Benares Gharana - Characteristics

Characteristics

Today, the Benares tabla gharana is well known for its powerful sound, though Benares players are also very capable of playing delicately and sensitively. The gharana is categorized into the Purbi (eastern) baj, which includes the Farukhabad, Lucknow, and Benares gharanas. The Benares style makes use of the more resonant strokes of tabla, such as Na (played on the lao), and Din. Benares players preferentially use the full-hand TeTe strokes, rather than the single finger alternation preferred by the Delhi style, though both stroke types are integrated into the Benares baj repertoire. Benares tabla players are successful in all forms of tabla playing, including tabla solo, instrumental, vocal, and dance accompaniment.

The tabla solo is highly developed in the Benares gharana, and some artists, such as Tabla Samrat Pandit Anokhelal Mishra(disciple of Bhairow Prasad Mishra of 4th generation), Pandit Kishan Maharaj, and Pandit Samta Prasad, have become famous as tabla soloists. The direct descendants making up the 6th generation of tabla players are Chandra Nath Shastri (disciple of Pt. Anokhelal Mishra), Ramji Mishra (son of Pt. Anokhelal Mishra), Mahapurush Misra, Ishwarlal Mishra (alias Lallu), Chhotelal Misra, Radhakanta Nandi, Kashinath Mishra (son of Pt. Anokhelal Mishra), Bityut Banerjee, Deepak Sahai, Sanju Sahai and Shiv Sahai. The 7th generation consists of Pandit Kumar Bose (disciple of Kishan Maharaj), Aditya Sahai, Krishna Sahai and Shubham Sahai. Also directly related to Pandit Ram Sahaiji in the 6th generation are Gokul Mishra, Kishore Kumar Mishra, Dinnanath Mishra, Pramod Kumar Mishra, and in the 7th generation Abhishek Mishra, Sumeet Mishra, Ashish (Dheeraj) Mishra. Also notable disciples are Shyam Kumar Mishra, Ram Bogoankar, Bhupinder Singh Chaggar, Ustad Kausar Ali, Samar Saha, Balkrishna Iyer, Shashanka Bakshi, Sandeep Das, Partha Sarathi Mukherjee, Sukhwinder Singh Namdhari, Arvindkumar Azad, Pooran Maharaj, Shubh Maharaj, Nandan Mehta, Vineet Vyas, Sthitadhee Sarkar and others.

The Benares baj makes use of over twenty different compositional types, and has an enormously varied repertoire of each type.