NEW DELHI: The onset of the Basant Panchami festival and the month of Magh in the Hindu calendar will be marked by DD Bharati with the launch of its special series “Maihar Gharana.”

The series features four stars of Ustad Baba Allaudin Khan Maihar Gharana: sitar maestro Pt. Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Sharan Rani Backlliwal and Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

Ustad Baba Allauddin was regarded throughout India as a musician saint and remained a student of music till the age of 70 completely mastering the Dhrupad and instrumental compositions of the Seni Gharana and adding innumerable new compositions and many new Ragas, such as Hemant, Shobhavati, Durgeshwari etc.

Basant Panchami, announces the arrival of spring (Basant), the bosom friend of Kamdev – the god of love. DD Bharati commences the series with a special archival performance of sitar player of country and abroad, Pt. Ravi Shankar, followed by Ali Akbar Khan in the next week. The series commences on 24 January at 9 pm and repeat telecast at 5 am and 1 pm.

President Pranab Mukherjee’s broadcast to the nation will be telecast on 25 January from 07:30 pm to 8 pm on all DD channels. 

The 66th Republic Day Parade will be telecast from 9 am on 26 January on all DD channels.

The Beating Retreat ceremony, which officially denotes the end of Republic Day festivities, will also be telecast live. It is conducted on the evening of 29 January, the third day after the Republic Day. It is performed by the bands of the three wings of the Defence forces: the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force. The venue is Raisina Hills starting from Rashtrapati Bhavan and the adjacent Vijay Chowk, flanked by the north and south blocks of the Central Secretariat towards the end of Rajpath from 04:45 pm to 06:15pm. It concludes with the lighting of the entire Central Secretariat and all Government buildings on both sides of Rajpath.