Pandit Jasraj Biography In English Life Story – 1930-2020

• Pandit Jasraj was an Indian classical singer, who belonged to the Mewati Gharana. Their musical history spanned 75 years, resulting in national and international presidential awards, honors and numerous major awards and accolades.

Pandit Jasraj Biography In English

Birth Details –

Place– Hukmaran, Punjab, British India

Date of Birth – 28 January 1930

hindi status – department

Nationality – Indian

Family –

Mother – Krishna Bai

Father – Motiram

Brother – Pandit Maniram

Wife – Madhura Shantaram

Son – Sharang Dev Pandit

Daughter- Durga Jasraj

Early Life

• Jasraj was born on 28 January 1930 in Pili Mandori, a village in the erstwhile Hisar district of Haryana, in a middle-class Brahmin family to Pandit Motiram, a classical singer, and Krishna Bai. He was the eldest of three sons in a family of classical singers. I was the youngest.
• Motiram died in 1934 when Jasraj was four years old, on the same day he was to be appointed as state musician in the court of Mir Osman Ali Khan.
• His eldest brother was singer Pandit Maniram, who mentored Jasraj after their father’s death.
• Jasraj’s elder brother, Pandit Pratap Narayan, was also an accomplished musician and was the father of musician duo Jatin-Lalit, singer-actress Sulakshana Pandit and actress Vijeta Pandit. Pandit Pratap Narayan taught Jasraj to play the tabla from the age of 7, but Jasraj decided that he only wanted to sing by the age of 14.
• Jasraj spent his youth in Hyderabad and often traveled to Sanand in Gujarat to learn music with musicians of the Mewati Gharana.

Personal Life

• In 1962, Jasraj married Madhura Shantaram, daughter of film director V. Shantaram, whom he had first met in 1960 in Bombay.
• He initially lived in Calcutta, moving to Bombay in 1963. They had two children, a son, Sharang Dev Pandit, a daughter, Durga Jasraj, and three grandchildren.

Career

Training

• Jasraj was given singing lessons by his father, and later trained as a tabla accompanist under his elder brother, Pandit Pratap Narayan.
• He often accompanied Maniram in his solo singing performances. He credits singer Begum Akhtar for inspiring him to take up classical music.
• Jasraj began training as a singer at the age of 14, after giving up the tabla in reaction to how accompanists were treated at the time.
• He used to practice singing for about 14 hours a day. In 1952, when he was 22, he performed his first stage concert as a singer in the court of King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah of Nepal in Kathmandu.
• Before becoming a stage artiste, Jasraj worked as a performing artiste on radio for several years.
• He initially trained as a classical singer with Pandit Maniram, and later with singer and baker Jaywant Singh Vaghela,

Technique And Style

• Although Jasraj belonged to the Mewati gharana, a school of music known for traditional performances of khayal, Jasraj sang khayal with some flexibility, incorporating elements of lighter styles including thumri.
• Early in his career, he was criticized for incorporating elements from other schools or gharanas of music in his singing. However, musician S. Kalidasa has said that this borrowing of elements from the gharanas is now becoming more generally accepted.
• Jasraj created a new form of Jugalbandi called Jasrangi, which is based on the ancient system of Murchhana between a male and a female singer, who sing different ragas at the same time.

Award-

• Padma Shri
• Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
• Padma Bhushan
• Padma Vibhushan
• Swati Sangeeta Puraskaram
• Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship
• Marwar Sangeet Ratna Award
• Gangubai Hangal Lifetime Achievement Award
• Sangeet Kala Ratna
• Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Award
• Maharashtra Gaurav Award

Other Information –

• Date of death – 17 August 2020
• Place– New Jersey, US

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