With good fortune we were able to attend the 37th Annual Dhrupad Mela in Varanasi, India. An exceptional line up appeared for four nights, blissfully resounding the banks of the river Ganges with the mystical sound of Dhrupad. From 8pm till dawn the music was mellifluous and profound with many artists achieving the highest pinnacles of perfection in sound and music, allowing us to enter into transcendental states.

There is really nothing quite like the magical ambiance of sitting beside the sacred river Ganga all night long, diving deep into the subtle currents of sound that only Dhrupad reveal.  Varanasi is the oldest living city in the world and in itself it is a mystical, holy city full of the echoes of devotional prayers of devotees and holy men from across India and the world.

This is the dwelling place of Shiva, who is known also by his ancient name, “Rudra“. In Banaras there is a popular saying, “Kashi ke kankar Shiva Shankar hain”, -”The very stones of Kashi are Shiva.” Shiva dwells not only in the city’s great temples, but in the very ground and substance of the place itself.

Wonderful Musicians from all over India performed at the program.  So many musicians give their time for the love of Dhrupad at this free festival.  Notable artists were Prem Kumar Mallick, Saeed Uddin Dagar, Wasifuddin Dagar, The Mallick Brothers, Uday Bhawalkar and many more that you can see listed below on the line-up.  This year the festival moved from being a 3 to a 4 night festival.  On Shivratri night, the spiritual energy is palpable and each performance is charged with transcendental renderings of classical Raga and devotional Shiva songs.

(Many thanks to Disco Dom for some of the images which were taken from footage he shot.  We hope to share some clips on youtube once we return to UK.)

Artists at Dhrupad Mela, Varanasi, India.  2012

Vocalists except where indicated otherwise.

17th February 2012

• Wasifuddin Dagar
• Udav Sinde (pakhawaj)
• Ritwik Sanyal
• Ravindra Goswami (surbahar)
• Ms Ira Mukherjee
• Nishant Singh (pakhawaj)
• Brijbushan Goswami
• Sauravbrat Chakarborty (surbahar)
• Saket Maharaj (pakhawaj)

18th February 2012

• Ravi Shankar Udhapadhya (pakhawaj)
• Abhay Narayan Mallik
• Ms Kavery Kar
• Vinod Kumar Divedi
• Shukdev Chaturvedi
• Dalchand Sharma (pakhawaj)
• Ram Kumar and Shamti Kumar Mallik
• Suvir Mishra (rudra veena)
• Prashant and Nishant Mallik
• Indra Kishore Mishra
• Sudip Pal (pakhawaj)

19th February 2012

• Gwalior students ensemble
• Asit Kumar Banerjee (rudra veena)
• Falguni Mitra
• Aneesuddin and Nafeesuddin Dagar
• Ramji Lal Sharma (pakhawaj)
• Rajesh Sendh
• Ashik Shankar Mhatre (pakhawaj)
• Kailash Pavar
• Bhushan Ji (surbahar)
• Ms Sanchita Chaudhury
• Pushparaj Kosthi (surbahar)
• Jay Prakesh Pandey (pakhawaj)

20th February 2012

• Ritwik Sanyal students
• Vishal Jain
• Prem Kumar Mallick,
• Ramakant Pathak and students (pakhawaj)
• Saeed Uddin Dagar
• Deobrata Mishra (surbahar)
• Shivdas Chakravorty (sarod)
• Ms Madhu Bhatt Tailang
• Uday Bhawalkar
• Arun Bhattacharya
• Bhaktiraj & Ruturaj Bhosle (pakhawaj)
• Savan Mukhopadyay

Thanks to Ragamala @ http://forums.chandrakantha.com for the listing.