The fourth edition of the Mahindra Percussion Festival took the audience on a rhythmic pilgrimage at the Prestige Centre for Performing Arts in Bengaluru on March 7th and 8th, 2026. The two-day festival witnessed enthusiastic music fans gather in large numbers from across the country to celebrate the transcendental power of percussion. From Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman to Women Who Drum, a new-age percussionist collective of supremely talented women, the artists carried the legacy of percussion forward with The Pulse Within as the central theme.
The first day witnessed a confluence of two generations, with Padma Vibhushanrecipient and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman leading Nada Pravaham — Circle of Sound. With Carnatic-style vocal improvisation from N. Hariharan, accompanied by Ishaan Ghosh on tabla and drummer Shravan Samsi, Sivaraman led the quartet with luminosity and a gleaming act through his mridangam. With 81 glorious years in his career, Umayalpuram and team received a standing ovation, reinforcing that age is just a number.
The headlining act by National Award-winning vocalist Mahesh Kale was no less of a pilgrimage through India’s spiritual traditions of abhangas with his presentation YĀTRA. From Rajasthan to Kashi to Maharashtra, Kale set on to find the meaning of infinite through a musical odyssey. Mahesh Kale’s renditions of bhajans like Payoji Maine Ram Ratan Dhan Payo moved the audience, but no one anticipated what came next. In an impromptu moment, Kale was joined by Umayalpuram for a memorable performance, receiving a rapturous applause for this defining moment of day one.
Women Who Drum set the tone for the second day, infusing the spirit of sisterhood into their set on International Women’s Day. Powerful, transcendental, and gritty, the women’s collective combined conga drums, electric guitar, and harp with tabla, thavil, and mridangam, creating a contemporary sound with modern and time-honoured instruments. The festival acted as a bridge to introduce folk and tribal percussion to newer audiences, while sustaining and preserving the musical heritage.
Another power-packed performance of day two was that of The Parai Awakens by Unreserved Live featuring Praveen Sparsh. Reclaiming and reinventing one of India’s oldest instruments, parai, the performance, with Sparsh’s incredible mridangam and drums presentation, accompanied by parai players, gave a new voice to the ancient traditions.
After an energetic presentation of the Southern traditions, the closing act consisted of an ensemble led by Bickram Ghosh showcasing the percussion heritage of the eastern corridor. Drums of the East was a rhythmic ode to the sonic traditions of the East with indigenous percussion instruments like dhaak and Sreekhol, along with dhol and electric sitar. A packed auditorium saw a pulse reverberating the traditions of the past with a rejuvenated lens, encapsulating the theme this year with a melodic conclusion.
