KEEN INTEREST:A section of the audience at the
Dasara music concert on the premises of the palace in Mysore on Saturday.
MYSORE: The rousing response to the Dasara music concerts at the palace and other venues in the city on Friday is testimony to the public interest in music and dance, which has remained undiminished since the days of royalty in the city.
The list of artistes who will regale the audience this year include legendary figures such as veena maestro Suma Sudhindra and vocalist Sudha Raghunathan, both of whom will perform on Sunday at the palace, while Anup Jalota, renowned for bhajans and ghazals, will perform on Monday. Another noted Hindustani artiste, Pandit Ratan Mohan Sharma, will render a concert on Tuesday.
Regular concerts
Those who are fairly regular to the Mysore Dasara include Kadri Gopalanath, who will present a fusion concert with Praveen Godhkindi on Thursday. Also, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, who is a legend in Hindustani music, will present a concert on Friday.
This year's music concerts got off to a good start on Friday with a Carnatic concert featuring Nagamani Srinath, who set the tempo for the evening, followed by S.P. Balasubramaniam and Archana Udupa, who held the audience spellbound with some of their popular numbers including the devotional variety. The intermittent rain in Mysore did not deter the music connoisseurs.
The concerts that are integral to Navaratri celebrations are a legacy of the royal family of Mysore who were great patrons of art and culture. The artist community had thrived and received huge encouragement from the court as a result of which Mysore, especially under Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV (who ruled between 1902 and 1940), emerged as the cultural capital of the State and continues to be that.
There are records to testify to the patronage given by the Mysore rulers to classical musicians, artists, sculptors and crafts persons, a culture that gained prominence after the fall of the Vijayanagar empire.
The Mysore Gazette points out that king Kanthirava Narasaraja Wadiyar was a musician of high calibre and another king Chikka Devaraya is credited with authoring the Geetagopala, a musical treatise.
In more recent times, musicians such as Mysore Sadadhiva Rao flourished in the court of Krishnaraja III.
Other musicians that Mysore produced were Veene Seshanna, Bidaram Krishnappa, and T. Chowdiah. It also drew stalwarts from across the country, thanks to the patronage of the Wadiyars of Mysore.
During the era of the Maharajas, concerts were held in the durbar hall and the entry was restricted to the elite few. But with the abolition of monarchy in India, the restriction was lifted and the concerts are open to all now.
In recent decades, the concerts have been shifted from the durbar hall to the open courtyard, but the quality remains undiminished.
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