She turned a village storytelling tradition into a global phenomenon; PM Modi and CM Vishnu Deo Sai led tributes as Chhattisgarh mourned.
RAIPUR, July 5 — Teejan Bai, the woman who carried Chhattisgarh’s Pandavani tradition from village courtyards to concert halls in Paris and Tokyo, died early Sunday at AIIMS Raipur. She was 70.
Doctors at the hospital told PTI she passed away at 3:15 am, after weeks of treatment that began on May 27. She’d been fighting a prolonged illness.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called her death an “irreparable loss to the world of art and culture.” He wrote on X that she’d given Chhattisgarh’s folk art “a unique global identity” through her performances, and offered condolences to her family.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai visited AIIMS on Sunday morning to pay his respects in person. He didn’t stop at a public statement — he showed up.
On X, Sai went further, describing Teejan Bai as the “immortal storyteller of Chhattisgarh’s folk culture” and calling her loss one that touches not just the art world but the state’s entire cultural fabric.
Born in 1956 in Ganiyari village, Durg district, into a family with little money and less patience for a girl who wanted to perform. She grew up listening to and reciting stories from the Mahabharata, and that early obsession never left her.
There was social resistance. There was financial hardship. She pushed through both.
What she built instead was remarkable. Pandavani — a regional art form blending narration, singing and musical accompaniment to recount episodes from the Mahabharata — became, through her voice, something the world paid attention to.
She performed in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Russia, Australia and Germany. A folk tradition from a Chhattisgarh village ended up on stages across four continents.
How many artists manage that kind of leap — from a single village’s oral memory to international recognition — without losing what made the tradition distinct in the first place?
Her honours reflected the scale of that achievement. She received the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan, and eventually the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award.
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, now a senior Congress leader, called her “an invaluable jewel of the state.” He credited her with keeping the Pandavani tradition alive in a way that brought pride to both Chhattisgarh and the country.
Her commanding stage presence and expressive delivery weren’t incidental to her success — they were the reason Pandavani stopped being seen as a purely regional curiosity and started being treated as a serious performing art internationally.
AIIMS Raipur has not released further details on the nature of her illness. PTI reported the hospital confirmed only the time and circumstances of her death.
Tributes continued through Sunday from political leaders across party lines, artists, and admirers who’d followed her decades-long career. Few figures in Indian folk art commanded that kind of universal respect.
Teejan Bai’s voice carried a village’s stories to the world. Now that voice has gone quiet, but the tradition she rebuilt for a global audience will outlast her.
