The timeless resonance of Prabha Atre’s music

Few artistes manage to leave behind a legacy as profound as the music they create in their lifetime. Prabha Atre was one such musician. Earlier this month, a memorial tribute curated by the Pune-based Dr Prabha Atre Foundation, which she had established, served as a reminder of her extraordinary artistry — her distinctive interpretations of ragas, her meticulously crafted compositions balancing swara and lyric and her pioneering spirit in conceiving new ragas. Beyond her creative genius, she stood tall as an empowering guru, shaping generations with her vision and voice.

The two-day festival titled NavRaag Prabha was a thoughtfully-curated event. Four of her senior disciples — Atindra Sarvadikar, Arati Thakur Kundalkar, Ashvini Modak, and Chetna Pathak — each of whom trained under Prabha Atre for more than two decades, presented 17 ragas conceived and composed by her.

Interestingly, Prabha Atre composed three ragas using Malhar as the base, weaving in other notes to create ragas that were uniquely distinct. These are Patdeep Malhar, Kafi Malhar, and Gara Malhar. She did not wholly subscribe to the time theory of presenting ragas, arguing that the conditions for rendering them have changed over the centuries. She also believed that listeners without musical training — who lack the pre-conditioned receptivity of listening — may not find ragas performed at the “wrong” time unsettling. While a trained listener might be bewildered to hear a morning raga performed at night, many in the audience without such prior knowledge would simply connect with the music as it was presented. She argued that performers recording a raga prescribed for a different time in a studio were compelled to realize that the mood of the raga had to be created independently of the external environment. For instance, Patdeep, an afternoon raga, when joined with Malhar, a rainy-season raga, and rendered in the early evening by Atindra Sarvadikar, proved deeply melodious.

There are three ragas that use Malkauns as their parent scale: Madhurkauns, Bhinnakauns, and Darbari Kauns.

Arati Thakur Kundalkar shared how she had been taught Madhurkauns. “Tai (Prabha Atre) was a gentle soul who brought that same softness into her music. In Madhurkauns, which I presented, she was particular about how the two gandhars in the raga were to be rendered. They should not be sung as one note following another in a staccato manner; instead, they must flow with a meend, seamlessly moving from one note to the next without any jarring effect.”

Prabha Atre also used Kalyan as the base for two ragas — Apurva Kalyan and Bhoop Kalyan. Apurva Kalyan is a subtle blend of Purvi and Kalyan, though some feel it resembles Puriya Kalyan more closely, with a strongly emphasised shuddha madhyam. That is the beauty of her creations: the merging of notes is delicate, nuanced and always open to interpretation.

Another raga that deeply fascinated the maestro was Bhairav. She wove it into three new creations — Tilang Bhairav, Kaushik Bhairav, and Ravi Bhairav. The compositions she crafted for each were equally significant, with lyrics carefully aligned to the mood she envisioned for the raga. Arati Kundalkar reflected: “Since I sing compositions of many other composers, I realise the uniqueness of tai’s approach. She chose words with great care, fitting them neatly into the framework of the composition. In Tilang Bhairav, the piece is dedicated to Shiva, the presiding deity of Bhairav: ‘Hey Shivashankar, karunakar, tu hai aadhar, paap uttaro bhavsagar, hey shambho gangadhar, tu hai aadhar’.”

Unusually, Prabha Atre trained under her gurus of the Kirana gharana — Pt. Suresh Babu Mane and Vidushi Hirabai Barodekar — for no more than five years. She often shared that she never felt the need to approach another guru; the material she had assimilated during that brief period took a lifetime to process, absorb, and build upon. Fortunately, her disciples seem to have imbibed her values, displaying the same openness and integrity toward music in their presentations.