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WOSAS : F1021	WOSAS/CD324/track1 R1064.wav
Pandavani
an Indian Mythology story; Hindu Mythology story; Mahabharata story
Sound recording, story and song; Pandavani epic singing, sections of the epic cycle the Mahabharata, from Indian and Hindu mythology told by Punaram Nishad and Ritu Verna, with musicians at Phoenix Arts Centre, Leicester, as part of the Beyond the Border Festival Tour, 28th June 1995
Section of Pandavani singing by Punaram Nishad, followed by an introduction to Ritu Verna and a synopsis of the section of story which she will sing, The War of the Game of Dice, in English by Ben Haggarty, and section of Pandavani singing by Ritu Verna accompanied by musicians.
Pandavani means, literally, 'The singing of the story of the five brothers' and is the popular central indian traditional form of telling the epic Mahabharata. In India, pandavani singers all have day jobs, but if they are called to perform somewhere they have to go. Their payment was traditionally one piece of cloth, one coconut and one nutmeg, but today a contribution of Rupees is also given according to the generosity and wealth of the patron. The performers bicyle from village to village. Performances tend to start between eight and ten o'clock in the evening and last until three or four the following morning. The full Mahabharata takes eighteen evenings to perform, but usually stories from the epic are requested by the patron for one or two nights only. The storyteller has to be ready to respond to a call for any story from this epic. A section from programme notes describes, 'Of the many epic singing traditions to miraculously survive in a rapidly modernising world, central Indian Pandavani is perhaps the most dramamtic and accessible. A singer, wielding a single stringed Tambura emblemtically adorned with peacock feathers, delivers episodes from the great Hindu epic over the tremendously energised accompaniment of four backing musicians. The telling is in a mixture of prose and song rendered dramatic by a very rich style. One of the musicians takes the role of 'ragi', a ritualised audience representative, urging the story forwards with interjected questions and supportive vocal approval.'
audience:-	adult
language:-	Hindi; English
recording quality
condition:-	good
completeness:-	incomplete; complete
duration:-	0 hours, 26 minutes, 16 seconds
In 1995 the Beyond the Border Wales International Festival of Performnace Storytelling featured Pandavani singers Ritu Verna, Punaram Nishad and Jhadu Ram Dewangan. Their visit to England including this event in Leicester, The Word in Edgeways Festival in Milton Keynes (8th and 9th July) and the Rising Sun Festival in Newcastle (25th June)
Beyond the Border Festival was founded in 1993 by Ben Haggarty, Artistic Director of the Crick Crack Club, and David Ambrose, the then Director of St Donats Arts Centre, Wales. The Festival was founded as The Beyond the Border International Festival of Storytelling and Epic Singing, but became known simply as Beyond the Border. The festival ran from 1993 to 2006 co-directed by the two founders: with Ben Haggarty programming storytellers and David Ambrose programming musicians. Since 2007 the festival has been directed by David Ambrose. The festival is a weekend event running on the first weekend of July annually; attracting around 2,500 people from across Britain and from overseas. The festival is sited at St Donats Arts Centre and in the grounds of St Donats Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan on the South Coast of Wales. Beyond the Border was initiated as part of the UK Year of Literature in 1995. The successful bid submitted by Academi Wales, prominently featured a storytelling festival. The original Director of the UK Year of Literature was Maura Dooley, who had been at the South Bank Centre in London when Ben Haggarty ran the Third International Storytelling Festival there in 1989. Maura Dooley supported the proposal brought to her by Ben Haggarty and David Ambrose to hold an International festival and series of summer schools at St Donats Castle and to begin Beyond the Border in 1993 in order to build an audience and a core of Wales-based artists for the Year of Literature in 1995. However before the plan could be implemented Maura Dooley resigned from her post (the position was later taken by Sean Dorran). Despite this, St Donats Arts Centre was committed to the festival and Beyond the Border was launched in July 1993. The 1993, 1994 and 1995 festivals were accompanied by summer schools, which produced a number of storytellers including Megan Lloyd, Francis Maxey, Richard Berry and Michael Harvey.
storytelling; singing:-	storyteller: Ritu Verna female / Indian / Indian / Madhya Pradesh
storytelling; singing:-	storyteller: Punaram Nishad male / Indian / Indian / Madhya Pradesh
storytelling; singing:-	musician; singer; ragi: Uday Ram Gandharva male / Indian
storytelling; singing:-	musician; singer: Tulsi Das Manikpuri male / Indian
storytelling; singing:-	musician; singer: Sakhav Ram Nishad male / Indian
storytelling; singing:-	musician; singer: Chait Ram Sahu male / Indian
storytelling; singing:-	musician; singer: Lakhan Lal Verna male / Indian
storytelling; singing:-	Master of Ceremonies; Festival Co-Director; storyteller: Ben Haggarty male / British / born 30.11.1958 / occupation performance storyteller; promoter
origin:-	India Hindu
	Images of the Pandavani group in performance during the tour
	Image of the Pandavani group with Ben Haggarty (left) and David Ambrose (right) in the grounds of St Donats Castle, Wales
	Click to enlarge images
programming:-	Festival Co-Director: Ben Haggarty Festival Co-Director: David Ambrose
administration:-	administrator: St Donats Arts Centre administrator: Phoenix Arts Centre; Leicester Phoenix
storytelling; singing:-	Leicester, England: Pheonix Arts Centre: Leicester Pheonix 28 Jun 1995 tour: Beyond the Border Tour public performance: Pandavani singers with Ben Haggarty and Vayu Naidu
gift from:-	storyteller: Ben Haggarty

©  The London Centre for International Storytelling: 2007
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