Background
Raghunath Prasanna was born around 1920 in Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He got his musical training from his father Pandit Gauri Shanker, a shehnai player, and from Pandit Dauji Mishra from Varanasi.
Raghunath Prasanna was born around 1920 in Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He got his musical training from his father Pandit Gauri Shanker, a shehnai player, and from Pandit Dauji Mishra from Varanasi.
He was known for playing the techniques of shehnai in flute playing, also inspired by the vocal music Pandit Raghunath Prasanna was not only a shehnai and flute player, he was also a teacher and innovator. He was the first person in the family to introduce the art of flute playing in the family tradition known until then for shehnai playing.
The shehnai in this family was earlier strengthen by Pandit Raghunath’s father Pandit Gauri Shanker, Pandit Tehal Prasad (Grandfather), Pandit Garib Das (Great GrandFather).
Pandit Raghunath Prasanna was also known for playing Tripura bansuri and what he called Krishna Bansuri. Raghunath Prasanna was also an instrumentmaker, Ustad Bismillah khan used to call him "Vishkarma"- an Indian God of architecture, when he saw his quality as an instruments maker.
And Pint Among his disciples: Pint
Bholanath Prasanna (Guru of Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasiya), Pint Rajendra Prasanna, Pint
Pranav Mukherjee, Pint Bhanu Majumdar (father of Ronu Majumdar), Pint
Anant Lal. Alain Daniélou has recorded his shehnai and tripura bansuri on the album "Anthology of Indian Classical Music" in 1955.