Gangubai ushered in women's power in music: cultural fraternity

New Delhi/Bangalore, July 21 : The cultural fraternity across the country mourned the death of legendary Hindustani classical singer Gangubai Hangal, saying her demise ended an era of women's power in traditional Indian music which had conventionally been a male bastion.

Gangubai was an exponent of the Kirana gharana.

"She was a mother figure for several younger classical women musicians like us. Gangubai Hangal, along with contemporary north Indian classical vocalist like Mogubai Kurdikar, broke the gender bias in Hindustani classical music. She was our inspiration. Gangubai showed us that 'we (women) don't care if it's a man's world, we will do what we want'," Bombay Jayashri, leading Chennai-based Carnatic vocalist told IANS over the telephone.

Hangal died at Lifeline Emergency Care Centre in Hubli early Tuesday. Close family members, including her two sons, were by her side when she breathed her last.

Gangubai Hangal was one of the early musicians who breached the all-male world of classical Indian music in the late 1920s, when she decided to take it up as a profession. The fact that she came from a family placed low on the caste ladder, at a time when caste mattered in music, made it for her a difficult vocation to choose, musicians across the gender lines have said.

She was often looked down upon as a "gaanewali".

"But she triumphed and proved that music was worship. A woman as a musician has to manage several things on stage and has to forget everything else. Gangubai was an example of such devotion. I feel as if I have been orphaned," Jayashri said.

Gangubai Hangal managed to retain her fetish for perfection and devotion for 60 years, Mumbai-based classical vocalist Padma Talwalkar said.

"The qualities that marked Gangubai were respect for music, devotion and hard work that honed her style. I once heard her at a concert when she was 90. For the first 20 minutes, her voice refused to set - in tune with the tambura. But when her voice finally set itself to tune, she rendered six ragas in full khayals for nearly four hours. I was scared. After the concert, I told her 'How many times should I touch your feet - for the sheer strength of your voice, will and strength?'," Talwalkar told IANS from Mumbai.

Gangubai's "powerful masculine tenor voice" was her trademark.

As a woman, Gangubai was warm and down-to-earth. "She was very homely and rarely spoke about music unless she was on stage. Her music proved her mettle," Talwalkar recalled.

"Gangubai was very fastidious as a musician. It was a pleasure just to sit next to her and hear her tune her tambura. That fastidiousness has gone out of music now," Sanjeev Bhargava, promoter of traditional Hindustani music and founder of SEHER, a 19-year-old south Asian arts and culture platform, told IANS.

"When we were growing up, there were a few musicians who were respected not for their technical finesse, but for their mastery over the music and innovation. Gangubai was one of them. Her khayal gayaki was outstanding. With her, began the real emancipation of women in music," he added.

"It was unfortunate that she could not perform in New Delhi," Bhargava rued.

Actor Girish Karnad, who had known her, said the maestro will always be remembered as a genius. "The art fraternity in Karnataka and across the world will miss the singer and her singing style," Karnad lamented.

"She was an inspiration for all of us. The music world will be poorer now, after the death of the icon," said C. Aswath, veteran Kannada music composer.

"I have no words to express my sadness. She was a guide and guru for all singers and music composers across Karnataka. I am extremely saddened by Hangal's death," Kannada singer Pallavi said.