Mahalaya
Part I
Durga Puja, also known as Durgotsava or Sarodtsava, has evolved from an annual Hindu Festival of Indian subcontinent into an inseparable part of Indian culture due to the various shades, interpretations and connotations that could be ascribed to it. One could look at it as a homage to the Hindu goddess Durga or as a celebration of Devi Durga’s victory over Mahisasura- more popularly, the universal theme of victory of good over evil. It is also in part a harvest festival celebrating the goddess as the motherly power behind all of life and creation. By the Bengali traditions, Durga Puja is believed to commemorate Durga's visit to her natal home with her beloved children which begins on the day of Mahalaya. Regional and community variations in celebration of the festival and rituals observed exist. It is therefore quite natural that Durga Puja coincides with Navaratri and Dussera celebrations observed by other traditions. Today, on the inaugural day of DURGOTSAV 2023 of the four DAE residential townships Kalpakkam-Amaipakkam-Anupuram-BHAVINI, we are here in front of you with the seventh presentation of the Legendary ninety minute oratorio, Mahisasuramardini, that had its genesis during the year of 1930 and has since been aired by All India Radio in Bengali and Hindi versions with unabated popularity till today.
An oratorio is usually a narrative musical work in large scale for orchestra and voices, typically based on a sacred theme and made for concert performance. Mahisasuramardini, scripted by Baidyanath Bhattacharya or Bani Kumar, composed by Pankaj Kumar Mallik and narrated by Birendrakrishna Bhadra in it’s recorded and broadcasted version, could be looked at as an opera or symphony as well, which takes off from the very construct of Indian Classical music and unleashes itself to capture the structure, nuances and expanse of world music while remaining entrenched to the Indian roots and traditions through a form akin to raagmala.
Before going ahead with the seventh presentation, we would like to have brief exposures on the story of Mahisasuramardini, the making of Mahisasuramardini by All India Radio and the genesis as well as the progress of past six Mahisasuramardini performances by the Musical Group of Kalpakkam-Amaipakkam-Anupuram-BHAVINI.
Part II
The story:
Mahisasura was the son of Rambha, king of asuras, and Princess Shyamala, a demon cursed to be a buffalo. Even though Mahisasura had the power to change forms at will, the devas chased him away every time they were attacked. Mahisasura meditated hard and finally was able to get a boon from Lord Brahma, the supreme creator. Mahisasura gained the immunity to death from any male God, human, animal or demon by virtue of the boon. He never believed in the prowess of the other gender and hence assumed total immortality. The underworld and the earth were conquered. The devas were no match either and soon were driven out of heaven. This resulted in the creation of Goddess Durga by the Holy Trinity Bramha-Vishnu-Shiva and the devas for destruction of Mahisasura. Rest of the story is quite well known and hence we would rather urge the audience to go through the musical experience of today’s presentation after we are done with the next two parts of this prologue.
Part III
The making of Mahisasuramardini by All India Radio:
The genesis of the crack-of-dawn programme goes back to 1930. The renowned musician, actor and regular programmer of the Calcutta Radio Station Hirendranath Basu, had recorded a musical play Prabhate Ashram Drisya for the Dacca unit of the Gramophone Company of India in 1929. Nripendranath Majumdar, the director of Bengali programmes for the Calcutta Radio Station requested Hirendranath to broadcast similar programmes for the station. Hirendranath’s first morning programme for the Calcutta Radio Station was aired on June 15, 1930 named as ‘Prabhati Utsav’. The second ‘Prabhati Utsav’ was broadcasted live on the Mahalaya day in 1930 and from then on it came to be known as Prabhati Utsav (1931), Pratyush Mangal (1932, on the Masasthi day), Jaganmatar Bandana (1933), Saradiya Bandana (1934) and Prabhati Anusthan (1935). In 1936 it was christened ‘Mahisasura Badh’ and was broadcast on the day of Mahasasthi. In 1937, however, it was back to its old schedule of the Mahalaya day, this time with the present title Mahisasuramardini accompanied by participation and of the legendary Birendra Krishna Bhadra in narration.
Bani Kumar’s script was based on Markandeya Chandi or Saptasati Chandi, a part of the Markandeya Purana, containing seven hundred slokas. Raichand Baral, widely considered by music connoisseurs as the Bhisma pitamah or father of Indian film music came along to compose the music.
Bani Kumar got substantial help from Pandit Ashokkumar Sastri while negotiating through the slokas. Till the early sixties when Mahisasuramardini used to be a live programme, the script was bound to be changed from the previous year in its details here and there. This variation in programme was also an attraction to the listeners and broke the monotony of repetition.
Pankaj Kumar Mallick was associated as one of the music directors along with Raichand Baral and Harishchandra Bali during the early years of the programme. While the association of the other two was short-lived, he stayed on to compose music and select the singers. Pankaj Kumar Mullick was an Indian music composer, playback singer and actor, who was a pioneer of film music in Bengali cinema and Hindi cinema at the advent of playback singing and an early exponent of Rabindra sangeet. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1970, followed by the Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1972 for his lifetime contribution to Indian cinema.
Rehearsals during the live-programme years started a couple of months before the show. The matter of attendance was accorded utmost importance and even star-performers had to be punctual. Other than Birendrakrishna Bhadra and Pankaj Kumar Mallick, the names of participants kept changing. The names of performers began to appear from 1938 in the Betar Jagat. The first published list included Harimati, Abhabati and Parul Chaudhury - three extremely popular singers of the era. In 1940, Anil Das, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, Kalpana Hajra, Saila Devi, Ila Ghosh and Suprabha Ghosh took part in the show. The first solo song of the programme ‘Bajlo tomar alor benu’ was allotted to Ila Ghosh. She was later replaced by Supriti Ghosh. Similarly, the solo ‘Jago tumi jago’ in male voice was first sung by Hemanta Mukhopadhyay and after him (when he left for Mumbai) by Dwijen Mukhopadhyay. Over the years, Akhilbandhu Ghosh, Pannalal Bhattacharya, Manabendra Mukhopadhyay, Rabin Bose, Bimal Bhusan, Utpala Sen, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Shymal Mitra, Dhiren Bose, Pratima Mukhopadhyay lent their voice.
A team of instrumentalists called ‘Jantrisangha’ accompanied the programme. There were Sarengi player Munshi Ahmed Hussein, Khushi Ahmed in harmonium, Dakshinamohan Thakur in esraj, Raichand Baral in Piano, Abani Mukhopadhyay and Taraknath Dey in violin, flute-player Gaur Goswami, sitar player Sailen Das and many others associated with the programme at various stages. The conch-blowing of Mrityunjay Badyopadhyay at the beginning of the programme was later replaced in clarinet by Saileswar Chattopadhyay.
The schedule time of the morning programme was not 4 a.m. in the beginning. It used to begin at 6 a.m. till 1937, at 5.30 since 1938 and at 5 a.m. since 1941. The programme began to be broadcast at 4 a.m. only from early 1950s. The duration of the programme also varied from one to two hours and was standardized to one and a half hour in late 40s.
From 1937 onward, the programme was portrayed as ‘Bodhan’ meaning performance of ritual for awakening of the goddess Durga. That very word put the programme in a different genre for both the listeners and performers and that’s why till date radio is switched on in most of the Bengali household on the particular day and time in spite of multiple options of radio and television channels and availability of the programme in disks or YouTube.
So far, All India Radio had broadcast four recordings of ‘Mahishasuramardini’, from 1962, 1963, 1966, 1969 and 1972. But on Sunday, it played the version recorded in 1962. The popular version that we are used to, is actually an edited version of the 1972 recording.
Very few of those who performed live during the 1930s to the 1960s Mahisasuramardini in All India Radio fondly recount that how the artists, after a midnight bath and wearing red sari with creamson or red border and white panhabi-dhoti, would proceed for the pre-dawn performance in the radio station, adorned by flowers and filled with the sacred fragrance of incense sticks. That legacy and that memory still live on in the minds of common listeners and music aficionados alike and get back to life when, at the wee hour of the Mahalaya day, the tunes and the narration of Mahisasuramardini waft through the early morning air from the households of this planet, as if in search of its cosmic identity.
Part-IV
Mahisasuramardini by the Musical Group of Kalpakkam-Amaipakkam-Anupuram-BHAVINI
The full program of Mahisasuramardini spanning about one and half hours and comprising of six Sanskrit chorus songs, one Bengali chorus song, twelve Bengali solo songs in male and female voices and narration in Sanskrit and Bengali was first staged at Kalpakkam by the musical group of Kalpakkam and Amaipakkam during the year of 1995. This ninety minute classic and perhaps the finest Indian symphony, continued to be staged at Kalpakkam by the same team during the years of 1996, 1997 and 1998 under the aegis of Bengal Cultural Association of Kalpakkam and Amaipakkam. During the year of 1999, this program was again staged at Kalpakkam by the same team under the banner of Durga Puja Committee or DURGOTSAV 1999 of Kalpakkam and Amaipakkam. Pandit Krishnanand from the-then Madras, who used to take weekend classes on Hindustani or North Indian Classical music at Kalpakkam under the patronisation and as an extension of various other core activities of Hindustani Music Forum Kalpakkam, was an inspiration behind the initiation and continuation of this program. A number of members from the musical group were regular students of Pandit Krishnanand which elevated the making and quality of the program substantially. Pandit Krishnanand used to organise the yearly Tansen Music conference at the-then Madras which was of high interest to music lovers and connoisseurs alike due to regular participation of Indian Classical legends and luminaries such as Pandit Bhimsen Joshi in vocal, Amjad Ali Khan in sarod etc. A number of his students from Kalpakkam performed at the Tansen Music Conference.
The musical group of Kalpakkam and Amaipakkam for Mahisasuramardini, known for its spirit-cohesion- breathtaking teamwork and various other high quality programs at Kalpakkam and Chennai in various languages and belonging to different genres, comprised of about twenty five vocal performers and musicians on stage and about five persons outside. The full program of Mahisasuramardini was staged on invitation under the banner of Bengali Cultural Association Kalpakkam-Amaipakkam at the Madras Kalibari T Nagar during the year of 1997 where the former President of India R Venkataraman presided and the mandolin legend U Srinivas performed.
The full program of Mahusuramardini was rejuvenated during the year of 2014 and staged at Kalpakkam under the Banner of Durga Puja Committee Kalpakkam-Amaipakkam-Anupuram-BHAVINI or DURGOTSAV 2014. Remaining members of the old musical team of Kalpakkam and Anupuram was combined with the new.
The full Mahisasuramardini performances from the year of 1995 to 1999 and then 2014 was conceptualised, initiated and organised by Shri N. K. Sinha. Late Smt Krishna Sinha was the Music Director for all the full Mahisasuramardini performances by the musical group of Kalpakkam and Amaipakkam from the year of 1995 to 1999 that were staged at DAE Guest House Auditorium, Ladies Hostel and Chennai. Smt Aparupa Roy was the Music Director for the full Mahisasuramardini that was performed during DURGOTSAV 2014 at the Ladies Histel premises.
The full Mahisasuramardini program initiated for DURGOTSAV 2023 Kalpakkam-Amaipakkam-Anupuram-BHAVINI by Dr. N. K. Sinha looks forward to a confluence of the old and the new where the old generation or the remaining members of the musical group of Kalpakkam and Anupuram would be handing over the baton to the new amidst a grand reunion, for days to come and ages to follow.
Mahalaya is the day when the goddess Durga is believed to have descended to Earth. Bengali people traditionally wake up early in the morning on Mahalaya to recite hymns from the Devi Mahatmya (Chandi) scripture. Every Bengali household wakes up at dawn to listen to a collection of songs and mantras known as Mahisasuramardini that recounts goddess Durga’s birth and eventual triumph over the demon king Mahishasura. Offerings to the ancestors are made in homes and at puja mandaps (temporary shrines) [Wikipedia].
Mahisasura Mardini, a musical masterpiece was created by Birendra Krishna Bhadra, is still played by All India Radio, every Mahalaya, marking the beginning of Durga Puja festivities.
Created by the All India Radio in 1931, this 90-minute programme was scripted by Baidyonath Bhattacharya or Bani Kumar, a composer-playwright long associated with the AIR.
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Birendra Krishna Bhadra
The music (comprising 20 devotional songs such as ‘Ya Chandi’, ‘Jago Tumi Jago’, ‘Jaya Jaya Japyajaye’ etc) was composed by singer-composer Pankaj Kumar Mullick".
1931 All India Radio version
2023: Kalpakkam Durgotsav-2023 version
The emotion associated with the Mahalaya, shall be rejuvenated in Mahalaya program on 20 th October 2023 at Kalpakkam Durgotsav 2023.
Chandi path
Sandip Singh Roy
Female voice
Jeeta moitra, Krishna Ganguly, Suvra Mandal, Babita Paul, Purnima Bhattacharya, Santa Bera, Sushoma Das, Manika Pradhan, Nandita Haldar, Poulami Chakraborty
Male voice
Niloy kumar Sinha, Pradip Mukherjee, Shantanu Bera, Sourav Saha
Instrument
keyboard: Biplab Paul
tabla: Arup Hudait
Sitar: Aniruddha Moitra
Flute
Niramoy Joshi