The TDP Chief on Wednesday said that he had no differences with the Bharatiya Janata Party, except over the denial of Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh and what he was asking it was to help in developing the State…reports Asian Lite News
The All-India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Andhra Pradesh affairs Manickam Tagore on Thursday took a swipe at TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu for allaying with the BJP despite the Central government not giving Special Category Status to the state.
“Babu claims no differences with BJP except for the denial of Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh. Denying SCS, yet still clinging to the alliance? Looks like self-interest outweighs Andhra’s needs for Babu & TDP. #PoliticsAsUsual #TDP #BJP,” Tagore posted on X.
The TDP Chief on Wednesday said that he had no differences with the Bharatiya Janata Party, except over the denial of Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh and what he was asking it was to help in developing the State.
He said that the TDP-BJP Jana Sena Party (JSP) alliance was for the benefit of the state, adding that his support for the NDA during Atal Behari Vajpayee’s time was unconditional.
In the run-up to the elections for the state assembly and Lok Sabha, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Jana Sena Party (JSP) sealed a seat-sharing pact in Andhra Pradesh on Monday.
According to the pact, the BJP will contest from six seats, the TDP from 17 seats and the JSP from two seats for the parliamentary elections.
In the assembly elections, the BJP will contest from 10 seats, the TDP from 144 seats and the JSP from 21 seats, as per the statement. The seat-sharing was finalised at a meeting held at Amaravati today following the meeting between the three parties in Delhi, where an alliance was formalised.
Naidu has received sharp criticism from his opponents for allying with the BJP. He had pulled out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2018 after the Modi government’s refusal to grant Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh.
APCC president YS Sharmila demanded that Naidu explain to the state’s people why he chose to align with the BJP, which had betrayed the people on all fronts in the last 10 years. (ANI)
Ram Gopal Varma to contest from Pithapuram
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has confirmed his candidature from the Pithapuram constituency in Andhra Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections.
He took to X and confirmed the news, saying, “Sudden decision..am happy to inform that i am contesting from Pithapuram.”
Shortly after Pawan’s announcement of contesting from Pithapuram, RGV tweeted.
After seat sharing between TDP-BJP-Janasena, Pithapuram TDP seat has been given to Janasena. And Today Janasena party chief Pawan Kalyan announced that he will be constesting from Pithapuram seat.
TDP former MLA and aspirant SVSN Varma’s followers criticised TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and burnt TDP posters.
Meanwhile, Film director Ram Gopal Varma tweeted that he would contest from Pithapuram
Earlier Ram Gopal Varma had lashed out at the TDP supremo, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, TDP Member of Legislative Council (MLC) Nara Lokesh Jana Sena Party president and actor Pawan Kalyan for an alleged protest outside his office in Hyderabad regarding his political potboiler, ‘Vyooham’.
Ram Gopal Varma is well-known in Telugu and Hindi cinema for his gangster and political-themed films. Among many other noteworthy films, he has directed Satya (1998), Company (2002), Sarkar (2005), Rangeela (1995), and Bhoot (2003). (ANI)
Bhattanarayan is known to have left sixteen sons among whom was Narsingh, the ancestor of the “Thakurs” meaning sacred Brahmin…writes Dilip Roy
The Tagore family ancestry can be traced back to the Gupta Empire of Northern India (350 AD) and were the direct descendants of the much larger Empire going back before the Christian era to around (3000 BCE). However, The Gupta period of medieval India is generally regarded by the historians as the most important. This era was the Zenith of artistic and creative activity which is referred to as the Classical or the Golden age of India this was the time when Sanskrit culture really took off. Both spoken as well as written language were essentially Sanskrit.
The two important cities of the time were KANAUJ and UJJAIN were significant for its artistic and intellectual activity. One is reminded of the great Sanskrit poet KALIDASA who hailed from such a place.
Around the year 900 AD King Vira Singh then ruler of KANAUJ (Ancestral place of the Tagores) sent Pundit Bhattanarayana a Sanskrit scholar and chief of five famous Brahmins, to the neighbouring state of Bengal at the request of King Adisura of Bengal.
Bhattanarayan is known to have left sixteen sons among whom was Narsingh, the ancestor of the “Thakurs” meaning sacred Brahmin. Eighth in the line of descent from him Dharanidhara the author on the commentary on the institutes of MANU (executor of Law} and his grandson Dhananjai, was a judge under King Ballala Sen of Bengal who established the system of “Kulinism” the social classification of Brahmins and Kaysthas of Bengal. These two classes formed the most important social structure and the object according to one Rajah Rajendralal Mitra, was to give preeminence to Brahmins and Kayasthas under the patronage of King Adisura of Bengal.
Dhananjai’s son Halayudha was a Prime Minister under King Lakshman Sen of Bengal (1200) AD and his two grandsons Mahendra and Gunendra were respectively knoen as Elder Prince and Yonger Prince. The sixth in the descent from elder prince was Jagannatha, famous for his learning, was known as Pundi Raja or Prince of Pundits. His son Purushottam was the author of “Prayag Ratnamala” and other learned works.
Sixth in the line from him was “Panchanan Kushari” a chaste Brahmin of Jessore a province of East Bengal. He left East Bengal and came to settle at a place called Govindpur in West Bengal here he boght a land and built a house and a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. Panchanan was was the first to receive the title of Thakur or Tagore the anglicised version of the name. He left a son called Jairam rightly reffered to as the commom ancestor of the TAGORES later he moved to a place called Pathuriaghata in Calcutta where he erected a mansion and a bathing ghat, He died in 1756 leaving four sons two of whom, Darpanarayan and Nilmani became the torch bearers of two different branches of Tagore families namely the Senior (Pathuriaghata) and the Junior (Jorasanko).
It is also unique in the annals of Indian history that almost all the three generations of these two branches has produced family of Artists, Intellectuals and Scholars of International repute. The most outstanding among them were Musicologist Sourindro Mohan Tagore ((1840-1914) he belongs to the Senior branch of the family and became the first Indian to be awarded honorary degree in music by Oxford University in 1896. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) belonged to the Junior branch of the family who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 the first Indian to do so.
(Dilip Roy is a Fellow of Royal Asiatic Society UK and is a researcher on cultural subjects)
A unique concert that fused Tagore songs with traditional Hindustani classical bandishes enthralled the audience. Rahul Laud reports
Surangon, the education wing of Moksha, the performing arts organisation, launched in 2012 presented a mesmerising evening to the lovers of Hindustani classical music and Tagore’s songs.
Surangan whose teachings are mainly based on the works and philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Laureate, offered rich tributes to the late Dr Prof Ajit Halder on the occasion. Ajit Halder, an academic by profession, was a committed community champion and admirer of Tagore. A founding member of RVM, Bolton, he was the driving force behind the annual Rabindra Kavya Dibash concert in partnership with the Manchester Metropolitan University and worked with multiple communities across the North West to promote Indian and Bengali culture.
Popularly known as Ajitda, he was an organising member of Banga Sammelan first held in Liverpool in 1996. He served as the Hindu Chaplain for the Prison Service. He started and administered an IT learning group at the Indian Senior Citizens Centre where he would help people learn to navigate the digital world. Having suffered the loss of sight in one eye, he volunteered at the RNIB to assist those more unfortunate than himself. He was a devoted grandfather, father and husband, leaving behind a rich legacy of cultural foundations and a greater sense of community.
Rishi Banerjee and his mother Ballari Banerjee who were the lead organisers of the event said, “Tagore remains a towering figure whose literary works have enriched not only the educational, social and cultural environment in India but also helped to establish a rapport between the East and the West.”
Tagore’s Kalmrigaya presentation brought together an ensemble of over 40 people of various ages and backgrounds. Rishi Banerjee who is an accomplished singer conceived, adapted and directed the musical opera. Renowned classical Kathak dancer Roshni Sarkar in the role of Dasaharath showed her dancing and acting prowess. Ballari Banerjee gave vocal direction to the music arrangement of Kolkatta-based based Subrata Mukhopadhya.
Composed in an operatic format in 1882, Rabindranath Tagore’s Kalmrigaya is inspired by the epic – Ramayana. A pioneer and innovator in Bengal, Rabindranath introduced the concept of “Geetinatya” or musical opera, having first composed Balmiki Pratibha in 1881. As a composer, he blended Western music (Scottish and Irish folk melodies) with Hindustani classical music traditions such as Dhrupad and Khayal as well as Bengali folk such as Kirtan.
Influenced by the Greek tragedies, Kalmrigaya is a significant landmark as he first introduced the Bonodevis or wood nymphs who play the equivalent role of a Greek Chorus setting the scenes, telling the story and warning the audience of anything ominous. Kalmrigaya explores the themes of forgiveness and regret through the characters of Andhamuni and Dasharath. A valiant hunter and loyal servant to the King, he oozes confidence. Yet, after killing Rishikumar he shows genuine shock and remorse for his actions. Tagore shows that even the greatest hunters have their flaws and they too have a heart. He may not have been forgiven but he is magnanimous enough to admit his fault.
The story unfolds as the young boy Rishikumar, son of the blind sage Andhamuni, goes to fetch water for his father in the forest. At the same time, the crown prince, Dasharath goes hunting in the forest and in the stormy monsoon conditions mistakes Rishikumar for a baby deer and kills him. Granting the young boy’s wish to take water and his body to the blind sage, the prince begs for forgiveness. The blind sage, enraged, curses the prince to experience the pain and suffering of losing a son, but ultimately forgives him.
The highlight of the evening was Sur Sangam anchored by Gopali Chakraborti Ghosh. Eminent Vocalist Koyel Bhattacharya, disciple of Ustad Rashid Khan with her full throttled powerful voice brought huge weightage to the show. Accompanied on Tabla by her husband Kuntal Das, student of Pt. Shubhankar Banerjee the duo regaled the audience with Rishi Banerjee who sang Tagore songs based on the different ragas. The Sur Sangam was a unique “Sangam” – a fine blend of Hindustani classical bandishes and popular Tagore songs. Amith Dey on keyboards displayed his professional talent and the apt use of piano and other instruments on the keys clearly showed that his vocal training added superb blend to the vocalists.
The vocalists featured Raag Desh, Bhoopali, Yaman Kalyan and Bhairavi. The Farida Khanum sung ghazal Aaj Jane ki zidd na karo in Yaman Kalyan in her trained mellifluous voice by Koyel stole the audience’s hearts. Her bandish in Bhairavi was the icing on the cake. In a very unusual pattern the vocal concert ended with devotional song in Raag Malkauns.
Ballari said, “At Suranagon. We are proud to be teaching students of differing ages, various backgrounds and communities and we have also been fortunate enough to perform across the country presenting the works of the Bard.” The students also had the opportunity to perform in Kolkata and record their first album – “Kon Nutoner Daak” launched in December 2018, Banerjee added.
Tagore remains the only Indian so far to have received the Nobel prize in literature in 1913 and also the first Indian to be awarded the honorary degree in literature in 1940 by the Oxford University…writes Dilip Roy
India in the twentieth century has produced three world class artists of international repute in TAGORE, RAY and MEHTA I have been lucky and fortunate to have met two of the three legends Ray and Mehta personally.
RabindranathTagore (1861-1941) was a polymath who combined all the faculties of Art, Dance, Drama, Literature, Poetry and Music as a composer he has written some two thousand songs and as a short story writer he has no equal. Tagore was also a philosopher and a political activist in his own right as an essayist he has written on wide variety of subjects. Tagore joined the political movement called (Swadeshi movement) in 1905 this movement came into being after the partition of Bengal in 1903 by the then Viceroy of India Lord Curzon, the movement was started by group of intellectuals such as Naoroji, Gokhale, Ranade, Tilak and joined by none other than GANDHI who initiated the movement, basically to boycott British made goods and Tagore has written about this in his novella The Home and The World (Ghare Baire) although Tagore was knighted in 1915 by the British Govt. he repudiated the title in 1919 as a protest against the Amritsar Massacre of 1919.
However, Tagore remains the only Indian so far to have received the Nobel prize in literature in 1913 and also the first Indian to be awarded the honorary degree in literature in 1940 by the Oxford University. Tagore’s popularity the world over remains undiminished till today.
SatyajitRay (1921-1992) Ray’s entry into films was like a thunderstorm with his very first maidan venture (Pather Panchali) he won the Cannes film festival’s the most prestigious prize the best Human Document award in 1956 made on a miniscule budget it took him five years to make because of various obstacles mainly financial. This set the trend for him year after year winning international awards India’s first PM NEHRU nick named him the Award Winner. After the success of his second film of the trilogy (Aparajito) which won the coveted top prize at the Venice film festival in 1957, after that Ray quit his job with advertising agency to become a full time filmmaker and has since won largest number of National and International awards including honorary degrees of various universities the most notable among them is the Oxford university who awarded him the honorary Doctor of Letters in1978 the only other film personality to receive this honor was Charles Chaplin in 1962 the best was yet to come when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the Lifetime Achievement OSCAR award to Ray in 1992 which according to Ray is like winning a Nobel prize in cinema so far he is the only Indian to receive this ultimate award in cinema. As noted film critic once said “until someone else comes along to change Satyajit Ray’s Bengal will remain Cinema’s India.”
My first meeting with Ray was on 5th of July 1974 when Indian High Commission along with the British Film Institute hosted a gathering and I was one of the few guests invited. The moment I met him I was carried away by his huge towering personality and after a brief chat I managed to get a photograph with him. However, my last and happiest meeting with the great man was on 12th May 1982 where Ray was invited to a private gathering and it is here I made full use of the time sitting right next to him was like a dream come true we talked on movies and music of which I had some knowledge these moments I shall always cherish.
ZubinMehta (1936-) I became a fan of Maestro Mehta since I first saw him conduct the Three Tenors Concert televised live from Rome in 1990. Mehta comes from a musical background his father Mehli Mehta was the founder of Bombay Symphony Orchestra like most Parsee families who are brought up in Western milieu, Zubin from childhood was groomed in such an atmosphere to advance his carrier in music he left for Europe after a short spell in UK he went Vienna where he successfully graduated under the tutelage of Hans Swarowsky after that his demand as a conductor of world orchestra became synonimus. Orchestras like the New York Phil and Los Angeles Phil where he has remained for the longest period in history apart from Berlin, Vienna, Rome and later becoming a full time conductor of Israel Philharmonic for fifty years. Zubin has gone on to win the most prestigious conducting prizes all across the globe and remains the only Indian to have conducted live operas around the world. His name is included in the Hollywood walk of fame. Zubin has also been awarded with honorary degrees from various universities. He is the only Indian conductor in the Western classical world so far. A staunch Wagnerite who has conducted many Wagner operas including famous epic “The Ring Cycle.”
Zubin Mehta is the only Indian artist to get a cover article on TIME magazine 19th Jan 1968.
I first met Zubin in 1995 at the Royal Festival Hall concert during the interval for short chat and an autograph. However, my last meeting with the Maestro was very congenial at the Barbican Art Centre where he was rehearsing a concert and I was one of invited guests after the performance I went up to him and had a long chat also managed a photograph with him.
(About the author: Fellow of Royal Asiatic Society, Dilip Roy is an avid admirer of India’s classical literature and music and an Afficionado of the works of German composers such as Beethoven, Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner whom he considers the greatest genius that ever lived)
Tagore became a sensation all over Europe and his work was translated in all the major European languages and was a complete sell out with reprints. Tagore’s popularity has outgrown even today in Europe particularly in Germany and Sweden where Tagore is almost a household name …. Writes Dilip Roy
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) in many ways was the embodiment and manifestation of India’s greatest classical poet KALIDASA(First Century BCE) Tagore’s stature as 20th Century’s most esteemed and revered poet of the world remains unrivalled to date.
Tagore’s poetry Geetanjali (Song offerings) published in English in 1912 had made Tagore famous in Europe almost overnight. The book was reprinted ten times within a year; and in 1913 because of his profoundly sensitive and beautiful verse, he has made his poetic thought expressed in his own English words, a part of literature of the West, he was awarded a Nobel prize in literature and remains the only Indian to win this award so far. His admirers included intellectuals and fellow Nobel laureates such as Bertolt Brecht, Albert Einstein, Andre Gide, Herman Hesse, Thomas Mann, Pablo Neruda, Boris Pasternak, Romain Rolland, G.B. Shaw, W.B. Yeats and Ludwig Wittgenstein of Vienna Circle ( who translated Tagore’s famous play “King of the Dark Camber.”)
However, it was with Einstein that Tagore forged an intellectual friendship and their discussions on music, philosophy and science has been published in many literary books and journals of the West. Tagore became a sensation all over Europe and his work was translated in all the major European languages and was a complete sell out with reprints. Tagore’s popularity has outgrown even today in Europe particularly in Germany and Sweden where Tagore is almost a household name. Some of the streets are also named after him.
Among the Nobel laureates at least six names come to mind who were Wagner admirers they are Herman Hesse, Thomas Mann, Boris Pasternak, G B Shaw, W B Yeats and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Incidentally it was Yeats who was a great admirer of Tagore also wrote 16 page introduction to Geetanjali in September 1912 and he even quotes Wagner’s Tristan in the last page. Tagore in his early days developed a special interest for German language and was reading Goethe and Schiller in its original and at the same time went on to translate the poems of Heinrich Heine. Tagore was also reading the works of German Indologists such as Friedrich Max Muller, Dr. Julius Jolly a German scholar and Friedrich VON Schlegel.
Tagore became second only Indian to receive Hon Degree from Oxford (D lit) in 1940 the first was a distant relation Sir S M Tagore received Hon Degree in music (D Mus) in 1895.
Most significantly, Tagore’s poetry struck a chord with wide variety of European composers among them Franco Alfano, Phillip Glass, Leos Janacek, Nino Rota, Arnold Schoenberg, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Karol Szymnowski and Alexander Zemlinsky to name but a few. Alfano who completed Puccini’s libretto for Turandot set to music twenty six poems by Tagore eleven of them from Nobel prize winning Geetanjali and fifteen from The Gardner the songs were beautifully sung in Italian. Phillip Glass whose opera Satyagraha based on Gandhian philosophy, has Tagore as silent character. Janacek was attending a lecture given by Tagore in Prague (1921) he was so carried away that he set to music from the (Gardner)Nino Rota the composer of Italian films of Federico Fellini, set to music Tagore’s four poems from award winning Geetanjali in bel canto style and Szymanowski set to music four poems from the popular Gardner in German. However, the most outstanding work was done by two Wagnerian composers and conductors namely Stenhammar and Zemlinsky.
The Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) who describes himself as Wagnerian, belongs to the period of transition between the late romanticism and modernism better described as highly romantic. Stenhammar showed greater interest in the more progressive music of Liszt and Wagner. This is seen nowhere better than in Das Fest auf Solhaug (after Ibsen, Stuttgart 1899) was certainly the foremost Swedish concert pianist of his time, he devoted himself to composition and conducting. He was the conductor of Royal Opera in Stockholm from 1907 until 1922.
Tagore’s philosophical play Chitra based on the legends of Indian epic Mahabharata was written in the year he received the Nobel prize in 1913 and in Nobel’s home country of Sweden there was a real Tagore boom most of his works were rendered into Swedish almost as soon as they appeared, and several of his plays could be seen in Swedish theatres. Tagore became the leading representative of the Indian romantically inclined tradition. Tagore’s play Chitra was produced at the Lorensberg Theatre in Gothenberg in 1920. Stenhammar had been a conductor and director of Gothengerg Symphony Orchestra and was commissioned to write incidental music for the performance for the Tagore’s play Chitra which was completed in 1921 which he dedicated to his wife Helga Stenhammar and had its premier on 29th March 1921.
Alexander VON Zemlinsky (1871-1942) the Austrian born Zemlinsky’s “Lyric Symphony” is regarded as his major work. Zemlinsky was first and foremost a composer of operas, and Schoenberg thought highly of him as such: “I dot not know one composer after Wagner who could satisfy the demands of the theatre with better musical substance than he. (Lyrische Symphonie)now famously known as “The Lyric Symphony” in seven songs after poems by Rabindranath Tagore for Orchestra, Soprano and Baritone was composed in 1922 and it was premiered in Prague on June 4th in 1924. In Zemlinsky’s own Krollwords – belongs to the tradition of the Song of the Earth. It shares with Mahler’s work not only it’s genre, that of the “song symphony”, but with an exotic choice of text. The poems of Tagore combine Indian traditions with elements of European poetry of the turn of the century – a syncretism that won him the Noble prize for literature in 1913. The inner affinity of the seven songs, with their preludes and interludes which all have one and the same profoundly serious passionate basis. It’s a kind of a love drama, from the first stirrings ground of the desire to the agony of farewell. His music is often Wagnerian, with recitatives punctuated by Lohengrin inspired orchestral interjections figures similar to those which adorn the melodic lines of Tannhauser, softly pulsating figures for solo timpani as in Wagner’s epic the Ring Cycle. Zemlinsky was also the music director of Prague opera (1911-27) and of the Kroll opera in Berlin from (1927-32). The most famous ground breaking recording of Lyric Symphony was done in Germany under the baton of the legendary conductor maestro Lorin Maazel for the Berlin Philharmonic in 1981 and sung in a Wagnerian style by famous German Baritone Dietrich Fischer- Dieskau and Soprano Julia Varady. (This is probably the greatest tribute paid to Richard Wagner from Zemlinsky a great Wagnerian himself.)
For Tagore, poetry and music were the essence of life which gave it rhythm, and his philosophy was one of living in harmony with the nature.
( Gandhi )
Tagore, the Goethe of India, gives expression to his personal experience that this is the truth ( life affirmation ) in a manner more profound, more powerful and more charming than any man has ever done before him. This completely noble and harmonious belongs not only to his people but to the entire humanity.
( Albert Schweitzer )
India’s only World renowned European classical music conductor Maestro Zubin Mehta was conferred the most prestigious Tagore Award on the eve of Tagore’s Noble centenary in 2013 for cultural harmony instituted by Govt. of India on the 150th anniversary of the poet.
The internationally celebrated film-maker SatyajitRay who has interpreted many of Tagore works on to the screen sums up thus: Tagore remains the most original, prolific and influential artist India has produced “there is no equal not even in the West.”
Postscript: Just like Wagner, love has been main theme in Tagore’s poetic works as also his interest in Buddhist philosophy. Tagore like Wagner was a polymath. He was an artist, a poet of the first order, an essayist, a short story writer, a dramatist and a novelist also a composer of some two thousand songs but, most of all a philosopher. Tagore remains one of the greatest literary giants to date.
(Dilip Roy is an ardent Wagner enthusiast and also the author of a major article of 19th century Indian musicologist Sir S M Tagore (1840-1914) which was commissioned by the Royal College of Music London, for its Annual Review of 1996/97. Dilip is an Indo-German cultural enthusiast and like most Germans, he admires India’s classical cultural heritage. Dilip Roy’s articles on Richard Wagner has been published by various Wagner Societies)
