Today’s Enlightening Entertainment will be presented in Hindi and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Welcome, music lovers, to Enlightening Entertainment. Today, we will feature the internationally celebrated Indian tabla maestro, percussionist and composer, Pandit Kumar Bose, from Calcutta, West Bengal, India. Belonging to the Banaras Gharana (school) of table playing, Kumar Bose gave his first public performance when he was only four.

In his early teens he was already performing overseas. He has performed in the most prestigious venues such as the Royal Albert Hall in London, United Kingdom, the Carnegie Hall in New York, USA, and the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, to name a few. He has also collaborated with music greats such as Zubin Mehta, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, and George Harrison. To start, let’s enjoy part of a rendition that the legendary tabla maestro gave at the Darbar festival in London, UK.

Pandit Kumar Bose comes from a well-known musical family background. His father was the tabla maestro Pandit Biswanath Bose, and his mother is the eminent sitarist Srimati Bharati Bose.

Kumar Ji’s brothers are also musicians. His brother Jayanta is a noted lyrist, composer, and singer, and his brother Debojyoti is a renowned Sarod player and music director.

Kumar Ji was trained in tabla playing from a very tender age by his father and then following his father’s untimely demise, he continued to train under the guidance of one of the most respected and sought-after tabla gurus in India, Pandit Kishan Maharaj.

Pandit Kumar Bose rose to fame in the 1970s when he played alongside the world renowned Indian sitarist, Pandit Ravi Shankar. Today, Kumar Bose, with his distinctive and creative tabla-playing style, continues to entertain his many fans through performances in his Indian sub-continent homeland and abroad, both as an accomplished accompanist as well as a soloist.

Supreme Master Television had the wonderful opportunity to meet Kumar Bose during his visit in the United Kingdom.

Pandit Ji, we would like to thank you very much for coming here…

You are most welcome. It’s my pleasure.

…and having your presence here with us today. Tell me, how did you begin to play tabla and what is unique about your personal style of tabla playing?

Well, the first question, it is a very natural thing in my family, because I belong to a very musical family. And my father, as you should know, he was a very famous tabla player, musician as well, in West Bengal. Very respected. Pandit Biswanath Bose, his name was. And my mother is a musician also, and she plays sitar. And she is a very senior disciple of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, a very famous sarod maestro.

So since my childhood, whenever I saw my father playing tabla and practicing and things like that, I can only put in that way that tabla was the best toy to me since my birth. And finally when I was matured enough and at the age of 10, 12 years of age, then I was very sincere, very serious, and I wanted to play tabla very seriously. So then my father started teaching me.

Tabla is a complex, ancient percussion instrument. The instrument consists of two drums played simultaneously – one is played with the right hand and the other with the left hand. The tabla drum which is played with the right hand is a wooden treble drum and it keeps the beat or the time with it. The drum played with the left hand is made of metal and it is the bass drum which is used to produce the sound effects.

And could you tell us what is unique about your tabla playing?

What I can say (is) that I always try to play tabla for my enjoyment, not for professional reason, not for financial purpose. I do enjoy music. I do love music. I play music out of my love and affection.

In India, there is a beautiful tradition that still continues today not only in the well known area of spirituality but also in all fields of art and creativity. This is the guru-shishya or master-disciple relationship. It is through this teacher- disciple relationship that traditional artistic skills and knowledge are taught and imparted.

Can you tell us about your guru, Pandit Kishan Maharaj, and the special student-guru relationship in Indian music?

My guru was not only a tabla player. My guru was a very good poet, very good philosopher, very good human being, very special human being, very manlike and very strict-principled man. And he was a very good horse rider. He was a very good painter. And to some extent, he was in every aspect sort of a success. It was not that he just used to paint, no, he was a fantastic painter. In one word, I can say that he was a man of many talents.

And I think because of those different dimensions of art and different sort of experiences, that made my Guru very special.

And the main point of my playing, what he liked, that I never copied him. I followed him. I never tried to copy him. I always followed him. And that brings my style.

So when you were with your guru, what environment was it like?

You learn to see the world according to his eyes, how he sees the world. So that’s what our main observation is, should be, and what I did. So be with him all the time, till morning till night, whatever he is doing you just observe him, how he is doing, what he is doing and why he is doing, and what he is looking for. And he is a perfectionist. Everything has to be perfect. Even you keep the tabla perfectly. So, it comes to a point that for every aspect, you look for perfection.

As one of the most popular and respected tabla players of our time, Pandit Kumar Bose’s style is extremely versatile and he can accompany any instrumentalist, vocalist, or dancer.

When we return, legendary tabla maestro Pandit Kumar Bose will speak more about the spiritual side of music and show us how the tabla can “speak.” Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to our program on the world-renowned Indian tabla maestro Pandit Kumar Bose.

Traditionally, as with most Indian instruments, the tabla is played in a sitting cross-legged position. To become an accomplished tabla player requires diligence and putting in long hours of practice under the guidance of a music teacher who is accomplished in the art. Tabla players must also be able to recite the syllables of the beats which they play on the tablas.

Now, Kumar Ji will give a demonstration of a few tabla playing techniques.

First of all what I would like to show you as we were talking, the expression is so important. That when I play a syllable, suppose “ta” See if I make my face “ta”, that “ta” means something else. And when I say, something else. Same syllable.

When you watch the face, you know exactly where I’m going. And consequently you will be coming with me, in the subconscious of your mind, you are coming. I’ll take you. If I do that, you cannot look at me like that. You have to always be sweet, if I’m sweet to you.

You’ll be shaking your head. This is very natural.

The beauty of tabla is, tabla can talk. Tabla can speak any language. If you say, “just go.”

And it also speaks Sanskrit poetry, like:

If somebody is playing music for himself, if somebody is playing music to get God, a touch of God, I think that is more enjoyable and you can take your listeners with you to a journey, to that extent.

In classical Indian music, there is a strong significance between music and the spiritual. Could you explain your understanding of this?

Actually, our music is invented by God, we believe… and it’s a God’s gift. And Thakur Ramakrishna is a very great saint, he always said that you can get God very easily by music, through music, because He loves music. And if you see, especially in Hinduism, every god has some instrument, musical instrument.

Lord Krishna has a flute, Shiva Ji the dancer, Ganesh Ji plays mridangam, Vishnu is a singer, Devi Sarasvati has a veena. So, when you sing, then God is very, very happy. So through singing, through music, you can have a sort of a feeling of touch.

Whenever I play, I do play my tabla, I do play my music for spiritual sort of connection to get, and I always do that. I close my eyes, I can see through my music, I can see my guru, I can see God. Some beautiful things – it’s very hard to explain, but even if I’m talking I’m closing my eyes, I see very beautiful things in front of me, that is spirituality.

Tell me, what is the meaning of music in your life?

It’s everything. It’s my happiness, it’s my sadness, it’s my food, it’s my dream, everything. I mean my life goes with music. Every moment, every second, I cannot live without music. I see music everywhere. I see music in my romance. I see music in my sadness. And that’s the best thing, best gift I have that God has given me, I believe. I’ve been born for only this – that’s what I believe – to play music.

Even sometimes you forgot where you are, on the stage or home or anybody’s (home). If I start playing here very deeply, for hours, definitely I will forget where I am. I’m just playing. And that kind of music, I think, for listeners, is very, very important, very, very powerful, and very enjoyable. Even if they do not know.

Because the listeners have come just to listen to you, just to get enjoyment, entertainment. But when you take them with you, then afterwards they feel “Yes, I was somewhere else!” And that’s the beauty of it.

And also in India, you are using the music for devotional songs, this kind of purpose.

Devotional songs.

So, what’s the purpose of this, could you explain?

Just to, take God’s names and remember Him and pray to him, all kind of poetries are there. And in every religion, everywhere, in India especially, you find this. And we call it Bhajan. Some other religion calls it Kirtan. Some other religion calls it Sufism. So, that is the basic thing. And we have this devotional aspect of our music.

So is this also connected in any way in kind of deepening the consciousness, when you are actually singing or playing this music?

It is, because of the lyrics, I mean the poetry is based on God. So if you are singing and following the words, and try to understand, then slowly, slowly you’ll go into it.

Our heartfelt thanks to Pandit Kumar Bose for sharing with us the beauty and magic of the Indian tablas. May your God-given talent continue to delight audiences around the world and bring us closer to the Divine.

Thank you, gracious viewers, for joining us on today’s episode of Enlightening Entertainment. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News. May the heavenly melody which is reflected in the music of all cultures touch and uplift your soul.

For more information on Pandit Kumar Bose, please visit Music CDs of Pandit Kumar Bose are available at or at

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