Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya “IKSV” is situated in the Khairagarh township of Chhattisgarh State of India. A different University by its type where higher education is imparted through various types of Music, Dance, Fine Arts and Cultural Heritage.
The then rulers of princely state of Khairagarh, Raja Birendra Bahadur Singh and his consort Rani Padmavati Devi Singh donated their ancestral palace to establish a University of Music & Fine Arts. A tribute to their daughter Princess ‘INDIRA’ and named university after her name as “Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya”. The generous support and donations from the then rulers of feudal state of Khairagarh also ardent lover of music and fine arts provided requisite inspiration and vision. The palace donated by them houses the foremost portion of the University, which is now one of the best examples of amalgamated architectural style. University was inaugurated on 14th October, 1956 by Priyadarshani, Smt. Indira Gandhi.
Amidst lush green rural settings- away from din and bustle of urban area, IKSV provide state of the art facility for learning and research dedicated to all fine arts students, researchers, doctrinaire and academic thinkers.
IKSV is the Asia’s first University which is fully dedicated to all forms of Music, Dance and Fine Arts. This institution is actively engaged in pursuing artistic, academic and cultural goals at this time when music and fine arts society is passing through rapid change and is introduced to the globalization. Here at IKSV, efforts were made to balance the vacillating scale of traditionalism and modernism. This University is constantly trying its level best to make music and fine arts socially and economically vibrant and relevant.
In the Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya, major thrust is given to develop a pedagogic system inspired by creative thinking in pursuit of excellence for the development of the liberated minds. University offers mainly 4 UG and 2 PG and 3 research courses in various subjects of Dance, Music, Paintings, Graphics, Sculpture, Design and Other Fine Arts. University is also provided facility for short term researches.
Apart from imparting instructions to the students from Prathama to Research degrees, all the faculties focus on quality of research work undertaken. In the Faculty of Music researchers explore Indian Classical music and allied art forms. University is establishing one state of the art Music Studio, which is in its final stage. The Faculty of Dance promotes research in Kathak and Bharatnatyam, the oldest dance forms of world. Inter-relationship among the dance forms and their different aspects are a few of the areas where meaningful research is pursued by the students of this department.
Faculty of Visual Arts consisting of the Department of Painting, Graphics, Sculpture and Design explores the rich Indian and international traditions of painting, graphics, sculpting and designing in the traditional as well as modern context. They primarily focus on research work in techniques, aesthetics and its extensions in their respective fields. Many awards and recognitions were secured by the students and faculties of the departments from various national and international bodies tell their saga of success in their endeavors. Researchers of the Faculty of Folk Music explore the virgin field of Indian Folk tales, folk songs and folk dances. Faculty of Arts mainly focuses on interdisciplinary research works. In the department of History of Indian Arts and Culture researchers concentrate on different aspects of Indian culture and Indian Art including archaeology, cultural history and ethnic treasure of Chhattisgarh and India. The Departments of Hindi and Sanskrit promote research work in different area of concerning literature. The researchers of the Department of English explore Indian English literature as well as English literature contributed by Indian Diaspora. The research section of the University coordinates and facilitates research activities under the supervision of senior teachers. All the research works in the University are predominantly amalgamated with different aspects of Dance, Music and Fine Arts.
Various diplomas and certificate courses are the added attraction for the students which they can complete also with graduation and post graduation courses. IKSV emphasizes on quality education based on values. Personal attention is given to all students to ensure that the best comes out of them. The objective of the University is “to provide instructions in all branches of music and fine arts, to make provision for research and advancement of studies in music and fine arts and dissemination of knowledge their of.”
The other useful courses that help our students to develop their personality include Yoga, Drama, Functional English and Functional Sanskrit. Department of Life Long Learning runs various Diploma and certificate courses which can be done while perusing a degree course.
Jurisdiction of the University covers the entire country (INDIA). Efforts are on to make provision for affiliation of the institutions of music and fine arts of other countries as well. This seems to be in line with the motto of the University “Suswarah Santu Surveapi – May all live in tune!”
We have been able to achieve our goal to some extent due to the concerted efforts of all limbs of the University. The harmonious corporate life of the University campus gives a glimpse of multicultural, multilingual, culturally diversified yet united one India.
The life at IKSV helps students to learn from all various sources viz. teachers, peer groups and performers form all states of India. This acquaints them with “the great outline of knowledge, the principles on which it rests the scale of its parts, its lights and its shades, the great points and it’s little, as he otherwise cannot apprehend them.” (Hampton, H.V. selections from Newman’s Idea of a University, Fifth Edition, Longman, Green and Colt. 1944, P. 37)
Workshops, exhibitions, lecture demonstrations, intellectual discourses, artists and seminars are the usual features of this University that help students to enhance their academic stature. Students are provided with special facilities to attend music/dance concerts and events. This provides them rare chance to witness great artists performing with their distinctive styles. This also provides a real time opportunity to our students to introspect and rate/benchmark their skill sets and learning. .
University has blessed with the presence, inputs & knowledge of many renowned artists and doctrine thinkers form the field of Music and Fine Arts such as Pt. Ravishankar, Pt. Lacchu Maharaj, Pt. Birju Maharaj, Smt. Sitara Devi, Pt. Jasraj, Su. Shri. Lata Mangeshkar, Smt. M.S. Subbalaxmi, Shri Vishwmohan Bhatt, Shri. N.S Bendre, Shri Habib Tanveer, Shri Vilayt Khan, Shri. Ramchatur Mullick, Shri. R. Sathyanarayana, Pt. Ronu Majumdar, Shri. K.K. Hebbar, Smt. Shovna Narayanan, Pt. Bhajan Sopori, Smt. Kishori Amonkar etc.
University collaborates with the village community to organize short term courses run by the Adult Education Department of the University. Our N.S.S Unit organizes Ten Day Camp with the active help of the Sarpanch and Village Secretary of the adapted village. Short term training programs of Painting, Music and other vocational courses are organized to tone up the existing skills of the villagers. University also shares knowledge base and information with the village artisans on commercialization of their vocations, importance of knowledge sharing, dissemination, importance of education, sanitation and other socio, cultural and economical aspects.
University is connected with the global community though NKN lease line. Computer centre of the University takes care of the maintenance and up gradation of computer network in the campus.
The Library also the knowledge centre of the University has stocks of more than 40000 books which also include brail books, 2400+ back volumes of research journals, 271 Thesis and 40+ current journals, very rare collections like Radhagovind Sangeet Saar, Naad Vinod Granth, Mooladhar, Sangeet Kaladhar and other rare transcripts of menu scripts etc. Operating in the domain of Music and Fine Arts, University has also secured long list of Audio Visual materials which includes 1600+ Gramophone Records, 2900+ Audio Cassettes, Audio books for Blind Students, 300+ Spool Tapes, significant number of microfilms, video tapes ACDs, VCDs etc. The museum of the University has many medieval icons and coins displaying the vivid culture of this region of Dakshin Kosal.
The common life led by the teachers of this university presents a rare example of fraternity and brotherhood. 77% of our faculty members have Ph. D. degree in their name. The presence in the small but beautiful campus makes Khairagarh town a real heterogeneous place.
The central office of the University is headed by the Registrar under the supervision of the Vice Chancellor. Other offices namely- establishments, accounts, examinations, and the general section works under the direct control of the Registrar. These offices provide necessary facilities to the teachers and students to guarantee their effective functioning. IKSV’s governance structure has been improved with ‘checks and balances’ in functioning and by utilizing the collective wisdom in decision making.
University is possessing the vision to evolve this university as a shrine for training the human resources in music and fine arts. Through their operation in this different dimension for over 55 years they have found that, much of music and arts require proper shelter, codification and propagation. University from the day of inception is managing to preserve and propagates knowledge in the field of Music and Fine Arts. In coming days, apart from the overall development of the students, pedagogy and society at large, identification of ancient traditions of music and other arts, tracing out their marks across the history, their interrelationship as well as their interdependence will also be the focus area of the University.
