Bholanath Bhatt

Bholanath Bhatt (1894–1970) is an Hindustani classical vocalist. Bholanath Bhatt is very aptly portraied by Prof. B.R. Deodhar in an article in his book 'Thor Sangeetkaar' - (originally in Marathi).

In 1944, I saw vocalist Pandit Bholanath Bhatt for the first time at the Music Conference held at Allahabad. Smt. Karwal was his favourite disciple and he came to the conference with her. I could not get acquainted with him on that particular occasion. When I made specific enquiries, I learnt that Panditji was a sort of recluse, stayed away from strangers and chose to pass on his knowledge of music only to a selected few. But everybody said that he was a very competent singer. When I saw him he was dressed in a lungi and a silk kurta. He looked grave and did not seem keen on talking to others. It was for all these forbidding reasons that I decided not to strike up an acquaintance with him at the time.

In 1946, I happened to revisit Allahabad. One of my disciples lived there. One day I overheard him humming some _cheejs_ to himself. As they sounded unfamiliar to me, but rather beautiful, I asked him where he had picked them up. He was visibly uncomfortable but finally blurted out, "Sir, please forgive me. There is a musician called Pandit Bholanath Bhatt here who taught them to me. He does not teach anyone unless he agrees to become a black-thread pupil. So, I am afraid, I had to go through that ceremony." On hearing his reply I reassured him. I said he had not done anything wrong in becoming a black¬ thread pupil of Pandit Bhatt. In fact, he should learn whatever Panditji had to offer with great care because what he was humming seemed to be of top quality. "Get all you can", I said, "and when your vacation is over come back to me." He was greatly relieved to find that I had not taken the whole thing amiss. Then I said to him, "You might go and see Panditji now and tell him that I should very much like to call on him if he did not mind. Ask him what time would suit him." He took me to see Panditji that afternoon at the latter's residence in Alopi Bagh. Panditji lived at a sort of hermitage called 'Ramagumfa' where he had a room to himself. I went in and took a seat. Panditji had heard my name and after some preliminaries, conversation turned to music. He sang a number of cheejs for me including a few varieties of raga Malhar and told me which ragas seemed appropriate to him for various seasons. Sweets were brought and I was urged to sample them.

The cheejs he sang were both catchy and of noble lineage. The words of the cheejs were pure and unmutilated. He sang for me a few dhamars, some tappas, khayals (big and small) and several thumaris. I formed a high impression of the man and his knowledge and he too seemed perfectly at ease in talking to me. On the earlier occasion he had appeared to me rather grave and reserved but that impression was now completely wiped out. I found him rather kind-hearted and very straightforward. He appeared rather suspicious of human nature and had to be sure of a man before he opened his heart out to him.