SSC
Tulsidas Borkar, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2016, was a famous player of which instrument?
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Answer: Option C — Harmonium
Detailed Solution
Explanation
Pandit Tulsidas Borkar (1934-2018) was one of the most respected harmonium players of India. He was known both as an accompanist to the greatest singers of Hindustani music and as a solo performer, and he received the Padma Shri in 2016.
Tulsidas Borkar was born in Borim, Goa. He learnt the harmonium and vocal music from several teachers and trained himself by listening closely to great singers. He became a sought-after accompanist, playing for great singers such as Mallikarjun Mansur, Bhimsen Joshi, Kishori Amonkar, Kumar Gandharva and Jitendra Abhisheki, as well as in Marathi musical theatre (Sangeet Natak). He was known for his ability to follow and support the singer closely, matching every turn of the melody. He also played the harmonium as a solo instrument, which was rare at that time. He was also known for his work in improving the harmonium. He worked with instrument makers to design harmoniums with better tone and tuning, suitable for Indian classical music. He taught many students and received several honours for his contribution to music.
The harmonium is a keyboard instrument in which sound is produced by air being pumped through metal reeds by bellows, worked by the player's hand. It was brought to India by European missionaries and traders in the 19th century and quickly became popular, because it is portable and easy to play. It is now used widely in Hindustani classical, semi-classical, devotional, qawwali, folk and film music. For some time, All India Radio banned the harmonium (from 1940 to 1971), because some musicians and critics believed that its fixed tuning was unsuitable for Indian music, which uses subtle variations of pitch. Other famous harmonium players include Appa Jalgaonkar, Govindrao Patwardhan, Purushottam Walawalkar and R.K. Bijapure.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Tabla is linked with Zakir Hussain and Kishan Maharaj.
- ✗Sarangi is linked with Ram Narayan and Sultan Khan.
- ✗Flute is linked with Hariprasad Chaurasia.
💡 Exam tip
Famous harmonium players asked in exams include Tulsidas Borkar, Appa Jalgaonkar and R.K. Bijapure.💬 Discussions on this question
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Music & Musical Instruments — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Music & Musical Instruments, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers Indian classical music, its two main traditions (Hindustani and Carnatic), gharanas, ragas and talas, folk music styles, and the musical instruments of India along with the artists who are famous for playing them. It also includes the four classes of instruments: string (tata), wind (sushira), percussion (avanaddha) and solid (ghana). Exam questions usually pair an instrument with its maestro, such as the sitar with Pandit Ravi Shankar, the shehnai with Ustad Bismillah Khan or the santoor with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Other common questions ask about the origin of a gharana, the instrument a folk style uses, or the class an instrument belongs to. Making a two-column list of instruments and artists is the quickest way to revise. Practise the music and musical instruments questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.