When Radhika Mohan was about five, Khansahib, as Ustad Ameer Khan was referred to, noticed the child's keen interest in music and started to teach him. Thus began Radhika Mohan's formal training in music, which continued for another twelve years until the death of the Ustad.
Radhu, as Radhika Mohan was affectionately called, flourished academically as well as in music. He graduated with a Bachelor of Law from the University of Calcutta and a Master's in Philosophy from the University of Dhaka. At the same time he continued his musical pursuits.Maitra rose to prominence as a musician in the 1950s, when he was in demand for concerts both within India and elsewhere in the world. Aside from radio recitals, he performed in countries such as Afghanistan, Australia, China, New Zealand and the Philippines as part of cultural delegations organised by the Government of India, and he also performed in a non-government tour of the USA in 1975. It was from around that time that he gradually reduced his appearances, preferring instead to concentrate on teaching both the sarod and the sitar. His students were often obtained by a referral method, whereby a potential new pupil was introduced by someone who was already being taught by Maitra. Sometimes he would teach directly, and other times he would delegate the task to a student and soon he was sharing the stage with other great musicians of his time such as Ustad Vilayet Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Amir Khan (vocalist) and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. He also became a regular performer on All India Radio. In 1972 he was awarded the prestigious Sangeet Natak Academy Award by the government of India.
His labor of love bore fruit in several noted disciples, notable among them being Buddhadev Dasgupta, Anil Roy Chowdhury, Samarendra Sikdar, Rajani Kanta Chaturvedi, Pranab Naha, Dr. Kalyan Mukherjee, Narendranath Dhar, Joydeep Ghosh, and others. He had several students from overseas such as John Barlow, Michael Robbins, James Sadler Hamilton, to name a few. Interestingly, he had picked up a significant amount of the Emdadkhani style of playing the Sitar, first from his mother and later, through his friendship with Ustad Vilayet Khan. He taught a number of Sitar students such as Rajani Kanta Chaturvedi, Himadri Bagchi and Rabi Sen. Sitar maestro Pandit Nikhil Bannerji had also received training from him for a few years before going to learn from Baba Ustad Alauddin Khan.
Contributed by :- Shri. Mitul Kansal • kansalmitul@gmail.com