Dhrupad Mela, Tulsi Ghat

Each late winter, as Mahashivratri approaches, the broad stone terrace of Tulsi Ghat in southern Varanasi becomes a riverfront concert hall for the Dhrupad Mela — a five-day gathering devoted to Dhrupad, the austere and meditative form widely regarded as the oldest surviving genre of Hindustani classical music.

• Under a simple canopy pitched above the Ganga, singers and instrumentalists sit facing an audience of listeners settled on cotton durries, and the deep, unhurried notes of the alap unfold against the sound of the river and the occasional temple bell.
• There is no ticket counter and no stage lighting spectacle; the mela is an act of devotion and preservation as much as a performance, and entry is free to all.
• The festival was founded in 1975 by Pandit Virbhadra Mishra, the scholar-priest and Mahant of the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple, with support from the Sangeet Natak Akademi, as a deliberate effort to revive a tradition that had grown rare on the modern concert circuit.
• Half a century on, it has crossed fifty editions and is now guided by his son, Professor Vishwambhar Nath Mishra, the present Mahant, who has broadened it into an international platform.
• The choice of Tulsi Ghat is deeply fitting: this is the ghat where the poet-saint Tulsidas is believed to have lived while composing the Ramcharitmanas, and where the Ramlila tradition and a working wrestlers' akhara still endure — a corner of Kashi where living heritage has never been staged for tourists but simply continued.
• A visit rewards patience and quiet attention.
• Concerts typically begin around dusk, near 7 pm, and on some nights the music runs late into the darkness.
• Arrive early to claim a place on the steps, sit low, keep phones silent, and let the slow architecture of a raga reveal itself; even listeners new to classical music find the format hypnotic.
• The setting is unforgettable — lamplight on old sandstone, boats drifting past, and the Ganga carrying the sound downstream.
• Dress warmly, as February river evenings turn cold, and carry a shawl or cushion.
• Vegetarian travellers will feel entirely at home here, and indeed across Tulsi Ghat and the nearby Assi neighbourhood, which is one of Varanasi's most reliably meat-free and pilgrim-oriented quarters.
• No food is sold at the concert itself, so eat beforehand or step out during the interval to the pure-vegetarian kitchens of Sonarpura and Godowlia — Ksheer Sagar for a thali and famed milk sweets, Keshari for South Indian dosas and North Indian curries, or Kashi Chat Bhandar for the city's celebrated chaat.
• One caution unique to Varanasi: several lassi and thandai stalls near the ghats sell bhang (cannabis) thandai, so always ask specifically for plain lassi or plain thandai.
• With that single check, the whole area is a joy for a vegetarian diner.