Damodar Dutt Shastri
March 1, 1930 ~ June 14, 2013
Resided in:
Fremont, CA
Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, India, Pt. Damodardutt Shastri has acquired distinguished education. He holds the degree of 'Shastri' from the esteemed Government Sanskrit College at Benaras; B.A. with Violin Madhav from Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, Gwalior and an M.A. with Vocal Music from Morris Music College, Lucknow.
After his studies, he settled in Ahmedabad, but later traveled all over India to popularise Indian music, culture and religion. He also advocated these abroad on his extensive travels to Africa, Middle East and Europe. Since 1974, he has covered entire North America giving music performances and lectures on Ramayan, Shrimad Bhagwad and Bhagwat Gita besides the Vedas and Upnishads.
Shastriji not only possesses deep knowledge of these subjects, but also his presentation is poetic, beautiful and charming. His lectures are laced with musical rendition of chopais of Ramayan and even shlokas from scriptures.
Shastriji is a master of musical presentations and he enchants the audiences with his melodious voice. He has a grip on classical ragas and also different styles of music such as ghazals, bhajans and traditional songs.
For avid Indian music lovers, to listen to Shastriji is an experience which is not to be missed.
The live recordings in his album - Ram Rasayan - available on SudeepAudio.com, are about 30 to 40 years old and have been digitally mastered at Sudeep Studio, Ahmedabad.
We came with Shastriji in 1958 and stay connected. Last visit to Shantaben and Shastriji and family with Bhanuben ,Jyotiben I had in the Freemont, CA.
The loss of Dear Sahstriji to family and friend will only comfort with is Sangeet and Katha.
We are praying and sending the news to Jitubhai and Trivedi Parivar.
Dear Anirudha and All sisters and Shantaben stay connected.
Rajendra M.Trivedi Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
http://www.bpaindia.org
When he came to Dar es salaam I had privilege to listen to his Katha and Sangeet.