Dedicated to cultivating awareness and appreciation of the Indian arts and cultural heritage, Takshila Education Society (TES) organises literary and cultural festivals like the Takshila Utsav, Ninaad and Bhakti Utsav besides holding SPIC MACAY intensives on a regular basis. TES’s recently held Takshila Utsav at the College of Arts & Crafts, Patna, offered not only classical music in its entirety with the qualitative vocal, instrumental and dance performances, but also underlined the inter-relationship of our arts by publishing “Apni Mati”, a book on the cultural heritage of Pataliputra (Patna) and organising an exhibition by the same name by Shyam Sharma, ex-principal of the local Arts College which displayed his exquisite works of art in mix medium.
The Takshila Utsav opened with the launch of the book followed by the auspicious stotra paath by local artistes Vipin Sharma and his group of percussionists. Notwithstanding the musical support of the tanpura, swarmandal, the three conch-shells of different sizes sounding shadj, gandhar and pancham swaras, the pakhawaj, tabla, huduk and damru and the impressive recitation of “Maheshwar Sutra” and Panini’s “Ashtadhyayee”, the dramatic effect of echo and the unbearable loud volume marred the intended and much desired piety of the whole effort.
Dhrupad recital by the Gundecha Brothers — Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha however instilled a spiritual ambience to the inaugural evening. The essence of their duet was a high level of individual musicianship and the personal chemistry between the two Dhrupadias.
Opening with a meditative alap in raga Shuddha Kalyan, they sang a dhrupad, “Aadi Parabrahma Deva…..”, set to Chautala. The dhamar in raga Hameer, “Abeer gulaal….”, set to Dhamar tala next, was a pleasant contrast that depicted the festival of Holi in terms of melodic and rhythmic fervour. “Sandhya Sanjeevini…” in Shivaranjani, set to the faster Sul tala, would have made a perfect concluding piece but they reverted to a heavy raga like Malkauns unnecessarily. Gundecha Brothers were ably accompanied on the pakhawaj by a young Ankit Parikh while their own disciple Sanjeev Jha provided them the vocal support.
The next evening opened with a vibrant vocal recital by Pandit Madhup Mudgal assisted by his disciple and daughter Savani Mudgal with Vinay Mishra to accompany him on the harmonium and Shambhunath Bhattacharya on the tabla. Chhayanat was the most appropriate choice for his main raga in which he sang two famous compositions — “Nevar kee jhankaar…..” in vilambit jhoomara tala, “Jhanan jhanan jhan bichhua baaje….” in Teen tala — and a tarana in Sitarkhani thheka. Both the khayals were redolent with reposeful and methodical handling of the raga with alap, bol-alap behelawa and variegated taans concluding with the tarana.
Madhup was in his elements all through the evening, while singing the popular bandish of Jog “Saajan more ghar aaye…”, tarana in Shahana kanhara or the following bhajans and shabad that had the unmistakable stamp of his Guru Kumar Gandharva.
Ustad Shahid Parvez was at his melodious best in his bewitching Baageshree. The detailed alap-jod-jhala was followed by a slow Masitkhani gat, a medium tempo composition in Rupak and the faster one in Teen tala, studded with harmonised phrases of intertwined melody and intricate rhythmic patterns. The crystal clear swaras of the sizzling taans sparkled like chiselled gems. He concluded his mesmerising sitar recital with a thumri like dhun in Mishra Khamaj. Pundalik Krishna Bhagwat’s brilliant tabla support often reminded the connoisseurs of his Guru Pandit Kishan Maharaj.
Ashwini Bhide Deshpande’s vocal recital supported by Vinay Mishra on the harmonium and Mithilesh Jha on the tabla preceded the dance performance ‘Tridhara’ that helped Takshila Utsav reach its climax. The three-day festival was competently compeered by Neelam Prabha.
