Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
It was with 87-year-old Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia’s flute recital on April 16 that the famed Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh opened its 102nd edition inside the premises of the Sankat Mochan temple located on the banks of the river Assi. And it was with the conclusion of his recital with the popular Vishnu aarti (Om jai jagdish) in raag Bhairavi, where the audience put their hands together in prayer as well as the appreciation of music from one of flute’s biggest names, that the century-old festival’s confluence of devotion, artistry and community came alive in a single moment.
The week-long festival of classical music and dance, which co-incides with Hanuman Jayanti and will conclude on April 21, features a series of artistes this year, including dhrupad vocalist Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar, santoor exponent Rahul Sharma, flautist Pravin Godkhindi, Kirana gharana vocalist Pt Ajay Pohankar, Patiala gharana vocal exponent Ajoy Chakrabarty, Mysore-based violinist Manjunath Madhavappa, drummer Sivamani, veteran Indore gharana vocalist Kankana Banerjee, sitar player Mehtab Ali Niazi, Mumbai-based bhajan singer Anup Jalota and vocal exponent Pt Sajan Mishra among others. US-based tabla player Vivek Pandya, who is in his early 20s and is hailed as a child prodigy, will make his debut at the festival.
“The festival is steeped in tradition. In India, all-night programmes do not really happen now. But here, people come, sit through the night and listen to the festival,” temple mahant Vishwambhar Nath Mishra said in a press conference held before the festival.
What’s notable about the festival is that it is sustained by community support and local sponsors and comes with the idea of knocking down the existing social barriers. It is a place where India’s classical arts step out of the confines of somewhat inauthentic commercial circuits. There are no VIP rows and fancy green rooms. The musician, in the premises of the temple, just sits inches away from the audience – anyone and everyone, rich and poor – and does a sort of ‘sewa’.
In a city that so doggedly holds on to the past, there are many lessons for the present that it brings to the fore. There is the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb of the festival, in line with the culture of Varanasi; that famed Purabiya lilt that wafts in its sacred and secular identity. Ustad Bismillah Khan performed at the temple for decades. His nephew, Mumtaz Hussain, famously played in 2006, just days after the terror attacks in Varanasi, including a massive blast at the temple. The concert was a gesture that resonated with the city.
In 2015, Pakistan-based Patiala-gharana musician Ustad Ghulam Ali, one of ghazal’s most significant voices in the subcontinent, had crossed the border to visit the temple and perform in its premises as a tribute to Khan. “Nobody cares about politics and our tumultuous history when music appears. Ye allah ka karam hai, ki sabne Hanuman Mandir mein ghazal ko pyar se suna. (It is god’s grace that everyone heard ghazal inside Hanuman mandir with so much affection).. I was singing a ghazal inside the Hanuman Mandir and religion didn’t matter,” Ali had told this writer in 2015.
Established in 1923 as a one-day festival by a few local musicians, it had pakhawaj player Amarnath Mishra at the helm, and officially began taking place from 1925. While only men performed initially, women were included after a performance by Kankana Banerjee, who accompanied her guru Ustad Amir Khan. Taken as a ‘sign from god’, the organisers began to include women at the festival, a tradition that continues.
Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
