Tansen was one of the nine jewels in Akbar’s court. He was King Akbars favourite singer. This story is about how some jealous courtiers tried to pull down Tansen by getting him to sing DEEPAK RAAG.

Tansen’s original name was Ramtanu Pandey. He was son of Mukund Pandey who was a poet and an accomplished musician and was born in 1493 in Behat, Gwalior.

Ramtanu Pandey good at imitating sounds of birds and animals right from the age of 6. It is said that a famous singer Swami Haridas was passing by the forest and stopped by to take a nap. Ramtanu thought of playing a prank. He made sounds of tiger to scare the travellers. Swami Haridas students got scared. But Swami remained unfazed. He asked his followers to search for this tiger. They soon found Ramtanu and got him to Swami.

Swami Haridas did not get angry. Instead he took Ramtanu to his father. He requested permission to take Ramtanu as his student and promised to make him a great singer since he was so talented. Ramtanu was 10 years then. He learned music from Swami for about 11 years.

From there he began his career. He was inducted in the court of Raja Ramchandra Singh of Bandhavagarh, Rewa state. It is here that his singing started getting recognized. His musical abilities and studies gained him widespread fame and following. Raja Vikramjit of Gwalior honoured him with the title of Tansen

His singing accolades reached Akbar. He sent his people a few times to join his court. Raja Ramchandra encouraged him to go so that we will get a bigger audience. Finally, Tansen joined Akbar’s court at the age of 60.

He soon became the most favoured singer of Akbar. He would call Tansen any point of the day or night to sing for him. Very often Akbar would just walk into his house and hear him practice. He would handsomely reward Tansen with gifts.

The courtiers started to get jealous of Akbar’s newfound fondness for Tansen. Shaukat Mian and a few courtiers decided hatch a plot to ruin Tansen. They provoked Akbar to test Tansen’s true skills of singing. They briefed Akbar that only if a singer can sing DEEPAK RAAG, can he be called a true singer.

Akbar accepted the challenge and asked Tansen to perform. Tansen seeked permission and 15 days time to prepare for this event.

It is said that he was gloomy that evening at home. His wife and children realized that something was amiss. He told the family about the challenge. But the family couldn’t understand the issue. Tansen briefed them that he can very well sing the Deepak Raag; but the problem was that so much heat would be generated that the singer himself might get burned to ashes.

Tansen was a wise man! He figured out a solution – if someone could sing RAAG MEGH, the moment he completes Deepak Raag, the heat would subside and he could be saved.

His daughter Saraswati and her friend Rupvati were chosen to sing the Raag Megh and bring down the rains. Tansen taught the two girls Raag Megh for a fortnight – day and night. He instructed the girls that they must only start once the lamps are lit.

The story goes that the entire town gathered to hear Tansen sing the Deepak Raag. A few moments into the Raag, the air started to get warm. Soon, the people were sweating. The leaves on tress dried and fell down; birds fell dead and water in rivers began to boil. People cried out in terror as the flames erupted and lamps lit up!

At that moment, Saraswati and Rupvati started singing Raag Megh. The sky immediately clouded over and down came the rain. Thus Tansen was saved! Tansen got very ill following this event. Akbar felt guilty of having put Tansen through this. Akbar punished those who were responsible for hatching this plot under his nose.

Tansen recovered and served in Akbar’s court until his demise in 1585. Tansen was a composer, musician and a vocalist. A large number of compositions popular in Northern India have been attributed to him. He is remembered for his epic Dhrupad compositions. He created several new ragas and authored two classic books – Sri Ganesh Stotra and Sangita Sara.

As of today, a national festival named ‘Tansen Samaroh’ is held in December every year, near his tomb in Behat as a mark of respect. An award named Tansen Samman is also given to exponenets in Indian Classical music.

#Tansen #Akbar #Deepak Raag #Raag Megh #Behat #Gwalior

References:-

https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/fepw105.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tansen

https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/the-legend-of-mian-tansen/article22893454.ece

http://www.swarmanttra.com/blog/raga_deepak_indian_musician_tansen/

https://mythicalindia.com/features-page/tansen-biography-age-birthday-family-performances/