India has lost one of its most celebrated folk artists. Padma Vibhushan awardee Teejan Bai passed away at AIIMS Raipur on Sunday after a prolonged illness.
Hospital officials confirmed that Teejan Bai breathed her last at 3.15 am on Sunday. She had been undergoing treatment since May 27, battling a severe lung infection, sepsis, acute kidney injury.
The folk icon was 70 years old at the time of her passing.
PM Modi offers condolences
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed deep grief over her passing, calling it an irreplaceable loss to the world of art and culture.
In a post on X, Modi said he was deeply saddened by the news, adding that through her grand performances, Teejan Bai gave the folk art of Chhattisgarh a unique identity across the world. He extended his condolences to her family and admirers, ending his message with Om Shanti.
सुप्रसिद्ध पंडवानी गायिका तीजन बाई जी के निधन से अत्यंत दुख हुआ है। उन्होंने छत्तीसगढ़ की इस लोक कला को अपनी भव्य प्रस्तुति से दुनियाभर में एक विशिष्ट पहचान दिलाई। उनका जाना कला एवं संस्कृति जगत के लिए एक अपूरणीय क्षति है। शोक की इस घड़ी में मेरी संवेदनाएं उनके परिजनों और…
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 5, 2026
How Teejan Bai started
Teejan Bai was born in 1956 in Ganiyari village near Bhilai in Chhattisgarh. She belonged to the Pardhi Scheduled Tribe and was the eldest among five siblings.
Her connection to Pandavani began early. She grew up listening to her maternal grandfather, Brijlal Pardhi, recite the Mahabharata written by Chhattisgarhi writer Sabal Singh Chauhan. She quickly developed a deep love for the epic, memorised large portions of it, and later trained informally under Umed Singh Deshmukh.
Breaking tradition at just 13
At the age of 13, Teejan Bai gave her first public performance in the neighbouring village of Chandrakhuri for a mere Rs 10. What made this performance historic was her choice to sing in the Kapalik style of Pandavani while standing, something no woman had done before in this tradition.
Women had traditionally performed in the seated Vedamati style. Teejan Bai broke that convention entirely, singing loudly in her distinctive guttural voice, stepping into what had until then been considered a male dominated space.
Rising to national recognition
Her talent spread quickly through nearby villages. Her true breakthrough came when theatre personality Habib Tanvir noticed her ability and arranged for her to perform for then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
From there, national and international recognition followed steadily. She went on to perform sequences from the Mahabharata in Shyam Benegal’s acclaimed Doordarshan series Bharat Ek Khoj, based on Jawaharlal Nehru’s writing.
A global cultural ambassador
Starting in the 1980s, Teejan Bai travelled the world representing Indian folk culture. Her performances took her to countries including England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Turkey, Tunisia, Malta, Cyprus, Romania, and Mauritius.
Teejan Bai’s personal journey was marked by hardship early on. She was married at just 12 years old, and was later expelled by her own Pardhi community for continuing to sing Pandavani as a woman.
Rather than giving up her art, she built a small hut for herself and lived independently, relying on borrowed utensils and food from neighbours while continuing to pursue her singing. She never returned to her first husband’s home and eventually separated from him. She went on to marry twice more in the years that followed and later became a grandmother.
Her signature performance style
Pandavani translates to stories of the Pandavas, the legendary brothers from the Mahabharata. The performance style involves singing and enacting these stories with instrumental accompaniment, typically an ektara or tambura held in one hand, sometimes paired with a kartal in the other.
Teejan Bai was popular for using her tambura in remarkably creative ways during performances transforming it into Bhima’s mace, Arjuna’s bow or chariot, or even Draupadi’s hair depending on the scene she was portraying. Some of her most celebrated performances included Draupadi Cheerharan, Dushasana Vadh, and the Mahabharat Yudh between Bhishma and Arjun.
A lifetime of honours
Over her decades long career, Teejan Bai received some of India’s highest civilian honours. She got the Padma Shri in 1988, the Padma Bhushan in 2003, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2019.
She also received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1995, an honorary D.Litt from Bilaspur University in 2003, the M S Subbalaxmi centenary award in 2016, and the Fukuoka Prize in 2018.