Sitar Master Pandit Manilal Nag, Voice of the Bishnupur Gharana, Dies at 87

Pandit Manilal Nag, the sitar maestro who carried the Bishnupur gharana (a distinct lineage school of North Indian classical music from Bengal) to concert halls worldwide, died November 9 in Kolkata. He was 87. His death closes a performing career that spanned more than seven decades of concerts, recordings and teaching.

Nag was born August 16, 1939, in Bankura, then part of the Bengal Province of British India. His father, Gokul Nag, a revered Bishnupur-school musician, taught him the sitar. The training paid off early. In 1953, still a teenager, he made his public debut at the All India Music Conference, accompanied on tabla by the legendary Samta Prasad. The following year, All India Radio named him an "A Grade" artist, and he went on to perform many times on its National Programme of Music and at the Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan.

How did his career travel abroad?

The Indian state itself opened the doors. In 1973 the Indian Council for Cultural Relations invited him to tour the United States and Europe. In 1979 the Government of India sent him to Australia as a delegate to the Indian Ocean Art Festival, which marked the 150th anniversary of the Government of Australia.

His 1985 tour of Japan survives on the acclaimed album 'The Japan Concerts, 1985', featuring ragas Puriya Kalyan, Misra Piloo and Khamaj with Mahapurush Misra on tabla. A raga, for readers new to the tradition, is the melodic framework that structures Indian classical improvisation.

What does the discography tell us?

Nag's recordings map the breadth of his artistry:

• 'Ragas Jog, Bhairavi' with Ray Spiegel, and 'Raga Lalit' with Anand Gopal Bandopadhyay, both for Raga Records
• Two volumes of 'Classical Music of North India' with Mahapurush Misra for Koch World Music Library and Japan's King Records
• 'Ragas Darbari Kanada, Mishra Kafi' for Italy's Dunya Records
• 'Raga Charukeshi' for the Ravi Shankar Music Circle
• 'Harmony of Strings' with violinist V. G. Jog
• A series of sitar-and-shehnai jugalbandi (duet) recordings with shehnai master Ali Ahmed Hussain Khan
• 'Ragas of Dawn', released in 2020, featuring Raga Bilashkani Todi and Raga Bhairavi with Samar Saha on tabla

The last album, coming nearly seventy years after his debut, is the bookend most obituaries keep circling back to. It shows a musician still recording at the top of his form in his early eighties.

Who carries the tradition now?

Nag taught as much as he performed. He served in the Instrumental Music Division of Kolkata's ITC Sangeet Research Academy from 2005 to 2011, guiding young musicians through the subtleties of the Bishnupur style. His daughter and student, Mita Nag, continues the family tradition as a sixth-generation artist of the gharana.

The honours followed the same arc as the career. Nag won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2001, a Senior Fellowship from the Ministry of Culture in 2005, and an Honorary Gold Medal from Kolkata's Asiatic Society in 2008. The Government of West Bengal gave him the Allauddin Puraskar in 2012, the Banga Bibhushan in 2015 and the Sangeet Mahasamman Award. He also received the ITC Sangeet Samman, the Dover Lane Sangeet Samman, the Koser Award from Chandigarh's Pracheen Kala Kendra, the Sangeet Ratna Award and the Vitasta Award.

In 2020 came the Padma Shri, one of India's highest civilian honours. Nag framed it as a collective honour, describing it as recognition for the entire Bishnupur gharana rather than for himself alone. That framing fits the way gharana traditions work: the lineage, not the individual, is the unit that survives.

What does this change for the Bishnupur school?

The loss is real but not terminal for the tradition. From a boy learning ragas beside his father in Bankura, Nag became a master whose sitar filled halls from Tokyo to New York. Through his recordings, his students and Mita Nag's sixth-generation practice, the Bishnupur sound now has both an archive and a living carrier — the same continuity his father's teaching once gave him.