A very good evening to all of you.

SPIC MACAY, Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture
Amongst Youth, is a voluntary youth movement which promotes Indian classical
music, dance and culture. It seeks to foster awareness of the Indian cultural
heritage through its chapters in over 200 towns and cities all over the world. We at
SPICMACAYs SNU Chapter have been doing our bit to promote the movement
amongst the student, faculty and staff of the SNU Community.
Today we are honoured to have amongst us, first female exponent
of Pandavani,Teejan Bai. A world renowned artist, Teejan Bai, relates the
familiar tales from the Mahabharata with gusto, in the
unique Pandavani style of singing and enacting ballads of the Pandavas in the
fiery Chattisgarhi tradition.
Teejan Bai was born in village Ganiyari, Madhya Pradesh to Chunuk Lal Pardhi
and his wife Sukwati. She learnt this narrative folk form from her grandfather at
a very young age of 13 and gave her first performance on a makeshift stage in
a neighboring village. Soon after, invitations from other villages started
coming until she was noticed by Habib Tanvir, the famous theatre personality
from Madhya Pradesh. She has performed for Indira Gandhi, and travelled all
over the world as a cultural ambassador, to countries as far as England, France,
Switzerland, Germany, Turkey, Tunisia, Malta, Cyprus, Romania and Mauritius
Teejan Bai faced a lot of hardships in pursuing her passion. The oldest of five
children, she was married off at the age of 12. Her marriage split and she was
ostracized by the community because of her love for Pandavani. But her
determination, confidence and passion for this folk art has rewarded her with
a well deserved success with the prestigious titles of Padma shree and Padma
bhushan. Her difficult path to success is an inspiration to women all over the
world.

Today she continues to enthrall her audiences with her powerful voice and a unique
folk singing. When at home, Teejan Bai teaches Pandavani to youngsters and
believes the art will continue to thrive after her.

Pandavani is a popular form of story-telling prevalent among the tribals of the

Chhatisgarh which serves as a means of both entertaining and educating the
people. Pandavani narrates the story of the five Pandava brothers (protagonists of
the epic Mahabharata) and are of two types: Kapilak and Vedamati. A team
of Pandavani performers consists of one main narrator-singer and one or two
musician-cum-singers, who play on the tabla and the harmonium. The main
narrator-singer holds a tambura (stringed musical instrument), decorated with
small bells and peacock feathers in one hand andkartal (a pair of cymbals) on the
other.

Accompaning her on ..

I would now like to call Mr Rajiv Swarup, President of Shiv Nadar University to
light the lamp and start the program. Without any further due, I hand over the stage
to Teejan Bai.