Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 24 Oct: The grand inauguration of the “Virasat Art and Heritage Festival–2026” was marked by the lighting of the ceremonial lamp by Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan on Friday. The festival is being organised by the world-renowned REACH (Rural Entrepreneurship for Art & Cultural Heritage) organisation, which has been preserving and compiling historical cultural heritage in a remarkable manner for many years.
The first cultural evening of Virasat Art and Heritage Festival 2026 commenced with a Choliya folk dance performance. Choliya is a traditional folkdance form that originated in the Kumaon division of Uttarakhand and the western region of Nepal.
The presentation of Uttarakhand’s traditional Choliya dance at Virasat 2026 offered a special glimpse of the region’s folk culture. Led by Chandan Bohra, the artists of Nritya Dal Choliya Dance Group brought Uttarakhand’s rich folk traditions to the stage through their performance.
The first evening of the Virasat Festival was magnificent, captivating, and grand in its presentation. During the melodious and enchanting evening, the classical music performance by Pandit Sajan Mishra remained the centre of attraction.
At Virasat 2026, artists from Banaras introduced the audience to the beautiful world of classical music through their performance. Padma Bhushan awardee Pandit Sajan Mishra performed vocals alongside his son, Swaranash Mishra. They were accompanied by Abhishek Mishra on the tabla and Pandit Dharmanath Mishra on the harmonium.
The performance began with Raag and Ragini. A special aspect of the presentation was that, rather than following a fixed rehearsal, the artists developed their performance spontaneously on stage through the flow of musical notes. This natural approach and spontaneity in classical music made the singing distinctive. Excellent coordination between the tabla, harmonium, and vocals was evident, filling the entire atmosphere with music.
The vocals of Pandit Sajan Mishra and Swaranash Mishra, accompanied by Abhishek Mishra on the tabla and Pandit Dharmanath Mishra on the harmonium, gave the performance a beautiful form. During the presentation, the audience experienced the rich classical music tradition of Banaras through both listening and observation.
Sajan Mishra, one of the Mishra brothers—Pandit Rajan and Pandit Sajan Mishra—is a vocalist of the Khayal style of Indian classical music. The Khayal style of singing is considered a 300-year-old tradition of the Banaras Gharana.
At the time of the ceremonial lamp lighting, Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan was accompanied by REACH organisation’s founder and president RK Singh, Trustee Hemant Arora, Joint Secretary Vijayshree Joshi and Sameer Sinha, IFS (Retd).
