Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty dedicates new raga ‘Maitree’ to Bangabandhu

Acclaimed Indian musician Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty has created a new raga titled ‘Maitree’ as a tribute to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the birth centenary of Bangladesh’s founding father.

The new raga is based on raga ‘Abhogi’ and raga ‘Hemanta’, which was created by maestro Ustad Alauddin Khan, Chakrabarty said in a video message. The raga was never performed before in Indian music, according to him.

Chakrabarty will perform the raga at the National Parade Ground in Dhaka on Independence Day in the presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

Three new songs in Sanskrit, Hindi and Bangla will also be performed at the programme celebrating the birth centenary of Bangabandhu and the golden jubilee of the nation’s independence.

Professor Arindam Chakrabarti of Hawaii University in the US wrote the Sanskrit song. The lyricist of the Hindi song is Susmita Basu Majumdar, while Prof Ravi Burman is the composer. The Bangla song was composed by Chakrabarty’s student Anol Chatterjee. All the three songs were arranged by Chakrabarty.

With his ancestral home in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh district, Chakrabarty was born in West Bengal. His father Ajit Kumar Chakrabarty settled in Kolkata after the partition of India.