A Brief Note on Dr. Lalmani Misra's TAT NINAD

Dr. Lalmani Misra -- scholar, researcher composer, artist, innovator -- was dedicated to development of music both as genre and discipline. He founded Gandhi Music College at Kanpur and worked as Registrar to Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mandal before joining B.H.U., Varanasi as Reader on Pt. Omkarnath Thakur's invitation.

In the year 1973, Bharatiya Jnanpith published his doctoral work on musical instruments, which unequivocally establishes the development of modern musical instruments from ancient Indian Veena-s. When they republished Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya in 2001, it was a relief to music enthusiasts. It has been reprinted twice since then. Request for its English translation as well as offers to assist have been received from across the globe.

The insatiable scholar in Dr. Misra re-examined the musical theories of sage Bharat and along with arriving at a logical interpretation, he also created Shruti Veena that demonstrates all twenty two Shruti-s simultaneously. Dr. Misra researched into roots of Indian music right up to Vedic period and derived the notes used in musical compositions of Sama Veda. To preserve these notes for posterity he created a 'shastra-sammat' (classically validated) Raga -- Sameshwari. For almost all his activities and interest there is ample documentation, both in published and unpublished form.

An inveterate worker, Dr. Misra found enough time despite his varied engagements, to leave behind massive body of work in different areas of music. On one hand there is voluminous writing on musical theory, while on other, there are detailed compositions in over a hundred Raga-s. These compositions go a long way in establishing the special style he developed specifically for strings -- Misrabani.

Along with some theoretical aspects, over 175 compositions in 14 Raga-s have been collected in proposed volume – Tat Ninad. Sole inheritor to her father’s scholarship, Dr. Ragini Trivedi has practiced Misrabani style for thirty years and on basis of this experience has created Taan-s and Toda-s to go with these compositions.

Tat Ninad is the first-ever complete handbook on Misrabani which initiates the learner into the art of Indian strings and takes him right up to the level of stage performance. At least two compositions of highest professional excellence in different laya-s have been included in each Raga.

The volume is first ever in another sense as well. This incorporates a revolutionary concept of inputting the musical notation as text. Till now glyphs were made in a design software and were manually placed in a DTP software. The inventive genius of Dr. Lalmani Misra resurfaced through his grandson, who not only created special glyphs but a software to input these as text. This software allows a music scholar to write musical compositions in a word processor just like text.

A Brief note on Tat Ninad

Shruti Shankar