Pandit Pran Nath
| Pran Nath पंडित प्राणनाथ) |
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|---|---|
| Born |
3 November 1918 Lahore, British India |
| Died | 13 June 1996 (aged 77) Berkeley, California, US |
| Genres | Hindustani classical |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Associated acts | |
Pandit Pran Nath (Devanagari: पंडित प्राणनाथ) (3 November 1918 – 13 June 1996) was a Hindustani classical singer and teacher of the Kirana Gharana (school).
Pran Nath was born into a wealthy family in Lahore in present-day Pakistan. While they were avid devotees of music (inviting musicians into the house to perform nightly), his family did not approve of his desire to become a musician, so he left home at the age of 13 and took up residence with legendary (but reclusive) singer Abdul Wahid Khan of the Kirana gharana, cousin of the more widely known Abdul Karim Khan.
Pran Nath served Khan for seven years before he was accepted as a student, and stayed with Khan for nearly two decades. Both guru and disciple were much attracted to mysticism: Abdul Wahid Khan, a Muslim, to Sufism; and Nath, a Hindu, to a Shaivite sect in Dehra Dun. It is said that Nath lived in a cave near the Tapkeswhar temple to Shiva for five years, serving his guru intermittently. He eventually married and reentered the world at the request (guru dakshana) of his guru, in order to ensure the preservation of the Kirana style. In 1937, he became a staff artist with All India Radio.
However, Nath stuck to a very austere singing style, with a heavy emphasis on alap, and very slow tempi, which suited his voice well, but was not very popular to the modern Indian taste. Like his teacher Abdul Wahid Khan, Pran Nath's singing emphasized precise intonation and the gradual exposition of tone and mood in the alap section of the music.
Nath supported himself as a music teacher, and worked at the University of Delhi from 1960 to 1970. He was also a visiting professor of music at Mills College.
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