Prabha Atre, too, has passed away.
Listening to her Maru Bihag, I used to tell my wife in jest: “If I ever got the chance to declare my love to her, and she actually accepted, you would lose me for good!” Beyond her performances, she rendered immense service to classical music through her academic pursuits as well.
Forget internalising loss; these days, we are barely given the time to process one bereavement before another piece of news arrives at the doorstep. We listen with exhausted, weary minds. We offer ritualistic expressions or feign a sense of grief, and then it is back to the same old grind. If one’s eyes well up amidst work, the tears must be wiped away in secret, lest people think you have lost your mind.
Amidst all this, I cannot help but reflect. Azad Rahman passed away, yet we probably do not have even a twenty-hour archive of his Bangla Kheyal. How much of Ustad Niaz Mohammad Chowdhury’s songs and stories from his two distinct traditions did we manage to preserve? How much of Kabir Suman’s sponge-like, blotting-paper brilliance could we extract and keep?
In this modern era of overnight celebrities, we will not see their like again. No one will stand like those grand, ancient trees anymore, offering us their protective shade. The final window to meticulously preserve these treasures for the next generation is fast closing. Yet, we live in a time when those running the system find laying a couple of extra tiles far more important than giving any weight to these matters.
Born into a Marathi family in Pune in 1932, this extraordinary woman came to music through a rather peculiar turn of events. There was no prior tradition or practice of music in her family. During her childhood, her mother fell severely ill. To alleviate her exhaustion and depression, a doctor suggested bringing a harmonium into the house. It was by listening to her mother sing that the young Prabha felt her very first pull towards music.
She was also immensely educated academically—a rarity among musicians of her era. She graduated in Science (B.Sc.) from Fergusson College, Pune, and later read Law (LL.B.) at Pune University. Viewing music not merely as a spiritual pursuit but as a subject of rigorous research, she earned a PhD for her thesis on the use of Sargam (solfa notes) in classical music.
She leaves us as one of the finest exponents of the Kirana gharana. She received her rigorous, uncompromising training in music from the legendary Pandit Sureshbabu Mane and Vidushi Hirabai Barodekar. The absolute purity of notes and the deeply emotional exposition of the raga were the core strengths of her music. While the traditional form of the gharana flourished beautifully in her voice, she was equally adept in semi-classical genres like Thumri, Dadra, and Bhajan.
Her contribution to the world of music is monumental. She did not simply stop at performing on stage; she institutionalised classical music for future generations. She served as the Head of the Music Department at SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai. To train youth in Pune, she founded the ‘Swarmayee Gurukul’. A brilliant composer, she created several new ragas, such as Apoorva Kalyan, Madhukauns, and Patdeep-Malhar (or Rani Todi). She also authored several seminal books on music. The Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan, and most recently in 2022, the Padma Vibhushan.
Rest in peace, Prabha Atre. May your name shine forever as a true servant of Kirana music.
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