Arrival of tourists from near and afar at the first Jal Mahotsav at Hanuwantiya is continuing unabated. Activities in water, land and air are being held during 10-day long Jal-Mahotsav. Tourists and music lovers were left spell-bound by presentation of sonorous tunes by Maihar Band on Monday evening.
Keeping this in view, the Band performed in the night of 5th day of the festival as well. Promoting rural environs of Nimar region, tourists are also being taken for sightseeing on bullock carts.
Completing around a century, Maihar Band (orchestra) was established by music maestro Padma Vibhushan Ustad Alauddin Khan in year 1918. Since then till date, artists have been carrying on this invaluable heritage of the Ustad continuously. For Maihar Band Ustad Allauddin Khan developed a music instrument called 'Nal-Tarag' by cutting a gun barrel, which is a unique in the world. Since then, members of the Maihar Band blow these instruments producing sonorous tunes instead of shooting bullets. The only orchestra of classical music of its own kind, Maihar Band is going to complete 100 years of its inception next year. Band consists of 12 artistes who play tunes of Rag-Raginis including Rag Manjari invented by Ustad Alauddin Khan.
Maihar Band artistes include GP Pandey Uttam, Suresh Kumar Chaturvedi, Prabhu Dayal Dwivedi, Ashok Badhaulia, Ravindra Bhagwat, Gunakar Sanwle, Ramayan Chaturvedi, Vijay Sharma etc.