World Raga: An Interview with Chaturangui master Debashish Bhattacharya

BBC award winner and Grammy nominee Debashish Bhattacharya descends from a long line of musical talent. This master of world raga is a seventh-generation musician.

"We Bhattacharyas, we learn music from sitting in our mother's womb," he says.

In this wide-ranging interview with Michael Switow, Bhattacharya demonstrates the chaturangui -- a 22-string slide guitar, an instrument that he invented and popularised -- and talks about the music of Rabindranath Tagore. We also meet Bhattacharya's 14-year old daughter, Sukanya, who has an angelic voice and is carrying on the family tradition. She performed on stage with her father for the first time in a concert sponsored by The Tagore Society in Singapore.

Debashish and Sukanya Bhattacharya perform in Singapore

Related Articles and Websites

The music at the beginning of the podcast is a song called "Rasika" ('Enchantment') from Debashish Bhattacharya's album, Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar Odyssey
• Official website of Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya
• Photos of the interview and his performance in Singapore
• Review on BBC Music