Ragas in new rooms

From traditional sabhas to contemporary cafés, Chennai reimagines classical music and dance and brings it closer to every audience

- SONU M KOTHARI

CHENNAI, a city of sweat, air conditioners, ice-cold water, and soaring temperatures for most of the year, turns cool and pleasant for a few weeks — easily countable by fingers.

It is during these weeks that Mar-gazhi, the ninth month of the Tamil calendar dedicated to dance and music, arrives. Over the years, the celebration of the performing arts during Mar-gazhi has evolved, making the season and the art forms synonymous with each other.

The origins of the season can be traced back to the 1920s. In 1927, the Indian National Congress (INC) held its All-India Conference in Madras, during which party leader and freedom fighter S Satyamurti decided on a music concert as part of the proceedings. History records that around this time, citizens came together to institutionalise the practice, leading to the establishment of The Music Academy in 1928. From the following year, the sabha has been conducting an annual music festival. Articles and documents hint that other functioning sabhas in the city caught on in the 1980s, laying the foundation for what would become Chennai’s famed Mar-gazhi music season. For almost four decades, it has been rooted in sabha or temple structures. “The performing artistes reached places that were once distant. The music performed in these spaces is associated with a certain kind of person. And that’s how it’s been for the longest time. The ground reality is that a lot of people don’t have access to or don’t have the inclination to go and experience the world of Carnatic music,” explains Damodharan K, a member of Iktaraa, a one-stop shop for everything within music.