The audience had a feast of eyes when mesmerising and grand presentations of India's multi-hued cultural heritage were given at 6 places on the second day of Simhastha Art Festival organised at Ujjain by the Department of Culture in collaboration with the Government of India on Saturday. large number of art connoisseurs savoured attractive vocal, musical, dance and drama presentations at Bharatmuni stage, Kalidas stage, Vikramaditya stage, Bhoj stage, Bhartrihari stage and Triveni Museum.
Programme at Bharatmuni stage began with vocal presentation of eminent Bhajan singer Pandit Ratan Mohan Sharma. Nephew of muscle wizard Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Ratan presented special Vandanas prepared for Simhastha. His renditions on lord Shiva and lord Ram created an ethereal atmosphere. Stamp of Ragdari was clearly noticeable in his style of singing. later, Sushri Viraj Amar presented several numbers in Drut and Madhya-lay in Rag Jhinjhoti, enchanting the audience.
This was followed by presentation of episodes of Ram-Janm, Tadka Vadh and Ahilya Uddhar in Ram leela Prasang. Jabalpur's artiste Neelangi Kalantare presented Kathak and troupe of Sagar's Manish Yadav Baredi folk dance.
At Triveni Museum, the programme began with vocal presentation of Gaya Prasad Prajapati. later, Salil Date of Indore gave flute presentation and Ujjain city's young artise lokendra Singh gave vocal presentation.
At Kalidas stage, the programme began with Vedic hymns recited by Avnish Mishra. This was follwed by solo Tabla playing by Anuradha Pal from Mumbai and Kathak dance by young dancer Sanjini Kulkarni from New Delhi.
The programme concluded with enactment of play 'Park' of Bhopal's eminent dramatist Gopal Dube.
At Bhoj stage, the programme began with Bhartrihari singing by eminent folk singer of Chhattisgarh Rekha Dewar. Folk artistes of Bastar's Muriya tribe presented Gerhi dance.
It was followed by presentation of Singar Melam dance of Kerala and Gargulu dance of Andhra Pradesh.
Presentations of Chhattisgarh's Panthi folk dance, Karnataka's Veergase dance, Draupdi Cheer Haran episode by Pandwani singer Shanti Bai Chelak, Kali Attam dance of Pudducherry, Tamil Nadu's Dummy Horse and Kargam were also given.
At Bhartrihari stage, the programme began with singing of Bhakti Pad by Raendra Kachru and Shevati Sanyal. Rajasthan's Kal Beliya dance, Haryana's Holi dance, Kashmir's Tera Tali dance, Bumroo, Uttarakhand's Garhwali dance and Punjab's Akhada and martial art were also presented.
At Vikramaditya stage, zBhajan singer Tapsi Nagraj also gave a presentation.