Miyan tansen biography of william

TANSEN (1506–1589), Indian musician Tansen, also known Miyan Tansen, was a legendary Indian musician. His father, Markand Pandey, was a poet who lived in a village near Gwalior. Tansen displayed an intense interest in music from an early age, and he was sent to Vrindavan, near Mathura, to study under a famous musician saint, Swami Haridas. After completting his training, Tansen was appointed court musician at Gwalior; he later went to Rewa (in Central India) as court musician of Raja Ramsingh, a musician himself. When Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) heard of Tansen, he invited him to his court and honored him as one of the Navaratna, or "Nine Gems" of the Mughal empire. Abul Fazl, the chronicler of Akbar's reign, wrote of Tansen, "A singer like him has not been in India for the last thousand years." Tansen enjoyed considerable influence in the imperial court and was an exponent of gaurhar bani, one of the four known styles of dhruva-pada music, prevalent in North India during that era.

Tansen is credited with reshaping dhruva-pada music by introducing such Persian nuances as meend and gamaka. Tansen created new rāgas, some of which are still regarded as the foremost rāgas in North Indian music, such as "Darbari Kanada," "Darbari Todi," "Miyan ki Malhar," and "Miyan ki Sarang." Tansen was also known to be a musical codifier, studying the structure of rāgas, listing about four hundred. His Sangeeta Sara and Rāgāmalā are important documents on music. He is, moreover, credited with introducing certain developments in the rabab and rudra-veena. The Dhrupad singers of the seniya gharana attribute their lineage to Tansen.

There are many legends about the miraculous powers of Tansen's music. The most famous legend recounts how Tansen sang "Rāga Dipaka" at a royal request, even though that rāga was known to generate "unbearable heat" in its singer's body. His victorious competition with the great Baiju Bawra is another legend often

Gwalior has been the centre of attraction and controversies since the colonial era. The Gwalior music gharana along with the annual Tansen music festival held at the mausoleum of Mian Tansen attracts music lover from all over India and abroad.

The Scindia School was founded by the late Maharaja Madhavrao Jayajirao Scindia of Gwalior in 1897. I remember one of its old student, fusion maestro Ananda Shankar performing at the open air theatre in a founders day festival. The school during the colonial times was different. It was called the Sardar’s School as it catered mainly to the sons of Maratha nobles.

William Sharp was the Vice Principal of the Scindia School then known as the Sardar’s School, the Fort, Gwalior. He passed away on the 25 August 1914 of Enteric fever at the age of twenty-four. He wrote poems in his pocket book which came to be known as ‘Gwalior Poems’ after his demise and were published by his friends in 1915. The library of the University of California, Los Angeles has the full collection.

The Indo- English Poetry Movement had already started by then. The poetry of Henry Vivian Derozio (1809 – 1831) and Toru Dutt (1856 -1877) had been making waves in India and England. In my article titled, ‘Turn, Turn, Turn to the Rain Again I had discussed in detail about the contribution to the poetry movement by two English Poets, Emma Roberts (1794 – 1840) and Lawrence Hope (1865 – 1904).

There were many poets and writers like Emma Roberts and Lawrence Hope whose literary involvements in the then colonial India were inspired by beauty or sheer love for the people with whom they got attached. Ghazal singers talked about the white skinned beauties and Qawwals sang about them in the court of Mughal Royals.

William Sharp, a product of the University of Cambridge and an adventurer found himself teaching to the Maratha boys at the school in the f