Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar
Pakhawaj player from Siliguri; received the PMRBP 2024 (Art & Culture) — the cohort’s only West Bengal recipient — for his playing in the Dhrupad tradition.
2024-01-22 · Supporting source ↗
Pakhawaj · INDIA
Arijeet Banerjee
Pakhawaj player from Siliguri; received the PMRBP 2024 (Art & Culture) — the cohort’s only West Bengal recipient — for his playing in the Dhrupad tradition.
Reported 13 in January 2024 (official award material)
West Bengal · India
Image source ↗ · India Book of Records
Source photograph · credit and provenance below
BEHIND THE RESULT
The achievement
On 22 January 2024, Arijeet Banerjee received the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, India’s national honour for children, in the Art and Culture category. President Droupadi Murmu presented the award at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, where Arijeet was one of 19 children honoured that year — and, state reporting noted, the only recipient from West Bengal.
An old drum, a young player
The pakhawaj is a barrel-shaped drum with two heads, played with both hands, whose deep rhythms have accompanied Dhrupad — one of the oldest forms of Hindustani classical music — for centuries. According to the Government of India’s award material, Arijeet, who was 13 at the time, has performed at the International Dhrupad Festival, and has received the Bharat Ratna M S Subbulakshmi Fellowship and a place in the Asia Book of Records for his pakhawaj playing. The pakhawaj is less familiar today than the tabla, and most of its music lives inside the Dhrupad tradition — a teenager from Siliguri carrying it onto national stages is exactly the kind of work this award exists to notice.
A spark to explore
Is there an old instrument, craft or art form from your own region that you would like to learn before it fades away? That is a question from us, not part of his record.
Source-based story · the activities are prompts for readers.
Open the article edition →The achievement, in context.
Sources you can explore.
India Book of Records · profile, 29 January 2024 ↗Record profile
PIB · official PMRBP 2024 awardee list ↗Official award list
Original source ↗Another spark to discover.
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