News & Notes
Sarangadeva Samaroh: Festival & Seminar

The annual Sarangadeva Samaroh, was held between 19 -22 January 2024, showcasing music and dance performances by renowned artists as well as enriching seminars, in-depth research paper presentations, and workshops with a focus on Sarangadeva’s Sangita Ratnakara and other texts on Indian dance, music, and other traditions.
The 15th edition was curated by
Parwati Dutta, the Founder-Director
of Mahagami Gurukul. The festival
is held annually in the land of
Sarangadeva, the 13th-century
musicologist and philosopher, attached to the court of the Yadava
King Singhan, whose capital was
Devagiri, the present-day Daulatabad/
Aurangabad in Maharashtra.
The festival aimed to reconnect
the glorious cultural past of this
region to establish the relevance of
Sangita Ratnakara with presentday performing arts, creativity,
imagination, and the ideas it
generates.
The Sarangadeva Prasang (seminars) opened with Jyoti Singh from Banaras Hindu University exploring the influence of Sarangadeva’s Sangita Ratnakara on the medieval treatises of Indian musicological tradition. She stated that there is an unmistakable impression of Sangita Ratnakara on Sangeet Damodar and NartanNirnaya of Punderik Vitthal. Citing Dr. V. Raghavan she reiterated that Sangita Ratnakara is like a strong pillar that connects ancient texts to the medieval treatises.
Arati Rao from Bengaluru added that
it was not only the musicological
texts of Northern India but also the
treatise written in South India which
are influenced by Sangita Ratnakara.
She added that the tradition of earlier
texts such as Sangita Ratnakara are
definitely followed, but new ideas
are also getting absorbed, before
presenting her detailed paper on
Sooladi talas.
The other topics discussed included Wasifuddin Dagar’s deliberation about the Dhrupad tradition, where he spoke about how in Dhrupad the ‘Swarochchaara’ (tuneful utterance of swaras) is important in alap and perfect pronunciation of pada or words is important while singing the composition. He also talked about technical terms like aakar, gamak, lahak, dhuran, muran, and dagar and the talas used in Dhrupad singing.
Parwati Dutta shared that her in-depth
study on ‘raasaka’ was associated
with her research on Dhrupadangi
Kathak. Citing from Natya Sastra
“Rasah Bhaavah hyabhinayah….”
she explained that there are two kinds
of kavya (poetic works) - drishya
(visual) and shravya (aural). Rupaka
and upa-rupaka come under the
drishya category. Her explanations of
Raas leela from Dasham Skandh of
Bhagwat to Wajid Ali Shah’s dance
drama, Rahas, were informative and
interesting. She also talked about the three varieties of rasak - traditional
Manipuri Raas Leela is performed
in three styles- namely taal-Rasak
performed with claps, Danda-Rasak
performed with sticks, and MandalRasak done in a circle.
Karuna Vijayendra spoke on the
‘Swaramantthan’ dance which
originated from the nritya-karanas
of the nritya adhyaya of Sangita
Ratnakara. Ramya Suresh joined
her online for the music and dance
demonstration of Swaramantthan.
There was a lecture demonstration on
Haveli Sangeet by Yashodanandan
Pramod Kumawat and Pinkesh
Gandharva from Rajasthan, belonging to the Nathadvara tradition of temple
music offerings to Shrinath Ji.
Kathavachan, the ancient story-telling
tradition, and precursor of Kathak,
was elaborated by Ayodhya Sharan
Mishra and Manganiyar tradition
of Rajasthan by Loona Khan from
Badmer. These lecture demonstrations
helped the audience enjoy the
evening’s performance with a greater
understanding of these art forms.
Sarangadeva Pravaah had research paper presentations by young researchers with a panel of scholars to guide them with queries related to their study and research. It was heartening to see that more than twenty research papers were presented by young and aspiring scholars including Adya Shinde, Ishwaree Mahajan, Aishwarya Mundada, and Bhuvana, all students of Mahagami Gurukul. A good number of listeners participated as observers to benefit from these deliberations.
The inaugural evening opened with
Haveli Sangeet prevalent in the
Havelis or temples of Gujarat and
Rajasthan, where the Ashtayaam Seva
of the deities are offered through
singing of devotional padas of the
Pushtimargiya poets, the ashta-sakhas
of Vallabhacharya in Dhrupad style;
tuned to the ragas of different prahars
of the day or seasonal ragas for
various festivals. Pinkesh Gandharva
accompanied by Yashoda Nandan
Kumawat on the Pakhawaj and Jayant
Nerlekar on the Harmonium (also
providing vocal support), opened with
Vallabhacharya’s pada on the birth of
Krishna, and went on to sing padas
of different occasions, composed in
different ragas written by Krishna
Das, Nand Das, Paramananda Das and
Ksheetswami.
This was followed by a captivating
performance of Mohini Attam by
Neena Prasad. The mangalacharanalike sollakattu with SundarGajavadana pranavakaram paved
the way for varnam in raga Kambhoji
set to misra Chapu tala. Maate
ganga-tarangini Shankar shiro
alankrite, the pada varnam was dealt
with great sensitivity. Jayadeva’s
ashtapadi Kuru yadunandana was
excellent, where the essence of the
sahitya was conveyed not just by
the bhava-abhinaya of the eloquent
dancer but was also enhanced by the
mesmerising music, both vocal and
the percussion. Neena should have
left the spellbound audience at this
ecstatic moment, the concluding
tillana felt redundant.
Dhrupadangi Kathak by Parwati Dutta and the Mahagami dancers came next. Parwati has delved deep into embodying the philosophical connotations and the structural framework of dhrupad to develop this dhrupad-angi, a specific variety of Kathak, that she has named Dhrupadangi Kathak. Choreographed as a journey from silence to an internalised flow of soundscape, the contemplative alap was followed with the Sadra composition Tum hi ho raja sung by Uday Bhawalkar, set to slow Jhap taal of ten beats time cycle.
The unhurried pace of the
Dhrupadangi Kathak was a contrast
to the present-day frenzied Kathak. It
continued with a traditional Dhrupad
composition invoking ‘Hari-Hara’
(Vishnu and Siva) together with both
their attributes, such as Bansi-dhara
Pinaak-dhara, Giri-dhara Gangadhara, Trishul-dhara Jata-dhara
parallel adjectives for both the deities.
Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore’s
poem Antaramama vikasit karo he
sung by Devasheesh Sarkar was
followed by a Drut Sooltala Dhrupad
composition of Tansen, concluding
with Pranavo aadi Omkar, written
by Guru Govind Singh; merging
ultimately in ‘Omkaara’!
Wasifuddin Dagar who belongs to the 19th generation of Baba Beheram Khan Dhupad Parampara of the Dagars, presented detailed aalapchari and Dhrupad in raga Malkauns. The traditional Dhrupad Poojan chali Mahadeva set to Chautala was followed by a Drut Sooltala composition Shankar Girijapati where just the opening alap went on for nearly an hour. He kept the audience enthralled with the esoteric approach and beauty of this art form by initiating them into it with his verbal input too.
The multi-classical-dance presentation
of Kathak, Odissi, Manipuri,
Mohini Attam, Kathakali, and
Bharatanatyam, conceived and
choreographed by Parwati Dutta,
opened with an introduction, Jhantum
jagadiya where every dancer took
turns to offer a glimpse into their
own dance style, music, costume
et al before they came together to
present ‘Sannidhi’ the confluence of various rivers to merge into the sea.
Each river was portrayed through a
particular dance style, for instance,
river Saraswati in raga Saraswati
enacted by Sujata Nayar, Narmada
by Sheetal Bhamre in Kathak. The
mesmerising music was composed
by Madhup Mudgal using ragas like
Puriya-Dhanashri, Saraswati, ShriKalyan, Miyan Malhar, Desh, and
Darbari. Each dance style was marked
by its percussions too. Mridangam
for Bharatanatyam, pakhawaj for
Odissi, pung for Manipuri, chenda
and maddalam for Mohiniyattam &
Kathakali, and tabla for Kathak, to
name a few.
The versatile kathavachak (storyteller)
from Uttar Pradesh, Ayodhya Sharan
Mishra sang slokas, Neelambuja
shyamala komalaanga to the dohas
and chaupais of Ram charit manas,
to the Awadhi folk songs, reciting
Padhant, dancing the tode-tukdetihai of Kathak and emoting all the
characters of the story being enacted;
while telling the mythological stories
with impromptu additions of his
quick-wittedness. It was a fascinating
experience for the audience who were
enthralled and would not let him go.
The concluding evening opened with the creative offerings of Parwati Dutta in Odissi, with her disciples of Mahagami Gurukul. Based on the Buddhist concept Tara and Tripurasundari of Sringeri, it had metaphors of reflection ‘Pratibimb’, with rhythmic designs in temporal canvas. Mangalacharan was focused on the eyes of Devi, based on the Devi-Sukta of Sankaracharya, where the navarasas were depicted through Devi’s eyes. Sringara when she sees Siva, Irshya or jealousy when she sees Ganga, bhayabheet or frightened when she sees the snakes of Siva and karuna with her own divine compassion. Opening with the tuneful strains of the tanpura, and the shankha-naad (sound of conch) the composition was sung by Shaunak Abhisheki.
The most unique piece was Chhando
(so called in Odia) where stories
were told through talas like the
Sooladi talas of the 16th and 17th
centuries. The mythological stories
of Devi-Devatas are still narrated
like this in Odisha, Parwati said,
before presenting this interesting choreography challenging the
discerning audience to guess the
matras of the talas through the
variables of laghu and drut. Taarini
was their last presentation with
dancers Sheetal Bhamre, Aishwarya,
Bhargavi, and Aadya Shinde, creating
magic on the dhrupad alap in Gurjari
Todi.
It is the constant thinking and
research at Mahagami, that makes all
the difference in creating such rare
presentations. The results
are such innovative dance
works based on the same
classical dance styles and
music, that one watches
as a routine elsewhere.
This year’s Sarangadeva Samman was conferred upon the eminent Manipuri exponent, Darshana Jhaveri for her lifelong commitment and contribution to the Indian arts and Manipuri dance tradition. The 15th Sarangadeva Samaroh closed with the lively Rajasthani folk performance by Loona Khan Manganiyar and a group from Barmer.
(The author is a music scholar and critic)