Draft:Mangala Ranade

Mangala Ranade

4^th January 1951 to 2^nd September 2020

An Exponent of the Hindustani Classical Vocal Music of the Agra-Gwalior gharana

Early life

Born on 4^th January 1951, as Mangala Sohoni, she was the daughter of Shri. R. V. Sohoni, a vocalist of the Gwalior gharana and mother, Smt. Lila Sohoni. Born into the conservative Chitpāvan Brahmin caste, she enjoyed a stable, nurturing domestic environment during her childhood. Mangala grew up in the culturally vibrant locality of Girgaum, a predominantly middle-class Maharashtrian locality in South Mumbai and studied at Kamalabai High School, which was famous for being the first girls’ school in Mumbai. Through stage performances during cultural festivals such as Ganesh- Utsav, and participation in various singing competitions, Mangala took to stage recitals as a duck takes to water. It was evident that she was a gifted child with a wonderfully confident and pleasing stage presence. She received her early training in Hindustani classical vocal music from her father and earned her Sangeet Vishārad (equivalent to a B.A.) from the hallowed music institute Gāndharva Mahāvidyālaya at the age of sixteen. She completed her B.A. from Wilson College, Mumbai, with Sanskrit and Marathi as her subjects in 1971. There was a new trend of middle-class Hindu Marathi women taking up white collar jobs after getting a college degree, in those days. However, there was never any doubt that her true calling was music and that she would pursue further education in music even after her marriage to Shri. Madhav Ranade, a banker, in the same year, at the age of twenty and after the birth of their first child in the following year.

Musical career

It was around this time that the Government of Maharashtra awarded a two-year merit scholarship to her under the ‘Creation of the Second Line of Musicians’ scheme to study music further. She then started learning at the feet of the illustrious exponent of the Agra-Gwalior gharana, Pt. C. R. Vyas. She made rapid progress under a Guru of such extraordinary stature and grew to be one of his favorite disciples. Madhav Ranade was unfailing in his support to his young wife in practicing her art and Mangala, on her part, was keen to do justice to her role as a housewife and mother of two sons even as she made rapid progress as a musician. She took as much pride in her culinary skills as she did in her gāyaki. She was largely successful in balancing her music career with her role as a homemaker. Her public appearances could not be as frequent as they needed to be to bring her fame but her pursuit of learning remained unabated and highly accomplished people from the inner circle of Hindustani classical music in Mumbai, were very much aware of her caliber.

A lifelong learner, she consistently sought to enrich her knowledge by learning from renowned vocalists such as Pt. Prabhudev Sardar and Jaymala Shiledar. Apart from khayāl gāyaki, her repertoire included musical forms such as the tappā and the thumri apart from light classical forms such as the bhajan and the Marathi forms of the bhāvageet and the nātyageet. Extensive participation in music conferences may not have been possible for her because of her household responsibilities, but radio, in its golden age at that time, provided an important alternative platform to this talented artist. She appeared for the music auditions of the music grading system of All India Radio and broadcast several recitals as B, B High and later as a national level A grade artist of All India Radio throughout her career. Radio, (and to a lesser extent television,) were instrumental in taking her art to music lovers across the length and breadth of the country through well-conceived programmes such as the National Programme of Music and Sangeet Sammelan. She was a performing artist for about four decades. She was also honored with the title Suramaṇi by the influential cultural organisation Sur Singar Sansad, (organisers of Haridas Sangeet Sammelan).

A lesser known aspect of her career was her teaching. She taught several young artists in her north Mumbai neighbourhood, with earnestness. She strongly believed in the rigorous traditional methods of imparting tālim and spent long and patient hours with each student, trying to bring out the best in each one, regardless of their limitations. She was an articulate teacher. Through her personal reminiscences, anecdotes and through more abstract analytical discussions about the nature of a raag, about the poetry behind the sparse words of a khayāl, or about the stylistic features of the various celebrated musicians of the twentieth century she cultivated among her disciples, an ability to listen widely, receptively, keenly and critically. For several years she encouraged an annual gathering of the students on Gurupoornima, and emphasised annual performances as tools of introspection and self-assessment for her disciples. Through her engaged teaching she tried sincerely to pass on the precious musical legacy and an abiding love for classical music, which she had had the good fortune to inherit and nurture.

End

Her husband Madhav Ranade’s untimely death in 2008, at the age of 61, in a road accident, left Mangala distraught with grief. She continued to sing and teach music to a few disciples for barely five to six years after which her health began to deteriorate steadily, culminating in an onset of dementia around 2015. She retained the memory of various ragas and bandishes even during the advanced stages of the disease. She was looked after at home by her sons and daughters-in-law. She suffered a sudden heart attack and passed away peacefully at home on 2^nd September, 2020.