Born on Hanuman Jayanti in 1951 into a family of musicians from Varanasi, Pandit Rajan Mishra inherited the rich tradition of the Banaras gharana of Hindustani music. Along with his younger brother Pandit Sajan Mishra, he debuted on the stage in 1967 at Sankatmochan Mandir. Over a career spanning more than five decades, they crafted a unique form of sahgayan, something which went beyond jugalbandi in the sense that it truly represented a confluence rather than just duet singing.
Rajan Mishra was initiated into ta’lim by his grandfather’s brother, Gayanacharya Bade Ramdas Mishra and was subsequently under the rigorous tutelage of his father Pandit Hanuman Prasad Mishra and uncle Pandit Gopal Mishra. With a tremendous resolve for riyaz combined with reflection, he was able to mould his voice into a rich and sonorous whole, capable of conveying command on his art along with an aesthetic sensibility reflective of bhava, that ever so fleeting notion in Indian art forms.
According to his own admission, “One of the best things about their teaching was that it helped broaden our perspective about music right from our childhood. They told us that we ought to listen to Ustads from different gharanas, and try to learn good things from them.”
Eminent music critic S. Kalidas reminisces, “I first met Rajan bhai in 1972 at Siddheshwari Deviji’s house and heard him and Sajan bhai on stage a little later. Rajan bhai was a formidable musician and had a wide repertoire. Over the decades, he imbibed elements from Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Amir Khan and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi as well. In a way, one can say that the uniqueness of his repertoire was the uniqueness of Banaras itself in the sense that the city was a melting pot of influences and the sources of knowledge were also multifarious.”
Representatives of the sixth generation of musicians within a family that has been serving Hindustani music for over 300 years, Rajan Mishra and Sajan Mishra benefitted tremendously from the presence of stalwart musicians in Varanasi as well as through witnessing performances of and interacting with legendary Ustads who would visit the city to regale discerning audiences. The intense self-reflection and meditative approach that goes hand-in-hand with Khayal singing was indeed a part of Rajan Mishra who was a treasure-trove on ragas and compositions reflecting the entire gamut of the rasa theory of Indian music.
The beautiful relationship between the brothers always came across on stage as well as in interviews, personal interactions and light moments. Rajan Mishra said that “it is this affection which gets reflected in our singing…”, while expressing warmth towards his younger brother who, by his own admission, moved behind him as his elder brother’s shadow, complementing his thought process and adding an evocative echo, as well as a seamless expression of a synchronised thought process.
Spirituality occupied an important place in the life of Rajan Mishra, not merely by virtue of the fact that he was born and raised in the city of Lord Vishwanath. It was the Namdhari Satguru Jagjit Singh Maharaj who guided him to adopt music full-time and offered patronage during the nascent stages of the career of Mishra Bandhu. Their lifelong bond is on display in one of the finest renditions of Raga Chhayanat, followed by the rare Raga Kusum Kedar in the presence of Aftab-e-Sitar Ustad Vilayat Khan in this recording from 1999 at Sri Bhaini Sahib.
At the same time, it is noteworthy that Rajan Mishra studied Osho with rapt engagement and often meditated on aspects of his teachings. During an audience, Osho asked Rajan Mishra what he thinks is the counterpoint to “swara” (musical note) and it became a lifelong quest for reflection when he received the answer as being “silence”. This makes so much more sense to this author as he reminisces their concerts he attended since the late 1990s and used to get struck by the pauses between a seamless thought process flowing from Rajan Mishra to Sajan Mishra and vice versa.
Rajan Mishra had a charming personality and was renowned for his sense of humour. Along with his younger brother, he would have people in splits narrating instances from their childhood, Varanasi, and their shared passion for wrestling, cricket and films. Perhaps it was this joviality in Rajan Mishra’s nature that kept the tradition of joint family alive from his father’s and uncle’s generation to his own and to his sons and their children who continue to share the same roof and eat food cooked in the same kitchen. The brothers realised a lifelong dream with the establishment of “Viram – The Gurukul” outside of Dehradun and it is noteworthy that their home in Delhi’s Ramesh Nagar is named “Swarangan”. Two bodies, one soul – with the departure of one’s body, one just hopes that the merged soul continues to sing through the body of Sajan Mishra and the family legacy continues richly through their sons Ritesh, Rajnish and Swaransh Mishra.
Irfan Zuberi is a student of Hindustani music and an audiovisual archivist.