An amazing two day festival of Hindustani classical dance and music was held on the occasion of Radhashtami in Vrindavan. The festival was also held to celebrate the appearance day of the legendary saint, Swami Haridas. It so happens that the birthday of Swami Haridas and the birthday of Radha Rani, the eternal consort of Lord Vishnu, is celebrated on the same day of Radhashtami
Many renowned artists performed in this event and paid their tribute to Swami Haridas and Radha Rani. Many political figures such as Shri C.P Thakur, Abhishek Brahmachari, Pradeep Mathur, Shyam Sundar Sharma, Swami Maheshananda Saraswati, Naam Dev Sharma and Gopi Goswami jointly lit the lamp to inaugurate the mega cultural show on the first day.
The session of the first day began with the folk dance performance by the students of Swami Haridas Sangeet evam Nritya Academy and was much applauded by the audience. After this, the soulful presentation of the melodious songs by Grammy award winner, Shri Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, accompanied by his son Pandit Salil Bhatt on the Veena, left the audience completely immersed in the devotion of Lord Krishna and Radha Rani.
The performance of the classical thumri by Padma Vibhushan Pandit Channu Lal Mishra from Varanasi enthralled the audience. He performed the thumri based on ‘Rag Yaman Kalyan’. The lyrics of the song depicted the pastimes of Lord Krishna, as most thumris do. He also presented bhajans on Raag Dadra. Other performers included Pandit Ram Kumar Mishra on tabla, Kumari Namrata Mishra on tanpura, Zakir Dhaulpuri on harmonium and Aman Jain, the vocalist.
On the second day the lamp was jointly lit by Ramesh Chandra Tiwari, Swami Maheshanand Saraswati, Chandra Mohan, Gopi Goswami, Nitin Bansal and Babloo Kumar. Acclaimed tabla maestro Gautam Dhar began the festivities on the second day by performing ‘Guru Stuti’ to pay tribute to Swami Haridas, who was also the guru of the famous singer Tansen, from Akbar’s court.
Up next was Dr. Mamta Joshi, who captivated the audience with her famous sufi songs. She also sang songs written by Sant Kabir, Aamir Khusro and Shakeel. She also performed songs written by Swami Haridas depicting the pastimes of Lord Krishna. Overall it was a celebration of Music on this auspicious day of Radhashtami.
