Ustad Lachhman Singh Seen (3rd December 1927- 13th June 2022) was a musician, teacher, tabla artist and scholar from the North Indian state of Punjab. During his last years, he taught music at the Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar. He is a scholar who authors books on music as well. Noted tabla artist Avirbhav Verma is his grandson.
Ustad Lachhman Singh Seen – Musician and Tabla Artist, belonging to the Punjab Gharana
He was born in Punjab in 1927. His parents, Thakur Mangat Singh and Ishwari Devi, were not trained classical musicians. Yet they supported him to pursue a career in the field of music. In those days, music was not considered a respectable profession in India. So they didn’t receive enough support from their community. Despite receiving threats from their own community, his parents sent him to Durga Music Academy in Jammu so that he could mingle with folk artists. Pandit Jagdish Dutt trained him in tabla at the music academy, and later he was sent to Lahore to receive training from Mian Kadir Baksh of Punjab Gharana.
He returned to Kashmir in 1948 and taught at Maharani Mahilla College. He also worked a staff artist at AIR at Delhi and Jalandhar. He joined HMV College at Jalandhar in the music department in 1962, and worked for 25 years, serving as HOD as well. He has been regular in his music concerts in India and abroad, along with his teaching profession.
Ustad Lachhman Singh Seen – Some interesting facts
1. To support the musical career of their son, Lachhman Singh’s parents often received threats, and they were also warned to estrange themselves from the community.
2. A London-based famous musician, tabla artist, and founder of the Asian Underground subgenre of music in the 1990s, Talvin Singh visited Punjab in the 1980s to study tabla under him for one year. He revolutionized Indian fusion music in the early 1990s, taking basic lessons from Indian classical music.
3. His son, Pawan Kumar Verma, and grandson Avirbhav Verma are his famous disciples. Avirbhav Verma is currently a leading tabla artist of Hindustani tradition.
4. He got the opportunity to learn tabla under Mian Kadir Baksh, a descendant of the musical family that founded the Punjab Gharana of tabla playing. When Baksh visited India after partition, he bestowed the title of ‘Ustad’ on his disciple.
5. He also learnt sitar from Pandit Jiya Lal Basant during his stay in Lahore.
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