The Story
OrganizerPandit Kumar Gandharva arrived in Dewas in the 1940s as a young man recovering from tuberculosis. The illness robbed him of his voice for years, and during this period of enforced silence he undertook a profound rethinking of Hindustani music. He immersed himself in the folk music of Malwa, the region surrounding Dewas, and when his voice returned it was transformed: he had developed an approach to raga elaboration and to the relationship between classical and folk that was unlike anything in the tradition before him.
His compositions in the nirgun tradition (devotional poetry without attribute, associated with the Kabir and Meerabai lineages) brought these traditions into dialogue with his Hindustani classical training in ways that were controversial to some and revelatory to many. His Malwa folk-inflected renditions and his refusal to be confined by gharana orthodoxy made him one of the most discussed and debated musicians of his time.
Dewas is not one of India's major cultural cities, but Kumar Gandharva's decades there transformed it into a place of musical pilgrimage. The Samaroh exists as the annual renewal of the city's relationship with his legacy and as a platform that brings the highest quality of Hindustani music to a small city in Madhya Pradesh that might not otherwise receive it.
Kumar Gandharva Samaroh matters because Kumar Gandharva himself mattered: he is one of the transformative figures in 20th-century Hindustani music, and his lifelong residence in Dewas means that the festival honouring him is also a festival rooted in a specific, non-metropolitan place. The Samaroh is one of the few major Hindustani music festivals held outside the metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai, and its Dewas location is integral to its identity.
Kumar Gandharva's synthesis of classical, folk, and nirgun is one of the most original contributions to Hindustani music in the 20th century. The Samaroh in Dewas keeps his legacy alive in the city where he created it and brings leading classical musicians to a non-metropolitan location.
Sustained the annual tribute to Kumar Gandharva in Dewas since shortly after his death in 1992. Brought Hindustani classical music of the highest quality to a small Madhya Pradesh city. Maintained Dewas's identity as a place of musical significance.
