Pandit Manilal Nag

Manilal Nag was born in Bankura in 1939 and learned the sitar from his father, Gokul Nag, within the Bishnupur gharana of Bengal — a tradition rooted in the dhrupad practice of the old Bishnupur court. He first appeared in public at the All India Music Conference of 1953, accompanied on tabla by Samta Prasad, and has performed on the National Programme of Music and in the Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan since 1954.

He toured the United States and Europe under the auspices of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in 1973, and represented India at the Indian Ocean Art Festival in Australia in 1979. From 2005 to 2011 he was attached to the instrumental music division of the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata.

His daughter and student, Mita Nag, is a sixth-generation sitarist of the same tradition. His recordings include releases on Raga Records and the Koch World Music Library. He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2001, a Senior Fellowship from the Ministry of Culture in 2005, an honorary gold medal from the Asiatic Society in Kolkata in 2008, the Allauddin Puraskar in 2012, the Banga Bibhushan in 2015, and the Padma Shri in 2020.

The Bishnupur sitar style Nag plays grew out of the dhrupad singing of the Bishnupur court, and keeps a measured, weighty approach to the unfolding of a raga rather than the fast tantrakari display heard in some other schools. It is a distinct Bengali tradition and should not be read as a branch of Maihar or Imdadkhani playing.