Ganpati Bappa Morya: Dhol Tasha beats to reverberate across city to pep up festivities

Hyderabad: Returning to their cultural origins, the Maharashtrian community in the city is once again embracing the fervor of welcoming Bappa (Lord Ganesh) with great enthusiasm and grandeur, accompanied by their traditional musical instrument, the Dhol Tasha. The members of the Maharashtrian Dhol Tasha Pathak are fully prepared to showcase their skills, not only within their own community but also by performing at several Ganesh pandals across the city.

This year various puja organisers of the community have come up with a few unique themes including the Chandrayaan 3 theme and many others. There are approximately 80,000 Marathi families living in Hyderabad/Secunderabad and the majority are concentrated in areas like Shalibanda, Karwan, Gowliguda, Sultan Bazar, Kachiguda, Barkatpura, Meerpet, Hitech City, Manikonda, Gachibowli, Miyapur, Kompally, ECIL and Uppal. Preserving their age-old traditions, the community continues to extend a warm welcome to Ganesh idols at the pandals. Over the past few years, they have passionately advocated for eco-friendly idols, actively promoting their use, and even organising eco-conscious immersion ceremonies.

Anand Kulkarni, president of Maharashtra Mandal, one of the oldest Marathi associations in Ramkoti, said “Away from our land, we have built our home in the city itself, keeping our traditional alive for the present generation, Ganesh Chaturthi is something which we all Marathis adore a lot and we wanted a community where all can gather and celebrate it, so from past 74 years we have been celebrating Ganesh puja as the same way it is celebrated in Maharashtra. Like every year even this year our idol will be eco-friendly and also we welcome Bappa with Dhol Tasha and Lezim.”

To keep our traditions alive, seven days we organise a cultural programme that is purely of Marathi culture. On the last day, which is on the seventh day, the immersion will also take place on our campus at Ramkoti, an artificial pond will be created and the idol will be immersed in an eco-friendly manner, he added.

Ambarish Lahankar, founder of Mitraangan - Maharashtrian of Hyderabad said, “Dhol Tasha which is a traditional instrument is being admired by all, this is not only limited in our community, but also several puja pandal organisers have approached to play the Dhol Tasha at their pandals. Our organisation has a group name Maharashtrian Dhol Tasha Pathak (group) and to promote the vibrant part of the Maharashtrian culture of Maharashtra, for the last few years we have performed at various reputed platforms to render our musical service to Bappa (Lord Ganesh). We have also been performing in front of Khairatabad Ganesh for the last three years and even this year we going to perform the same.”

Captain Lele, a member of the Health League, said, “For the past 79 years, we have been celebrating in the traditional manner. This year our theme is going to be Chandrayaaan -3 theme, as this is one of the most significant achievements of our country, so decided to dedicate our theme to it.

On the first day we welcome Lord Ganesh with Pran Prathisthapana pooja, by offering bappa’s favorite sweets modak and laddu, we welcome Bappa by playing traditional Maharashtrian lexims and Marathi Dhol Tasha which are the most popular instruments played during the festival.”