How a bullet shot led to a unique music festival in Madhya Pradesh's Bakayan village

Every year on guru purnima, Bakayan, a village of fewer than 2,000 people in the Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh, undergoes a transformation. Musicians, scholars and rasikas arrive from across India. The Hanuman Temple becomes the heart of the village. Then, for the next 48 hours, the music never stops.

Voices, pakhawaj, tabla, sarangi, sitar and harmonium flow seamlessly from one performance to another in an uninterrupted offering to the guru. There are no commercial trappings, no celebrity culture and no competition for applause. The music is itself an act of devotion.

The Guru Purnima Sangeet Mahotsav, now in its 132nd year, is India’s second-oldest surviving classical music festival, after the Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan in Jalandhar. Since its inception in 1894, it has been held every year without interruption, preserving one of the country’s oldest expressions of the guru–shishya tradition.

Its origins lie in an unlikely chain of events stretching back nearly three centuries.

In 1730, when Bundela ruler Maharaja Chhatrasal was surrounded by Mughal forces, he appealed to Peshwa Bajirao I for help. Bajirao defeated the invaders and restored Chhatrasal to his throne. In gratitude, the Bundela ruler ceded one-third of his kingdom to the Maratha leader.

According to Arun Palnitkar, patron of the Guru Purnima Utsav Committee and former director of the Ustad Alauddin Khan Academy, Bajirao later rewarded several of his soldiers with jagirs in Bundelkhand. Among them were the ancestors of the Palnitkar family, who received five villages, including Bakayan.

Generations later, the family’s history took a tragic turn. Madhavrao Palnitkar, who had joined the British forest service as a ranger, was shot dead by a British officer for disobeying a humiliating order. Fearing further reprisals, his younger brother Balwantrao fled to Indore and assumed the name Balakrishna Rao Topiwala.

Indore was then ruled by Maharaja Shivajirao Holkar, whose court musician was the legendary pakhawaj maestro Pandit Nana Saheb Panse. Balakrishna Rao became determined to study under him. But the guru refused to accept him.

Balakrishna Rao spent three years serving Panse and running ahead of his horse-drawn carriage to express his devotion. Only then did Panse accept him as his disciple. The apprenticeship lasted 13 years.

After completing his training, Balakrishna Rao returned to Bakayan. Though he remained the jagirdar of five villages, music had become his life’s calling. He devoted himself to rigorous riyaz, trained 57 disciples and established a musical lineage that would outlive him.

When Panse died in 1891, Balakrishna Rao sought a way to preserve his guru’s memory. Three years later, he founded the Guru Purnima Sangeet Mahotsav.

For 48 uninterrupted hours, musicians, disciples and villagers rendered a continuous stream of music as a collective offering to the guru. Over the years, this became the festival’s defining identity.

Balakrishna Rao remained its guiding force until his death in 1915. Thereafter, the responsibility passed from one generation of the Palnitkar family to the next. For 110 years, five successive generations organised the festival without a break—an achievement almost unparalleled in India’s cultural history.

In 2005, the family entrusted its stewardship to the Ustad Alauddin Khan Academy of Music and Arts, Bhopal. Members of the sixth generation remain actively involved, ensuring continuity with the founders’ vision.

Equally remarkable is the village itself.

According to the 2011 Census, Bakayan had just 1,589 residents. Even today, its population remains below 2,000. Yet every guru purnima, the entire community turns host. Families open their homes, volunteers prepare food, accommodation is arranged collectively and visitors are welcomed with the warmth usually reserved for relatives.

For two days, music ceases to be an event. It becomes the rhythm of village life. That spirit has inspired remarkable loyalty among artists.

Many of Balakrishna Rao’s disciples returned every year for decades. As the festival’s reputation spread, it began attracting some of India’s foremost musicians, including Budhaditya Mukherjee, Suresh Talwalkar, Ulhas Kashalkar, Jayateerth Mevundi, Raghunandan Panshikar, Gandhar Deshpande, Vinod Dwivedi, Ustad Amir Khan, Ustad Dildar Khan, Veena Thakur and Ram Prasad Panda.

Several forged lifelong associations with the Mahotsav. Ustad Dildar Khan performed here for 35 consecutive years, while tabla maestro Ustad Amir Khan remained associated with it for 45. Perhaps the most moving story is that of Ustad Bashir Khan of Dabra, who travelled to Bakayan despite a high fever to honour his commitment. He performed before the audience and passed away there, leaving behind an unforgettable example of devotion to music.

The audiences are as remarkable as the performers. Villagers from across the region set aside their work to spend two days and nights listening to classical music. Kathak exponent Uma Dogra recalls village women watching her performance from behind their veils, prompting her to smile from the stage and ask them to uncover their faces so she could see them.

For tabla player Ramendra Singh Solanki, recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar, the festival represents something increasingly rare. Artists come not for remuneration or recognition, he says, but to offer their music as guru dakshina.

On July 29 this year, the 132nd Guru Purnima Sangeet Mahotsav will once again begin its uninterrupted 48-hour musical offering.