S. N. Ratanjankar “Sujaan” (1900 – 1974)

 
Pandit Shrikrisna Narayan Ratanjankar “Sujan” (01. 01.1900 – 14.02.1974)

A great musician and a musicologist of the generation next to Pt. V. N. Bhatkhande. He had the good opportunity to get the best from both – the performing tradition of Ustad Faiyaz Khan of Agra Gharana and scholarly approach of Pandit V. N. Bhatkhande.

SANGEET KENDRA library is fortunate to have a substantial documentation of audio recordings of this great personality.  Looking at the lists of Ragas and listening to them gives us a fairly good idea of the vast body of Ragas and traditional compositions (Bandish or Cheej) that were part of his repertoire.

The idea behind this documentation was to record the lesser known Ragas and compositions from Pandit Bhatkande’s Karmik Pustak Malika Vol. 5. & 6.

Initially some of recordings were done on a by Smt. Geeta Mayor while she was in Mumbai. Later on she had to move to Ahmedabad so she requested Shri. K. G. Ginde to get it done and he did it very nicely.
 
As it is written in the queue sheets and the register, these recordings were made in 1961-62 on reel tapes (spool tapes). Due to the technology available at that time the quality of the recording is not so very good and to  an extent Pandit-ji’s age is also audible, yet the recordings serve as a unique reference point.

In 1975 the original half track reels were dubbed to full track and in 1990s, these recordings were transferred to MD (Mini Disc). And in 2006 they were once again transferred to hard disk. Some excerpts from the recordings for us to enjoy.

Raga Shukla Bilaval (8:11)
Dhrupad, Saadra & Description

Credits:
1. Photograph: from the book “Acharya Shrikrishna Ratanjankar – Jivani Tatha Smrutisanchay”. Published by S. N. Ratanjankar Foundation Mumbai.
2. Audio Recording: