a life. Guha writes, “I have grown old with Kumar Gandharva, and his imperishable music will keep me company till the end of my days.” He closes by hoping that a friend or family member will arrange for him to hear “Jamuna kinare mora gaon” as he is about to leave the earth—a private wish that completes the essay’s circle from childhood memory to imagined farewell.
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