Dakshinee

Dakshinee Logo

Dakshinee is one of the premier Music Academies in the city of Calcutta, now Kolkata. It plays an important role in encouraging and promoting primarily the Rabindrasangeet.

History

Suvo Guha Thakurta was a devotee of Rabindrasangeet. He wanted to spread it among Bengali masses which was then confined primarily to Santiniketan. On the advice of Shailaranjan Majumdar, he founded Dakshinee on 8 May 1948.

Early days

Dakshinee started with only 12 students and by 1955 it had 600 students. Between 1962 and 1972 the student strength was over 1500.

Sections

Since inception it had four functioning sections

• Nrityakala Kendra (Dance School)
• Drama
• Cultural
• Publication

Activities

• Dakshinee organised Triennial Tagore Music Conference from 1951 - 1960 with the assistance of All India Radio.
• Dakshinee celebrated the Tagore Centenary in 1961.

Publications

• Rabindrasangeeter Dhara - Suvo Guha Thakurta wrote the book titled “Rabindrasangeeter Dhara” in 1950, to educate people about the richness and variety of his compositions and their classification into 17 streams or ‘Parjyay’. This book was then incorporated into the academic curriculum of Dakshinee and remains so till date. It serves to give students a detailed theoretical background to Rabindrasangeet
• Subarno Joyonti Barsha (Shahitya Patra)
• Rabindra Janma Satabarshiki
• Rajat Joyonti Utsab

In 2008 Dakshinee proposes to publish a special edition on the occasion of its Diamond Jubilee Celebrations.

Location

This institute was earlier started at 132, Rashbehari Avenue. In 1955, it was moved to Dakshinee Bhawan, 1 Deshapriya Park (West) and has been there since then.

Affiliated institutes

• Nupur in London (Currently withdrawn)
• Rabishikha in North London
• Dakshinayan^[1] in South London
• Robiprobash in Toronto
• Kahlar in Washington DC (Currently withdrawn)
• Uttarayan in New Delhi
• Srijon in Mumbai

Notable teachers

• Suchitra Mitra
• Subinoy Roy
• Kamala Basu
• Sunil Kumar Roy
• Subhas Choudhury
• Ashoktaru Bandhapadhay

Prominent students

• Ritu Guha
• Rano Guha Thakurta
• Srikanto Acharya
• Shreya Guha Thakurta
• Saheb chatterjee
• Krishna Guha Thakurta

Controversies

Although the institute professes to teach Rabindranath Tagore's ideals through his music, credible evidence^[2] strongly suggests that Dakshinee believes in instilling a sense of fear among the rank and file of its students, an idea that is wholly contrary to Tagore's own views on any kind of learning.

DAKSHINEE follows its own discrete notation, disregarding the notaion accepted and printed by the bishwa-bharati.

Dakshinee also got itself mired in a recent controversy when a letter ^[3] published in a widely read mainstream Kolkata newspaper alleged that the institute expelled one of its students, an eight-year-old girl, only for wearing a salwar-kameez (a dress widely used by Indian girls and women).

See also

• Bengal Music College
• Calcutta School of Music
• Eastern fare music foundation

References

1. "Indian Events in London".
2. Aveek Sen (May 3, 2008). "The Telegraph - WHERE THE SONG IS WITHOUT FEAR". Calcutta, India.
3. "The Telegraph - Clad them young". Calcutta, India. 7 August 2008.

External links

• Where the song is without fear by Aveek Sen, The Telegraph, Calcutta, May 3, 2008
• Clad them young, Letters to the Editor, The Telegraph, Calcutta, August 8, 2008
• Tagore’s seasons in the sun
• Gitabitan Live-2: a new CD brings Tagore to the public
• Dakshinee - Institute of Tagore Song and Culture