Housewives set world record with marathon bhajan singing

Shegaon (Maharashtra), Jan 30
A group of Maharashtrian women, mostly housewives settled in Chhattisgarh, have a created a new world record of marathon singing of bhajans (devotional songs) for a staggering 27 hours and 45 minutes, a member said here Friday.

The record performance - 'Longest Spiritual Songs Marathon' - included bhajans in nine Indian languages rendered continuously by nine members of the Shri Samarth Swardhara group Dec 24-25 last year.

"The feat has been recognised and accepted as a new world record by Golden Book of World Records and we were awarded their certificate yesterday (Thursday) at a major function in Shegaon," said group leader Ragini Vijay Kute.

Kute, 40, and other members of her group hail from different parts of Maharashtra and have been married and settled in neighbouring Chhattisgarh. Two men also took part in the performance.

"We were inspired by a group of school children last November who set a new world record by singing the national anthems of 193 countries... we started rigorous practice to ensure a world-class performance," Kute told IANS.

They approached the GBWR which agreed to the proposal and Kute directed the entire record-breaking achievement in a studio, where the feat was recorded under the GBWR's stringent guidelines.

The nine singers led by Kute rendered bhajans of Lord Ganesha, Shankar-Parvati, all nine avatars of Devi Mata, Goddess Tulja Bhavani, Lord Khandoba of Jejuri, Lord Vitthal of Pandharpur and renowned saints like Samarth Ramdas Swami, Shri Swami Samarth, Dattatray Maharaj and Gajanan Maharaj of Shegaon.

These bhajans were sung in Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, Punjabi, Chhattisgarhi, Rajasthani, Gujarati, Haryanvi, and Sindhi languages.

"We are thrilled and encouraged by this recognition from GBWR. Our next target is to enter the Guinness World Records with a similar performance," said Ragini, a post-graduate in music from Amravati University.