Mahishasuramardini, the Mahalaya dawn broadcast on All India Radio: Birendra Krishna Bhadra's Chandi recitation, Pankaj Kumar Mullick's music, how to listen.
Akashvani Bhavan, All India Radio's Kolkata station. Photo: John Meckley, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Mahishasuramardini is part recitation, part musical drama.
Mahishasuramardini, Durga slaying the buffalo demon: a 12th-century chlorite sculpture of the Pala school. Photo: SpeakingArch, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
The programme began in the early years of radio in Calcutta, when the station was run by the Indian Broadcasting Company, before it became All India Radio.
Akashvani Bhavan, All India Radio's Kolkata station. Photo: John Meckley, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Listening has changed shape, but the habit has not:
Tarpan on Mahalaya: offering water, til and kusha grass to the ancestors at the Ganga. Photo: Goutam1962, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Mahishasuramardini is the sound that opens the puja season in Bengal, much as the dhak is the sound of the puja days themselves.
Dhakis playing the dhak at a Durga Puja. Photo: AjayDas, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
To learn the words you'll hear, browse our Durga Puja glossary, and read about the goddess the programme celebrates on the Goddess Durga page.
Tarpan on Mahalaya: offering water, til and kusha grass to the ancestors at the Ganga. Photo: Goutam1962, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Mahishasuramardini, the Mahalaya dawn broadcast on All India Radio: Birendra Krishna Bhadra's Chandi recitation, Pankaj Kumar Mullick's music, how to listen.
Mahishasuramardini → Next story: Pandal art and themes: how Kolkata's pandals are made All photo storiesMusic: Sitar sample yaman, Tito Dutta, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.