Bengaluru is now amongst the most active destinations in hosting varied cultural events. The Ramanavami season is as vibrant as the Marghazhi in Chennai, with sabhas that are over a 100 years old. There have been many changes in the last decade, but that has in no way been a deterrent to the enthusiasm.

Nearly 30 to 40 mandalis, big and small, host the Ramanavami festival in Bangalore. More than a dozen major mandalis offer the best classical performances. “While Ramanavami is celebrated in the open streets with with Panaka and Kosambri, there is melodic fervour in the air too. The signature music season in Bengaluru is the Ramanavami where nearly 300 concerts take place in about a month’s time. Nearly 600 artistes take to the Ramothsava platform from many parts of India at the mandalis,” says mridangist H.S. Sudhindra who compiles the Directory of Karnataka Musicians.

The oldest Sabha, the 113-year-old Rama Bhaktha Bhajana Sabha in Malleswaram flags off its 10-day musical fare on Ugadi, as it has done in the past. There will be classical music, Dasavani, Harikatha, Yakshagana and Sanskrit drama. “This year we will have a rare recital with Sriram Shastry, a student of Rudrapatnam Brothers, and Chaturvedi Vedavyasachar coming together on one platform for a unique performance of Carnatic and devotional,” says C.V. Venkatesh, the third generation member of the family that started the Sabha. He took over the reins after the demise of his father Vasudev Rao in 1992. “Harikatha helped the Sabha popularise Sanskrit, Kannada and the Indian scriptures and epics,” says Venkatesh. “Also, local artistes get a chance to make use of our platform.”

Rama Bhaktha Bhajana Sabha’s programmes are taking place at Vidyaranyapura, at Sri Krishnadhama Function Hall and at Doddabommasandra this year. They will bring in artistes such as Pattabhirama Pandit, Mysore Ramachandrachar, Seetharama Munikoti will perform Harikathe and Chennai-based keyboard-duo R. Narayanan and Sambasivan, apart from 14-year-old Shruti who will be presenting a Carnatic vocal concert. There will be ‘Sudarshana Vijaya’ by the Mahaganapathi Yakshagana Mandali,

One more unique factor in the Ramanavami fare in Bengaluru is the music’s bond with educational institutions. Some concerts will take place in schools and colleges. This trend of having a pandal in open spaces began when it was difficult and expensive to find an auditorium.

The 81-year old Chamarajpet Sree Rama Seva Mandali began in 1939 on one of the streets of Chamarajapete with people’s contributions. “From 1967 we have been conducting our Ramanavami music at Fort High Schools Grounds. Many people know our programming only as ‘Fort Ramanavami’ and that is the kind of bond we share with the school’s name,” says S.N. Varadaraj, son of the founder, S.V. Narayana Swamy Rao. “We have adopted the High School section for the last two decades and pay them every year, apart from buying them uniforms and books,” says Varadaraj. Rajaji had once mentioned to Rao that Ramanavami of a huge stature as this should be conducted only at open pandals, instead of closed auditoriums. To keep its connect with the people, the Ramaseva Mandali approached the education department for the Fort High school grounds, which goes on to this day. “Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar and Rajaji had inaugurated our Silver Jubilee programme too and when Dr. Radhakrishnan as the President of India could not make it, he live inaugurated it from AIR New Delhi and gave an inaugural speech on Akashavani.”

Speaking about being the only Mandali that has entry tickets, Varadaraj says, out of the nearly 8,000 seats that the Pandal can hold, half is given away as free passes. “And the season tickets for 31-days is ₹ 300 and that perhaps helps us in getting people who are only connoisseurs,” he says. And about this year’s programming, Abhijith Varadaraj says apart from S.P. Balasubramaniam giving a devotional concert, we have opened it for Western Classical too with Svetlana Smolina, a Russian pianist playing alongside L. Subramaniam on April 12.”

Take the case of the 71-year-old Seshadripuram Ramaseva Samithi which started the festival in 1948, shifted its venue from the Rama Temple to the Seshadripuram College premises in the late 1950s. “Our founder C.V. Gopala Iyengar was one of the trustees of Seshadripuram Educational Trust who brought the Ramothsava to the college premises nearly six decades ago. It familiarises our students with our tradition and culture,” says Revathy Tarakaram, Treasurer, Seshadripuram Ramaseva Samithi. It is said Gopal Iyengar dutifully tapped the doors in the neighbourhood to bring in funds for the cause of music along with other founding members and music connoisseurs --Narasimha Murthy of Kalyan Cafe, businessman C. Narasinga Rao Mane, Sripadachar of Arya Vaidya Shala and lawyer V. Krishnamurthy,” says Revathy, adding that even today the free concerts for public is taken across through funds and donations only.

Seshadripuram Ramaseva Samithi -- that recently received Academy of Music’s ‘Institution Award’ and the ‘Lalithakala Suma Award’ from Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira -- will have its Ramothsava from April 13 to May 4. “Apart from senior musicians, some of the other specials include a concert by Dr. Sukanya Prabhakar (April 24). The concert will have Mysore Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar’s kritis, to mark his centenary,” says Revathy. Amongst the mandalis, 21 seniors and 13 talent promotion concerts, a special ‘Laali Haadugalu’ will be featured by Nedanuri Krishnamurthy’s student Malladi Jayashri, vocalist and violinist on April 28 that covers several vaggeyakaras.

“We wanted to have more people in the area to be acclimatised with music as also our students. We hardly imagined that it would take off on such a large scale. With just three concerts in 1991, we now have a 31-day gala affair in Ramothsava with classical music, dance, drama, and folk art,” says R.H. Somashekhar, Trustee of Vani Kala Kendra, Basaveshwarnagar. This year’s speciality (from April 6 to May 6) with 59 programmes and 200 artistes pouring in, concerts include that of Kadri Gopalnath, Prince Rama Varma, Vishaka Hari Mysore violin Brothers, Pravin Godkhindi in Layataranga with Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma and Pranesh. “Our signature will be the Talamaddale by Ujire Ashok Bhat and his team. We are trying to encourage a less-known form,” he says.

In the case of Shankarapuram Sreerama Seva Mandali that takes place at Masti Rangamandira at Government Primary School premises, R.M. Ramesh working President of the Mandali says: “The Mandali has turned 60 this year and we are celebrating it with more melodies and devotionals.” While they encourage local talent, all the top artistes have performed at their festival. “We have had C. Ashwath perform till 12 a.m. for our 50th year, actor Vishnuvardhan’s father has been our Mandali associate, T.R. Mahalingam would go on till 2 a.m.!” he recalls. It was during Mandolin Srinivas’ concert a few decades ago that the pandal caught fire, and later, the then chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde helped the Mandali get a permanent place . “This year’s programmes starts on April 13 and will have Pravin Godkhindi, Vidya Bhushana, Jayatheerth Mevundi, Mysore Ramabhadrachar amongst others who would be performing.”