Pandit Nikhil Jyoti Ghosh[1] (28 December 1918 – 3 March 1995) was an Indian musician, teacher and writer, known for his proficiency in the percussion instrument of tabla.[2]
He founded Sangit Mahabharati, an institution of music in 1956, and performed on various stages in India and abroad.[3] A recipient of the Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan Award, his style was known to have been aligned with the Delhi, Ajrada, Farukhabad, Lucknow and Punjab gharanas of music. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1990, for his contributions to Music.[4]
Ghosh founded Sangit Mahabharati, a school dedicated for classical music education in 1956.[3] Here, he tutored several aspiring musicians, some of which have already made their names in Indian classical music; Aneesh Pradhan, Eknath Pimpale, Datta Yande, Karodilal Bhatt, Gert Wegner and Keith Manning are some of the notable ones among them.[7] He also trained his sons, Nayan Ghosh and Dhruba Ghosh[8] on Tabla and Sarangi respectively as well as his daughter, Tulika Ghosh,[9] on vocals.[7] all of them assist him in teaching at the school.[8][10]
Ghosh performed on many stages in India and abroad and performed solo at music festivals of Aldeburgh (1958), Edinburgh (1958), Bratislava (1980, 1982), Helsinki (1985), Rome (1985), Athens (1985) and at UNESCO, Paris in 1978.[3] He also served as a visiting faculty of music at many universities. He made improvements in the conventional music notation system and wrote a book detailing his system under the title, Fundamentals of Raga and Tala: With a New System of Notation.[11] Later, he also supplemented the book with another Manuscript Book for easy notation. This was followed by the seminal work, The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Music of India, with author credit going to his music school, Sangit Mahabharati.[12]
The Government of India awarded him the civilian honor of the Padma Bhushan in 1990[4] and he received the Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan Award in 1995. He was married to Usha Nayampally, the marriage taking place in 1955. He died on 3 March 1995, at the age of 76, survived by his wife and three children.[3]
^ abcde"Founder". Sangit Mahabharati. 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
^ ab"Padma Awards"(PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2016. Archived from the original(PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
