Pankaj Mullick, one of the pioneers of film music in Bengali and Hindi cinema, was the music director of the recital. Broadcast since 1931, Mahalaya is one of the oldest surviving radio programme for All India Radio (AIR), the Indian state broadcaster. The 85-minute recital is broadcast on public radio across India on the first dawn of the nine-night celebration known as Durga Puja in the eastern parts of the country and Navratri in the north and west. Blessed and armed by an immortal retinue of deities, a lion-riding Durga finally slays the demon after a fierce battle and restores peace upon earth. The storyline depicts the tyranny of the buffalo demon king (Mahishasura) on earth, due to which a Hindu trinity of gods create a ten-armed powerful female form – Durga. Mahishasur Mordini or Mahalaya was crafted exclusively for the radio and combines a narrative in Bengali, classical melodies and Bengali songs interspersed with Sanskrit hymns taken from Markandeya Purana, estimated to have been composed between AD400-600. Photo: AFPįirst broadcast on radio in 1931, Mahishasur Mordini, also known colloquially as Mahalaya, is traditionally played in the early hours of the first day of the 10-day celebration of Durga Puja every autumn in eastern India – as it was played last week.Īs the festivities peak this week, many temporary public shrines across the eastern state of Bengal will be heard playing selected sections from Mahalaya throughout the five most auspicious days of puja this week before it ends on Saturday. People pay respects to their forefathers on Mahalaya morning on the banks of the Ganges in Kolkata last week. The 85-minute extravaganza that Bhadra and his ensemble produced, called Mahishasur Mordini (The Slaying of the Demon), remains a timeless combination of narration, orchestra, chorus and Sanskrit hymns that describe the Hindu goddess Durga’s creation and her quest to destroy a buffalo demon king (Mahishasur), who has unleashed unspeakable horror upon earth. (What brilliant light bursts forth this autumn morning, what veil of clouds adorns the skies…)”. Then, sharp at the stroke of 4am, it would begin.Īnd then Birendra Krishna Bhadra would join the menagerie of classical singers with his booming baritone, beginning the first cantata of a live musical journey with words that have since come to herald the biggest festive season in the eastern Indian state of Bengal and beyond: “Ashwiner Sharad Prate Beje Utheche Alokomonjir…. It was also a custom for the entire team to take a bath ahead of what lay ahead.
The man would join another 30 odd friends and colleagues at the AIR studio – each a legend of contemporary music in Kolkata and India at the time – in last-minute voice rehearsals and final tuning of musical instruments.Įveryone – including the vast assembly of orchestra musicians of every faith – would be dressed in starched white sarongs for men and crisp red and white sarees for women.
One of them would turn up in a by-lane in north Kolkata’s Shyampukur neighbourhood and patiently await its guest.Ī clerk in the Indian Railways in his late twenties – who also doubled up as an amateur playwright – would eventually step into the sedan and be whisked a few kilometres away to the local headquarters of All India Radio (AIR), the state broadcaster. Shortly after midnight every first new moon night of autumn in the early 1930s, a bevy of cars would disperse across the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, scurrying through its gas-lit roads before disappearing into the depths of darkness.
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