Salzburg Festival 2015, Featuring Hinduism Influences, Kicks Off Today

Hinduism will form part of the world renowned Salzburg Festival of Austria this year for the first time in its 95 years history.

Salzburg Festival, today, July 18, to August 30, will include Ensemble Nepathya in Kutiyattam, Dhrupad classical music, Khayal music, Bharatanatyam dance and Morning Ragas. Per a Festival announcement, "The Ouverture spirituelle...focuses on Hinduism this year".

This Festival, which claims to be "greatest and most important festival in the world", includes 293 performances of opera-concert-drama with over 288,000 visitors from 73 countries. Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler is the Festival Board President, while "inequality" is the Festival's theme this year.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, welcoming the inclusion of Hinduism-focused items at Salzburg Festival, urged other major music-dance-drama festivals of the world to include Hindu music-dance-drama, as Hinduism was very rich in these traditions with a long history.

Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that the dance, by tradition, was invented by Lord Shiva who danced the cosmic tandava. The elements of musical theory were first established in Sama-Veda. By the end of the 11th century, there were reportedly several hundred distinct schools of Hindu music-one expert gave the precise number as 784.