Resonance of Devotion: The Annual Sankatmochan Sangeet Samaroh 2025
Each year, as summer settles over Varanasi and the sacred rhythms of the city deepen, the Sankatmochan Sangeet Samaroh transforms the courtyard of the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Mandir into a space of shared listening, devotion, and quiet cultural power.
This year, we are fortunate to share rare footage of the festival, generously provided by Vishwambar Nath Mishra, a mahant of the temple. What we see in this footage is more than performance—it's devotion in motion. Here, artists do not perform for fame, profit, or spectacle, but as acts of spiritual offering. There are no payments. No barriers between performer and audience. No commercial trappings. Just the temple, the music, and the shared stillness that binds them.
A Tradition Rooted in Bhakti
The festival was initiated in the 1920s by Mahant Hanuman Prasad Poddar as part of a broader tradition of using music and poetry to express bhakti—a devotional love that transcends caste, class, and creed. Over the decades, it has become a meeting ground for leading classical musicians and dancers, as well as deeply committed listeners from all walks of life. The Sankatmochan stage has long held space for both legendary maestros and emerging artists, all bound by the same spirit of reverence and service.
What makes the Sankatmochan Sangeet Samaroh remarkable is not just the caliber of artistry, but the ethos it sustains:
No tickets.
No VIP sections.
No elaborate introductions or celebrity status.
Performances that stretch deep into the night, often without microphones or amplification.
It is a non-commercial, egalitarian experience that resists the spectacle-driven norms of mainstream cultural production. It reminds us that India's classical traditions are not merely elite art forms, but living vessels of communal and spiritual life.
A Counter to Our Times
In a moment when religion is weaponized and culture commodified, the Sankatmochan festival points to another possibility: one where art is an offering, not a brand; where devotion is spacious and inclusive; and where the temple is not a site of division, but of connection.
Its endurance in 2025 is a quiet, powerful testament to what still holds in India—not the noise of polarization, but the steady pulse of devotional creativity that continues to flow, especially in uncertain times.
As we reflect this May on themes of migration, resilience, and cultural survival, the Sankatmochan Sangeet Samaroh offers a gentle reminder: rootedness and openness need not be at odds. Music can be both a return and a reaching out—a way to hold on to the past while making room for a more inclusive, interconnected future.