A long-overdue Visitor Request: Pandit Sudhir Mainkar's DhatiDhagena DhaTirakita Development

This is something I've been meaning to do for a long time, and I'm grateful to my visitor Siddhant for prompting me to finally post it. Here, in contrast to Ustad Zakir Hussain's kaida development that I posted such a long time ago, is my own guru's development of the same kaida.

My guru Pandit Sudhir Mainkar's development of the popular Delhi kaida "DhatiDhagena DhaTirakita." This development is strongly influenced by Ustad Inam Ali Khan, Sudhirji's guru, and was performed by Pandit Ramdas Palsule.

The development of this kaida is strongly influenced by Sudhirji's guru, Ustad Inam Ali Khan, most notably (in my view) in the development of the Tisra jati portion of the composition. That particular tisra jati theme is exactly how Ustad Inam Ali Khan would have played it, and represents his philosophy that tisra jati developments in Tintal should be based on groups of four beats rather than groups of three beats (meaning you start with the original four beat line, such as "DhatiDhagenaDhatirakita, and then add an additional two beats to that, so 4+2+4+2. This is in contrast to the philosophy of establishing a theme of 3+3+3+3).

Apart from that, take note of the methodical approach Sudhirji demonstrates in expanding the composition, starting from "DhatiDhagena" and "Dhinagena" paltas and eventually transitioning to a focus on Tirakita. The development concludes with a crescendo of Tirakita rolls. Notice that the bol "Taka" never appears once, e.g. "DhaTirakitataka," and instead multiple Tirakitas are strung together to produce longer rolls; in this way we never break the rule of introducing bols which do not appear in the theme, a critical element of traditional Delhi gharana development.

As the kaida progresses from slow to medium to fast, I'm compelled to abbreviate the bols first by removing the "h" from Dha and Dhin and eventually writing each bol as a single letter each. I hope everyone can follow along easily enough despite these abbreviations. So with no further ado, here is the development in its entirety:

Sudhir Mainkar DhaTrkt kaida p1
Sudhir Mainkar DhaTrkt kaida p2

Pandit Sudhir Mainkar produced recordings of many kaidas and relas, with the help of such great musicians as Pandit Ramdas Palsule, Pandit Yogesh Samsi, and many others in the hopes that it would inspire young Tabla players to better understand the art of Delhi Gharana improvisation. I hope that providing transcriptions such as these helps to further that goal on behalf of my teacher. Take this development, study it, and see how the approaches taken by Sudhirji might be applied to other compositions in your repertoire.

-Chaz