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Showcasing the facets of Puri culture
SHYAMHARI CHAKRA
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The annual Puri festival highlighted the legacy of the holy city.
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Photo: Shyamhari Chakra
Glimpse of tradition Rudrakshya troupe members on the stage.
Is Puri all about Lord Jagannath and the golden beach of the Bay of Bengal? This ancient Indian town has a rich history, tradition and culture that still remain unknown to the large number of pilgrims and tourists who throng this temple town. In an attempt to highlight the legacy of this holy city and familiarise the tourists about the lesser known and yet captivating facets of Puri’s culture, Shreekshetra Utsav - the annual Puri festival was conceived three years ago by the department of tourism of the Orissa Government.
The third edition of the festival that concluded on Friday had different segments – art, craft, culture and cuisine. But what really captivated everybody’s attention was the three-day festival of dance and music aptly named after Sri Jayadev, the 12th century saint poet of Orissa. It was mounted on an aesthetically designed stage right on the grand road leading to the temple that is popularly known as ‘saradhabali.’
Puri has been the cradle of several performing arts traditions - Odissi dance, Mahari dace, Gotipua dance, Odissi music, ‘Jaga Akhada sangeet’ and many more – most if which were linked to the temple tradition and thus received royal patronage. The Shreekshetra Utsav offered a glimpse of Puri’s culture. The ‘Jaga Akhada sangeet’ by the Markandeya Smruti Kalapith of Puri was one such unique presentation.
A number of Orissa’s popular singers were invited to recite Jayadev’s Geet Govind - Mahapatra Minati Bhanja, Bijoy Kumar Jena, Mitali Chinara and Sadasiva Pradhan. Similarly, a bhajan by Surendra Sahoo, chhanda by Chandramani Lenka, champu by Sangeeta Gosain, janana by Narottam Sahoo and Odissi by Sukanta Kundu and Narayan Rath revealed glimpses of the rich repository of traditional music of Orissa that flourished in Puri over the centuries.
Dressed as girls, the adolescent boys of the famous artistes’ village of Raghurajpur groomed by Maguni Das, the pioneer who revived this dying dance tradition of Gotipua, regaled with the highly acrobatic and spirited show. Similarly, Odissi Guru Bichitrananda Swain’s Rudrakshya troupe from Bhubaneswar has a captivating Odissi performance. And as a soloist, eminent danseuse Aruna Mohanty put up a mesmerising performance.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
