The Lone Ranger

Every day,at the crack of dawn,the air around Tulsibaugh Rammandir in Pune resonates with taals and thaaps of the nagada. The musical rhythms last for 45 minutes,a ritual followed by Suresh Lonkar,a 58-year-old nagada (chaughada) player,who stays in the premises of the temple in his ancestral home. Lonkar,the lone nagada teacher in the city is trying to keep it alive with a handful of students,seven to be precise.

The artiste says,“This has been our family profession since my great grandfather’s days. Unfortunately,I am the last one left to play and teach this age-old instrument.” The legacy will end here,as his children have opted for entirely different professions. The ‘Nagadakhana’,where he trains his students,is starkly contrasted with the well-equipped modern training schools. It’s a tiny,10×10 sq ft area — also his home. The warmth of his passion and dedication decorates it. Photographs of music stalwarts like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi,Pandit Jasraj,Pandit Shivkumar Sharma,Ustad Amjad Ali Khan,Ustad Bismillah Khan and others adorn the walls. They hang cheek by jowl with paintings of musical instruments like santoor,flute,tabla,violin and sitar.

Besides the morning ritual,Lonkar plays the nagada five times on Saturdays,at fixed hours. It is kept near a small window of his elevated house that faces the temple,so that the sound reaches out. He started playing the nagada when he was just 10 years old. At the age of 20,it became his profession and teaching subject. “I have trained more than 80 students,yet only two have made the nagada their profession. They play it at weddings or other religious ceremonies,but do not impart training,” says Lonkar. He cites two reasons for this: “First of all,teaching the nagada is not everyone’s cup of tea. Secondly,there are hardly any students who are keen on learning it.”

Lonkar has divided his teaching hours between Pune and Alandi. Thrice a week,he trains the students of Ganeshnath Maharaj Math of Alandi. Interestingly,from 1976 to 1996,he used to play the instrument during the opening ceremony of the famous Sawai Gandharva Music Festival.

Like the pakhawaj and tabla,even this percussion instrument is played with ek taal,tri-taal,kerava,japtaal and so on. Apart from fingers,it is also played with sticks. The top of the tabla is comparatively much smaller than the top of the nagada. “Since it resembles a dhol,people assume that the only sound it can make is dham-dham or kad-kad,which is not true. It needs to be played as per the shastra. Not everyone can do that,” he says. Lonkar also has a collection of over 60 big and small pieces of nagada copper,wood,brass. Some of them,he claims,are from the Peshwa era.

“The old pieces made were of wood and heavy; they created authentic sounds. These days,you will find brass ones — they look attractive but do not have that charm,” he says while demonstrating the difference by playing some taals.

Besides the nagada,Lonkar also plays and teaches the shehnai. He is now working on an album with four artistes,which is slated to release this year. It will be a fusion of nagada,pakhawaj and mridangam. The background music will be a combination of violin and harmonium. “It is completely different from my previous works,which were an amalgamation of nagada dhol-tasha,” he explains.