Archival Press Release
This page preserves the press release prepared for Gurū Gaurav 350, the six-day commemorative festival curated by The Anād Foundation in collaboration with the Government of Bihar in connection with the 350th Prakāś anniversary of Sāhib Srī Gurū Gobind Singh Ji.
The press release is retained as part of the Foundation’s archival record of the programme. Its language, spellings, institutional references, and event descriptions reflect the period in which it was prepared.
In the updated framing of the Foundation’s work, Gurbāṇī Kīrtan is used for the performed sacred singing of Gurūbāṇī, while Gurbāṇī Saṅgīt refers to the wider historical rāga-tāla knowledge system and associated disciplines, including instruments, percussion, pedagogy, exegetical attendance, study of Bāṇī, luthiery, archives, documentation, and related tangible and intangible heritage.
Press Release
To commemorate the 350th Prakāś anniversary of Sāhib Srī Gurū Gobind Singh Ji, The Anād Foundation, in collaboration with the Government of Bihar, curated Gurū Gaurav 350, a six-day showcase of musical, dance, literary, and cultural excellence, with particular focus on the expressive traditions of Bihar and Punjab.
Conceived and realised by Bhāī Baldeep Singh, Founder-Chairman of The Anād Foundation, Gurū Gaurav 350 was designed to pay homage to the legacy of the tenth Sikh Gurū, whose contribution toward the preservation of dignity, courage, religious freedom, cultural plurality, and human diversity remains unparalleled.
Artists and scholars from across India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North America, and Europe converged at Patna’s Shri Krishna Memorial Auditorium for the festival. The programme began with an all-night Raiṇsūbāī — a dusk-to-dawn musical gathering — on 31 December 2016 and continued through 5 January 2017, featuring more than fifty artists and accompanists.
Singhs and Kaurs, Khans, Pandits, and others shared the stage to honour Gurū Gobind Singh Ji’s message of spiritual courage, human dignity, religious harmony, and celebration of diversity. The festival demonstrated the shared capacity of artists and communities to bring beauty into the world when they work, sing, speak, and dance in concert with one another.
The festival was a unique addition to the Sikh music being offered throughout Patna during this 350th celebration. It was a feast of excellence and diversity, bringing the highest quality artists and students — male, female, transgendered, young and elderly — from a variety of disciplines, genres, and regions together, including dhrupad / dhurpada, khayāl, ṭhumrī, Gurbāṇī Kīrtan, folk and instrumental music, as well as dance, poetry, and theatre from Afghanistan, Rajasthan, Punjab, Karnataka, Chennai, Bengal, Maharashtra, and Bihar, as well as the United States and Europe.
The atmosphere of camaraderie and respect among the various artists throughout the Gurū Gaurav festival, which local scholars, including top musicologist Professor Gajendra Narayan Singh, called the most diverse and biggest-ever music festival at least since India’s independence, gave the experience of an artist-mēlā. The performers enjoyed listening to each other, and many of the soloists also sat as accompanists for their peers. Every night, familiar faces could be seen in the front row of the auditorium, which was occupied by attentive artists and enthusiasts who came each night to share in the experience alongside appreciative listeners who enjoyed the aesthetic quality and musical diversity of the event that represented the whole of Bhārat’s diversity, which Gurū Gobind Singh Ji fought so tirelessly to preserve.
The inaugural Raiṇsūbāī opened with alāpa and dhrupad sung by Bihar elder, Pandit Raghuvir Mallick, of the Dumraon-Darbhanga gharānā. Sixteen additional performances throughout the evening and into the morning included dhrupad vocalists Pandit Ram Kumar Mallick, Srī Jagat Narain Pathak, and Pandit Indra Kishore Misra.
Gurbāṇī Kīrtan featuring Bāṇī of Sāhib Srī Gurū Teg Bahādur Ji and Sāhib Srī Gurū Gobind Singh Ji was offered by Bībī Ashupreet Kaur, Dr. Alankar Singh, and Bhāī Balbir Singh Rāgī, one of the last remaining links to the original Gurbāṇī Kīrtan paramparā of Darbār Sāhib / Srī Harmandir Sāhib, Amritsar.
The festival’s director, Bhāī Baldeep Singh, is also an accomplished musician and demonstrated great skill on the jōṛīin a lively solo performance. His student, Nihal Singh, travelled from the United States to participate in the festival and performed an adept solo on the tablā. Four additional percussion performances included pakhāwaj solos by Sangeet Pathak, Ashutosh Upadhyay, Srī Mohan Shyam Sharma, and Dr. Anil Chaudhary. Mohan Shyam Sharma’s solo was notable for the deliberate inclusion of many fixed percussive compositions that do not typically characterise his playing.
Pandit Rajendra Gangani, Delhi’s Kathak phenomenon, offered a scintillating performance by way of tribute to the great Gurū. Pandit Yashpaul, the senior-most living exponent of the Agra school of khayāl, presented a solemn recital in Rāga Naṭ Bhairav early in the morning of January 1. Vidushi Jyoti Ganapati Hegde travelled from Karnataka to share the wonders of the rudra vīṇā, immersing listeners in waves of resonance from deep in the bass register to melodious tāns from the higher strings.
The next night, on the evening of January 1, the programme opened to a full house of 2,000 listeners. Bhāī Baldeep Singh gave a warm welcome and introduced the conceptual framing for the event, which was to honour Gurū Gobind Singh Ji and his efforts to protect the cultural richness of the world.
He explained that the programme, as well as the stage itself, reflected this theme with a visually stunning backdrop of a blue and gold bamboo grid decorated with twelve canvas prints of artist Sidharth’s Bārah-Māhā. The stage design by Bhāī Baldeep Singh and Italian conservation architect Micaela Petricca — Santsubhag Kaur — represented both the timeliness and timelessness of Gurū Gobind Singh Ji’s message. The images indicated that over the next twelve months, events would be organised at thematic locations across India and all over the world to honour the importance of preserving India’s rich and diverse cultural heritages beyond this six-day historical event.
During the first musical performance of the evening, pakhāwaj soloist Ravi Shankar Upadhyay delivered a spectacle to the delight of the anticipating crowd. Dr. Ajit Pradhan of Patna, in his rāga-kathā, dwelled on the musical legacy of Gurū Gobind Singh Ji as he spoke on rāgas included in one of Gurū Gobind Singh Ji’s rāga-guldastā: “Bājat Basant ar Bhairav Hiṅḍōl Rāga.”
He was followed by Dr. Nirinjan Kaur Khalsa, Ph.D., from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California, who spoke movingly about Gurū Gobind Singh Ji’s call to stand for equality and justice for all, and Dr. Kulwant Singh Grewal, who recited Punjabi poetry.
Ustād Aashish Khan’s dynamic sarod performance was received enthusiastically by all who attended, including Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar, who himself received admiring applause and a warm welcome from the audience. Bhāī Baljit Singh Namdhari and his brother Gurmeet Singh Namdhari closed the evening with a meditative performance of Gurbāṇī Kīrtan, which showcased their decades of classical training under the tutelage of some of India’s great maestros.
The programme on 2 January was a creative blend of art forms. Singers included Punjab’s top Ḍhāḍī exponent, Desh Raj Lachkani, who recited ballads on the life and contribution of Gurū Gobind Singh Ji.
Pandit Prem Kumar Mallick from Bihar’s Darbhanga tradition sang alāpa and dhrupad, including brilliantly rendered compositions of Sāhib Srī Gurū Teg Bahādur Ji and Sāhib Srī Gurū Gobind Singh Ji. Jaswant Singh Zafar read Punjabi poetry, and Pandit Manu Seen delighted everyone with his joyful sitār performance.
Parminder Singh Bhamra of the Amritsarī Bāj demonstrated an extensive repertoire in pañjtāl-dī-savārī, a fifteen-beat rhythmic cycle, through a skilful pakhāwaj solo performance.
For many, the highlight of the evening came when the stage was cleared and reset for a moving theatre presentation on Bhagat Kabīr, composed and performed by Srī Shekhar Sen. In this mono-act, Mr. Sen, in long hair, beard, and robes, brought the voice of Bhagat Kabīr to life through his inspiring monologue and original songs.
The fourth programme in the series was presented on the evening of 3 January. After a reading of Urdu poetry by Nashir Naqvi, Pandit Uday Kumar Mallick sang dhrupad, followed by Bahauddin Dagar on the rudra vīṇā. Dagar was accompanied by Bhāī Baldeep Singh on jōṛī, and together they painted a sonic landscape of poetic beauty and stillness.
Vidushi Gopika Varma reached deep into the hearts of the audience through Mohiniāṭṭam dance, portraying deep-felt emotions of love, life, and loss. The evening ended on a high with Pandit Vinod Pathak’s ferocious display of tablā prowess and Jasbir Jassi’s rendition of traditional folk poems from Punjab, one ghazal of Bhāī Nand Lāl Goyā, and the famous “Mitar Pyāre Nū” by Sāhib Srī Gurū Gobind Singh Ji, with his band accompanying him on electric keyboard, bass guitar, drums, and Parminder Singh Bhamra joining on pakhāwaj. After completing their programme, this popular band gave multiple encores via requests shouted from the audience until the wee hours of the morning.
On the evening of 4 January, those in attendance were treated again to a night of poetry and music. The musical presentations included a variety of traditions, each with its own unique instruments, including tablā, harmonium, sāraṅgī, kāmaichā, ḍholak, khaṛtāl, pakhāwaj, rudra vīṇā, guitar, banjo, and sarod.
The programme opened with the sweet notes of ṭhumrī compositions performed by Pandit Ram Prakash Misra, followed by an energetic concert of the Maṅgaṇiārs from West Rajasthan. This group, led by vocalists Kachra Khanand Lakha Khan, who also played the Sindhi sāraṅgī, and Ghewar Khan on kāmaichā, presented a selected repertoire of rāgas common to both the Gurbāṇī and Rajasthani traditions, with outstanding solos that set the audience on fire.
The atmosphere was refreshed by a presentation of three poems on Gurū Gobind Singh Ji, written by Rabindranath Tagore and recited in Bengali in the traditional style by Samiran Sanyal. Sukhwinder Amrit also recited original Punjabi poems, and Gurinder Harnam Singh gave a khayāl interpretation of Dasam Bāṇī śabads.
Suvir Misra treated the audience to the meditative resonance of the rudra vīṇā. Although it is rare to hear the rudra vīṇā performed, this was the third time this magical instrument made an appearance at the festival. The evening ended with Dr. Madan Gopal Singh and his group Chaar Yaar’s performance of Sufi songs in a modern arrangement, with the beautiful accompaniment of Deepak Castelino on Spanish guitar.
The auditorium was fully packed on the last day of the Gurū Gaurav festival, reinforcing the success of the event among the local and international communities.
Punjabi Giddhā with Soniya Duggal and her Jaggo Tareenjan Group, a transgender troupe, opened the programme to a welcoming crowd. Their colourful performance was a brilliant reminder of the rainbow of hues in our human family.
They were followed by artist performances from Italy, Afghanistan, the United States, and several Indian states, who added their own splashes of colour to the evening. Dr. Francesca Cassio’s singing set the tone for classical renditions of Gurbāṇī compositions. Dr. Cassio, the Sardarni Harbans Kaur Chair in Sikh Musicology at Hofstra University, New York, performed traditional dhur-padē from Srī Gurū Gobind Singh Ji and Srī Gurū Teg Bahādur Ji.
Echoes of Gurū Gobind Singh Ji’s rabāb were heard in the playing of Afghan musician Daud Khan Sadozai, who mesmerised the audience with the voice of his instrument, the Afghan robāb, accompanied on tablā by Srī Madan Mohan Upadhyay.
“Songs of the Khalsa” were presented by a group of American members of Sikh Dharma International, directed by S. S. Harbhajan Kaur Khalsa, accompanied on guitar by Nanak Nihal Singh, on tablā by Nihal Singh, and on pakhāwaj by Nirinjan Kaur. Sung in harmony, these English-language ballads told stories of Srī Gurū Gobind Singh Ji and the Khalsa, inspiring a series of “Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal!” from the appreciative audience.
The evening continued with Professor Ritwik Sanyal’s spellbinding dhrupad concert. The Bengali musician and musicologist from Banaras Hindu University performed a full alāpa in Rāga Multānī, followed by two famous verses written by Srī Gurū Gobind Singh Ji set to his own musical compositions in Cārtāl and Sūltāl.
After a masterful solo performance on mridaṅgam by notable exponent Dr. Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman from Chennai, which enthralled the audience, and a poetry reading by Dr. Surjit Patar, Bhāī Baldeep Singh concluded the six-day festival with a presentation of Gurbāṇī Kīrtan, accompanied by Ustād Roshan Ali Khan on sāraṅgī and Parminder Singh Bhamra and Ashutosh Upadhyay on pakhāwaj.
During his finale, Bhāī Baldeep Singh sang remarkable samples of the repertoire handed down from the ten Sikh Gurūs and the pīrs, bhagats, and saints whose compositions are included in Srī Gurū Granth Sāhib, reminding all of us of the legacy of excellence and unity that we celebrate as we honour this 350th Prakāś anniversary of Srī Gurū Gobind Singh Ji.