Express News Service
The sarod has an interesting history. In a time long forgotten, Afghan-born horse traders and soldiers came to India. They brought along with them their cuisine and culture and a stringed instrument called the ‘rabab’ that reminded them of home. Some of these migrants settled in a sleepy small town called Shahjehanpur, approximately 100 miles from Lucknow.
Thus was born the Senia Shahjehanpur gharana marrying the legacy of Mian Tansen and the Afghan Bangash tribe. But like many gharanas of their time, quite a few of the instruments that were in use in the 19th and 20th centuries, passed into oblivion. Now Kolkata-based sarod player Joydeep Mukherjee has embarked on an ambitious project to breathe new life, or shall we say, new music into the dusty strings.