Ahmedabad: Vidushi Manju Mehta , one of the country’s foremost sitarists and co-founder of the city’s annual Saptak music festival, breathed her last on Tuesday morning. She was 79. Mehta is survived by two musician daughters, Purvi and Hetal, and their extended families.
Sandeep Joshi, Mehta’s son-in-law and secretary of Saptak, told TOI that Mehta passed away at her residence on Tuesday morning. “She was not keeping well for the past few days. Apart from age-related issues, she was very active till her last breath.
She had personally guided the students for their Guru Purnima performance last month. She also started the music department at Gujarat Vidyapith, where she took a keen interest in training the new generation of artists. Her travels also continued despite her advanced age due to her passion for music,” he said.
Scores of artists, students and music aficionados attended her funeral and last rites, which took place at the Vadaj crematorium. Saptak members said that her musical journey started at the young age of 13 when she became a disciple of renowned sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar. Hailing from Jaipur, where almost everyone in her family were musicians, Mehta had earlier mentioned that it was easy for her to pick up the sitar under the guidance of her elder brother and foray into the male-dominated arena of classical music.
Experts said that her uniqueness lay in her style of combining tantrakari with gayaki ang. In the latter, the sitarist attempts to capture the intricacies, grace notes and microtonal inflections that give Indian vocal music its character and beauty. She and her husband, the late Pt Nandan Mehta, started the Saptak music festival in 1980, which has remained a must on music lovers’ calendars across the globe.
Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, renowned instrumentalist and younger brother of Mehta, said, “She played so many roles with utmost aplomb— a sitarist par excellence, an excellent event manager, a true guru to her students, and above all, a human being full of compassion. Her life was music, and we have lost a noble soul today whose legacy will continue to guide many,” he said. Her students remember her as a kind-hearted teacher who would pick up their flaws and gently nudge them in the right direction.
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