On 26th December 2004 the tsunami waves crashed into the Chennai
coastline spreading death and devastation. At Srinivasapuram in
Pattinapakkam near Foreshore Estate, the giant waves flooded the huts on
the beach and destroyed the boats of the fisherfolk. The boundary wall
of the Meenavar Samudaya Koodam (Fishermen Community Hall) was washed
away as the swirling waters swept past it into the ground floor flats
beyond.
'The Art of Living' volunteers (followers of Sri Sri Ravishankar) who
were interacting with the fisherfolk in the area even before December
2004 decided to adopt the ravaged fishing hamlets in the area and swung
into action. They launched reconstruction and rehabilitation measures
after the tsunami to help the people get over the trauma. They held
group singing sessions there and also helped to reconstruct the damaged
Samudaya Koodam. The renovated hall with a new boundary wall was
formally inaugurated by Akhila Srinivasan, Managing Director of the
Shriram Group of Companies on 30th April. It was an evening of music and
dance which brought cheer to the fisherfolk.
The Srinivasapuram residents sang bhajan-s alongwith the 'Art of
Living' volunteers. This was followed by an interesting presentation of
Bharatanatyam by one of the Jana Bharatam groups of Natyarangam (a dance
unit of the Narada Gana Sabha). It also coincided with World Dance Day
which is celebrated every year on the 29th April.
The Srinivasapuram residents sang bhajan-s alongwith the 'Art of
Living' volunteers. This was followed by an interesting presentation of
Bharatanatyam by one of the Jana Bharatam groups of Natyarangam (a dance
unit of the Narada Gana Sabha). It also coincided with World Dance Day
which is celebrated every year on the 29th April. Jana Bharatam was
launched by Natyarangam in 2003 with the objective of taking dance to
new audiences at new venues. The dancers explain the nuances of the art
in simple but interesting ways to the audience to help them appreciate
the finer aspects of the dance form; and in the process educate,
entertain and maybe bring warmth and cheer if possible. A few groups of
dancers under the Jana Bharatam scheme are actively involved in
performing in schools, orphanages and old-age homes.
In keeping with this objective, one of the Jana Bharatam groups
comprising dancers Lakshmi Ramaswamy, Priyashri Rao, Lavanya Ananth,
Sasirekha Rammohan and Guhendran presented an entertaining mix of
Bharatanatyam at the Samudaya Koodam. They got a robust response from
the crowd consisting mainly of women, children and teenagers belonging
to different religions. The new hall was full. The dancers presented
solo and group items-- a brisk pushpanjali, a Natesa Kavuthuvam
describing Siva-Nataraja, popular songs of Subramania Bharati like
Chinnanchiru kiliye Kannamma; Bhaarata samudayam vaazhgave; and episodes
depicting Gajendra Moksham and Draupadi Maanasamrakshanam.
The audience enjoyed the two items depicting the forest and the sea.
The dancers performed them to the simple accompaniment of the mridanga
and a raga alapana rendered by the vocalist. The description of the
jungle had the youngsters enthusiastically identifying the birds and
animals as the dancers depicted them; and when Guhendran made his entry
as the monkey and described its antics, the crowd broke into thunderous
applause. They also enjoyed the impromptu item about the sea-- its
varied moods, the fishermen setting out to sea, hauling in their
catch, etc. "Superaa irukku !" chorused the teenagers in the audience as
they voiced their spontaneous appreciation. The finale was a vibrant
Kummi by the dancers as the audience too clapped in rhythm with them.
The announcements were simple, informal and interactive, which helped to
sustain the interest of the enthusiastic crowd.
It was heartwarming to see the spontaneous appreciation of
Bharatanatyam by an uninitiated audience. Many in the crowd expressed
their desire to see more such programmes and the womenfolk wanted to
send their children to learn dance. Young and old alike said they had
had a memorable evening which had brought them cheer and peace of
mind. What better proof than this that our classical arts can not only
entertain, but also calm the mind, elevate and reach out to people!
In Nagapattinam - A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Shastri Nagar based
Aseema (without boundaries) Trust founded by art critic and cultural activist
V.R. Devika recently organised a three-day Art for Healing programme at the
Pudukuppam at Poompuhar in Nagapattinam district devastated by the tsunami. The
fishing village has been adopted by the SOS Children's Village and Chatnath
Homes Tambaram whom The Aseema Trust is partnering in providing relief through
the arts.
Devika had taken
artists from Chennai and Kanchipuram to help the fishing village get over its
trauma. Selvaraj, a traditional shadow puppeteer who works at Dakshinachitra in
Muttukkadu had lost all his puppets and his household goods in the tsunami. The
Aseema Trust bought him leather shadow puppets from Andhra Pradesh and got him
to restart his career. With his Ramayana and his humorous puppet shows Selvaraj
regaled the people of the Pudukuppam village and the children from nearby
villages housed in small temporary settlements who come for recreation to a
learning centre.
Bharatanatyam dancers
Monita and Daya, disciples of the Dhananjayans, arrived with vocalist Vanathi
Raghuram, mridangist Veda Krishnan, violinist Srinivasan and Divya Sivakumar for
nattuvangam to perform for the fishing village. Devika brought the art closer to
the village populace who were witnessing Bharatanatyam for the first time in
their lives by describing the elements of the dance style, the gestural
language, etc. in an interactive story-telling manner. The gesture of
namaskaram, the adavu arithmetics and the animal and forest movements were well
received by the children of the village who answered every question with gusto
and observed everything keenly. Even the village officer told the artists that
he had seen Bharatanatyam for the first time in his life and never knew it could
be so graceful and so full of precision and mathematics. The dancers had to
dance on an uneven stage with holes in it. It was a moonlit night, the sea was
calm and the sands had cooled by the evening.
On the third day, an
all-night performance of Karna Moksham in the Tamil Koothu style was
organised to pray for the dead. An arch with the names of the dead is being
constructed on the road leading to the sea. The village is yet to come out of
the trauma of the December 26 tsunami. It is amazing that the structures
commemorating the Silappadikaram epic have withstood the tsunami though
the walls and pucca houses were pulverized by the waves in Poompuhar.
Encouraged by the overwhelming response, The Aseema Trust plans to
present a programme every month at Pudukkupam.
MAIN FEATURE
Creativity in Raga Alapana - Part 1 -
P.K. DORAISWAMY
The Pride, Puzzle and Paradox of Carnatic Music
1.
The raga is the life and soul of Indian classical music. Professor Sambamoorthy
calls raga-based music absolute music. No other music system in the world, we
claim proudly, is comparable to ours in the extent and depth of spontaneous,
continuous creativity. What jazz and some folk styles do is mere superficial
improvisation in specific tunes and without an overarching conceptual
framework such as the raga. Creativity is expected to be the least in the
singing of kriti-s (known as kalpita sangeeta), and much more in the singing of
niraval, swaram and tanam. But it is raga alapana that is considered the
pinnacle of manodharma sangeeta.
2.
This article was inspired by the following, somewhat alarming, thought
experiment: "Suppose we listen to a typical, reasonably elaborate alapana of
any raga by a leading musician. Ignoring purely ornamental sangati-s and briga-s,
what percentage, on an average, of his raga-bhava-enhancing sanchara-s will be
those which we have never heard before?....
3.
What exactly is this creativity in alapana that all of us are proud of? What is
our norm for identifying genuine creativity and labelling it so? How pervasive
or rare is it? How deep or superficial is it? What minimum of it is essential
before an alapana qualifies to be rated as creative? Even where creativity
exists, is its degree and duration exaggerated or overrated? These questions
are fascinating but when one tries to answer them and pin down the concept and
criteria of creativity, they turn out to be puzzling and paradoxical. What
follows is essentially an exploration of the above and related questions and
is not to be taken as prescriptive or definitive answers to them.
4.
What would be an ideal alapana (if there is one)? Is it one which:
(i) consists wholly of
newly-created, never-sung-before sanchara-s, or
(ii) has a strong base of
traditional sanchara-s with an elaborate superstructure of newly-created
sanchara-s, or
(iii) has a predominant foundation
of traditional sanchara-s with a moderate dose of newly-created sanchara-s,
or
(iv) consists mostly of
traditional sanchara-s interspersed with novel surface-level embellishments
(sangati-s), or
(v) consists wholly of
traditional, established sanchara-s?......
6.
Conceptually, one could distinguish four broad levels of creativity in
expounding raga-s:
(a) conceiving a raga (assuming that what is
created is accepted as a raga according to classical norms),
(b) establishing its unique swaroopa, by exploring it and identifying its distinctive, dominant, defining
sanchara-s,
(c) extending its aesthetic frontiers by
developing new perspectives on it (assuming this is possible), and
(d) embellishing familiar sanchara-s
at the surface-level with original sangati-s (i.e. alankara-s or anatomical
ornamentations) in order to impart variety, glitter and tempo.....
7.
Operationally, one could evaluate creativity in raga exposition at
three levels of strictness:
(i) invented, never-sung-before sanchara-s which provide new perspectives on the raga thus extending its
aesthetic frontiers beyond the already familiar;
ii) any improvised, novel
embellishments to familiar sanchara-s conforming to the grammatical structure of
the raga, even if they are only surface level sangati-s or are not unique to
the raga and as a pattern are applicable to other raga-s;
(iii) any unpremeditated,
spontaneous sanchara which occurs to a musician even if it has been sung by
him or other musicians earlier, or does not enlarge the aesthetic frontiers of
the raga beyond the already familiar.
Depending on which of the above
definitions one adopts, one would evaluate the degree of creativeness in raga
alapana as high or low. It would appear that, in practice, each of these
criteria is adopted by different rasika-s and reviewers according to their own
knowledge, tastes and preferences, and there is no unanimity or uniformity.
(to be concluded)
BRIEF NOTES
Balamani Honoured
- A CORRESPONDENT
Parvati Kumar Honoured- VIMALA SARMA
Guruvayurappan Bhajan
Samaj- SULOCHANA SARALAYA
Vadya Vaibhava
- KUSUMA RAO
Natyanjali
B
To Lord Nataraja: * Chidambaram Natyanjali Festival from 8 - 12 March; *
Natyanjali Kumbakonam from 6 - 8 March at the Adi Kumbheswarar Temple; and *
Salangai Natyanjali Festival on 8 March at the Jambukeswarar Temple in
Tiruvanaikoil in Tiruchi. .
Honoured
B Girija Seshu,
popular Carnatic music teacher in Navi Mumbai with the title of Gana Siksha Mani;
and octogenarian N. Raman, Vice President of Mulund Fine Arts, with the title of
Sangeetha Seva Mani; by Vashi Fine Arts Society at the seventh annual day
celebrations in the last week of January in Mumbai.
Presented
B The
Dakshinachitra Virudhu 2005' to veteran Koodiyattam exponent Ammanur Madhava
Chakyar and G. Venu of Natana Kairali, by Madras Craft Foundation and Friends of
Dakshinachitra; 12 March in Chennai.
B 'Veteran
Award' instituted in memory of Semmangudi, to vidwans S. Rajam, B. Rajam Iyer,
Tiruvengadu Jayaraman and M.S. Sadasivam (vocal); M.S. Anantharaman (violin);
Kumbakonam Rajappa Iyer (mridanga); and Janaki Rajagopalan (harmonium); by
Bharat Kalachar, 20 February in Chennai.
Released
l
Music Today's Shankaram rendered by vainika Jayanthi Kumaresh; 22
February in Chennai.
l Nada
Yogi Atma Katha--Sri Nedunuri Krishna Murthy's Autobiography, 10
April in Visakhapatnam.
Conducted
l
67th Sree Ramanavami Music Festival by Sree Ramaseva Mandali, from 9 April to 14
May in Bangalore.
l
National Seminar on 'Traditions and Contemporary Trends in Carnatic Music',
organised by the Dept. of Music and Re-search Centre, Govt. College Chittur; 24
- 25 January in Palakkad, Kerala.
Died
L T.K.
Narayan (82), veteran Bharatanatyam guru; a close associate of dance exponent
the late Ram Gopal; founder-director of Academy of Bharata Natyam in 1948;
former Principal of the Govt. College of Music and Dance, Hyderabad; 2 March in
Hyderabad.
L N.R.
Bhuvarahan (92), music critic and journalist; he had placed his house in R.A.
Puram in Chennai at the disposal of Brhaddhvani (archival and music training
centre); 7 May in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A.
L
T.T. Vasu (76), former President of the Music Academy for more than two
decades; art patron; industrialist; son of former Union Finance Minister T.T.
Krishnamachari; 11 May in Chennai.
L
T.S. Rangarajan (83), former Secretary of the Music Academy, Chennai; 26 May
in Chennai.
L
V. Thyagarajan (77), Carnatic violin vidwan, 'Top' grade artist in
AIR-Chennai; Staff Artist from 1973 to 1987; served as Visiting Professor in
Wesleyan University, U.S.A. from 1967 to 1970; recipient of the Kalaimamani
award in 1984; elder son of famous violinist the late Papa Venkataramiah; 28 May
in Chennai..
BACK OF BOOK
Postage Stamps: Windows To Music &Dance
Stamps On Saints And Poets - Part 6
Namdeo - S. SANKARANARAYANAN,SHIVU
The Jnaneswar (also called Jnanadev and Dnyaneshwar) lived in
the 13th century AD in Maharashtra. Jnaneswar and Namdeo were contemporaries.
And it was the latter who has given us an authentic biography of Jnaneswar.
Stamp on Namdeo
The stamp on
Namdeo was issued on 9 November 1970, on his 700th birth anniversary. It is in
the denomination of 20 P., with a perf. of 13 x 13, and in orange colour. It was
printed on 'Asoka Pillar' water-marked adhesive stamp paper at the India
Security Press, Nashik by photogravure process. The stamp depicts Namdeo in a
devotional mood, holding a tanpura and chipla in his hands. In the background is
Lord Vithoba's shrine.
Sant Namdeo
We continue the series on Saints and Poets with Sant Namdeo.
Namdeo, Jnanadev (Dnyaneswar), Eknath and Tukaram formed the famous Quartet
of Devotees of Lord Vithoba of Pandharpur. And Namdeo was the earliest and
perhaps the best known among them.
Namdeo was born in 1270 AD at Narasi-Bamani in Parbhani District of
Maharashtra. His parents were Damashet and Gonai.
Namdeo and Jnanadev were contemporaries, and together they went on a
pilgrimage to several parts of north India, spreading the message of god. Namdeo
was blessed with a long life and he spent most of his time in Pandharpur,
leading the life of a householder, with his wife and children.
He attained samadhi in 1350 AD, at the age of 80.
In his abhang-s (devotional songs), Namdeo has left a wealth of information
on his life, philosophy and teaching.
Namdeo preached keertan (sankeertan) as the easiest method of attaining god's
grace, and final emancipation. He advised his followers to perform it with
detachment from things mundane, and in an attitude of absolute surrender to the
Lord Almighty.
It appears that Namdeo's teaching had considerable influence on the Sikhs
too, for some of his verses have been incorporated in their Holy Scripture, the
Guru Granth Sahib. It is said that there is even a temple in the Punjab
associated with Namdeo's name
Namdeo wrote his abhang-s not only in Marathi, his mother-tongue, but in
Hindi too. This helped his message reach far and wide.
His abhang-s are very popular-- Bhaktajana vatsale (in this song Namdeo
addresses the Lord as goddess Lakshmi); Majha bhava tujhey charani; Teertha
Vitthala kshetra Vitthala; Deh jao athava raaho; Namacha gajar garje bheemateer;
and Pandari nivasa sakhya Panduranga to mention a few.
The core of his teaching was compassion to fellow human beings, and was aimed
at the spiritual advancement of all sections, irrespective of caste, creed or
gender. His followers included people of all castes and callings.
It is no wonder therefore that Namdeo is considered the most famous of
Maharashtra's saint-poets.
The Book Shelf
RAGALAKSHANASANGRAHA (Collection of Raga Descriptions) from Treatises on
Music of the Mela period with translation and notes. By Hema Ramanathan. [N.
Ramanathan, New 35, Old 18, Fourth Main Road, Raja Annamalaipuram, Chennai.
2004. Hard Bound. Pp. 1569. Rs. 1000].
This book is a concordance of raga lakshana-s, covering
treatises on the subject in Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada. Encyclopaedic
in its scope, it is based on the project work of the author under a Senior
Fellowship in Carnatic Music (V) (2000-2002) of the Dept. of Culture of the
Govt. of India. The documentation is thorough and the author has fully justified
the compilation from vernacular treatises besides the Sanskrit texts. The
original texts relating to the melodic form of each raga is given followed by a
translation into English. The information about each raga is neatly presented in
chronological order, which enables the reader to refer quickly to whatever is
wanted. The explanations are also useful for the reader to understand the
technical terms employed in the treatises on mela, raga and swara. In the
preface, the author gives the dates of these works which are based on the
introductions of the editions consulted by her and on the works of Dr. V.
Raghavan and Dr. R. Satyanarayana. The dates for 24 works are given which is
most important for historical research.
The author's introduction describes in a nutshell how the
work has been structured to deal comprehensively with the ragalakshana of each
raga. The grama, moorchana and the swara-s, suddha and vikrita, and sruti-s are
explained with reference to lakshana grantha-s. The author says, "The earliest
known work classifying ragas under melas is the Sangeetasara of Vidyaranya" but
adds that the earliest available work of the mela period of `raga history' is
the Swaramelakalanidhi of Ramamatya. The later treatises after
Swaramelakalanidhi which assign raga-s to mela-s are dealt with in detail so as
to help the reader grasp easily the methodology followed in the contents of the
main area of this work
After this introduction follows "The Description of Swaras in
the Treatises of the Mela Period" which is a necessary prelude to the
understanding of the raga-s as dealt with in the body of the work. The author,
in this section, begins with Swaramelakalanidhi and ends with Govinda's Sangraha
Choodamani. It has swara descriptions supported by extracts from the various
texts. This section is followed by "The Description of Mela-s in the Texts,"
from Swaramelakalanidhi to Sangeeta Sampradaya Pradarsini, a Telugu work of the
modern period. This is dealt with exhaustively which enables one to understand
how the mela concept kept on changing with each period. Besides the Sanskrit
treatises, the Telugu works on mela are also dealt with under this topic
The Ragalakshana-s come after the concepts of mela-s in the
different works are discussed. The section is titled "The Description of Ragas
in the Texts of the Mela Period". The ten ragalakshana-s, the ragalakshana-s in
actual descriptions, the use of the terms graha, vadi, samvadi, anuvadi and
vivadi swara-s, sampoorna, shadava, audava, moorchana, tana and other
characteristics such as gamaka, time of performance or ganakala, pictorial
description of raga-s, expression of raga-s, features common to raga-s,
classifications of raga-s, raga-s in the two schools of Carnatic music-- mela
sampoorna in aroha and avaroha as in the Sangraha Choodamani, and the other,
raganga raga-s which have all the seven swara-s but not necessarily in order and
not necessarily sampoorna in structure-- are all enumerated
The raganga raga concept is the basis of the Sangeeta
Sampradaya Pradarsini and Muthuswami Dikshitar followed this concept. The
raganga raga-s have a nomenclature different from the 72-mela raga-s
nomenclature of Govinda's Sangraha Choodamani. This is a landmark period in the
mela concept. The compositions of the Trinity show the two different schools of
mela concept.
The author writes about the ragalakshana sangraha from page
101 beginning alphabetically with Abheri / Abhiri to raga Yogini on page 1567.
Hema Ramanathan needs to be complimented profusely for dealing exhaustively with
ragalakshana-s of 607 raga-s in 1400+ pages. No work on music, so exhaustive and
monumental, has come out in recent times
The book is a worthy and scholarly concordance of the works
on ragalakshana-s. It is a must for the library of every institution devoted to
service to Carnatic music.
BRIEF NOTES
Selected
J
Sri Krishna Gana Sabha will confer the title Sangeeta Choodamani on
Carnatic vocalist Bombay Jayashri Ramnath and the title of Acharya
Choodamani on veteran vainika and teacher Kalpagam Swaminathan during
the Gokulashtami music series this year. Bharatanatyam dancer Rajeswari
Sainath will receive the title of Nritya Choodamani and Bharatanatyam
dance teacher Anita Guha the title of Acharya Choodamani in
December 2005 during the annual music and dance festival of the Sabha.
Formal Debut
B Pooja (Bharatanatyam),
daughter of Mrs. Parul & Mr. Sharad Panchal, and disciple of Radhika V. Pillai (Kalyani
Natyalaya); 5 March in Ahmedabad..
B Pritika (Bharatanrityam),
daughter of Mrs. Shoba & Prof. E. Krishnakumar, and disciple of Jayashree
Rajagopalan (Nrithyodaya, Bombay); 10 April in Mumbai.
RECORD RACK
MS - A GIFT OF THE GODS. DVD. By Avinash Pasricha. [Veenu Pasricha, A.V.
Graphics Pvt. Ltd., B - 7 / 18 Safdarjang Enclave, New Delhi 110 016. Ph.: 2619
2208 / 09. Rs. 500. Available as CD-ROM/DVD or VCD].
SRIRAM.V
-JAMBUNATHAN
This is a short DVD, spanning not more than fifteen minutes, on the legendary
M.S. Subbulakshmi. The audio-visual was produced by renowned photographer
Avinash Pasricha for the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi
in 2004. It was screened on June 21st 2004 when the Lifetime Achievement Award
was conferred on MS by the Government of Delhi. The star was of course absent,
but this DVD must have created the MS aura on the occasion
The DVD features a continuous montage of still photographs of MS taken over
the years by various photographers including Avinash Pasricha himself. Most of
the stills are in black and white bringing a wonderful depth to the compilation.
One can see the child MS, the young MS, MS with her siblings and mother, MS with
Sadasivam, with many national leaders, MS receiving awards and MS performing on
stage. Through the montage, Pasricha recreates the life of the nightingale
The photographs are accompanied by clips from various songs sung by MS. As
always, here too they lend their lustre to the DVD and make it an aural delight
in addition to the visual delight that Pasricha provides through such an
enchanting subject as MS. Quotes from various famed personalities in praise of
MS appear on screen as supers.
There is a voice-based narrative too. Though Kadambari Chintamani is very
expressive, she is not too familiar with South Indian terms and there are
several slips such as 'entaro' for 'endaro', 'Shanmukhavidivu' for 'Shanmukhavadivu',
'Sangit Kalanidhi' for 'Sangeeta Kalanidhi', 'Seva Sadanam' for 'Sevaa Sadanam'
and 'Saakuntalai' for 'Sakuntalai'. A couple of photographs have been reversed
making it look as though MS was wearing nine yards in the traditional Iyer
style.
However all said and done, Pasricha manages to condense very effectively MS
as a subject within the short duration. The DVD is a must for all admirers of
MS.
SUKHANUBHAVAM. By Ananthalakshmi Sadagopan. Vocal. [Shrishti's Carnatica -
CAR C 1037/38 (Two-cassette album). Rs. 90].
-S.S.R
Vol. 1
Rudrapriya - Gananaayakam
Nata - Jaya jaya
Athana - Bhajana seya rada
Kalyani - Nidhi chala sukhama
Kannada - Mariyemi
The legend on the cassette cover describes the recording as "an
enchanting combination of a golden voice, melody, emotion and pristine
classicism captured at her best in a live concert". The music lives up to this
description and gives satisfaction. The recording is very good, though this is
an old performance.
A good, enjoyable concert.
SPOTLIGHT
Sangeeta Sthalam-s - 7
Heritage Landmarks in Music
Parthasarathy Temple In Tiruvallikeni -SRIRAM.V
Tiruvallikeni or Triplicane, as the English called it, happens
to be one of the oldest parts of Madras City. The existence of a village of that
name is seen in records dating back to the Pallava period and earlier.
Triplicane as an area merits a separate study as a Sangeetha Sthalam by itself.
This account restricts itself to the temple that forms the core of this area and
which in its own way shaped our musical heritage.
The origins of the temple are steeped in myth. It is believed
that the area got its name from a sacred (tiru) tank (keni) of lilies (alli)
that once existed here, in the midst of a forest of tulasi bushes.....
.The temple itself is a dual shrine, with two principal deities
who are enshrined back to back. The older shrine is that of Azhagia Singar or
Narasimha who is seen in the yogic pose. He is also called Telliya Singar (now
referred to as Tulasingar) and the street that leads off from His shrine is
called Tulasinga Perumal Koil Street. The other and more famous one is that of
Sree Venkatakrishnan (moolavar) and Sree Parthasarathy (utsavar).....
The garbhagriha houses the magnificent deity of Venkatakrishna
which is almost eight feet in height and dates back to the very origins of this
temple.....
Music and dance appear to have been integral to the daily temple
routine and the early 18th century work Sarva Deva Vilasa speaks of dancers
associated with this shrine and the music loving dharmakarta Annasami. It is
said that about 135 years ago it was the custom for a group of folk dancers to
lead the Kannadi or Muthu Pallaku procession when the palanquin with the utsavar
idol was taken around the Mada streets on rare occasions.
From the sixteenth century onwards, a rich musical history is
associated with this temple. Of the Trinity, both Tyagaraja and Dikshitar
visited this temple. Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer in a talk on Tyagaraja's
kshetra kriti-s in 1948 stated that a kriti by the composer on Sree
Parthasarathy exists in the raga Saveri for which only the pallavi and
anupallavi could be traced. The opening words are given by Iyer as Saarivedalina
Sree Parthasarathy. Recently in a talk, noted scholar Pappu Venugopala Rao
pointed out that the well known Saveri kriti by Tyagaraja, on river Kaveri has
the same opening lines. Sree Parthasarathina by Muthuswami Dikshitar in raga
Suddha Dhanyasi is a brief kriti on this temple, and strangely for a kriti by
Dikshitar, has no sthala puranam or any other detail of this temple.
Subbaraya Sastry, the son of Syama Sastry visited the shrine and
composed his wonderful Ninnu sevinchina (Yadukulakambhoji) on the deity here. In
terms of sheer grandeur however, it is Mysore Sadasiva Rao's Sree Parthasarathe
in Bhairavi that stands out. With its multiple sangati-s and rich sahitya it is
an apt tribute to the deity here. A couple of years ago, vidwan Vairamangalam
Lakshminarayanan rendered it to great effect at a concert organised by the
Semmangudi Trust.
Maha Vaidyanatha Sivan, as referred to in Sruti 227, gave
concerts for three nights in succession at the temple premises in protest
against the Tondaimandalam Sabha charging tickets from the general public for
his performance. Voluntary contributions made by music lovers on the three
nights far exceeded what any sabha could have collected. Sivan donated a
considerable amount out of the proceeds to the temple. Cheyyur Chengalvaraya
Sastry (1810 - 1900), the author of the Sundaresa Vilasamu and a composer whom
Prof. P Sambamoorthy rates as the most prolific after Tyagaraja, has composed a
kriti in Yadukulakambhoji on this deity.
Ramanathapuram Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar's Sree Parthasarathi
nannu in Madhyamavati is yet another popular kriti associated with this temple.
Subbarama Dikshitar has also composed a kriti Parthasarathini in the raga
Yadukulakambhoji, which has the mudra "Guruguha" in it, on this shrine. The song
has a passage of solkattu swara-s in it. Given the works of Subbaraya Sastry,
Chengalvaraya Sastry and Subbarama Dikshitar, it would appear that Sree
Parthasarathy was partial to Yadukulakambhoji as a raga! Modern day composers
who have praised the deity in song include M.D. Ramanathan, N.S. Ramachandran,
Dr. S. Ramanathan and Ambujam Krishna. Sadly not one of the composers has
praised the Lord's lip adornment.....
Stepping out of the temple, one is surrounded by the noise of
vehicles honking, peddlers hawking and beggars seeking alms. But one must not
forget that Triplicane is musically hallowed ground. For it was home to various
giants at different times in their lives. A partial list would include
Subramania Bharati, Vai Mu Kothainayaki Ammal, Karur Chinnaswami Iyer, Madurai
Subramania Iyer, C. Saraswathi Bai, Karaikudi Muthu Iyer, Varahur Muthuswami
Iyer, G.N. Balasubramaniam, M.S. Subbulakshmi, Flute Mali, T.N. Krishnan,
Devakottai Narayana Iyengar, Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu and Dr. S. Ramanathan.
Besides these, there were others who lived here who became intimately associated
with music, such as S. Sathyamurthy and the respected music and dance historian
of our times, T.S. Parthasarathy. The oldest surviving sabha of Chennai, the Sri
Parthasarathy Swami Sabha also functioned from this area for a long time. We
will look at all this in later issues.
sruti.com
