Nocturnal Melodies: Tales from Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh 2017

Aryaman Kakkar

Nocturnal Melodies: Tales from Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh 2017

The Sankat Mochan Music Festival is held every year in the beautiful, ancient, and holy city of Varanasi. The ethereal performance of world-renowned musicians draws thousands of music lovers to the city every April to witness feats of musical majesty within the confines of the Sankat Mochan Mandir. In this article, I recall the time I attended the festival as a lover of music while also taking time to explore the holy city of Varanasi.

Girija Devi performing at the Sankat Mochan Festival in Varanasi, 2017. Image Source: The Wire.

From the our A.C. cooled rooms to the harsh heat of Varanasi, it was quite the change of atmosphere when I along with 8 musicians escorted by teachers left on 17th morning for the annual Sankat Mochan Music Festival. A time and place all maestros anticipate performing at, the Sankat Mochan Festival is always held around the time of Hanuman Jayanti in honour of the god. The atmosphere when we entered was quite festive with the mandir’s courtyard’s bustling with people, an audience who knew how to appreciate those performing for them with rousing shouts of ‘Har Har Mahadev!’ For us, the music we experienced the following hours washed over our exhausted limbs, refreshing us with melodies unlike any before. This Sangeet Samaroh is peculiar in the way that the performances take place from dusk to dawn. And so we became night owls for five days; sleeping in till 2 in the afternoon and staying awake all night till 6:30 to see the first light of the new day.

Our very first night we heard beautiful renditions of Qawalis and Sufi poetry by the famous Sufi Singer Shri Hamsar Hayat Nizami. He performed many pieces, including one of our Founder’s piece Chap Tilak and the beautiful composition of the Sufi musician and poet, Amir Khusro. His performances also involved a lot of audience interaction, which is a bit of a rare thing in a setting like this. Our evening was also graced with performance of the great percussion trio of Pandit Kumar Bose on the tabla, Doctor Yalla Venkateshwar on the mridangam (a South Indian instrument), and Pandit Bhavani Shankar on the pakhwaj. They performed an invigorating Teental (cycle of 16 beats) in Madhya Laya (medium speed) and Drut Laya (fast speed.) This godly trio performed for two hours nonstop which was humbling as well as a work of divinity to behold.

Our next day started with a treat at Kerala Café which, according to PRY (Varanasi being his hometown) has the most amazing South Indian food and cold coffee in Varanasi. Later in the evening we headed out for our second night of music. Our first performance which we beheld that evening was the santoor solo of the great maestro Pandit Shivkumar Sharma who performed the siren-like Raga Bageshri. Accompanied by Pandit Ramkumar Mishra, it’s lilting yet energetic tune moved with the wind and danced with the trees. The leaves created sounds almost similar to the otherwise unparalled melody that had the audience enthralled and captive by its beauty. The next performance was that of Pandit Suresh Talvarkar, the great tabla maestro. Performing a duet with his daughter, they performed Jhaptal (10 beats) in Vilambit Laya (slow speed) and Ada Chartal (14 beats) in Madhya Laya. Thundering through the marble halls, the performance was such that you had to see it to believe. He composed complex vocable progressions on the spot which led to the frequent arousing of the people exclaiming ‘Har Har Mahadev!’ in joy and awe.

We then experienced the well matched duet of Sushri Padma Shankar on the violin and Shri S. Aakash on the flute performing the Raga Hamsa Dhwani. Accompanied by tabla and mridangam, the duet lasted for almost two hours, the melody eliciting feelings of peace and serenity which then blanketed the temple. It ended with all four instruments performing Sawal – Jawab (question- answer) which made for an exciting conclusion. Near dawn, we perhaps experienced the only performance coming close to matching the electric air during Pandit Shivkumar Sharma ji’s performance.

Pandit Hariharan, a renowned singer of his time even today, performed a great many pieces, some including the audience’s choice. He first sang Raga Abhogi, a light classical piece along with a great many of his compositions were peculiarly beautiful in their own way. His voice flowed over us like sweet, golden honey, almost as if the temple itself was bathed in light warm gold. He then sang ‘Tuhi Re’ a song from the movie ‘Bombay’ and concluded his performance with a well-known song that was met with great enthusiasm by the audience which lead to them singing the end of the song with him! He stole the show that day and won himself his audience’s hearts through a multitude of ‘Har har Mahadev.’ The last performance at dawn was that of Pandit Ulhas Kasalkar. A singer of the rarest genre of light classica, ‘Tappa’, he sang Raga Bhatiyar and famous songs from his album including ‘Kash Aisa Hota’. A tune that was melodious and harmonious even with the sight of the rising sun, it ended our day in a way that isn’t possible anywhere else.

The next day we saw few memorable performances due to our early departure. One was the santoor performance of Shri Abhay Rustam Sopori. Showcasing the impression of meend (gliding from note to note) and gamak (oscillation between notes), he played in a different manner which was not in the nature of the santoor but intriguing and beautiful nonetheless. Our final performance was that of Pandit Ajay Charaborty who sang one of his favourites, Raga Jog, an astounding piece in which he improvised gracefully and skilfully, giving the audience a taste of what a true performance actually is. He ended on a light note performing a famous thumri before making his leave.

Varanasi as a city is diverse unlike anything before. Its streets are built upon and around the old, its buildings incorporating history into modernity. On the banks of the Ganga lies a school of Vedic learning along with a library holding the original Ram Charit Manas. The oldest inhabited city on this earth in n the end, is a place where borders are broken and true humanity is realised through the divine arts.