Magic at Konark

Being a Bharatanatyam dancer, the idea of attending the Konark Dance and Music Festival excited me tremendously. I found abundant information on the internet. Before I knew it, I found myself in Bhuvaneshwar, looking for a cab to take me to Konark. As I sat in the cab, and watched the quaint country side pass by, I thought about what the five day festival would have in store for me. I knew from the illustrious names on the detailed program I had downloaded from the internet, that the performances would be of asuperior caliber. But I wondered what the overall experience would be?

On the first evening of the festival, I walked into Natya Mantap and was taken aback by the stage. The stage is designed after the Natyasala of the Konark Sun Temple. The stage has life size replicas of the statues on the temple walls. As a performer I looked at the stage longingly, wondering how wonderful it would be to dance on such an inspiring stage. My ruminations were broken by the sound of a gong announcing the commencement of the festival.
The opening sequence of the festival was grand, to say the least. It started with the Subha Sankha Dhwani & Mangal Vadya. Extremely young artists danced while playing various instruments like cymbals and drums, conches and gongs. A ceremonial flower arrangement and flames are carried all the way from the back of the audience, on to the stage. This is closely followed by the Panchadeva Stutee. More than fifty Odissi dancers danced in perfect unison invoking blessings. This spectacular opening sequence created a culturally charged festive environment, setting the tone for the rest of the evening.

The format of the evening was well defined. Each evening started with the spectacular Subha Sankha Dhwani & Mangal Vadya and Panchadeva Stutee. This was followed by a musical performance. Then the dance programs of the evening took over. Each evening there was a Odissi performance, one other classical dance form of India and one folk dance. The festival gave Rasikas an opportunity to enjoy a little culture from the length and breath of the country.

The festival was a continuous stream of delightful art. Music lovers were treated to all time favorites like Dr. Balamuralikrishna and Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. Dr. Balamuralikrishna presented a composition in his own Raga – Lavanga and a Tillana in Kadanakuthoohala. His performance transported me to a dream world and when he finished it felt like someone had woken me up from a beautiful dream. I did not want his performance to end.


Sujata Mohapatra’s Odissi was enchanting. She presented a piece on the life of Krishna – his victory over Bakasura, Kalinga and Putana. Sujata mastery over the technique and her exquisite Abhinaya created a memorable experience. As I sat under the stars, in the amphitheatre of Natya Mantap and watched her perform, it was easy to imagine the statues on the stage come to life.

Anuj Misra and troop performed Kathak for us. Anuj was really the star of the Kathak show with his lightning fast footwork and chakkars. He executed sixteen chakkars in three different speeds. When he reached the fastest tempo, he did four chakkars in four different directions. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and so did the audience, judging by the constant cheering. Mrs. Vajayanthi Kashi and troop presented Krishnarpanam. Mrs. Kashi, in her role of Putana, writhed in pain, dying slowly, contorting her body and creating a dramatic effect. The Kalaripayattu performance had the entire audience on the edge of their seats with their exhibition of sheer strength and power. The combat, with several deadly instruments like swords, was quite thrilling. As their blades struck each other, sparks flew and the audience gasped and cheered.

But what really stood out for me was the Gotipua performance by kids as young as five. They maintained perfect rhythm, exhibited immense grace and performed gravity defying acrobatics. Their infallible performance bore testament to their dedication. As the night progressed, the magic of the evening was disrupted by people leaving. The thinning audience was disheartening and yet it was expected. After all, the guests had to worry about dinner, stay or return to Bhubaneshwar. There are no restaurants serving dinner after 10 PM, no sufficient hotel rooms and poor connectivity to Bhubaneshwar. As Indians, we take a lot of pride in our culture, but do we do enough to preserve it?


Today as I look at the pictures I took at the festival and recount my experience I have a mixed feelings. My heart swells up with pride at the breadth and depth we have in our art forms. Yet, the image of the Gotipua children, the sincerity in their smiles, the eagerness in their eyes and the remarkable strength in their tiny limbs contrasted with the dismally thin audience also brings me to tears. I clutch to a hope that India shining illuminates Indian arts.

Konark, Orissa - February 2010

I love traveling and have found various reasons to travel – business, sightseeing, adventure sports etc. This time I decided to make my travel all about culture. Being a Bharatanatyam dancer, the idea instantly excited me. A little research on the internet pointed me towards the Konark Music and Dance festival. All it took was a few calls to the organizers and soon I found myself in Bhuvaneshwar.

As we landed in Bhubaneswar, I was pleasantly surprised by the weather. It was just about the same as Bangalore. We left the airport in search of a place to eat and an internet parlor. We found a dingy internet cafe with an infuriatingly slow connection and spent, what felt like hours, trying to open an equally infuriatingly heavy yahoo mail page. After an ordinary meal and some coffee, we found a cab to take us to Konark. Thing about taking cabs here is they charge for both ways, even if you only want to get dropped off. So we ended up paying Rs.800 for being dropped off at Konark.

The drive to Konark was interesting. There are tons of quaint little villages along the way. Most of these village houses have cute stick figures painted on the walls. But what struck me was how ancient everything looked. It was almost like we were traveling back in time. The lack of development in this place is a bit confusing to me. The place seems to be rather lush green. For an agrarian country, I would imagine, verdure has to translate to wealth and prosperity. I saw no signs of prosperity here. Sad!


We finally reached Konark and to our dismay found that it’s a smaller town that we even imagined. There is only really one option to stay at. There is the govt. run Yatrinivas with rooms in the range of Rs.800 – Rs.1400. The place is run badly, maintained poorly and is not clean. Apart from this, there is Panthnivas, the more inexpensive version of this, and perhaps even more badly maintained. And then there is the much more expensive Lotus Eco Resort on Chandrabagha beach. Rooms here range from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 7000. Apart from being completely out of our budget, it was also quite far from the centre of Konark. We did go check out the rooms there and they are very nice. I would recommend it to anyone looking for isolation and quiet. Since we needed to be close to the heart of Konark, we settled for Yatri nivas.

Yatri nivas is the best option for anyone interested either in the dance festivals or the Sun Temple. The Konark Natya Mandap is where one of the dance festivals is conducted and it’s about 1 km from Yatri nivas. However, there are not many transport options between the two. Getting to the festival in the evening was not as much as problem as getting back. Since the festival ends well past 9 PM, there are no autos or cabs available. On one day we ventured walking back. The roads were deserted and there are many excited dogs and bulls on the road, not making it a very pleasant walk. So we decided that it was a good idea to not be shy and ask cars on the premises for a drop to Yatri nivas.



The festival began at around 7 PM on all five days. So we had the first half of the day to ourselves. We visited the Sun Temple on one day. The temple has very intricate ornate carvings. These carvings depict to a great detail, life in the 13th century - everything from the sense of dressing, folklore of the day, occupation all the way to philosophy, sex life and even diseases. The entire temple took 12 years to build. That sounds like a jiffy, when I compare it to how long it’s taking us to get the city metro up.





We spent another day in Puri. The drive from Konark to Puri is beautiful. The city itself is crowded and dirty. I did not enjoy the city and we did not spend much time there. We visited the Lotus Eco resort on Ramchandi resort and got lunch at the restaurant there. The beach there is pristine and a wonderful place to spend a day with nothing but your thoughts. We chose not to visit Pipli or spend more time in Bhubaneshwar.



Orissa being so distant and so different from Bangalore, it gave me a great opportunity to forget city life all together. All the time we had to ourselves was a great way for us to unwind and disconnect from “real life”. Five days of great music and dance transported me to a beautiful world of dreams. While the festival itself is wonderful, the infrastructure is poor to say the least. Connectivity to Bhubaneswar is poor, transport within Konark is difficult, almost impossible at night, there are not enough options to stay and the restaurant at Yatri nivas is closed by the time you return from the festival at night. As obvious, I do have mixed feelings about this trip and about returning.