An ancient storytelling tradition met a modern stage in Ahivara, Durg district, on Saturday, 24 October 2026 — as Chief Minister Vishnu Dev Sai attended the Pandavani Mahasammelan, celebrating one of Chhattisgarh's most distinctive folk art forms while also inaugurating and laying the foundation stones for several local development works.

The Chief Minister's Office shared his remarks in Hindi: 'Pandavani Chhattisgarh ki prachin evam samridh lokkala hai, jiske madhyam se Mahabharat ki katha ka sajiv varnan kiya jata hai' — 'Pandavani is an ancient and rich folk art of Chhattisgarh, through which the story of the Mahabharata is brought vividly to life.' Sai specifically praised the role of Kala Manch in keeping this glorious tradition alive.

A single performer, an entire epic

What makes Pandavani extraordinary is its singular discipline: one artist embodies every character from the vast Mahabharata — warrior, sage, villain, deity — through voice, gesture, and song. There is no ensemble cast, no elaborate set. The performer is the whole world. CM Sai underlined this uniqueness in his address, noting that a single artist presents the roles of all the different characters of the epic.

The art form is indigenous to Chhattisgarh and has earned recognition far beyond the state's borders, making events like the Mahasammelan — a large gathering of Pandavani practitioners and enthusiasts — critical forums for intergenerational transmission of the craft.

Ahivara as a confluence of culture and development

Ahivara, a town in Durg district, served as the venue for both the cultural celebration and the inauguration and foundation-laying of various development projects — a pairing that has become a recognisable feature of state-level outreach under the Sai government. Combining intangible heritage events with tangible infrastructure announcements allows the administration to address both cultural identity and local development needs in a single public gathering.

The dual character of the event reflects a pattern seen across Chhattisgarh governments: anchoring district-level development announcements to high-visibility cultural occasions, amplifying reach and resonance with local communities.

Why Pandavani's survival matters now

Folk performance traditions across India face quiet pressure from shifting entertainment preferences, an ageing pool of master artists, and limited platforms for new practitioners. State-sponsored Mahasammelans like the one in Ahivara serve as a rare corrective — providing a stage, an audience, and a political signal that the craft has official backing. Whether that backing translates into sustained patronage beyond a single event is the question that folk artists and cultural scholars will be watching in the months ahead.