Durga Lal - A Gem Of The Purest Ray Serene

Basant Panchami 1990 has been branded on the minds of the art world, for on this day death cast its shroud to extinguish an art lamp, burning with the fiery glow of youthful vitality. Pandit Durga Lal, Durga to all his comrades, at the peak of his career at the age of 42, on that day succumbed to a massive cardiac arrest, which occurred shortly after a marathon performance in Lucknow for the U.P. Sangeet Natak Akademi's Kathak Mahotsava. The Jaipur gharana of Kathak was deprived of its beacon light. A dynamo of kinetic energy, Durga Lal had dazzled like a nova in the sky, but had suddenly been drawn into the distant heavens, leaving thousands enamoured of his brilliant art, and scores of disciples following in his trail feeling dark despair.