Santosh Kumar Mishra (b. 1956) is the eldest son of Pandit Bhagwan Das Mishra (also featuring on this site) who was a veteran of the Banaras gharana. He learned largely from his Uncle Narayan Das Mishra as his father was employed at All India Radio, Lucknow. He is employed as an accompanist at the Music College of Banaras Hindu University. In recent years he has been the most popular and successful sarangi accompanist in Banaras. I first met Santosh when he was 13 when I first arrived in India.
I learnt for a few days, very tentatively, with his Uncle Narayan Das Mishra, and was left to practice with Santosh and his younger brother Vinod—for longer periods than my fresh-from-America legs could take, and whenever I tried to stop, these children would yell at me "bajaao!" (play!).
The first series of videos here is from a concert which I organised at Amar Bhavan, Assi, Banaras on 6 February, 1994. Santoshji began with a full khayal treatment of the morning rag Nat Bhairav.
This was followed by rag Todi:
Next we heard the the famous hori in rag Kafi "kaisi duma machaae"
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The concert concluded with the famous Bhairavi thumri by Wajid Ali Shah," babula nora naihara chuto jaya"
Our next offerings are five videos of Santoshji accompanying Chanulal Mishra, a well-known singer from Banaras, strongly influenced by the Patiala style of singing, at the Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samroah in Banaras on April 30, 1994. Ram Kumar Mishra supplied the tabla accompaniment. Chanulalji began with rag Maru Bihag:
Then a tirvat in rag Sughrai:. A tirvat is a rare type of song composition that combines tarana, tabla bols, and sargam.
Then Chanulal Mishra sang a dut khayal and a tarana in the midnight rag Malkauns:
The next piece was a Haridas bhajan:
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Followed by a thumri in mixed Patiala and Banaras style:
The programme ended, appropriate to the season (Springtime), with a chaiti:
In the next video we see Santoshji accompanying the peerless Kathak dancer Birju Maharaj also at the Sankat Mochan festival, on the 3rd of May, 1994. The clip end abruptly when Maharaji announced a ban on video. Whether I was the offending party or not—I don't know.
Now I want to share with you four special pieces filmed at the Sitala Mandir in Banaras, by the banks of Gangaji. Here we see Santoshji accompanying the wonderful thumri singer Purnima Choudhury, who had learned originally from the peerless Mahadev Prasad Mishra (who we can be seen accompanied by Baccha Lal Mishra elsewhere on this site).
First she sang rag Nat Bihag:
Then a thumri in Mishra Khamaj:
Followed by a Chaiti (a songform sung in Springtime).
She ended her recital with a Ram bhajan:
Purnima's singing can also be enjoyed elsewhere on the site, accompanied by Dhruba Ghosh on sarangi.
