UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 54 of 150

Correct — A, Raja Ramchandra Singh of Bhata. Before he entered Mughal service, Tansen was the court musician of the Baghela ruler Ramchandra, whose kingdom of Bhatha — the Bandhavgarh–Baghelkhand tract that later became Rewa state — Abul Fazl names in the Ain-i-Akbari as the realm of 'Ram Chand of Bhatta'. Ramchandra was celebrated for his open-handed patronage of musicians, and Tansen's reputation grew at his court until it reached Agra. In 1562 Akbar sent for the singer; Ramchandra, who could hardly refuse the emperor, let him go, and Tansen joined the imperial court, where he became one of the navaratna, the nine gems. Akbar conferred on him the honorific 'Mian' — the title 'Tansen' itself had been given earlier, at Gwalior. He is traditionally credited with ragas such as Miyan ki Malhar, Miyan ki Todi and Darbari Kanada, and he was buried at Gwalior beside the tomb of the Sufi Muhammad Ghaus, where the annual Tansen Samaroh is still held.

• (b)Rajbahadur of Malwa — The music-loving ruler of Malwa in this period was Baz Bahadur, and the romance the sources attach to his court is that of Rani Rupmati, not the career of Tansen. Malwa in any case fell to Akbar's forces under Adham Khan in 1561, and no source places Tansen at the Malwa court.
• (c)Uday Singh of Mewar — Rana Udai Singh II of Mewar founded Udaipur and was the father of Maharana Pratap. His reign is remembered for resistance to the Mughals and for the fall of Chittor to Akbar in 1568, not for musical patronage; there is no record of Tansen serving Mewar.
• (d)Muzaffar Shah of Gujarat — Muzaffar Shah III was the last sultan of Gujarat, dethroned when Akbar annexed the province in 1572–73 — a decade after Tansen had already joined the Mughal court. The Gujarat sultans are remembered for architecture at Ahmedabad and Champaner, not for Tansen.

Tansen is the hinge figure of the dhrupad tradition and of Hindustani music's absorption into Mughal court culture. Born Tanna Mishra near Gwalior — the city whose Tomar ruler Man Singh had already made it the great centre of dhrupad — he is associated in tradition with Swami Haridas of Vrindavan as his teacher. His documented career runs in two stages: first as court musician to the Baghela raja Ramchandra of Bhatha, then from 1562 in Akbar's service, where his presence among the navaratna signals how far music had become part of imperial prestige rather than merely private entertainment. His descendants and disciples founded the Senia gharana, from which much of later Hindustani instrumental and vocal lineage claims descent.

The question is solved by knowing one place-name, and 'Bhata' is deliberately unfamiliar. It is the older name for the Bandhavgarh–Rewa tract of Baghelkhand, ruled by the Baghela Rajputs, and the ruler in question is Raja Ramchandra. Every other option is a well-known sixteenth-century ruler placed there to draw a candidate who remembers a name but not a connection: Baz Bahadur belongs with Rupmati, Udai Singh with the fall of Chittor, Muzaffar Shah with the annexation of Gujarat. A second guard-rail is chronology — Tansen moved to Akbar's court in 1562, so any patron must have ruled before that, which sits awkwardly with Muzaffar Shah III in particular.

• Tansen served Raja Ramchandra of Bhatha (the Bandhavgarh–Baghelkhand tract, later Rewa) before Akbar summoned him in 1562.
• Abul Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari records the kingdom as Bhatta and its ruler as Ram Chand, noted for lavish patronage of musicians.
• At the Mughal court Tansen was one of the navaratna; Akbar conferred the title 'Mian' on him, while the name 'Tansen' had been given earlier at Gwalior.
• He was born Tanna Mishra near Gwalior and is traditionally held to have learned from Swami Haridas of Vrindavan.
• Ragas traditionally credited to him include Miyan ki Malhar, Miyan ki Todi and Darbari Kanada; his lineage is the Senia gharana.
• He died in 1586 by most accounts and is buried at Gwalior in the complex of the tomb of the Sufi Muhammad Ghaus; the annual Tansen Samaroh is held there.

• Believing Akbar gave him the name 'Tansen'. Akbar conferred 'Mian'; the earlier title came from Gwalior — UPSC set exactly this trap in 2019.
• Placing Tansen at Baz Bahadur's Malwa court because both are associated with music. Baz Bahadur's musical partner in the sources is Rani Rupmati.
• Not recognising 'Bhata' as Bhatha or Bandhavgarh in Baghelkhand, and therefore dismissing the correct option as an unfamiliar name.

UPPSC asks this area as direct recall of a patron, a court or a place; UPSC prefers the 'which statement is NOT correct' form about the same figure, testing several attributions at once — so learn Tansen as a small cluster of facts (patron, title, ragas, burial place) rather than a single line.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which title did Emperor Akbar confer on the musician Tansen?

  • (a)Mian
  • (b)Kaviraj
  • (c)Sangeet Samrat
  • (d)Nayak

  Answer(a) Mian — Akbar gave him this honorific after he joined the imperial court in 1562; the name 'Tansen' itself had been conferred earlier at Gwalior, which is why 'Tansen was the title given by Akbar' is a standard wrong statement.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The tomb of Tansen, where an annual music festival is held, is located at

  • (a)Vrindavan
  • (b)Gwalior
  • (c)Fatehpur Sikri
  • (d)Rewa

  Answer(b) Gwalior — he is buried in the complex of the tomb of the Sufi Muhammad Ghaus, and the Tansen Samaroh is held there every year.