The rich heritage of Rajasthan is set to come alive next week as the annual ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival showcases the vibrant culture of the State to the over 2 lakh visitors expected for the event.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will inaugurate the event on Wednesday. Rajasthani musicians Nathoo Solanki, Chugge Khan and the Jaisalmer Boys will open the world’s largest free literary festival with the sounds of their traditional music which has become synonymous with the first day of the festival.
Also on the opening day, musicologist John Napier and Shanti Raman will speak of the tradition and challenges in archiving the oral history of the Nath Jogis. They will be joined by jogi performer Kishori Nath who will recite and perform from an ancient bardic repertoire.
In a session, “Rajasthan: Out of Bimaru,” Jaipur-born economist and Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya, and scholar, economist and writer Bibek Debroy will discuss Rajasthan’s road ahead as the State seeks local strategies for transparency, equity and growth. They will be joined by writer and columnist Malvika Singh as well as journalists Om Thanvi and Ashok Malik on the second day.
Friday will see eminent writers and scholars Aidan Singh Bhati, Arjun Deo Charan and Ambika Dutt discuss the heritage and contemporary manifestation of the Rajasthani literature, spanning a diversity of dialects and genres from ballads to heroic epics and a treasure trove of oral tradition. The festival will also look back at the distinctive literary and visual arts traditions of courtly Rajasthan with cultural historians Molly Emma Aitken, B.N. Goswamy, Kavita Singh and Rima Hooja. Ms. Aitken and Mr. Goswamy will also be in conversation earlier in the week on the intricate miniature paintings of Rajasthan which have revolutionised our understanding of the courtly world and family ateliers that produced them.
Kathputli, the single string puppet theatre native to Rajasthan, will be celebrated at the festival. Experts Dadi Pudumjee, Puran Bhatt and Rajesh Bhat Nagori will discuss this integral part of the region’s bardic traditions, with a history stretching back to thousands of years.
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