Hyderabad Virasat 2010 - Pandavani Performance By Dr. Teejan Bai: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR HYDERABAD VIRASAT 2010 -...

ven if you know every story from the Mahabharata, there are not many excuses you can make for missing this.

The Hyderabad Chapter of SPIC MACAY (Society for Promotion of Indian Music And Culture Amongst Youth) is organising a festival of Indian classical music and dance, "Virasat 2010", from 7th to 17th August, at various venues in the city.

The 11-day festival will feature the following stalwarts - Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Vijay Ghate, Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan, Kavita Dwibedi, T V Sankaranarayanan, Mysore Brothers, Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Prof. Uday Bhawalkar, Dr. Teejan Bai, Dr. Nookala Chinasatyanarayana and D Balakrishna.

Dr. Teejan Bai will be performing a Pandavani recital on 10th August, 2:30pm, at the P Obul Reddy School, Jubilee Hills.

Teejan Bai is an exponent of Pandavani, a traditional performing art form from Chhattisgarh, in which she enacts tales from the Mahabharata, with musical accompaniments. She was born in the village Ganiyari, 14 km north of Bhilai, to Chunuk Lal Pardhi and his wife Sukhwati. As a child, she heard her maternal grandfather Brijlal Pradhi recite the Mahabharata written by Chattisgarhi writer Sabal Sinh Chauhan in Chattisgarhi Hindi, and instantly took a liking to it. She soon memorized much of it, and later, trained informally under Umed Singh Deshmukh.

At the age of 13, she gave her first public performance in a neighbouring village, Chandrakhuri (Durg), for Rs. 10, singing in the Kapalik shaili (style) of Pandavani. It was the first time for a woman, as traditionally, women used to sing in the Vedamati, the sitting style. Contrary to the tradition, Teejan Bai performed standing singing out loud, entering what was, till then, a male bastion.

Within a short time, she became known in neighbouring villages, and invitations poured in, asking her to perform at special occasions and festivals. Her big break came when Habib Tanvir, a famous theatre personality from Madhya Pradesh, noticed her talent. She was called to perform for the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

In the '80s, she travelled all over the world as a cultural ambassador, to countries as far as England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Turkey, Tunisia, Malta, Cyprus, Romania and Mauritius. Teejan Bai's honours include the Ahilya Devi Samman and the prestigious Padmasri in 1988, Shreshtha Kala Acharya in 1994, the Sangeet Natak Academy award in 1996, and the Padma Bhushan in 2003. In 2002, Guru Ghasidas University (Bilaspur) announced the award of D. Litt honour for Teejan Bai.

SPIC MACAY is a voluntary, non-profit, apolitical and non-governmental student participatory movement founded in 1977. It aims to conserve and promote an awareness of Indian culture among the youth of India, through a focus on the classical arts.

SPIC-MACAY has chapters in over 300 towns and cities all over the world. It organizes concerts, lectures, demonstrations, informal discussions and seminars, all hosted by local chapters of the organization. The Hyderabad Chapter is one of them.

Entry to the concerts is free, and is on a first-come-first-served basis. Please contact Lata Mani at 93475-53161 or Ashish at 94901-22248 for further details.