MUMBAI: Encouraging and preserving traditions in Indian music, sitar player Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh and his wife Dr. Pooja, through their Darshanam organization established a yearly scholarship award in 2008 for a young aspiring musician who is committed to traditional Indian music. This year the award will be given to Nikhil Saini, student of Pandit Sadanand Naiampalli who is learning the tabla.

The award distribution organized by Swaranand will take place on 25th November 2009 for the occasion of the 89th birth anniversary of Shri Sardeshmukh Maharaj, father and guru to Pandit Chandrakant and father-in-law and guru to Dr. Pooja. Shri Sardeshmukh. Maharaj devoted his life to the promotion of traditional Indian arts, sciences and culture through teaching and guiding many disciples.

The award program will start at 6:00 P.M. on Wednesday, 25th November at Manohar Mangal Karyalaya in Pune City. After the award ceremony, there will be a short solo tabla performance by Nikhil Saini. This will be followed by a special performance by a group of musicians Rajendra Kulkarni (bansuri), Deepak Upadhye (tabla) Mukund Pethkar (harmonium) led by Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh.

The program is for invitees only. Please contact Dr. Pooja by email at Pooja.chandrakant@gmail.com for invitations

Nikhil Saini is originally from Hasanpur Luhari village, Muzzaffarnagar, Meerut. He has studying the art of tabla since the age of 11 and for the last six years with Pandit Sadanand Naiampalli, Mumbai.

Academically he is a student of Ruia College, Mumbai, pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Arts.

He has received several prizes in local and interstate competitions in India. He is also representing Ruia College for instrumental music in the Youth Festival conducted by Mumbai University.

Pandit Sadanand Naimpalli

(An Engineer by Training, Musician by choice).

Pandit Sadanand Naimpalli was declared a child prodigy and was taught by Pandit Taranath He won the President's Award for standing first at the All India Radio Competitions held on a national scale in 1963, when barely sixteen years old. Sadanand not only won fresh laurels at various music competitions but also began participating in various music conferences alongside-recognized stalwarts.

Sadanand is a First Class Distinction Holder in the Bachelor of Engineering (Metallurgy) Degree examinations and has successfully run his own engineering enterprise, manufacturing high quality non ferrous castings, before reverting his energies to his first love tabla. Having taken up tabla after a lapse of almost twenty years, Sadanand, a born-again tabla player has carved a special position in the Pantheon of prominent tabla players with his assiduous riyaz and most importantly, the blessings of his mentor, Pandit Taranath. Sadanand has accompanied a number of top musicians in their live concerts, cassettes and long playing record albums. http://sadanand.freeservers.com/index.html

This event is organized by Swaranand Pratishthan (www.swaranand.org Marathi only). Swaranand is a organization of music lovers, singers, producers and directors. For over 25 years Swaranand has given theme based music programs with beautiful melodies based on famous compositions of renowned Marathi singers and composers. Swaranand also hosts yearly award distribution during its anniversary function. This year Swaranand is organizing a separate function for this Sardeshmukh Maharaj award distribution.

Shri P. K. Sardeshmukh Maharaj, a renowned Vaidya, representing the 9th generation of Vedic arts and sciences, had a vast knowledge of traditional Indian texts (Vedas, Shastras and Puranas). His knowledge and wisdom augmented by his spirituality and vision, guided nationally and internationally, many a deserving candidate seeking advice in a variety of fields. Many of his students have shown extraordinary ability and excellence in their chosen field of studies. He was very patriotic and inspired several young people through his vision and positive guidance for a bright future for themselves and for India.

He was renowned for his thorough knowledge of traditional Indian music and guided several musicians and performing artists. He passed on his traditional knowledge of Ayurved to his children and grandchildren. His son Dr. Sadanand and his daughter Dr. Sudha are well known Ayurvedic practitioners. His grandson Dr. Sukumar has become an Ayurvedic doctor and another grandson Sushrut will become an Ayurvedic doctor in the near future.

Shri. Sardeshmukh Maharaj founded the Bharatiya Sanskriti Darshan Trust (BSDT) in 1954. He left this world in 1996 and took Samadhi on his own land which he donated to the trust for the main purpose of promoting traditional Indian arts and culture in the world. His sons, Dr. Sadanand (chairman) and Dr. Chandrakant (executive trustee) manage the trust which has flourished with the Ayuvedic College and treatment facilities, Aids and cancer research projects as well as promotion of traditional Indian music internationally.

Pandit Dr. Chandrakant is a renowned sitar player and a student of Pandit Ravi Shankar and Guru Ma Annapurnadevi. He has been promoting traditional Indian music and Ayurved abroad especially in Japan and Australia since 1990. On his website www.darshanam.com Dr. Chandrakant dedicates his work and music to his father, who was his mother, father and guru.

Darshanam is a voluntary organization that has been promoting traditional Indian art and culture in Japan and Australia since 1990. One of the main aims of Darshanam is to encourage young people to experience and perform traditional Indian music and Ayurved organizing various events globally for this purpose. This is possible due to the auspicious guidance of Dr. Chandrakant (www.darshanam.com) who is director of the BSDT music department. In 2007, for the Japan India Friendship Year celebrating 50 years of cultural relations, Darshanam produced several concerts in collaboration with Japanese artists.

Dr. Sadanand Sardeshmukh is an internationally renowned Ayurvedic Vaidya. who guides the Ayurved section of Darshanam. He periodically visits Japan, Australia, America and Europe for health counseling.

Dr. Pooja, wife of Dr. Chandrakant, an international administrator of Darshanam and is a devoted disciple of Shri. Sardeshmukh Maharaj. She has a Ph.D. in electronic science from the University of Pune. She has done post-doctorate research at Nagoya University and has been a management consultant in Tokyo to various IT companies for the last 14 years. She has initiated several joint venture projects between India and Japan.