Akhanda Kachhapi Mahotsavam begins

Vijayawada: The 10th annual Akhanda Kachhapi Mahotsavam, a 24-hour continuous veena festival was organised by Sri Subrahmanya Mahathi Sangeeta Samithi at Sri Velidandla Hanumantharaya Grandhalayam on Sunday. The Mahotsavam is a unique conceptual programme featuring uninterrupted veena concerts from Sunday morning to Monday morning. The organisers have aptly named the festival ‘Kachhapi’, a traditional name associated with Goddess Saraswati.

Several legendary maestros such as Chitti Babu, Emani Sankara Sastry, Pappu Someswara Rao, and Ayyagari Someswara Rao brought great acclaim to the instrument through their extraordinary artistry, inspiring generations of musicians.

The event commenced with the rendering of the Pancharatna Keerthanas on the veena, accompanied by mridangam and ghatam. Nearly 100 musicians from both Telugu States participated in this grand inaugural ensemble, creating a spiritually elevating musical atmosphere. The festival then continued with individual veena recitals by Lokapriya, B Ananya, Ch Suneetha Gopi Krishna, Ganugula Raj Koshal, Veerubhotla Likhita, Sarayu Sri Malkos, Banavatula Lehaparna, Pappu Padma Ravishankar, R Sobha Madhavi, A Ravi Srinivas, K Padmaja, Susarla Nandhini Srinivas, Pamarthi Phani Kumari, S Sujatha, Pappu Lalitha, Bhagavatula Vamsikrishna, Kommajosyula Udayalakshmi, Malladi Abhigna, along with students of the Music College and students of Sri Subrahmanya Mahathi Sangeeta Samithi. Instrumental support was ably rendered by Parupalli Subbaraya Phalgun, Vanjari Syama Krishna, Chadalawada Surya, Veeramraju Lakshmi Ajay, Kamaraju Karthikeya Adinarayana Sarma, Kundurthi Aravind, Magalagiri Sridhar, Rayaprolu Sudhakar, Phanibhushan, M Haribabu, NS Kalyana Raman, and KV Ramakrishna.

KS Govindarajan, Sadguru Charan, and Modumudi Sudhakar graced the inaugural meeting. The programme was conducted by CV Rao, secretary of the organisation.