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Sarod Recital
by Pt. Radhika Mohan Moitra

The legendary Maestro Radhika Mohan Moitra, known throughout the country and abroad as 'Radhu Babu', was one of the greatest in the line of the maestros, India has ever produced. One cannot dream what a ceaseless and uncompromising struggle the maestro had to go through, defying all the obstacles and mischief placed in the path by an unkind destiny to reach the stature of his name.

Coming from the illustrious Moitra Zamindar family of 'Talanda' in 'Rajshahi' (now in Bangladesh), he started with his little golden fingers on the Sarode at the age of four in the year 1921 under the tutelage of the great Sarode maestro Ustad Mahammed Amir Khan of Shahjahanpur.His grandfather Lalita Mohan Moitra was a talented pakhawaj and tabla player himself who was acknowledged as a great patronizer in the cultural world. Sarodiya Amir Khan was already appointed to the court of the Moitras around 1910 by Lalita Mohan to teach sarod to his two sons, Brajendra Mohan (Radhu Babu's father) and Gopikula Mohan.

Radhika Mohan arrived in the scene in 1917, being born at 46, Chakraberia Road North in the house of his maternal grand father (Mohini Mohan Ray).

The legendary Sitar Maestro Ustad Enayet Khan was assigned to teach sitar to his mother Binapani Devi. Since Khan Shahib lived in the same house with Mohini Mohan and Ustad Amir Khan in the Moitra family, Radhu Babu merrily and unhesitatingly rode on the shoulders of these two great Masters, during his toddler days.

Later on, Ustad Enayet Khan, Ustad Faiaz Khan and some grand old Dhrupad singers of Dwarbhanga court showered their gems to this upcoming maestro with the permission from Ustad Mohammed Amir Khan. After the demise of his Guru, he took some training from Ustad Dabir Khan, a descendant of Tansen.

He stood first in the M.A. Exam and later on completed the L.L.B. also. A poet with a satirical touch and a profound scholar on Sanskrit, Urdu and English literature with a bright glimpse of his Science studies enabled him to become popular among the literatures scholars and Scientists like, Prof. Satyendranath Bose, Mahamahopadhyay Gopinath Kabiraj, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, to Sayad Mujtaba Ali and Prof. Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay an so on.

'The living Archives and Legend of Indian Classical Music ' as he was named by Musicians like Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan and Dhrubatara Joshi, Radhika Mohan was the torch-bearer of the mainstream of the oldest tradition of Sarode playing in India.

Gulam Ali's Sarode tradition with immortal compositions,' as it is known nowadays, was both patronized and extended by the maestro and his illustrious tradition in India and abroad. His scintillating musical genius and untiring efforts, gave a particular definition to the Indian Classical Instrumental Music, alongwith a rich heritage of Sarode, Surshringar, Dhrupadi Rabab, Sur-Rabab, Sitar, Sur Bahar, Mohan Veena, Dilbahar and Nabadeepa, now carried on by his disciples.

He invented three new Instruments like 'Mohan Veena' in 1943 (named after the Maestro by Thakur Jaydev Singh in 1948), 'Dilbahar' in 1956 and 'Nabadeepa' in 1967.

Though he didn't play his personal creations in public to give more space to the traditional Ragas, there are quite a number of new ragas like, Lalita Manjari, Arun Kedar, Shahi Kanada, Geetabali, Alakananda, Abhashree, Mohankalyan, Deepakalyan, Chandra-Mallar and so on. A large number of his recordings played on Sarode, Mohan Veena and Surshrigar are preserved in All India Radio, National Archives and Doordarshan, (played since the late thirties to the late seventies until the maestro's demise in the 15th October, 1981). He inaugurated the National programme of Music of the Doordarshan in late seventies, the only one and the last recording after his announced retirement from the public performance outside, in 1976, when he was in full form. Radhika Mohan received the 'Sangeet Natak Akademi Award' in 1971.

His extensive tours in Australia, China, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Nepal and a concert for UNESCO in Malina (1979) as a member of the Cultural delegation of the Govt. of India and personal visit to United States resulted in producing a number of desciples abroad also.