Why women had to stay off percussion while many immensely gifted female vocal and instrumental artists ruled the circuit may be a matter of conjecture. But even then, female percussion artists who can apply their minds and hands with as much dexterity, strength and sweetness as any male player, play only tabla, and not any other percussion instrument.

The fact that there is only one professional female pakhawaj player in the world certainly is a bit disappointing.

Pakhawaj can be played as a solo performance and is also regularly used as an

accompanying instrument in dhrupad gayaki, in taal kacheri (percussion ensemble) and with instruments such as santoor, sur bahar and vichitra veena.

But it has never been used by any khayal or thumri exponent as an accompanying instrument.

Chitrangana Pant Agle, the first and the only female pakhawaj player, says: “It is a difficult question. The vocalists are the appropriate people to answer that because there is really no difference between the laya and taal of tabla and pakhawaj. At least in principle, one can be substituted for another. But the vocalists never think that way or perhaps they are so tradition-bound that they do not want to experiment.”

Chitrangana says her path to achieving such a distinction was not that easy. She had to muster all her determination and fight against heavy odds in order to be accepted as a pakhawaj player by her peers. “I was learning dance and my father, grandfather and elder brother were all well-known pakhawaj artists. Even while dancing in accompaniment to their taal, my attention was always fixed on the mysteriously serious sound that pakhawaj produced and I yearned to play it myself one day. However, when I expressed the desire to learn the instrument to my father, he at once refused permission,” she says.

She adds that her father rejected the request not because he was conservative or chauvinistic, but because he thought that being a woman she would not have the physical strength to handle such a heavy instrument. But undeterred by her father’s refusal, Chitrangana secretly learned the instrument from her brother and eventually showed her father her ability to handle as well as play it with a remarkable deftness. Only after this did her father give her permission to pursue the art of playing pakhawaj.

Chitrangana gave her first public performance at the age of 13 and from then, she has continued to scale greater artistic heights. This is her fourth visit to Saptak and she has performed in all prestigious music festivals in the country.

On being asked how it feels not to have any competition, she says: “It is rather sad to be alone. But I have many female students and do hope that more and more women will take up pakhawaj. It was the only instrument that was used in Indian classical music until Ameer Khusro created tabla out of it.”

There are two main gharanas (schools) of pakhawaj and Chitrangana has trained in both.

But she doesn’t feel like getting involved in ‘fusion music’. “No, Indian

classic music is unique and just playing it along with another kind of music does not change it. In the event, any attempt to mix it with other types of music actually

creates no fusion, only confusion,” she says as a matter of fact.

Today at Saptak

* The second day's programme of the 29th Saptak music festival will start with an exposition of the Benaras gharana of tabla by three disciples of Pandit Kishen Maharaj, Pandit Puran Maharaj, Pandit Nandan Mehta and Rajal Shah

* They will be accompanied by Shishirchandra Bhatt on harmonium and Santosh Mishra on sarangi

* The second artist to give a performance will be Jaipur-based vocalist Kanika Pandey. Vinod Vaishnav will accompany her on tabla and Sudhir Yardi on harmonium

* Satish Vyas from Mumbai will render a santoor recital and will be accompanied by Mukund Raj Dev