Report: The 99th edition of the Tansen Samaroh

Started in 1924 by the erstwhile Maharaja Madhav Rao Sindhia of Gwalior Estate as an urs or tribute in memory of Miyan Tansen (born Ramtanu Pandey), the festival is now organised by theUstad Allauddin Khan Music & Art Academy of the Department of Culture, Madhya Pradesh, in association with the district administration Gwalior and MP Tourism. Foreign musicians are also invited to perform at the weeklong festival.

The opening was traditional with a Harikatha discourse and the offering of chadars at the samadhi of Tansen and his spiritual mentor Mohd. Ghaus. The festival itself was held at the same venue under a covered arena. The stage backdrop was based on the historical Man-Mandir-Mahal, the palace of Maharaja Mansingh Tomar, the great 13th century patron of the dhrupad form of Hindustani Music, who ruled Gwalior for three decades. Understandably, every musical session at the festival opened with dhrupad recitals by students of the city’s various music colleges.

The inaugural evening opened with a vocal recital by Pt Ganpati Bhatt Hasanagi, a senior disciple of the Late Pt Vasavraj Rajguru and Late Pt CR Vyas. He presented a rare Raga Dhankoni Kalyan created by CR Vyas. The other attraction of the inaugural evening was the melodious violin recital by N Rajam accompanied by her daughter and disciple Sangeeta Shankar with Abhishek Mishra on tabla. Her Gayaki Ang deliberation of raga Gorakh Kalyan brought alive memories of her legendary guru Pt Omkar Nath Thakur. The dadra that followed had the typical Benarasi flavour of Purab Ang Gaayaki. The evening concluded with the Dagarbani Dhrupad presented by Pt Nirmalya De.

The festival featured a judicious blend of stalwarts and upcoming vocalists and instrumentalists, and musicians from Mexico and Afghanistan too. “The fountainhead of Khayal Gharana’s is Gwalior only,” said Ulhas Kashalkar before opening his impressive rendition of the raga Shuddha Kalyan. He also presented a traditional bandish of Kadar Piya in raga Bahaar, accompanied by Talyogi Pt Suresh Talwalkar on tabla, Vinay Mishra on harmonium and Sarvar Hussain on sarangi. Sampoorna Malkauns by Raghunandan Panshikar, and Bageshri by Omkar Dadrkar were other memorable vocal recitals.

Morning sessions featured morning and afternoon ragas from Todi, Jaunpuri to Sarang and its variants. Accompanied on tabla by Hitendra Dikshit, the sitar player from Bengaluru, Anupama Bhagwat, played the afternoon raga Patdeep with sensitivity. Vocalist Padmini Rao, also from Bengaluru, presented raga Gawati and Navadurga stuti in raga Bharavi composed by her Guru Prabha Atre. Hemangi Nene from Hyderabad left her mark with authentic Jaipur Gayaki.

Aman Ali and Ayaan Ali Bangash, the sons and disciples of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, who performed at the festival for the first time, recalled that their grand father Ustad Kafiz Ali Khan was the court musician of Gwalior. Accompanied on tabla by Mithilesh Kumar Jha and Ramendra Singh Solanki, their sarod duet stood out for its display of mutual understanding and coordination as they presented raga Rageshri. The sitar and sarod jugalbandi of Lakshya Mohan and Ayush Mohan Gupta from the Maihar Gharana was special as they played raga Hemant created by Baba Alauddin Khan and Maanjh Khamaj created by Pt Ravi Shankar.

The festival’s special sessions like Vadi-Samvadi at the Mansingh Tomar Music & Arts University included a range of lecture demonstrations. Students and music lovers were enlightened by Kalpana Jhokarkar, who held forth on Sapta Suran ke Bhed, and Raghunandan Panshikar, who spoke about Kishori Amonkar and her music. The art exhibition at Jai Vilas Palace and Rang-Sambhavana workshop at the festival venue was part of the cultural fare on offer. Richa Sharma’s Sufi music concert, Gamak, worked as a poorva-rang or preface to the main classical music festival.

The annual Tansen Samman was conferred upon Pt Ganpati Bhatt Hasanagi from Dharwad while the Raja Mansingh Tomar Samman was awarded to Ujjain’s Malav Lok Kala Kendra.

All in all, attendees came away from this year’s Tansen Samaroh culturally satiated and intellectually enriched.

Manjari Sinha is a senior music critic.

The 99th edition of the annual Tansen Samaroh was held in the last week of December 2023 at the samadhi of legendary musician Tansen, one of the nine jewels of Mughal emperor Akbar’s court. Incidentally, the UNESCO has declared Gwalior a “Creative City of Music” and the festival’s Taal Darbaar got into the Guinness Book of World Records for hosting 1500 tabla players who performed together this year with great aplomb.

Started in 1924 by the erstwhile Maharaja Madhav Rao Sindhia of Gwalior Estate as an urs or tribute in memory of Miyan Tansen (born Ramtanu Pandey), the festival is now organised by theUstad Allauddin Khan Music & Art Academy of the Department of Culture, Madhya Pradesh, in association with the district administration Gwalior and MP Tourism. Foreign musicians are also invited to perform at the weeklong festival.

The opening was traditional with a Harikatha discourse and the offering of chadars at the samadhi of Tansen and his spiritual mentor Mohd. Ghaus. The festival itself was held at the same venue under a covered arena. The stage backdrop was based on the historical Man-Mandir-Mahal, the palace of Maharaja Mansingh Tomar, the great 13th century patron of the dhrupad form of Hindustani Music, who ruled Gwalior for three decades. Understandably, every musical session at the festival opened with dhrupad recitals by students of the city’s various music colleges.

The inaugural evening opened with a vocal recital by Pt Ganpati Bhatt Hasanagi, a senior disciple of the Late Pt Vasavraj Rajguru and Late Pt CR Vyas. He presented a rare Raga Dhankoni Kalyan created by CR Vyas. The other attraction of the inaugural evening was the melodious violin recital by N Rajam accompanied by her daughter and disciple Sangeeta Shankar with Abhishek Mishra on tabla. Her Gayaki Ang deliberation of raga Gorakh Kalyan brought alive memories of her legendary guru Pt Omkar Nath Thakur. The dadra that followed had the typical Benarasi flavour of Purab Ang Gaayaki. The evening concluded with the Dagarbani Dhrupad presented by Pt Nirmalya De.

The festival featured a judicious blend of stalwarts and upcoming vocalists and instrumentalists, and musicians from Mexico and Afghanistan too. “The fountainhead of Khayal Gharana’s is Gwalior only,” said Ulhas Kashalkar before opening his impressive rendition of the raga Shuddha Kalyan. He also presented a traditional bandish of Kadar Piya in raga Bahaar, accompanied by Talyogi Pt Suresh Talwalkar on tabla, Vinay Mishra on harmonium and Sarvar Hussain on sarangi. Sampoorna Malkauns by Raghunandan Panshikar, and Bageshri by Omkar Dadrkar were other memorable vocal recitals.

Morning sessions featured morning and afternoon ragas from Todi, Jaunpuri to Sarang and its variants. Accompanied on tabla by Hitendra Dikshit, the sitar player from Bengaluru, Anupama Bhagwat, played the afternoon raga Patdeep with sensitivity. Vocalist Padmini Rao, also from Bengaluru, presented raga Gawati and Navadurga stuti in raga Bharavi composed by her Guru Prabha Atre. Hemangi Nene from Hyderabad left her mark with authentic Jaipur Gayaki.

Aman Ali and Ayaan Ali Bangash, the sons and disciples of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, who performed at the festival for the first time, recalled that their grand father Ustad Kafiz Ali Khan was the court musician of Gwalior. Accompanied on tabla by Mithilesh Kumar Jha and Ramendra Singh Solanki, their sarod duet stood out for its display of mutual understanding and coordination as they presented raga Rageshri. The sitar and sarod jugalbandi of Lakshya Mohan and Ayush Mohan Gupta from the Maihar Gharana was special as they played raga Hemant created by Baba Alauddin Khan and Maanjh Khamaj created by Pt Ravi Shankar.

The festival’s special sessions like Vadi-Samvadi at the Mansingh Tomar Music & Arts University included a range of lecture demonstrations. Students and music lovers were enlightened by Kalpana Jhokarkar, who held forth on Sapta Suran ke Bhed, and Raghunandan Panshikar, who spoke about Kishori Amonkar and her music. The art exhibition at Jai Vilas Palace and Rang-Sambhavana workshop at the festival venue was part of the cultural fare on offer. Richa Sharma’s Sufi music concert, Gamak, worked as a poorva-rang or preface to the main classical music festival.

The annual Tansen Samman was conferred upon Pt Ganpati Bhatt Hasanagi from Dharwad while the Raja Mansingh Tomar Samman was awarded to Ujjain’s Malav Lok Kala Kendra.

All in all, attendees came away from this year’s Tansen Samaroh culturally satiated and intellectually enriched.

Manjari Sinha is a senior music critic.