Musical instruments have always aroused curiosity, amazement and admiration among individuals who have invented, played and listened to them. Before he made any instrument, a man’s body served as his first musical mode for vocal melody through slapping and stamping for rhythm. To further enhance the impact of his music, he invented crude rattles, drums and clappers with which the history of musical instruments began.
Musical instruments are classified into two broad categories: the ones which produce tones (sur) and the others, which are used in generating various kinds of rhythm. Those used for producing rhythm are played with hands, fingers or with wooden sticks. These are tablas, pakhawaj, dholak, naqqara, duff, jazz drums, etc. Others which are instrumental in producing tones are also classified into two kinds — woodwind and string.
Anthropologists claim that the first-known musical instrument is the harp, whose invention is attributed to the creative ingenuity of the Greek philosopher and mathematician, Pythagoras. He is said to have visited the subcontinent and spotted a local instrument called the ik-tara. Some historians also believe that it was the ik-tara that motivated him to invent a harp.
Sarod is not indigenous to the subcontinent, as it was brought from Afghanistan. Its introduction into local melodic culture is attributed to an Afghan trader. When a horse trader, Ghulam Bandgi Khan, the great grandfather of the late Sarod player, Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, visited India on a business trip over 250 years ago, he brought with him a sarod, which he played at leisure. He decided to settle down in Gwaliar, then the hub of musical activities.
The stepping into India of Ghulam Bandgi Khan heralded the gradual penetration of sarod into the local musical ethos. After his death, his son, Ghulam Ali Khan, played this instrument as a professional musician. He was known for his expertise in playing the hori and dhurpad genres of classical music on the sarod. He was employed in the court of Nawab Hashmat Yar Jung of Farrukhabad and the rulers of Avaddah, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and the princely state of Gwaliar. Ghulam Ali Khan’s sons, too, were professional musicians, among them Husain Khan turned out to be a master sitar player. Murad Ali Khan, another son of Ghulam Ali Khan, was considered a competent musician of his time, who acquired complete mastery over playing the sarod. The popularity of this instrument in Bengal owed much to Murad Ali Khan.
The younger brother of Murad was Chhotey Nanney Khan, who was also a musician of much merit. The famous sarod player, Hafiz Ali Khan, was his son who started training at a very young age. He was employed in the court of Nawab Hamid Ali Khan of Rampur, where he played the sarod for three years. The subcontinental musical scene has been dotted with many pupils and admirers of Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, who are carrying forward the rich traditions created by the Bangash tribe of Afghanistan. In Bengal, the sarod has won much popularity, where the topmost sarod players included Amir Khan and Timir Baran.
Sarod player Ustad Amjad Ali Khan proved himself to be the pride of his illustrious father, Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan. Ustad Alauddin Khan, a contemporary of Hafiz Ali Khan, also trained his son, Ali Akbar Khan, who is now one of the three top sarod players of the subcontinent. Renowned sitar player, Pandit Ravi Shankar, was also trained by Ustad Alauddin Khan.
The sarod has lost its popularity in Pakistan, although it is being used spasmodically in film, radio and television orchestras. It is unfortunate that we in Pakistan have failed to produce a sarod player of the calibre of Amjad Ali Khan or Ali Akbar Khan. Only a few decades ago, we did have a chance of grooming composer Ustad Nazar Husain into a sarod player of the calibre of frontline instrumentalists, but his penchant for the art of composition and his protracted illness took away whatever little opportunity we had. A similar fate afflicted another sarod player, Ustad Sharif Husain, who, at one time, showed much potential for this instrument.
Sarod, an instrument carved out of a wooden block and played with a spectrum called jawwa, is a difficult musical device but capable of producing melodies of all kinds, including classical ragas, provided how the player manipulates it. An artiste of the calibre of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, who has complete control over playing the sarod, can produce breezy and colourful taans (flights) and exotic jhala (a particular pattern of rhythm created on a string instrument) and a mellow sonority in alap (slow progression in the delineation of a raga). It is also suited to produce meends (glides) of all kinds.
Like the sarangi and diltuba, the sarod, too, has fallen from our musical priorities and needs to be put back into circulation.
