Indian musician brings rare 'Water Waves' performance to UF

April 19, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions and the Center for World Arts have teamed up to present a rare music concert on April 21. The world’s only female professional Jalatarangam performer, Seetha Doraiswamy, will perform from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Health Professions, Nursing and Pharmacy (HPNP) Auditorium. Admission is $15 per person, $25 per family and free to students with identification.

Jalatarangam, or “water waves,” is a rare Indian musical genre in which bamboo sticks are struck on a set of water-filled porcelain cups of different sizes and thicknesses.
Doraiswamy, 82, has given more than 1,000 concerts in India, the Middle East and the U.S. and will perform at UF with her granddaughter, Ganavya Doraiswamy, accompanied on percussion by her grandson, Abishek Raaja.

“It is remarkable that Mrs. Seetha Doraiswamy, who is the only woman to professionally play the jaltarangam instrument, still continues to give concerts,” said Vasudha Narayanan, director of the Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions. “She is dedicated to this little known art form and is enthusiastic about educating anyone who is interested in it. As a teenager, she made her mark in this field in the late 1930s — when it was rare for women from conservative families to perform in public in India — and then chose an instrument that only men specialized in, traditionally. It is an honor to have her perform in Gainesville.”

The Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions (ChiTra) was established in 2005 as the first center of its kind in the U.S. and has active collaborations with the world’s only other Hindu studies center, Oxford University’s Centre for Hindu Studies. The acronym “CHiTra” is the Sanskrit word for “beautiful work of art” and the center exists to encourage the academic study, research and teaching of diverse Hindu traditions through lectures, dance and musical performances. For more information, visit http://www.clas.ufl.edu/chitra/.