For an average Bengali, the dawn of Mahalaya begins with the iconic Sanskrit stotra chants by Birendra Krishna Bhadra, whose legendary voice ushers in Devipaksha, marking the end of Pitripaksha, with the radio programme Mahishasurmardini, being broadcast by the All India Radio since 1931.
But here’s a little secret. Chances are, the version of Mahishasurmardini you are playing isn’t the same as the one your neighbour might be listening to.
That’s because the radio version of Mahishasurmardini was recorded multiple times in the past. Over the decades, All India Radio, and private radio stations have broadcast different versions of the broadcast— some re-recorded in Akashvani studios, some remastered, and some even rediscovered from dusty archives.
Suchismita Roy, deputy director general of Akashvani Kolkata, recently announced that the radio station will air the 1972 version of Mahishasurmardini this year. Roy also offered a glimpse of the original 1972 recording spool in a video message.
If the radio broadcast this year sounds different to you from the version available to stream on YouTube, or Spotify, now you know the reason. Even officials at Akashvani struggle to put a number on how many versions of the programme exist.
According to Kingshuk Sarkar, the assistant director to the head of programming at Akashvani, the most popular versions were recorded in 1962, 1966 and 1972.
“The last live broadcast of Mahishasuramardini was broadcast in 1962, and since then, the radio station has recorded several versions of the programme over the years. Even we are not sure how many versions we have,” Sarkar told My Kolkata.
He also added that Akashvani has sold the rights to the audio recording of the radio programme to HMV (now Saregama), which resulted in the widespread sale of the cassette and CD versions of the show, and allowed private FM stations to broadcast the programme on their channels.
Avijit Sarkar, owner of The Calcutta Record Company, said, “After acquiring the rights from Akashvani, several gramophone or HMV companies have released the records of Mahishasurmrdini in 1978. That’s when the show became accessible to the masses”.
But which version is aired by which station? That’s where the mystery begins. No one knows for sure. Maybe that’s the real magic of Mahishasurmardini — it’s the rush of nostalgia and the perennial pull of Bhadra’s voice that makes us hit the play button on our radio sets every year.