Zia Fariduddin Dagar (15 June 1932 – 8 May 2013) was an Indian classical vocalist belonging to the

Dhrupad Dhrupad is a genre in Hindustani classical music from the Indian subcontinent. It is the oldest known style of major vocal styles associated with Hindustani classical music (for example in the Haveli Sangeet of Pushtimarg Sampradaya), and is als ...

tradition, the oldest existing form of

north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

Indian classical music Indian classical music is the art music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is generally described using terms like ''Shastriya Sangeet'' and ''Marg Sangeet''. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as ...

(

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'' ...

). He was part of the Dagar family of musicians. He taught at the Dhrupad Kendra in Bhopal with his elder brother

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar (14 March 1929 – 28 September 1990), (Popularly known as Z. M. Dagar), was a North Indian (Hindustani music, Hindustani) classical musician, one of the 19th generation of Dagarvani, Dagar family dhrupad musicians. He ...

. He also taught as a visiting professor up to the time of the Babri mosque riots. After the riots, he decided to live at the gurukul of his brother

at Palaspe near

Panvel Panvel () is a city and taluka in the Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. It is highly populated due to its closeness to Mumbai. Panvel is also governed for development purpose by the body of Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Panvel Municipal C ...

, near

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. He was awarded the 1994

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IAST: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recogni ...

in Hindustani music-Vocal by

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) ...

Early life and training

He was born in

Udaipur Udaipur (Hindi: , ) (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura'') is a city in the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, about south of the state capital Jaipur. It serves as the administrative headquarters of Udaipur district. It is the historic capital of t ...

, Rajasthan, where his father, the great Ustad Ziauddin Khansahib, was the court musician for Maharana Bhupal Singh of Udaipur. He was taught

vocal and veena by his father. After his father's death, he continued learning under his elder brother, Ustad

Career

He has performed widely in India and abroad, and received the Tansen Samman from the

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

government and the

. In 2005, he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the North American Dhrupad Association. By 1980, he had virtually settled down in Austria, where he taught at the conservatory of Innsbruck teaching Dhrupad in Austria and France (mainly Paris). Once, during a visit to India, one of his disciples, the filmmaker,

Mani Kaul Mani Kaul (25 December 1944 – 6 July 2011) was an Indian director of Hindi films and a figure in Indian parallel cinema. He graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) where he was a student of Ritwik Ghatak and later be ...

came to him and pleaded with him to provide the background score for a film, ''

The Cloud Door ''The Cloud Door'' (, ) is a 1994 short Indo-German drama film, directed by acclaimed Indian director Mani Kaul and featuring Hindu erotic literary themes. The film was produced by the German producer Regina Ziegler. ''The Cloud Door'' was feat ...

'' (1994) he was making on

. During the making of the film, they spent over two months in Madhya Pradesh, a lot of time in Bhopal. In those days, Shri Arjun Singh was the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

. Cultural development was one of his passions. It is because of him that the magnificent

Bharat Bhavan Bharat Bhavan is an autonomous multi-arts complex and museum in Bhopal, India, established and funded by the Government of Madhya Pradesh.The architect of the Bharat Bhavan is Charles Correa. Opened in 1982, facing the Upper Lake, Bhopal, it hou ...

cultural center came up in

Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...

. At that time, the Secretary to the Department of Culture in Madhya Pradesh was Ashok Vajpayee. Vajpayee offered to start a government supported school for Dhrupad in Bhopal. Zia Fariduddin agreed to move back to India and to take charge as the teacher at this school. He taught dhrupad for 25 years at this Dhrupad Kendra, under the Ustad Allauddin Khan Music Academy, Bhopal, to students like the

Gundecha Brothers The Gundecha Brothers are Indian classical singers of the dhrupad genre of the Dagar vani. From 1985 to 2019 the duo consisted of brothers Umakant Gundecha and Ramakant Gundecha and were awarded the Padma Shri for art for 2012. Following the d ...

Uday Bhawalkar Pandit Uday Bhawalkar is an Indian classical vocalist. He is an exponent of the dhrupad genre. Early years Uday Bhawalkar was born on 5 February 1966 in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, the youngest of three siblings. He began training in classical mu ...

, Nirmalya Dey and Marianne Svasek. He was a distinguished guest faculty at 'Dhrupad Sansar',

IIT Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT- Bombay or IIT-B) is a Public university, public research university and Institute of technology, technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. IIT Bombay is mainly known for the hig ...

for a span of 5 years. Dhrupad Sansar was started under the Cell for Human Values to create an appreciation about Indian Classical Arts and Culture among staff and students of the institution.

Death

He was staying and teaching at the Dhrupad Gurukul near

, which was built by his elder brother Ustad

and continued to perform in India and abroad until his brief illness and death on 8 May 2013.

Notable students

Notable students of Ustaad Zia Fariduddin Dagar include, among others; *

Awards

* Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1988) *

Tansen Samman Tansen Samaroh or Tansen Sangeet Samaroh () is celebrated every year in the month of December in Behat village of Gwalior district, Madhya Pradesh. It is a 4-day musical extravaganza. Artists and music lovers from all over the world gather here t ...

Award (1993) by the

Government of Madhya Pradesh The Government of Madhya Pradesh (abbreviated as MP) or Madhya Pradesh Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and its 55 districts. It consists of an executive, led by the governor of Madhya Prade ...

(1994) *

Tagore Ratna (2011)

Discography

* ''Chalnat'' (New Delhi 1998) (Makar Records, Makcd039 The Lyrical Tradition of Dhrupad – 9, 1999) * ''Chandrakauns'' (Moses Church, Amsterdam 1985) (Ragini Sutra, RS 200202, 2002) * ''Malkauns'' (Bombay 1968, rudra veen/vocal jugalbandi) (Country & Eastern, CE 02, 2005)A Dhrupad Discography: The Dagar Family

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

; accessed 7 January 2022

References

External links

Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar
at ''

last.fm Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Utilizing a music recommender system known as "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm creates a detailed profile of each user's musical preferences by recording the details of the tracks they ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Dagar, Zia Fariddudin Hindustani singers 1932 births 2013 deaths Mumbai Dagarvani Voice teachers People from Udaipur Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 20th-century Indian musicians