The singer and his seeking

The monograph on Mallikarjun Mansur takes you through his life and times

At a time where riches and glamour matter, and destination is more important than process, the story of Mallikarjun Mansur sounds bizarre. The rigour and austerity with which the legendary maestro of Jaipur-Atrauli gharana earned his music in the gruelling, uncompromising akhadas of the great masters is surely not a tale from our times. Toiling to seek individual expression in the lessons imparted by his great gurus remained Mansur’s pursuit for most part of his life; even the concert stage did not matter to him.

P.V. Vivekananda, in his monograph on Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur in the Vyakti Chitra Maale series of Vasanta Prakashana, recalls how a critic of those times had expressed his wonder at Mansur’s devotional surrender to music. “There is such clamour to present their music before a learned audience, but this master from the South remains cocooned in his own world of music,” the critic is said to have remarked. Mansur, for whom music was a personal act of faith, was content to sing in his puja room.

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