Music Festivals of India

It's now Sri Rama Navami Music Festival season all over Southern India.  The month-long annual festival which started on 26th March 2018, has added musical charm to the onset of spring season.

The noble tradition of celebrating Sri Rama navami (Lord Rama's birthday which falls on Chaitra Shukla Navami) with classical music was initiated by none other than Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the Maharaja of Mysuru.

He was a great patron of music who nourished great musicians like Mysuru T. Chowdaiah (violin) and Mysuru Vasudevachar, the great 20th century composer who composed great kritis like Broche vaare varura.

Common men too have never lagged behind in taking the lead in celebrating Rama navami music.  Saint Tyagaraja was their inspiration who dedicated all his compositions and music for the praise of Lord Rama.

Late S.V. Narayanaswamy Rao (right-top in pic) was a humble employee of HAL who started organizing Ramanavami music at his tender age of 14!  Due to his dedicated and relentless efforts, Sri Ramanavami Music in Bengaluru today is celebrating its 80th anniversary. It has provided platform for five generations of musicians in showcasing their talent and enthralling music lovers. Noted singer Yesudas has been performing in annual Carnatic classical concerts (south Indian classical  music) here continuously for more than 50 years!

Tansen Sangeet Samroh, is celebrated every year during December, to honour the memory of Tansen (1493-1586) who was born as Ramtanu Misra.  He was a prominent Indian Classical Musician and was one of the navaratnas in the court of Akbar, the great. 

The event is being organized in Gwalior near the tomb of Tansen by Ustad Allauddin Khan Sangeet Academy and the Government of Madhya Pradesh, since 1950. The 4-day long 'national music festival' attracts prominent musicians from all over the world!

Tyagaraja Aradhana is celebrated during January, every year to pay homage to the musical saint Tyagaraja (1767-1847).

This event is held near the samadhi of Saint Tygaraja in Thiruvaiyaru, Tamil Nadu  on the banks of the river Cauvery.  Musicians and devotees  from all over the country come here, sit on either side of the samadhi and sing pancharatna kritis of the musical saint.  The event is being organized by the saint's devotees since 1905.

The Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav is an annual Indian music festival held during December every year in Pune since 1953.  Sawai Gandharva was the 

Guru of Bharat Ratna Bhimsen Joshi, probably the greatest vocalist from Kirana gharana.  The festival was started by Bhimsen Joshi himself in honour of his Guru. After the death of  Bhimsen Joshi (2011), the festival was renamed including his name too.

Margazhi Music Festival is held during Dec-Jan every year in Chennai.  This great tradition was  started during 1927 by a group

of music lovers, who later on established the Madras Music Academy.  This music festival is said to be the largest of its kind in the entire world.  Every year concerts from veterans and budding artists are arranged by various music Sabhas all over Chennai.  The number of such concerts during every season reportedly crosses 2000! 

Hariballabh Sangeet Sammelan is probably the oldest music 

festival in the world.  This sammelan which has a history of 143 years is celebrated during December every year in Jalandhar, Punjab to commemorate the memory of the late musical Saint Hariballabh, an exponent of Hindustani Music. This festival attracts musicians from the neighboring Pakistan too for performance.  Government of India has recognized this event as a 'National Music Festival'.

Love for classical music in our country is not just confined to major cities.  These celebrations are evenly spread all over India in its smaller towns and villages too.

India's greatest contribution to the world of culture is its classical music.  Indian classical music consists of two forms, Hindustani and the Carnatic (south Indian) music.  The hallmark of both these forms of music is their uniqueness in  presentations by way of improvisation and spontaneity. It is heartening to note that in all these major festivals, classical artists from all parts of India and even from other parts of the world are invited to perform, thereby recognizing our cultural unity.

With passage of time, love for classical music is also taking a hit.  

Our youth are carried away by the instant kick provided by film 

music and pop music!  

But the advent of younger classical artists and their popularity is 

providing the silver lining. Support from the corporate world, media and even the Governments is also helping the cause in no small measure.  Let us hope that our GeNext retains its zeal in taking this great tradition forward.

Long live our classical music!

Long live India!!

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World Storytelling Day

Storytelling is an art.  We all have grown up listening to stories from our elders, teachers and peers right from our childhood.  'World Storytelling Day' is being celebrated on the March equinox (a day on which the duration of day and night are equal and this year it falls on Tuesday, the 20th March 2018) every year all over the world to encourage interested people to tell and listen to stories, forge and nourish the much needed international network.

Storytelling is not just for children.  The art of storytelling can influence almost all fields, including education, training, entertainment, religion, management and even politics! It promotes  creativity, communication skills, personality development, healing, planning, strategizing and what not?

Storytelling basically needs good verbal and non-verbal communication skills.  Value addition may be brought in with the help of costumes, visuals, songs and even the electronic media.

India is a treasure house of stories for all ages.  Long long ago a 

saint named Vishnu Sharma used the technique of teaching his princely students through his 'panchatantra stories'. In order to stimulate interest he created stories involving animals.  Be it the story of the mischievous monkey that got its tail caught, the tortoise that couldn't keep its mouth shut, the clever monkey that escaped from the evil plans of the crocodile or the clever hare that could kill the mighty lion.......there are lessons for all of us to learn. Obviously these stories have reached almost all corners of the world and are counted among the prides of India!

Coming to the contemporary India, R.K.Narayan's 'Malgudi Days'

caught the eyes of crores of Indians glued to the T.V. as a popular serial during mid-1980s. Malgudi is a fictional village (some say it is the combination of first three letters of Malleswaram and last four letters of Basavanagudi of Bengaluru) where the little boy 'Swamy and his friends' lived. Swamy is monitored by his strict father, loved by his mother and pampered by his grandma.  But Swamy loved freedom and time with his friends and the story unfolds in the form of 39 serials.  Swamy's hate for his school, love for cricket, exploratory visits to the nearby forests, his innocent mischiefs are all captured as short stories.  For most of we seniors, seeing this T.V. serial was almost like reliving our humble childhoods!

In the recent past, we saw two great children movies in English.  One was the famous 'The Jungle Book', based on a story written by 

Rudyard Kippling. Mowgli was a boy who grew along with wolves.  When the the wild tiger wanted to kill him, he was saved by his two friends.....a bear and a panther.

Yann Mortel authored 'Life of Pi', was the story of young Pi who had to seek refuge for survival in a life boat inside the mid-sea along with a hyena and a tiger. Enough ingredients for an exciting climax which we all enjoyed with our children.

Storytelling is all about creativity and innovation.  The familiar

story of hare and the tortoise is now twisted in three more different ways to draw new management lessons!  Look at the pic.  The repentant hare which didn't rest in the middle won in the second version, proving that fast and consistently fast wins the race.  In the next version, the clever tortoise changed the track to land-water and won the race again sending a new message....choose the track according to your strength to win.  Finally both the animals realized that it is better to 'collaborate' instead of 'competing'.  They ran the race together on land-water track, by coordinating with each other and achieved the mutually beneficial win-win!

Creativity of our great minds and their tweaking instincts 

have not even left our great epics....Ramayan and Mahabharath!

Arguably the greatest Indian novelist (Kannada) of our times Mr. S.L.Bhyrappa has rewritten these two epics giving a realistic touch.

Mr. Bhyrappa's master piece 'Parva' (published during 1979 and translated to almost all Indian languages including Sanskrit and English) is a recreated story of Mahabharat.  No miracles here and even Krishna is described as a ordinary human being who was a shrewd politician of his times. When Kauravas wanted to insult Draupadi by disrobing her, her five great husbands were helpless. Distraught Draupadi had to shout at Kauravas.....'you might have won my husbands.  Remember that Lord Krishna is on my side and he will teach you all a lesson'. Kauravas, scared of Krishna stopped pulling the saree further and Draupadi's honour was saved. This is how Mr. Bhyrappa has described the miracle of 'akshaya vastra' within the limits of reality.

Mr.Bhyrappa's Ramayan (published 2017) is renamed as 'Uttara Kaanda',  which is rewritten as a flash-back of reminiscent Seeta, of her life with Lord Ram. Seeta is not a passive lady here. Towards the end she dares questioning Ram and even refuses to join him back! She chooses to take up agriculture to make her living and dies on the field while doing her work, contrary to the popular belief that the mother-earth opened up to take her away!


So much about stories, what about great story tellers and their different forms of art?

Be it the 'Harikatha' (top-left) of the south, 'patachitra (top-right) of the east, 'Pandavani' (down-left) of the centre or 'Katputhli' of the north.......they are all Indian ways of storytelling with the help of acting, songs, pictures and puppets.

How this great art of storytelling is being taken forward?

The Indian Storytelling Network (ISN) was founded by Smt.Geeta Ramanujam (director of Kathalaya, Bengaluru) during 2011. The objective of ISN includes networking with similar bodies all over the world and facilitating the development of storytelling in India. For more details one may e mail to info@indianstorytellingnetwork.org OR kathalaya@gmail.com
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Wish you all a happy Yugadi and a happy new year!


I have made references to many sites and drawn info and pictures from them.  I acknowledge my indebtedness to all of them.  

I thank you all for your patient reading.  Please send me your valuable feedback. 

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