Did you know that national broadcasters Doordarshan and the All India Radio (AIR) did not have an archive of Indian music prior to the 1950s? And that, whatever little they did, would not be easily accessible to the general public? How about recreating the magic of India?s first ever disc (recorded in 1902) that had singer Gauhar Jaan in all her glory? What if you wanted to transport yourself back to the gramophone era and rejuvenate yourself with a khayal or thumri by Hirabai Barodekar, whose renditions and voice, it was said then, could cure even a sick man?
If your untrained ears are not accustomed to the music of the golden years or if the absence of a veritable platform to listen to those songs is a major deterrent, you could log on to ArchiveOfIndianMusic.org, an attempt by author/historian Vikram Sampath to preserve and digitise records from a bygone era. The website went live on July 30 when it was launched by the minister of external affairs, Salman Khurshid, in the national capital.
What should have been ideally done by government agencies is now being relentlessly pursued by Sampath, the author of two books?Splendours of Royal Mysore: The Untold Story of The Wodeyars and My Name Is Gauhar Jaan: The Life and Times of a Musician. With financial help from TV Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global Education, Sampath has been collecting records from all corners of the world and all possible sources, and getting them digitised.
So far, Sampath has collected about 12,000 records?both 78 rpm shellacs and vinyls. The clips are, however, available only for listening through streaming audio and not for downloading. The online venture features about 200 artistes and close to 1,000 clips.
?These are gramophone-era recordings and hence are not likely to be found with the AIR or Doordarshan?whose archives are anyway not easily accessible. The Archive of Indian Music is, perhaps, the first digital sound archive in India that makes these treasures easily available to enthusiasts and within the convenient confines of their homes,? says Sampath.
Sampath?s claims have been acknowledged by government sources. An AIR official, on condition of anonymity, said the public service broadcaster has very little or no recording of the period before the 1950s, though they have the archives of Mahatma Gandhi?s speeches. An official from Doordarshan, too, confirmed the same.
According to Sampath, the Archive of Indian Music is a museum of sorts for the golden voices of the bygone era. ?The recordings span from 1902 to 1952 and boast many known and unknown names, including Devika Rani, Gauhar Jaan, Abdul Karim Khan, Hirabai Barodekar and Madurai Mani Iyer, among others. The range of recordings is not restricted to Hindustani or Carnatic classical music alone, it also features theatre, early cinema, folk music recordings in several languages, devotional and patriotic songs, and voices and speeches of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru,? he adds.
For Sampath, the turning point came in a Berlin library in 2010. After his book My Name Is Gauhar Jaan: The Life and Times of a Musician was published, Sampath won a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin, to study early gramophone recordings of Indian music. ?I came upon a treasure of recordings by Indian artistes at the sound archives of Berlin, Vienna, Paris and London. The constant refrain everywhere was why India did not have a similar archive at the national level,? says Sampath.
On his return, Sampath sent an elaborate proposal to the government of India on building a similar national repository, but it never paid any attention to it. ?For a man in a hurry like me,? says Sampath, ?it was frustrating, to say the least.?
This embarrassment proved to be the driving force behind his journey on a rather arduous path. Sampath, however, found help in Pai, who was with Infosys then. Pai helped Sampath establish the Archive of Indian Music, a private, not-for-profit trust with its head office in Bangalore. He also received help from the India Foundation for the Arts to put together important research material around this era.
?Pai generously funded the project with seed capital that helped import state-of-the-art equipment that meets international standards of fidelity in sound transfers. Eminent record collectors like Kushal Gopalka in Mumbai also came all the way to Bangalore to help set up the equipment besides donating records. Suresh Chandvankar from the Society of Indian Record Collectors also helped me a lot,? Sampath adds.
Taking on the government, Sampath says, ?Sadly, cultural matters feature on very low priority for everyone and that, too, in matters related to preservation or documentation. There is a shocking apathy there.?
Some of the rare tracks available in the archive include Mahatma Gandhi?s spiritual message recorded in 1931 in England, the country?s first commercial recording by Gauhar Jaan in 1902, Tagore?s recitation of Bengali poetry, the first recording of the national anthem by the Viswa Bharati Chorus and the first recording of renowned Carnatic vocalist and Bharat Ratna recipient MS Subbulakshmi when she was just nine years old. All the records have been sourced from flea markets, kabaadi shops, raddi corners and from donations by record collectors. The records were then cleaned, digitised, restored, catalogued and uploaded on the website, Sampath explains.
India never had a great track record as far as conserving archives went. Whether it?s cinema or classical music, the callousness of government institutions has led to endless stories of priceless recordings and spools being destroyed, laments Sampath. ?Digitising them and putting them in an open public domain is something that can
only be done by someone who has a penchant for Indian music and is determined to do so,? he adds. These and many other rare and precious recordings from the era of gramophone records have finally found a home and one that is open to all lovers of music and cultural history. Unlike other archival sources, this is free and easy to use.
Now that the website has formally been launched, Sampath?s next vision is to set up listening kiosks at places like the Bangalore International Airport and Metro stations. He has also roped in a technology partner, Twaang, to make the music available on Android phones. ?We also hope to take these recordings to schools and colleges where young minds will get a new perspective of looking at Indian history, one through the prism of sound,? says Sampath.