Kannada language through Bhakti Sangeetha touches core of your heart: Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman promotes Kannada language and Dasa Sangeetha at Mysuru music festival, emphasizing cultural heritage.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said she strongly believed that Kannada language, through Bhakti Sangeetha, directly touches the core of your heart. In Dasa Sangeetha, each of the verses sung by the Dasas reaches us without language barriers. The verses are a humble plea of these Dasas, who lived on Bhiksha, followed a Guru and attained Diksha with that Guru’s guidance, she said.

Ms. Sitharaman was speaking after inaugurating the three-day Mysuru Sangeetha Suganda, a music festival celebrating the Dasa tradition of Carnatic music, at the KSOU Convocation Hall here.

The music festival is jointly organised by the Central Ministry of Tourism and State Ministry of Culture and the Tourism Department. The event aims to celebrate Mysuru’s rich Carnatic music traditions, and also promote lesser-known tourist destinations, cuisine, handicrafts and textiles of Karnataka. Many renowned musicians are attending the festival and also performing.

In her inaugural address, Ms. Sitharaman, who was instrumental in organising the music festival for promoting Carnatic music, said language does not come as a barrier in Dasa Sangeetha as it reaches everybody.

The Finance Minister, who spoke on the greatness of Mysuru’s Carnatic music traditions and the Dasa Sangeetha, said the festival organised jointly by the Tourism and Culture Ministries should become a calendar event organised annually to promote Kannada language and the Dasa Sangeetha. The Karnataka government must come forward to support the event every year.

While complimenting the Tourism Ministry for choosing Mysuru for the music festival, Ms. Sitharaman said the Dasas during the Bhakti movement kept the entire population together and helped people to remain positive. Because of their roles, Karnataka contributed immensely despite the difficult era. Mysuru is a blessed place.

Explaining the vision of the Modi government, she said ‘Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi’, which highlights the country’s development and at the same time emphasises on safeguarding our heritage and culture. India has diverse languages and cultures. The Prime Minister’s message is, that besides the country’s economic progress, we also need to preserve our cultural heritage. We need language, culture, music and so on, she explained.