Vadodara: Dharmiklal Chunilal Pandya (94), regarded as the country’s only surviving practitioner of the traditional Manbhatt form of storytelling, will be conferred the Padma Shri for his contribution to music.The award was announced on the eve of Republic Day on Sunday. Reacting to the Padma Shri announcement, Pandya said, “This honour belongs to my guru Premanand, my father Chunilal, and to Gujarati art.” He urged that ‘Akhyan’ be introduced in school curricula, stressing that language, culture and music must be nurtured together to prevent traditional art forms from disappearing.A resident of Vadodara, Pandya devoted over seven decades to preserving and propagating Akhyan — a rare Gujarati folk narrative tradition in which stories from epics such as the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas are sung in a rhythmic, poetic form while striking an earthen pot (mann) with ringed fingers.Pandya is the sole artist to carry forward the Manbhatt legacy, a centuries-old tradition associated with Brahmin storytellers of Gujarat.He inherited the art from his father, noted Manbhatt Chunilal Govindram, after whose name a lane in the old city of Vadodara is also dedicated.After losing his father during his school years, Pandya took up storytelling as a means of livelihood. Trained in classical music, he blended melody, rhythm and narration to give ‘Akhyan’ performances a distinctive musical depth.His early recitals in Vadodara’s neighbourhoods later found wider recognition through broadcasts on All India Radio. Over the years, Pandya presented more than 2,500 ‘Akhyan’ performances in India and abroad, including in the US, the UK and Canada.His notable works include Shri Harivansh Puran, Shri Shiv Mahapuran and Shri Sangeet Shrimad Bhagwat. He also used the medium for social awareness programmes on issues such as water conservation, literacy, prohibition and environmental protection.Pandya currently heads the Shri Mann Akhyan Kala Shikshan Kendra, where he trains young artists. He has authored two books — Gujarati Akhyan and Govindgun Sagar — and continues to write even at 94. He was earlier honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1983.Box: What is Akhyan and Manbhatt tradition?Akhyan is a traditional Gujarati folk narrative art form that combines poetry, music and storytelling. Performed in a rhythmic, sung style, Akhyans narrate episodes from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana, Mahabharata and various Puranas, using simple, accessible language.The tradition is closely associated with Manbhatts — Brahmin storytellers who perform while striking an earthen pot (mann) or a copper vessel with ringed fingers and clapping hands to maintain rhythm. The performance relies solely on voice, rhythm and expression, without instrumental accompaniment.Historically, Akhyan finds mention as early as the 12th century in Kavyanushasan by Acharya Hemchandra. Its golden period spanned the 15th to 17th centuries, when poet-saints such as Premanand Bhatt, Bhalan, Shamal Bhatt and Bhoja Bhagat enriched Gujarati bhakti literature through Akhyan compositions.Once a popular medium of religious instruction and social communication, Akhyan steadily declined with changing cultural practices.
