{"id":804,"date":"2011-12-05T16:39:41","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T00:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parrikar.org\/vpl\/?page_id=804"},"modified":"2020-08-16T16:19:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-16T15:19:05","slug":"ahmadjan-thirakhwa","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.parrikar.org\/vpl\/?page_id=804","title":{"rendered":"Ahmadjan Thirakhwa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Thirakhwa\"

Thirakhwa
(1891-1976)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

\u266b Tabla solo in Ektala<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

About Thirakhwa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ustad Ahmad Jan “Thirakwa<\/strong>
\nby
\nSusheela Mishra<\/p>\n

After the gaiety, crowds and illuminations of the previous two
\ndays, Lucknow was observing Ashra, the mournful 10th day
\nof Moharram. By 10 a.m. the sad news of the sudden death of
\nThirakwa Khan Saheb had spread among the music-lovers of
\nLucknow. While the Tazias were being taken for burial by
\nprocessions of mourners performing maatam, a stream of
\nmourners from the music-world went to pay their last respects
\nto the Ustad who had reigned supreme as “the Tabla-wizard”
\nof the country for the last 7 or 8 decades. Once a permanent
\nresident of Lucknow, he had migrated just a few years ago to
\nBombay where he was not only the inspiratton behind Nikhil
\nGhosh’s School of Music, but was also serving as a Visiting
\nProfessor in the National Centre for Performing Arts. On
\nJanuary, 8, he had come home to Lucknow to keep a tryst with
\ndestiny and to fulfil his promise: “Mai hamesha hamesha
\nLucknow me rahoonga”. On the morning of 13th January 1976 he was
\nin a rickshaw on his way the Charbagh Railway Station to catch
\nthe Bombay Mail, when he collapsed in the rickshaw and died.
\nUstad Thirakwa’s death marks the end of courtly era in music
\nand in his death we have lost the seniormost and most colourful
\npersonality among the Table maestros of today. Although
\nhe had spent the best years of his life amidst the pomp and
\npageantry of splendid royal courts where art and sensitive
\nappreciation of it are held in the highest esteem, the Ustad with
\ngreat dignity stepped out of the leisurely courtly life into the
\nhectic tempo of the modern machine-age when the era of
\ndarbari music ended. In fact, he was a vital link between two
\neras in Indian music.<\/p>\n

Born 98 years ago in a family of musicians in Moradabad,
\nAhmad Jan started with vocal music lessons right from his
\nchildhood under Ustad Mithoo Khan. His father Hussain Bux
\nwas a well-known Sarangiya from whom Ahmad Jan received
\nSarangi lessons for some time, but as the latter himself told me
\nonce:- “In spite of all these factors, I was not really drawn to
\nthe art until I heard Ustad Munir Khan, the great Tabla-Ustad
\nof Meerut. I suddenly realised that my rooh really lay in the
\nTabla. I took early lessons in Tabla from my uncles Sher Khan,
\nFaiyaz Khan, and Baswa Khan. However, my ideal guru was
\nUstad Munir Khan and I really put my heart into my riyaz,
\nonly after I became his pupil at the age of 12. My Ustad was
\nnot only a great Tabaliya but also a generous guru. He used to
\nmake me practise for nearly 16 hours per day, with half-hour
\nbreaks now and then for my meals, etc., and barely 6 hours of
\nsleep. I had to take regular exercise, and plenty of rich food
\nessential for such a rigorous routine of riyaz”. Ahmad Jan was
\nbrought up by his brother Miyan Jan Khan who not only gave
\nhim all the facilities to devote himself entirely to the art, but
\nalso provided him with a rich diet of nutritious food and plenty
\nof milk. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why his stamina
\nas a performing artiste remained unimpaired till the last year
\nof his life. Anyway, young Ahmad Jan’s extraordinary talent
\nand devoted practice pleased Munir Khan so much that the boy
\nbecame the guru’s favourite ‘Shagird’ in no time. The Ustad’s
\nfather Kale Khan used to watch the extraordinary progress of
\nhis son’s young pupil, and one day he remarked with admiration:
\n“The boy’s fingers really dance with the laya (Laya mee thirakte
\nhain).” This complimentary epithet “Thirakkoo” stuck to his
\nname, and when Ahmad Jan became famous throughout the
\ncountry it was as “Thirakwa”, the tabla-wizard with the
\ndancing fingers. Besides Thirakwa, the other reputed Tabaliyas
\nof Munir Khan’s Gharana have been Ustad Amir Hussain (nephew
\nof Munir Khan), Ghulam Hussian, Shamsuddin, P. Nageshkar,
\nSripad Nageshkar, Nikhil Ghosh, Ghulam Rasool and others.<\/p>\n

Thirakwa used to recall with a glow of joy his most
\nsuccessful conference-debut at the age of 16 in Khetbadi, Bombay.
\nThe thunderous ovation that he received from the audience on
\nthat occasion never ceased to echo in his ears. He achieved wide
\npopularity as a member of Bal Gandharva’s Theatrical
\nCompany. Soon, invitations from music conferences began to
\npour in, and Thirakwa became one of the busiest artistes
\nof the North. In 1936 he was appointed a court-musician of
\nRampur, a post which he adorned for the next 30 years during
\nwhich he heard and accompanied the greatest musicians of his
\ntime. No wonder, he had an endless stock of stories relating to
\nthe rajas, nawabs and court-musicians which he used to narrate
\nto us in his own inimitable style. One such story was about
\nNawab Kalbe Ali Khan (of Rampur), an accomplished musician
\nand a great patron of music, whose reverence for his guru
\nBahadur Khan, the great Sursingar-expert, caused so much
\nheartburn among the courtiers and relatives of the Nawab Saheb
\nthat one day he decided to teach them a lesson. He seated his
\nguru outside the durbar-hall and invited all the courtiers and
\nprinces to attend court at 10 a.m. punctually. But, so entrancing
\nwas Bahadur Khan’s Sursingar-recital that all the invitees to
\nthe court remained as if spellbound, and forgot to attend
\nthe court. Regarding his patron, Nawab Raza Ali Khan of
\nRampur, Thirakwa used to say: “I got on very well with my
\npatron. The Nawab Saheb was always generous to me, and I
\nserved him loyally”. With what consideration and deference,
\nthis great Ustad used to accompany the Nawab Saheb when the
\nlatter used to play on his Castanets or Ghunghroos to entertain
\nhis friends!<\/p>\n

When the court-musicians were all disbanded in the new set-
\nup, Thirakwa migrated to Lucknow where he was appointed
\nProfessor and Head of the Faculty of Tabla in the Bhatkhande
\nCollege of Music. Even after he retired, he was closely
\nassociated with this institution as an Emeritus Professor.<\/p>\n

During his Rampur years as well as during his college years,
\nhe was a most popular and frequent broadcaster from the Lucknow
\nStation of AIR. And of course, he was constantly in demand
\nat Music Conferences, AIR concerts, Sangeet Sammelans, and
\nmehfils all over the country. His popularity, in fact, never
\nwaned, because he kept up his rigorous riyaz, and his high
\nstandard till the end. His last unforgettable performance
\nwas in the Radio Sangeet Sammelan, 1974, in which he once
\nagain proved that even after he had become a nonegenarian,
\nhis devotion to, and mastery over, the Tabla remained as
\nunmatched as ever. Although his voice in normal conversation
\nhad tended to become shaky, it was amazing that while reciting
\nthe complicated and jaw-breaking tabla-bols and parans, his
\nvoice seemed to regain its lost steadiness and strength.
\nNumerous disciples of his scattered all over the north
\nhave achieved renown such as: Lalji Gokhkale (of AIR, Bombay),
\nPrem Vallabh and Ghulam Ahmad (of AIR, Delhi), Chchote
\nGokhale (of AIR, Pune), Nikhil Ghosh (Bombay), Ahmad Ali
\nand Ram Kumar Sharma (of Lucknow) and so on.<\/p>\n

Although Thirakwa was essentially a soloist, there has been
\nhardly any leading soloist or instrumentalist in the last 5
\nor 6 decades whom he had not accompanied in the course of his
\nlong and distinguished career spanning many generations.
\nAmong the unforgettable maestros he accompanied on the tabla
\nwere Ustads Allahbande Khan, Rajab Ali Khan, Alladiya
\nKhan, Wahid Khan, Allauddin Khan. Bhaskarbuwa Bakhle,
\nFaiyaz Khan, Mushtaq Hussain, Hafiz Ali, Ali Akbar, Bismillah
\nKhan, Begum Akhtar, R. Daggur and so on. Once I
\nhappened to ask Thirakwa Sahib as to who was the vocalist he
\nenjoyed accompanying most of all. Without a moment’s
\nhesitation, he replied: “I found the greatest joy in accompanying
\nUstad Faiyaz Khan, Vilayat Hussain, and Abdulla Khan of the
\nAgra Gharana, because their control over Taal was superb”.
\nIn fact, his admiration for the Aftab-e-Mausiqui was only
\nequalled by the latter’s for him. There was such perfect mutual
\nunderstanding between them that once at a music conference
\nin which some other Tabaliya was accompanying Ustad Faiyaz
\nKhan, the latter is said to have blurted out at one place:
\n“Na huva Thirakwa” (“No one can take Thirakwa’s place”).
\nHonours like the Padma Bhushan came to him naturally.
\nUstad Ahmad Jan Thirakwa had a wealth of reminiscences,
\na good sense of humour, and the ability to imitate many
\nvocalists. Hence he often used to entertain us with many
\ninteresting episodes and anecdotes pertaining to colourful
\nmehfils of the past. Without his actual demonstration of the
\nsinging and Tabla bols, such narrations lose much of their impact.
\nHowever, here is one such story in his words:- “You people perhaps
\nhave never had the good fortune to hear Rajab Ali Khali of Dewas.
\nHe was a wonderful singer, famous for his taiyari (speed). But he
\nhad a sly habit of accelerating the speed of his fast Khayal and
\nkeeping the poor Tabla-accompanist suspended in that awful
\ntempo for a long time, while he himself would keep on singing
\nin an easy, even tempo. One day he started this stunt on me.
\nI thought of an equally cunning trick. Instead of sweating out
\nthe lightning laya, I really started accompanying his taans
\nmathematically. This way I could go on playing the whole night
\nwithout getting tired, but the singer would get tired very soon.
\nInstead of getting irritated, Rajab Ali Khan appreciated my
\ningenuity, and we had a good laugh over it”.<\/p>\n

Confident that nothing could reduce his artistic stature,
\nThirakwa never minded providing accompaniment to even the
\nyounger artistes of his time. If the organizers hesitated to
\nschedule the name of this veteran with a young artiste, he would
\nlaugh and ask: “If I do not mind, why should you?” When an
\nartiste had reached his status why should he mind about such
\npetty “snobberies” in music.<\/p>\n

Thirakwa was proficient in all the styles of Tabla Baaj such
\nas “Dilli”, “Poorab”,”Farukkabadi. and Ajrada, but “Dilli” and
\n“Farukkabadi” were his favourites. His recipes for success for
\ntoday’s tabla-pupils are “correct and sincere taleem, long and
\ncontinuous years of riyaz, regular physical exercises, and lots
\nof good nourishing food”. He has proved the worth of these
\nthrough his own personal example. He remained popular
\nthroughout his career not only because he was an authority on
\nhis subject, but also because of his dignified and accommodating
\nnature. I had often wondered why this top artiste never
\nparticipated in any cultural delegation going abroad, and once
\nasked him. He laughed at himself and confessed: “I was offered
\nmany chances, but each time I refused because I am plain scared
\nof flying.”<\/p>\n

The older generation of musicians and music-lovers shake
\ntheir heads in despair and remark: “Many great Tabaliyas have
\ncome and gone, but there has been only one Thirakwa”!
\nOne will always remember Ustad Ahmad Jan Thirakwa’s
\ncourtly personality – the black “achkan” and cap, the
\nblackened moustache, the surma-lined eyes, the silver-capped
\nwalking stick, the polite adaab-arz or meherbani apki, his
\ncourteous manners, and his mastery over the Tabla. The Tabla
\nBaaj has been deprived forever of the dancing fingers of
\nThirakwa, the Tabla Wizard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u266b Tabla solo in Ektala   About Thirakhwa Ustad Ahmad Jan “Thirakwa by Susheela Mishra After the gaiety, crowds and illuminations of the previous two days, Lucknow was observing Ashra, the mournful 10th day of Moharram. By 10 a.m. the sad news of the sudden death of Thirakwa Khan Saheb had spread among the music-lovers...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":6,"menu_order":1170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"pp_embeds":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parrikar.org\/vpl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parrikar.org\/vpl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parrikar.org\/vpl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parrikar.org\/vpl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parrikar.org\/vpl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.parrikar.org\/vpl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2186,"href":"https:\/\/www.parrikar.org\/vpl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/804\/revisions\/2186"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parrikar.org\/vpl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parrikar.org\/vpl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}