Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh (8 May 1909 – 18 February 1997) was an Indian

harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...

and

tabla A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments a ...

player from Farukhabad gharana of

Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the Indian classical music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent's northern regions. It may also be called North Indian classical music or ''Uttar Bhartiya shastriya sangeet''. The term ''shastriya sangeet'' ...

and

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

Early life and background

Born in a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

family with musical background in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

, he was the grandson of Dwarkanath Ghosh (1847–1928), who founded Dwarkin in 1875 and invented the "Dwarkin

", popular in

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

, India. He graduated from the

Scottish Church College Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in Asia. ...

of the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

He was keen in sports (he played soccer,

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

and

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

). He also practised painting, but had to discontinue these due to an eye injury in a soccer match. Then he turned to music. He was trained in vocals by Girija Shankar, Mohammed Sagir Khan and Mohammed Dabir Khan. He took tabla lessons from Masit Khan of the Farukhabad gharana and became his senior disciple. After realizing that is so much more tabla, he started his tutelage under Ustad Feroz Khan of Punjab Gharana. It is here where the Punjabi Gharana compositions were introduced to Kolkata folks.

Career

He was the founder of Sourav Academy of Music and closely associated with the 'Sangeet Research Academy'. He scored music for many Bengali films, of which '' Jadubhatta'', ''Andhare Alo'' and '' Rajlakshmi o Srikanta'' (1958) are worth mentioning. He has composed and directed music to a number of popular gramophone records sung by various artistes. A percussion entitled ''The Drums of India'' He also provided music for the Academy Award nominated animated short '' Bead Game'', directed by Ishu Patel for the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

. His residence at 25 Dixon Lane in Bowbazar, Kolkata, was frequented by musicians, be it local or those visiting the city, and thus was the venue of several recitals, most notably a Raga Chhayanat performed by Bade Ghulam Ali Khan in 1954. Amongst his students are tabla players Kanai Dutta, Shyamal Bose, Shankar Ghosh, Anindo Chatterjee, and Nikhil Ghosh, Rajkumar Misra, singers Prasun Banerjee,

Ajoy Chakrabarty Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty (born 25 December 1952) is a Hindustani classical vocalist, composer, lyricist and an exponent of the Patiala-Kasur gharana. He was awarded with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in India in 2020 and ...

, Suman Ghosh and Arun Bhaduri, and instrumentalist Paul Grant. His birth centenary was celebrated on 7 May 2012, in Kolkata, with screening of documentary of him and performances by various singers.

Discography

* 1968 – Drums of India, Vol. 1 – Gramophone * 1979 – Drums of India, Vol. 2 Gramophone * 1985 - Jugalbandi Harmonium and Violin - EMI * 1993 – Raga on Keyboard – EMI * 2004 – Dhun – Saregama * 2004 – Raag Charukeshi – Saregama * 2004 – Raag Haripriya – Saregama * 2004 – Raag Jhinjhoti – Saregama * 2004 – Raag Mishra Kalengra – Saregama * 2004 – Raag Shyam Kalyan

Awards and recognition

In 1974, he was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship the highest honour conferred by the

Sangeet Natak Akademi Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in English language, English) is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India. It is an autonomous body of the Ministry of Culture (India) ...

, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. This was followed by the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

in 1984, given by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

References

External links

*
Jnan Prakash Ghosh
at last.fm {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghosh, Jnan Prakash 1909 births 1997 deaths Hindustani instrumentalists Indian male classical musicians Musicians from Kolkata Scottish Church College alumni University of Calcutta alumni Indian musicologists Tabla players Indian film score composers Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship Indian music educators Indian percussionists Bengali people 20th-century Indian composers 20th-century Indian drummers 20th-century Indian male singers 20th-century Indian singers 20th-century Indian musicologists Indian male film score composers