Many of us have heard of Indian musicians performing at international festivals held in Europe and North America. Some are even featured in festivals held in South America and Australia. But little is known of their participation in festivals held in regions that are geographically closer to India, regions that share deeper and longer cultural associations with us.

The Shiraz-Persepolis Festival of Arts, or Jashn-e-Honar-e-Shiraz, was one such event, held in Iran between 1967 and 1977. Started with a view to creating a dialogue between Iranian artistes and those from other parts of Asia and the West, the festival was supported by the Queen of Iran. Evidently, issues of modernisation and Westernisation vis-à-vis the arts in Iran interested the organisers and the audience.


A short film about the Shiraz Arts Festival, 1969, with an interview with Queen Farah Pahlavi about the event.


Indian music and dance were represented at the festival. Of the many top-notch performers from the Hindustani music tradition featured at the festival, recordings of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and sarangi virtuoso Ram Narayan are still available.


Ravi Shankar plays an aalaap followed by a gat in Rupak tala in raga Madhuvanti. He is accompanied by tabla exponent Alla Rakha.



Ram Narayan plays a composition in raga Jog set to the sixteen-beat time cycle Teen tala. He is accompanied by Suresh Talwalkar on the tabla.