New Delhi   

A festival of Indian classical music

Madhur Tankha

NEW DELHI: The two-day annual Nadchakra Festival of Indian classical music featuring some of the country's finest musicians opened at Stein Auditorium in India Habitat Centre here on Friday.

Hosted by the Nadchakra Association, the festival aims at bringing the country's rare and classical arts into the limelight. Encompassing various genres of Indian classical music with a special focus on dhrupad, the festival's highlight will be Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar, a living legend. He represents the musical tradition of a family that is believed to have preserved and nurtured dhrupad music for the last 20 unbroken generations.

Spiritual and for peace

Dhrupad is the oldest existing form of Indian classical music. The nature of dhrupad is spiritual, its purpose aradhana (worship). Seeking not to entertain but to induce deep feelings of peace and contemplation in the listener, dhrupad's emphasis is on maintaining purity of the ragas and swaras.

On the first day, the festival featured Suvir Misra (rudra veena), Nirmalya Dey (vocal-dhrupad); Pandit Madhup Mudgal (vocal-khayal), while Marianna Svasek (vocal-dhrupad); Pandit Debu Chowdhary (sitar) and Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar (vocal-dhrupad) will perform on Saturday.

Pandit Debu Chowdhary received his early training from the late Panchu Gopal Datta and later from the most traditional exponent of sitar Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan of the Senia gharana.

He is also a creator of eight ragas and has authored three books titled "Sitar and Its Techniques", "Music of India" and "On Indian Music".

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