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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

 

Known percussionist, tabla legend Kishan Maharaj, 85


Pandit Kishan Maharaj, one of India's best-known classical percussionists, passed away in this temple town after battling a brain stroke for five days. He was 85.

The leading tabla exponent was pulled off life- support systems on May 4 night. He had suffered a stroke on April 29 and efforts had been on to stave off brain death.

Kishan Maharaj is survived by a son and three daughters.

Sources in Varanasi said the tabla legend suffered the stroke when sarod artist Pandit Amjad Ali Khan and his family, including sons Ayaan and Amaan, went to meet him a day after the Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh, an important musical event in the town. Kishan Maharaj also attended it.

"He was sitting on a sofa and then he suddenly passed out." Sandeep Das, one of Kishan Maharaj's most senior disciples and Grammy nominee, told IANS.

Kishan Maharaj was born in 1923 in a family of professional musicians. He was trained in classical music by Pandit Hari Maharaj, his father. After his father's death, Pandit Kanthe Maharaj, his uncle, took him under his wings.

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Thursday, March 27, 2008

 

Aurangazeb was even handed with Hindus and Muslims

The debate over whether Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb was anti-Hindu or not has taken a new turn in Chennai with the largest Tamil Muslim group saying he was a victim of distorted history.

Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) said one of the biggest charges against Aurangzeb was that he demolished the Vishwanath temple in Varanasi (Kashi).

"That was a fact. But late historian Bishma Narain Pande's research efforts exploded many myths about Aurangzeb's rule. He explained why Aurangzeb razed the temple at Varanasi," TMMK leader M.H. Jawahirulla, who is a university professor himself, told IANS.

He razed the temple because the Maharani of Kutch, the wife of one of the Hindu Rajput kings loyal to Aurangzeb, was dishonored and robbed inside the temple.

Meanwhile, the Chennai police on March 6, had shut down an art show on Aurangzeb at the Lalit Kala Akademi in Chennai following protests. Francois Gautier, a expatriate French journalist, curated the show. Police said the exhibition of 40 paintings and documents on Aurangzeb had the potential to disrupt communal harmony.

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