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VOL. 27, NO. 25, February 29, 2007 (Falgun 17 2064 B.S.)
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NEPAL-INDIA DEVOTIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
Pious Recitals
Anuradha Poudwal, India’s prominent singer, sings devotional songs captivating the audience of Nepal
By A CORRESPONDENT
For quite a long time, the Kailash, regarded as the abode of lord Shiva, was rocked by slogans and violent chanting. However, Kailash’s atmosphere was mesmerized by devotional music this week. Even Shiva and his followers might have heaved a sigh of relief hearing the soothing voice of India’s prominent singer Anuradha Poudwal, who completely captivated a huge crowd in Pashupati area on Saturday.
As soon as Anuradha Poudwal started to sing songs dedicated to lord Pashupatinath, the whole atmosphere of Pashupati area turned into a devotional ground. Even Lord Pashupatinath, who is celebrating annual Shivaratri festival next week, seems to have found a time to relax.
From old to young and men and women, fakir and foreigners, all enjoyed the two hour long devotional sings of India’s singer Anuradha Poudwal. For Nepalese, who share so many religious and cultural commonalities with India, Poudwal reminded what common cultural heritage the people of both the countries share.
With the help of Nepal’s renowned classical singer Nupur Bhattacharya, Poudwal began her concerts by singing Nepalese devotional song Shambha Shada Shiva, a song dedicated to lord Pashupati.
After this music, India’s renowned singer Poudwal charmed the audience with a two-hour dose of devotional music in her flawless voice. From devotional music dedicated to lord Shiva to Rama and Goddesses Vaishnavadevi, Poudwal completely held the audience spellbound.
Organized by Indian Embassy, Indian Cultural Center and B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation and managed by Kalbhairav Event and Management, this was the consecutive second year when such concert was organized.
At a time when people have been stressing the need to initiate programs to enhance the understanding and commonalties of culture and religion between the people of both the countries, this concert proved as an important milestone.
The presence of a large number of audience at the religiously common shrine of Hindus of India and Nepal showed that there is a need to have more programs like this concert, which also provided Nepalese devotional singers to present their talent.
“After the establishment of Indian Cultural Center a year ago, more programs related to cultural importance between the two countries are being presented,” said Indian ambassador to Nepal Shiv Shanker Mukherjee.
Nepal’s Batuk Raj Mishra infused more spirituality into the air with songs like Aaj Mero Gai Herne Palo and Mero Krishna. Another renowned singer Bhattacharya sang her beautiful devotional numbers.
Although many have made contributions to make the event successful, Gopal Bagley, Counselor, Indian Embassy, who himself is a deep lover of classical music played a key role to bring together Nepalese and Indian artists in Kailash like in the last year.
“For this time, we requested Ms Poudwal, which she kindly consented,” said Gopal Bagley, Counselor of Indian Embassy. “This kind of program is always important to enhance the understanding at the people to people level.”
Poudwal who visited Nepal back in 1995 also expressed her satisfaction about her performance in front of lord Shiva. “It is my good luck to be able to come here to sing in Pashupati area. My first devotional song album was launched in an international religious convention in Kathmandu by Shri Shankaracharya,” Poudwal said. "This was a very beautiful initiative to bring together devotional singers and musicians together.”
One can see many ups and downs in the political and bilateral relations between the two countries. But there is no fluctuation in the religious, and cultural relations at people to people level.
