A Life in Three Octaves: The Musical Journey of Gangubai Hangal

A study of Gangubais life and her music can never be two separate things. She was very much a child of her times even as she stood to alter the course of history. During any narration of her life, she recorded how the momentous happenings in fact a range of them did have a bearing on her; at times they were a part of her unconscious avowal. Past was not something dead and gone, but something that was living and that which continued to live in her as did people who shaped her life and the values they represented. Drawing from it constantly, she invigorated her present. True to the Kirana stamp, Gangubai was also a pursuer of the sur. For her, tradition was of immense value. She would say, It is the labour of one who teaches and the one who learns. When the air of change and novelty was blowing across the entire country, it was only Gangubai and Hirabai Badodekar, who stood for convention. They carried a deep reverence for the knowledge that was passed on by the guru, a belief that it was complete. New depths had to be found within the framework of tradition itself, and never outside of it. Faith in guru and her art was above everything else for Gangubai; hence commercialisation of music was something that she never had to battle with. She never found the need to introduce any frills in her music. She sang the truth, as it appeared to her, and that was Gangubais virtuosity.