Pandit Vinode Pāthak
Eminent Tablā player and painter
(Tabla)

Pandit Vinode Pathāk is considered to be one of the most outstanding and torchbearer of Tablā-player in Hindustani Classical Music.

Born in Calcutta in 1956. He has learnt the instrument from greatest renowned and legendary Tablā Maestros late. Pt. Jnan Prakash Ghosh and late Ustad Ahmed Jaan Thirakwa. Pathakji belongs to a well known musician family whose ancestors taces back to Nāyak – Gopal of 11th – 12th Century. His father Pt. Bālarām Pāthak was a renowned living legend Sitār player. Vinodeji has added a new dimension to the art he serves.
Many Tablā players of Delphi are trying to follow his footsteps in the accompaniment style. Quite a few of his students are also grade Tablā artists in All India Radio.

He is one of the best rhythmic Tablā player of India, has given numerous tablā performances all over the country and abroad, and accompanied with all greatest exponents of classical musician like Ustād Ali Akbār Khān, Ustād Amjad Ali Khān, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Smt. Kishori Āmonkar, Pt. Jasrāj, Ustād Halim Jafar Khān, Pt. Debu Chaudhury, Pt. Birju Mahārāj, Pt. Gopi Krishna etc. He has also giving Tablā accompaniment to other artists of All India Radio from time to time. He is a staff artist (Tablā) in All India Radio (Delhi).

Pt.B.Pāthak - U.Vilāyat-Khān

It is a treat to the eyes and ears watching Vinodeji playing tablā on the stage. His performances are simply marvelous. Above all influences and Artistic Kingship vinodeji emerges as an unique painter and poet.

He has earned art and sketches from Birla academy, Calcutta. From the very childhood he engaged his mind totally in painting and sketches and sometimes in sculptures also and by dint of hard work and tremendous practice he produces exquisite sketches-life portraits, still life, landscapes and animal life.

For the last twenty five years with his keen sensibilities along with determinative and dedicative awakened mind, he has been creating his own style of painting; and not only this, he has developed a unique style of putting his signature in his paintings which are always in harmony with the theme of the painting. He has also created his name in a creative meaningful form Vinode Pathak i.e. “We know the Pāthak”.

His father, Pandit Bālarām Pāthak is a very great Artist. Creator of a unique Style of Sitār playing, he has inspired many a Sitarist among which Nikhil Banerjee and Budhaditya Mukherjee are not the least... Great among the greats, he is however less known outside India than Ravi Shankar, Vilāyat Khān and Nikhil Banerjee. May be, his extreme simplicity and child-like purity have not always been propitious to his mediatisation in a world where, unfortunately, knowing how `to sell oneselP has become a sordid necessity.

Pt.V.Pāthak and His Father 1980

Born on November 5,1923 in Gāyā (Bihar), Panditji is the worthy heir of an illustrious family of Dhrupad Singers, Sitārists and Surbahār players. A Family which - despite the intricacy of its ramifications - fully deserves our attention, not only for biographical and historical reasons but also because, beeing one of the most important family of the lamd, it is thoroughly representative of the organization of the Traditional Indian Musical Society:

A first branch of the Pathak Family, originating from Balia (in Uttar Pradesh State) goes back to Pandit Dinanath Pāthak whose son, Pandit Bachchu Pāthak had 4 sons: one who died prematurely at the age of 15, Pandit Ganesh Pāthak - the eldest (a great Dhrupad singer and Binkār), Pandit Babu Nandan Pāthak (a Dhrupad singer) and Pandit Rām Govind Pāthak, father of Bālarām Pāthak, an excellent Dhrupad singer, Sitārist and Surbahār player who left Balia for Gāyā where he became Court Musician of Rāja Kamla Ranjan Roy of Kashim Nāgar. Pandit Rām Govind Pāthak died in 1948 while Bālarām Pāthak was barely 24 years old. A second branch of this renowned family goes back to Pandit Rāj Kumār Pāthak (probably founder of the Darbhanga Sitār Gharānā) who had a son Pandit Apooch Pathak whose son, Rameshwar Pāthak was one of the greatest Sitārists of the beginning of the century - a statement corroborated by many Ārtists among whom Ravi Shankar. However, Pandit Bālarām Pāthak told me that Rāmeshwarji was saying of himself that he could only play 'char annas' - 10 cents - worth of what could play his elder, Pandit Suddin Pāthak - 'uncle' of Rāmeshwarji. This extraordinary family organization, cemented by Music, proliferates not only because of marriage ties but also because of the deep ties generated by the GuruSisyā Paramparā - the MasterlDisciple unique relationship - Thus, Mrs.
Bālarām Pāthak is the daughter of Pandit Chotte Nārāyan Mālik, a Pakhāwaj player who had been Disciple of Pandit Bāl Dev Uppadhya, father of Pandit Pannalal Uppadhya - the greatest living Pakhāwaj player of India. At last, to add - if need be - 3 more petals to this infinite garland of Great Musicians, all born of the same family flower, let us recall that Pandit Syām Rām Tiwāri - undoubledly the greatest Dhrupad singer of contemporary India - closely followed by Pandit Rām Chatur Mālik and Pandit Bidur Mālik (who complete this winning Vocal Dhrupad 'tiercē') all belong to the same Gharānā - or Traditional School - as Pāthak Family. Thus goes the story of a great Indian Musical family...

Pt.V.Pāthak and His Father 1986

A family mentioned in all the Hindi Works relating to biographies of Musicians and History of Indian Music (I especially think of "Hamare Sangeet Ratnā" by L.N. Garg, of "Bhāratiya Sangeet Kosh" by V.R. Chaudhury, and of "Sitār Mārg" by Shripad Bandyopadhyaya). Unfortunately, as all these Books have given a number of erroneous informations, I thought that it would be good to rectify them (for instance, these Works tell us that Bālarām Pāthak would have learned from Pandit Ganesh Pāthak - and this is wrong - Panditji assured me that he never met him in his life... a good demonstration of the Indian lack of historical sense).

But let us close this parenthesis to return to Pathakji's life who, after leaving Gāyā, went to settle down in Calcutta where he lived for several decades in a flat where Music was perpetually going on round the clock because, besides his daily Sitār and Surbahār practice, Panditji was teaching and playing with his 4 sons - all Musicians: the Sitārist Ashok Pāthak (born 1949); the Vocalist Pramod Pāthak (born 1951; the Tablist Vinode Pāthak (born 1954) and Vinay Pāthak (born 1956), a Composer and professional Harmonium player. After having been nominated Professor in the famous Music Faculty of Khairaghar University (in Madhya Pradesh State), where he taught Sitār for some years, Panditji shifted to Delhi where he lives since 1981. His Calcutta flat is still the 'headquarters' of the children when they are not touring. Panditji participates to the most prestigious annual Music Festivals of the country and has been regularly performing for All India Radio (A.LR. Patna, A.LR. Calcutta and A.LR. Delhi).

Last but not least, this great Musician is also a great man: His real simplicity and unaffected manners, his laughing and mischievous eyes from which a child-like purity filters out, are eloquent enough. In one word: he is a true Artist.

Patrick Moutal 1986 (Ocora Lp558 672-73)