Mehfil with Pandit Kumar Gandharva bani exponent Shri Bhuvanesh Komkali (Khayal)

Born into a rich legacy of music, Bhuvanesh Komkali is the grandson of Pandit Kumar Gandharva and Vidushi Vasundhara Komkali and the son of Pandit Mukul Shivputra. He continues to receive guidance from Pandit Madhup Mudgal and Pandita Kalapini Komkali. As a homage to Pandit Kumar Gandharva, Bhuvanesh will sing ragas and bandishes created by him.

Collaboration: Shri Harshavardhan Neotia, Chairman, Jnana Pravaha: Centre for Cultural Studies and Research & NaadSaagar Archives and Documentation Society for South Asian Music

Webcast recording of the programme held on 11th December 2015

Sufi Raah: The Classical Tradition of Tappa (96 min)
Famous for her renditions of the classical tradition of tappas, Shanno Khurana explains why this most arduous of Hindustani musical forms attracted her, what is the nature of their variety of rendition and she analyses their poetic lyrics to reveal the unique cultural synthesis that lies behind them. Their words express Sufi ideas, and their language is the Multani dialect of Punjabi in which much of our classical music is composed. The form really became popular in eighteenth century Lucknow and Banaras where it was given the most rigorous classical grammar even as the importance of the poetry diminished there. By the end of the twentieth century however, there were few practitioners left of the form

Dr. Shanno Khurana, musician and musicologist, Padmabhushan and Fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, has commanded the Indian performing stage for seventy years ever since her first broadcast from Lahore Radio station in 1945. She is known not just for her deep knowledge of Indian classical raagdaari but also her formidable repertoire garnered from the stalwarts to the Gwalior, Agra and Rampur gharanas.

This evening she will be in conversation with her grandson, Prof Naman Ahuja and revisit her album with the same title: Sufi Raah, the Classical Tradition of Tappa, and compare it with renditions by her mentors

Webcast recording of the programme held on 23rd September 2016

When the Gods begin to dance in Angkor - Architecture for the Dancing God: Hall with Dancers in the Jayavarman VII Temples (65 min)
Speaker: Dr. Swati Chemburkar
Chair: Shri B.M. Pande

The spiritual power of dance in Cambodia has been valued since pre-Angkorian times, and plentiful images of dance and music in the bas-reliefs of the great monuments of Angkor suggest that this tradition was markedly enhanced in the reign of Jayavarman VII, as a contemporary Chinese report attests. Focusing on the ‘halls with dancers’, a distinct architectural feature of Jayavarman VII’s temples, the lecture explores the link between the architecture, associated inscriptions, dance and music rituals evolving in Angkor and contemporary Chola temples that housed several mandapas. The lecture argues that the architecture of the halls with dancers worked in tandem with ritual practices to provide a symbolic and possibly actual space for encountering divine

Webcast recording of the programme held on 20th April 2017