​God is a Melodic Intonation​:

​How the ​Ḍāgar Family Subverted Religious Distinctions in their Practice of Dhrupad.
Dedicated to Rayne Scotter, Ustād Ziā Farīduddīn ​Ḍāgar and Ustād Ziā Mohiuddīn ​Ḍāgar.
RELI 335 research essay
Kenneth Männchen/Maennchen
Word count: 4,158

*Kedar Rāgini: Folio from a Rāgamala Series. Painted by Rukniddin (1650-97), India
(Bikaner, Rajasthan). ca. 1690-5.
 ​ ! May my speech be based on the mind;
OṂ
May my mind be based on speech.
O Self-effulgent One, reveal Thyself to me.
May you both be the carriers of the Veda to me.
May not all that I have heard depart from me.
I shall join together day
And night through this study.
I shall utter what is verbally true;
I shall utter what is mentally true.
May that protect me;
May that protect the speaker, may that protect me.
-​Nādabindu Upaniṣad

Since the sixties and seventies, classical Indian music has found welcome arms in the
Western world as Indian musicians travelled through Europe and U.S.A to perform publicly and on
record, and vice versa as Western musicians travelled to India to seek guidance and instruction
under such Indian luminaries. Hypnotic and sinuous rāgas have since filtered through into the ears
of many Western spiritual seekers who have turned to the East in search of more ancient
metaphysical and mystical paradigms than their own contemporary iterations of religion and
secularity have allowed. Despite being a form of entertainment, classical Indian music, like many
other aspects of contemporary Hindu culture, is saturated in religious and esoteric meaning and
significance. This essay seeks not only to delve into these elements and structures that inform and
become inseparable with classical Indian music, but also to understand how inter-faith processes
operate and consolidate within such an art form by using the case of the ​Ḍāgar family (and
unrelated exponents by virtue of inheriting the musical style), a Muslim family of musicians
specialising in Indian classical music. This essay will isolate the geographical style, genre and
musical style that this family specialises in before singling out one recent member of this family in
order to begin to formulate an ideology that runs beneath the music. Following this, musicological
​ āgar rāga in general will allow for associated respective aspects of this ideology to
analyses of a Ḍ
unfold with the help of an important Sanskrit treatise on music. We will then turn to two pupils of
the next generation to help understand a very important type of yoga that is a central feature of the
music of the ​Ḍāgar family and style, again with the help of another Sanskrit treatise, before
analysing the Brahmanical features of both the sung words employed in the rāgas as well as the
Hindu and Vedic associations of an instrument used by this family. Finally, we will trace the family
back a number of generations to uncover their Muslim, Sufi (esoteric Islam), as well as previous
Hindu heritages in order to provide a background against which all of this can be set.
The oldest surviving form of Hindustani (the North Indian style of) classical music is
dhrupad​. It is discussed in the oldest surviving Indian work on performance arts, the ​Nāṭya Śāstra
1
which dates back to roughly 500 BCE. Sanyal and Widdess inform and warn us: “To call dhrupad
a 'style' is, however, a simplification. Dhrupad is a complex musical genre comprising many
complementary elements, including style, repertory and ideology; these elements are formed and
transmitted through tradition, and they are recreated, combined and made manifest through
2
performance”. They further explain: “what we recognize as typically 'dhrupad' is a combination of
traits, including aspects of musical structure, vocal style and technique, instrumentation, rhythmic
3
style and structure, and poetry.” There are four ​b​ānī​ ​(styles) of dhrupad, as expressed in this
4
traditional verse attributed to the nineteenth century Hindustani musician, Ram Krishna Buavaze:

Sing the Khaṇḍār b​ān​ī​ ​with great force,

the Nauhār with sweet words;
the Govarhār has great breath,
the ​Ḍāgur (​Ḍāgar) has the rendering of ​ālāp ​(the opening section of a musical performance).

​ āgar (1923-2013) was a vocalist of the ​Ḍāgar b​ān​ī​ ​and represented the 19​th
Ustād Ziā Farīduddīn Ḍ
​ āgar ​gharānā​ (musical community). In an interview, he explained what it means
generation of the Ḍ
to be a singer of dhrupad: “a ​dhrupadiy​ā​ ​(exponent of dhrupad) is not merely an artist, he's a ​sā​ d​ hak
(​sā​ d​ haka​: person who practices a spiritual or religious discipline), that's why his music also requires
5
some amount of immersion.”
​ āgar - and by many previous and contemporary
A rāga performed by Ustād Farīduddīn Ḍ
​ āgar gharānā - differs greatly from rāgas performed in the more popular and
members of the Ḍ
relatively younger genres of Hindustani classical music (​khayāl ​and ​thumrī)​ that are geared more

1
Wallace Dace, “The Concept of 'Rasa' in Sanskrit Dramatic Theory,” ​Educational Theatre Journal​ 15, no. 3
(1963): 249.
2
Ritwik Sanyal and Richard Widdess, ​Dhrupad: Traditions and Performance in Indian Music ​(Aldershot:
Ashgate, 2004), xiii.
3
Ibid., 4.
4
Sharmishtha Sen, ​String instruments (plucked variety) of North India​ (Delhi: Sangeet Eastern Book Linkers,
1988), 61.
5
Dhiraj Singh, “Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar,”
http://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/ustad-zia-fariduddin-dagar/215920​ (accessed June 9, 2017).
towards entertainment than spiritual concerns. The slow ālāp – an unaccompanied and seemingly
improvisational free-form section which develops and explores the five to seven ​svara (​ melodic
intonation) that make up the scale of the chosen rāga through an exploration of ​śruti​ (​ up to seven
microtonal gradations for each svara) – usually takes ten to twenty minutes in many khayāl and
thumrī performances; in a dhrupad rāga, the ālāp is often stretched out to thirty and - in many cases
​ āgar gharānā such as
- even forty minutes. The sung or plucked notes (certain members of the Ḍ
​ āgar's teacher and older brother, Ustād Ziā Mohiuddīn Ḍ
Ustād Farīduddīn Ḍ ​ āgar [1932-1990] as
​ āgar's son and pupil, Bahāuddīn Mohiuddīn Ḍ
well as Ustād Mohiuddīn Ḍ ​ āgar [1970-] perform on
the ​rudrā vīṇā - an ancient plucked stringed instrument in Hindustani classical music] seem to be
much more restrained and handled in an almost austere manner. Bahāuddīn ​Ḍāgar recounts in an
interview that it was these distinguishing features that caused dhrupad to fall prey to criticism when
it emerged into the public sphere from the sanctity of the royal courts after India gained
independence from the British crown in 1947: “People laughed: Dhrupad? Who'll listen? Rudrā
6
vīṇā? Play something else. Long ālāps? So boring!” However, Ustād Farīduddīn ​Ḍāgar outrightly
denied the validity of such criticisms by appealing to the religious and spiritual nature of dhrupad,
as well as that of the performer and audience member; Sanyal and Widdess tell us that “a dhrupad
​ āgar the statement: 'This ancient vocal music is
festival programme attributes to Ustād Farīduddīn Ḍ
not for your entertainment, it is only for the delight of God, who is inherent in both the singer and
7
the listener.'” A mystical ideology begins to emerge from the words and praxis of Ustād Farīduddīn
Ḍāgar, situating the transcendent God to which the spiritual discipline of a dhrupadiyā is directed in
the immanence of the musician and the listener.
So one listens further into a ​Ḍāgar rāga, into the dilated ālāp with its restrained and
elongated notes, seemingly devoid of any musical flourishes, and further into the subsequent ​jhālā
section with its rhythmic pulse of the ​sa ​(the tonic svara), beating out between the resounding and
resonating swaras and the ​śrutis in-between, coming together more quickly than before, tentatively
forming melodic phrases, before taking off into the ​jor​, the concluding section where the
rhythm-pulse and speed of the swaras and śrutis accelerate into a dizzying cascade of phrases that
burst into melodic structures and patterns, finally concluding with silence or a compositional section
that includes distinct melodies and Hindu sacred poems. One is often left with feelings of
exhilaration, peace, prolonged heightened states of awareness compounded with a deep feeling of

6
Gowri Ramnayaran, “Musical growth in an age of distraction,”
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-fridayreview/musical-growth-in-an-age-of-distraction/article3231
636.ece​ (accessed June 9, 2017).
7
Sanyal and Widdess, ​Dhrupad​, 38.
warmth and even subtle sensual bliss.
​ āgar once explained the religious element of his music: “My music is
Ustād Farīduddīn Ḍ
8
older than my religion. For me ​swar ​(svara) is God and God swar.” Now we delve even further into
this metaphysics: the importance of svara to Ustād Farīduddīn ​Ḍāgar is shared by all dhrupadiyās;
Sanyal and Widdess inform us that “'the way of approaching svaras, their intertwining etc.' is
9
perhaps the most powerful single criterion for distinguishing dhrupad from other genres.” We have
already seen that svaras are made up of up to seven ś​ rutis in the Ḍāgar tradition. The
Sa​ṅgītaratn​ā​kara​, a treatise on music written in the thirteenth century by ​Śārṅgadeva, which is
regarded as an important textual dhrupad source and a definitive musicological text by Hindustani
10 11
classical musicians, teaches: “From out of the ​śruti-s ​arise the ​svara-s.​” God manifests out of
micro-degrees of pitch. ​Ustād Farīduddīn ​Ḍāgar once paralleled the artist's exploration of the
unfathomable depth of a microtone in relation to the unending diversity of nature and the greatness
of its creator-god: “At what depth a microtone is to be applied; I have been researching this all my
life. So many years have passed. I am eighty years old. Even now I am not able to fathom it. More
and more depth appears. . . One should go to the depths of nature to see what is its art. Who is that
12
artist? What a great artist is he who has created the entire universe!” In tracing the manifest
emergence of micro-degrees of pitch backwards to their source, God remains unfathomable behind
a veil of seemingly infinite depths.
The ​Saṅ​ gītaratn​ā​kara​ teaches that ​śruti are actually grades of differentiation of ​nāda:​ “​Nāda
13
is differentiated into twentytwo grades which, because of their audibility, are known as ​śruti-s.​ ”
14
N​āda is explained as ​Śiva embodied: “For delight do I worship Lord Śiva embodied in ​nāda​,” and
Nāda-brahman ​is “that incomparable bliss which is immanent in all creatures as intelligence and is
manifest in the phenomenon of this universe. Indeed, through the worship of ​n​āda ​are worshipped
15
gods (like) Brahmā, Vi​ṣṇu and Śiva, since essentially they are one with it.” This unfathomable and
immanent primordial sonic embodiment of Śiva thus becomes manifest in emergent micro-degrees
of pitch that give rise to emergent melodic intonations that manifest as all phenomena.

8
Sing, “Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar”.
9
Sanyal and Widdess, ​Dhrupad​, 7.
10
R. Bod, ​ A New History of the Humanities: The Search for Principles and Patterns from Antiquity to the
Present​ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 116.
11
​ ārṅgadeva, ​Sa​ṅgītaratn​ā​kara,​ ​Vol. I​, trans. by R. K. Shringy and P. L. Sharma (New Delhi: Munshiram
Ś
Manoharlal Publishers, 1991), 130.
12
Arjuna, “Ustad,” (documentary film) ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yX5Yj1W8kw​ (accessed June 9,
2017).
13
Śārṅgadeva, ​Sa​ṅgītaratnā​ k​ ara,​ 115.
14
Ibid., 1.
15
Ibid., 108-9.
 The Gundecha Brothers (Ramakant Gundecha and Umakant Gundecha) are among the
foremost of contemporary dhrupad vocalists of the Ḍāgar b​ān​ī and were pupils of Ustād Mohiuddīn
​ āgar. Some members of the Ḍ
Ḍāgar as well as Ustād Farīduddīn Ḍ ​ āgar​ ​gharānā place more
importance on b​ān​ī than gharānā as b​ān​ī transcends family lineage and so is seen as a universal
16
heritage which now extends to Hindus. The Gundecha brothers have explained in an interview that
17
“dhrupad is ​nā​ da yoga​”​. N​ā​da​ yoga is an ancient yogic system that emphasises meditation centred
around sound. It is taught in the ancient Vedic text, the ​Nādabindu Upaniṣad, dating back to around
100 CE, and these teachings are reiterated in the ​Ha​ ṭha Yōga Pradīpikā, a ​h​aṭha yōga manual from
the fifteenth century whose final chapter deals with the practice of n​āda yoga. In this chapter, we
read the following:
I will describe now the practice of anāhata nāda (unmanifest nāda),
...
the ​yogī​ (yogic practitioner) should hear the sound inside his right ear, with collected mind.
The ears, the eyes, the nose, and the mouth should be closed and then the clear sound is
heard in the passage of the s​uṣumnā (central channel of energy) which has been
cleansed of all its impurities.
...
When the ​Brahma granthi ​(the energy blockage/knot in the lower abdomen region) is
pierced through by p​ rāṇāyāma (controlled extension of breath/energy), then a sort of
happiness is experienced in the vacuum of the heart, and the ​anāhata​ (​cākrā​ located
at the heart) sounds, like various tinkling sounds of ornaments, are heard in the body.
...
By this means the Viṣṇu knot (in the throat) is pierced which is indicated by highest pleasure
experienced, and then the ​bherī​ sound (like the beating of a kettle drain) is evolved
in the vacuum in the throat.
...
When the ​Rudra granthi​ (the final knot located around the forehead) is pierced and the air
enters the seat of the Lord (the space between the eyebrows), then the perfect sound
like that of a flute is produced.
...

16
Sanyal and Widdess, ​Dhrupad​, 95-6.
17
Padmashree, “What is Nada Yoga? Interview with Gundecha Brothers,” (online video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdCs9bD4_o​ (accessed June 9, 2017).
 The union of the mind and the sound is called the ​Rāja yoga​ (​samādhi:​ meditative
absorption, the goal of yoga). The yogī becomes the creator and destroyer of the
universe, like God.
...
Perpetual Happiness is achieved by this; I do not care if the ​mukti​ (liberation) be not
attained. This happiness, resulting from absorption, is obtained by means of Rāja
18
yoga.

The Gundecha brothers also explained that “the whole world is situated into seven notes (swaras),
and these seven notes are controlled in the one sound: that is ​sa. . . ​that sa, that ​sharradh​(​a​)
(awareness) is a [sic] Nāda-brahma(n). To practice dhrupad is to become (a) ​nāda yogī (​ practitioner
19
of nāda yoga). . . it (nāda yoga) ​is ​dhrupad. Nāda yoga and dhrupad both is [sic] one.” Now we
come to understand more deeply not only the God that is addressed in dhrupad, but also the spiritual
discipline undertaken by the dhrupadiyā: the aim to unite with this apparently unfathomable and
immanent primordial sonic God through the practice of nāda yoga, the esoteric motor behind
dhrupad - the yoga that dhrupad actually ​is.​ The Gundecha brothers clearly follow the ideology of
their guru, Ustād Farīduddīn ​Ḍāgar in equating svara with god. The Gundecha brothers - as well as
other important new members of the ​Ḍāgar b​ān​ī - are Hindu, but Ustād Farīduddīn ​Ḍāgar, as well as
many other members of the ​Ḍāgar b​ān​ī that came during, after, and before him, were Muslim,
employing Vedic terms and ideologies as well as yogic practices to explain this devotional, sacred
art form that reached inwards and towards god, irrespective of any conflict between different faiths.
But the plot thickens.
Not only would a Muslim dhrupadiyā of the ​Ḍāgar b​ān​ī adhere to musical practices rooted
in Vedic and Hindu Sanskrit treatises and religious ideologies formulated in sacred texts, but they
would also sing praises to Vedic and Hindu deities. As mentioned above, the section that often
follows a vocal performance of an ālāp, jhālā and jor is a compositional piece where an explicitly
sacred and devotional poem is sung and repeated, for example: “a dhrupad in rāg Bhairav is a hymn
20
in praise to the eponymous deity, Bhairav, the terrifying incarnation of ​Śiva.” Such poems would
often be extracted from religious and spiritual Sanskrit texts; “a typical example is the following,
from the G​ītadhyāna, verses prefaced to the Bhāgavadgītā; Ziā Mohiduddīn ​Ḍāgar used to sing this
in rāg Bhairavī:

18
Hatha Yō​ ga Pradīpikā​, trans. by Pancham Sinh (Allahabad; Panini Office, 1914), 56-8.
19
Padmashree, “What is Nada Yoga?”
20
Sanyal and Widdess, ​Dhrupad,​ 14.
 To Him whom Brahmā, Varuna, Indra, Rudra and the Maruts extol; to Him to whom
Sāmavedic chanters sing sacred Vedic hymns, with their supplements, ​padas,
kramas and upaniṣ​ ads; to Him whom ascetics see with mind concentrated through
prolonged meditation, and whose limit the legions of gods and demons do now know; to
21
[that] God with these [beings I make] obeisance.”

Preceding the final composition of a dhrupad performance are notes sung in the ​ālāp, jhālā and jor.
These notes, known as ​nom tom ​syllables, may seem abstract at first – an almost unending series of
monosyllabic utterances strung together in asignifying chains – but research tells us that these
syllables are awash in religious meaning, whether in Brahmanical or Sufi terms. Thus, the nom tom
syllable ​na c​ an mean the ocean of love for Allah, and ​rī c​ alls out to Allah's bride. It is often said
that the original mantra from which nom tom syllables derive is: ​O​Ṃ ananta nārāyaṇ​ a harī OṂ
​ .
This mantra invokes God through the epithets of the immortal and N​ārāya​ṇa and Harī (names by
which ​Viṣṇu are known). This mantra provides the genetic material for most of the syllables used in
22
a dhrupad ​ālāp, jhālā and jor: ​na,​ ​ ta​,​ nā​,​ rā,​ ​ rī​ and ​om.​
In addition to this, the ​rudrā vīṇā - an instrument that stretches back further in the history of
Hindustani classical music than the more relatively recent sitār and ​surbahār​, and which is still
23
played by a few gharānās of dhrupad musicians (including the ​Ḍāgar b​ān​ī as we have seen), is
bursting with its own set of religious and spiritual denotations. Transcending its possible historical
and geographical contexts and roots as an instrument developed out of indigenous folk and tribal
24
stick-zithers, it assumes celestial associations with ​Śiva (Rudra) and the goddess ​Sarasvatī​ .​
​ āgar asserted that the rudrā vīṇā represents the
Specialising in this instrument, Ustād Mohiduddīn Ḍ
25
body of ​Pārvati​ (​Śiva's wife), “the gourds being her breasts.” During the ​gandhā​ bāndhnā,​ the
ritual which marks the bond between the teacher and pupil attaining to an indissoluble state,
26
Sarasvat​ī is present as witness, embodied in a rudrā vīṇā present during the occasion.

The ​Ḍāgar gharānā traces itself back five generations to its founder, the nineteenth century
musician, Bahrām Khān, who served at the Jaipur court for fifteen years. Bahrām Khān was Muslim

21
Ibid., 18-9.
22
Ibid., 154-7.
23
Ibid., 24.
24
Ibid.
25
Ibid., 24-5.
26
Ibid., 129.
and conversant in Sanskrit and dhrupad. It was also said of him that “all his manners were like the
27
Hindus.” He was said to have taught in the style of a Hindu religious preceptor, and his students
28
“were obliged to shave their heads in the manner of Hindu religious initiates.” It was also he who
29
reconciled dhrupad to the Vedas and Sanskrit treatises (such as the Sa​ṅgītaratn​ā​kara). However, a
portrait of Bahrām Khān portrays him in the manner of a Sufi, with a shawl draped over and around
his head and shoulders. Bahrām Khān was born north of Delhi, close to the town of Sahāranpur, in a
30
village called Ambai​ṭhā. Sahāranpur has been steeped in a Sufi order which employs music “as a
31
means of attaining spiritual ecstasy.” Despite being at odds with orthodox Islam (which considers
music profane), subsequent generations of Bahrām Khān's family continued to participate in Islamic
religious music and mysticism. The fact that the founder of the ​Ḍāgar gharānā was involved in
​ āgar repertory
Sufism and its devotional music would explain why certain compositions of the Ḍ
include texts with Sufi content (these texts are attributed to Sufi poets and are concerned with Sufi
32
concepts and philosophies).
Sufism emerged from orthodox Islamic tenets, yet responded to them by asserting the inner
bond between God and man that can be bridged through love. This love that takes on mystical
proportions is the most important concept in Sufism, and one of the two traditional paths that seek
to consummate this love emphasises ecstatic means, traversable only through immediate experience
employing practices such as reciting God's name and listening to spiritual music that includes
​ āgar's ideology, Sufi devotional music, in contrast to dhrupad
poetry. Following Ustād Farīduddīn Ḍ
which is not for the listener, is actually intended for the audience; nevertheless, in the spirit of Ustād
​ āgar's ideology, Sufi music is also intended for the non-duality inherent in the listener
Farīduddīn Ḍ
33
and God.
Going back one more generation, Bahāuddīn ​Ḍāgar tells us that Bahrām Khān's father was
34
“Bābā Gopāl Dās, who converted to Islam, and became Bābā Imam Baksh in the 18th century.”
Gopāl Dās, who may have been a ​Vaiṣ​ ṇava (devotee of Viṣṇu), served at the court of the Mughal
35
Emperor Mohammed Sh​āh Ra​ṅgīle. According to a story recounted by ​Ustād Mohiduddīn Ḍ
​ āgar,

27
Ibid., 103.
28
Ibid., 104.
29
Ibid.
30
Ibid., 107.
31
Ibid., 110.
32
Ibid., 111.
33
Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, ​Sufi music of India and Pakistan: Sound, Context and meaning in Qawwali
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 79-83.
34
Deepak S. Raja, “Deepak Raja's world of Hindustani Music,”
http://swaratala.blogspot.co.nz/2007/04/bahauddin-dagar-in-beginning-your-ustad.html​ (accessed June 9, 2017).
35
Sanyal and Widdess, ​Dhrupad,​ 110.
the emperor once offered Gopāl Dās tribute which included some bread which Gopāl Dās ate.
Gopāl Dās' disciples protested against a Brahman accepting 'impure' food from a non-Brahman,
stating that by doing so he had converted to Islam. Gopāl Dās retorted that it was natural to eat it
and that there was nothing impure in it. Despite this, his disciples continued to protest, to which
36
Gopāl Dās replied by accepting his conversion and so changed his name to Imām Bakh​ś.
Furthermore, Gopāl Dās was a descendant of Satyadev Pā​ṇḍe who was a Brahman temple musician.
It is due to ​Gopāl Dās and his ancestry and heritage that the ​Ḍāgar gharānā, as Muslims, can lay
claim to a quasi-Brahman status as well as align themselves rigorously to Hindu culture and
37
religion. This genealogical backdrop provides us with very important material for understanding
​ āgar family have been nomadic, being almost secondary to the
how the religious alliances of the Ḍ
dictates of not only the socio-political environments and patronage of the time, but also the
demands that the music and its theory imposes on its practitioners; a lifelong sacrifice and
dedication comparable to and perhaps arising from out of bhakti movements as well the mystical
love espoused in Sufism which leads to Allah.

Dhrupad as practised by the ​Ḍāgar gharānā – historical, immediate, and extended – is a

world unto itself that appears to transcend religious boundaries and divisions such as Muslim and
Hindu, orthodox Islam and Sufism, Brahmanical and yogic, transcendent God and immanent sound,
goddess and instrument, celestial deity and worldly listener, yet it has done so while strictly
following the injunctions of authoritative and canonical Sanskrit religious and musicological texts
and treatises. Its practical theory, outlined in works that reach back two thousand years, reconciles
musical and sonic theory with divine agency and embodiment, while its religious underpinnings,
reaching back two millennia, provide a template whereby practitioners such as the ​Ḍāgar gharānā
are able to refine a non-dual/tripartite union with primordial sound, God, and themselves over the
course of their lives, in order to become one with the absolute, regardless of whether spiritual
liberation is attained or not. Its devotional aspects are informed by bhakti as well as Sufi systems
that further bridge the gap to the divine through love that is aroused and consummated through
ecstatic song, and its sacred words are spun out from Vedic sources in order to articulate a
verbalised form of this love to praise God. Even the instruments used are swathed in cosmological
​ āgar gharānā reveals a suppleness of religion that has allowed for
significance. The history of the Ḍ
conversions between Islam and Hinduism to occur - provided that the sacredness of their music and

36
Ibid., 100.
37
Ibid., 101.
practice remain as undisturbed and intact as possible - and sheds light on Sufi influences that mix
​ āgar
with more weighted Hindu concerns, continuing into the practice and performance of the Ḍ
gharānā to this day.
In our disenchanted and materialistic scientific world where religion and state are separate,
where the physics of sound are divorced from the metaphysics of God, where music is for public
entertainment and worship for private and sacred public places, dhrupad as practised and performed
by the ​Ḍāgar gharānā has become a national treasure of India. No longer confined to the ears of the
royal figures of the Mughal court, nor the ears of the devotees of Hindu temples, the ​Ḍāgar gharānā,
despite having faced near extinction shortly after India gained independence, has been revived in
the public sphere, finding platforms at festivals and events in its homeland as well as abroad. It has
now also found a place in recorded history in many pressings and recordings dedicated solely to this
family of musicians, and it continues to pass on its lineage to members outside of the family
through the now government-funded teaching institution originally founded by Ustād Mohiuddīn
​ āgar and now run by Uday Bhawalkar, a pupil of Ustād
Ḍāgar as well as Ustād Farīduddīn Ḍ
​ āgar. Its ancient ideology survives to this today, as seen in the words of the Gundecha
Farīduddīn Ḍ
brothers, and it seems likely that it will continue to do so as more members, irrespective of their
creed and religion, join the ​Ḍāgar fold. As Ustād Mohiuddīn Ḍ
​ āgar once said at the end of an
interview: “A radical change has come over the (contemporary) music scene. It is a value change
with regard to musical creation, understanding and appreciation. The prospect is not rosy. But I take
38
it as a passing phase. I am hopeful.”

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