Archana Mahanta This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Assam Tribune online

   www.assamtribune.com/springso. - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/14/2003   Last Visited: 4/14/2003

   In fact, Khagen and Archana Mahanta are invariably booked to present their mellifluous numbers marked by typical local flavour by the organizers of major spring festival functions. Recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1992 for his outstanding contribution in the field of folk and traditional music, and accorded the titles of ‘Bihu Samrat', ‘Sangeetacharya', ‘Sangeetsudhakar' and ‘Sangeetprabhakar' by social organisations, Khagen Mahanta has been known for broadcasting the traditional and spontaneous expression of peasants from the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra among the masses on its lower banks. "This was the fruition of my dream to strengthen the bond of communities of the State with a single cultural means represented by Bihugeet. During Bohag Bihu, no matter wherever one travels, including the remotest parts in Assam, one will surely feel the rhythms of Bihu songs and dances," he said. He has recorded more than 100 songs on folk, traditional, devotional, sugam sangeet and progressive themes on HMV gramophone discs. More than 350 other songs have been recorded in about 50 different cassettes. One of his compositions has been broadcast via AIR under the community singing programme. "During the language disturbances in 1960, I went to almost all the important places to foster communal harmony through songs," he reflected. Both visited about 13 disturbed places of the State propagating ‘Music for Life, Love and Peace' in January 2002. The couple also toured USA and the UK on invitation in 1993 and 1996. They tied the knot in 1973. Just six months later, Khagen Mahanta luckily survived a stroke following which he became a teetotaller. They have a son and a daughter. Archana Mahanta was born into the culturally inclined family of Madhab Das and Labanya Das of Barpeta. Mentionably, her mother, at the age of 13, was the first Assamese girl to study Hindi by staying at Gandhiji's ashram in the pre-Independence era on a scholarship announced by Bapuji. She subsequently returned to be a faculty member of the Marwari High School, Fancy Bazar, in Guwahati. Her father, trained in Prince of Wales, Jorhat, later settled in the city and was also imbued with the Vaishnava culture. A graduate from Bhatkhande University, Archana Mahanta cleared her matriculation in 1966. Since then she has been a radio artiste. She won prizes in several inter-school and inter college competitions.