Both the pious and music lovers are equally fond of the Sankatmochan (Hanuman) temple in Varanasi. One of the most prominent music festivals in India and the world is the Sankatmochan Sangeet Samaroh, which takes place inside the temple grounds. Every year, it starts three to four days after Lord Hanuman’s birthday, or Hanuman Jayanti. The six-night-long festival was in its 102nd year this year. It started at precisely 7.30 p.m. on April 16 and ran until 7.30 a.m. on April 22. The audience at the crowded venue was incredibly enthusiastic about the galaxy of well-known performers and lesser-known artists who performed their skills as a sacrifice to the gods.

Two well-known performers from Indian classical music opened and ended the Samaroh. The first act of the first evening was the living flute legend, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. On Pakhawaj, he was accompanied by the Mahant of the temple, Pandit (Prof.) Vishwambhar Nath Mishra and two of his disciples. On two other evenings, Mahant ji was also spotted performing with two other artists: percussion master Shivamani and Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar (dhrupad).

The vocalist line-up included veteran Pandit Ajoy Pohankar, Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty,  Sohini Roy Chowdhury, Pandit Neeraj Parikh, Deepika Varadarajan, Vidushi Kankana Banerjee, Armaan Khan, Jaytirth Mevundi, Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar, Bhajan-samrat Pandit Anup Jalota, and Pandit Sajan Misra & Swaransh Misra. 

The debut audio album of late Ustad Rashid Khan’s son, Armaan Khan,’ Twilight Opus’, got released on the fifth evening by Mahant Ji himself.

Instrumental artists like- Rahul Sharma (Santoor), Pandit Purbayan Chatterjee (sitar), Mysore Nagraj & Manjunath (carnatic violin), U Rajesh (mandolin), Pandit Viswamohan Bhatt & Salil Bhatt (Mohan Veena), Abhay Rustum Sopori (Santoor), Pandit Jaideep Ghosh (Sarode), Abhishek Lahiri (Sarode), Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya (Santoor), Sahana Banerjee (sitar), Mehtab Ali Niyazi (sitar), Pandit Ronu Majumdar (flute) took part from the Instrumental category. 

The percussion artists present during respective time slots were Pandit Samar Saha, Pandit Sanju Sahay, Pandit Ram Kumar Mishra, Pandit Mithilesh Jha, Ustad Akram Khan, Mayukh Bhowmik, Pandit Suresh Talwalkar, Subhash Kanti Das, Bilal Khan Salonvi, Devjyoti Bose, Yashwant Vaishnav, Rohen Bose, Anshul Pratap Singh, and young Vivek Pandya.

 Maestro Ratikant Mohapatra (Odissi), Naynika Ghosh (Kathak), Lavanya Shankar (Bharatanatyam), Sourav & Gourav Mishra (Kathak), etc., dance performance kept the audience engaged. 

Veterans like Pandit Dharamnath Mishra, Vidushi Paromita Mukherjee, Pandit Vinay Mishra,  and young Mohit Sahni were on Harmonium support. 

Gauri Banerjee and Vinayak Sahay were two names who participated with Sarengi on most occasions (where required).

A great celebration of music.

Priyanka Dutta