Music routes to the spiritual

Hundreds had gathered for the uncha vritti and Tyagaraja Aradhane on Saturday. They sang and celebrated the music and compositions of the great saint with fervour and dedication

January 12, 2015 07:47 pm | Updated 07:47 pm IST

There were hardly any onlookers, almost all of them were participantsPHOTOS: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.

There were hardly any onlookers, almost all of them were participantsPHOTOS: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.

At 8 a.m. on January 10, hundreds had gathered at the Vasantapura Temple – musicians, students of music, connoisseurs – to pay their respects to one of the greatest composers of Carnatic music tradition, Tyagaraja. Following the tradition of Tiruvaiyyaru -- the place where Tyagaraja lived and breathed his last -- Tyagaraja Aradhane is observed in most south Indian states as well. The Sri Purandara Tyagaraja Temple Sangeethaseva Mandali led by the veteran percussionist Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma, has been conducting the Aradhane for several decades now, and the participation of the music community and public surmounting, year by year. As a run up to the Aradhane, which literally means celebration, there was an unusual music festival as well.

“This is something that my father practiced,” says Anoor, recalling the top violinist Anoor Ramakrishna and his contemporary musicians, who set this tradition in motion in south Bangalore. The Tyagaja Aradhane begins with the uncha vrutti , where musicians, like the itinerant saint Tyagaraja, walk the streets singing his compositions. Like the bard, they too carry an alms sack and collect offerings. Traditionally, the Utsava Sampradaya kritis are sung; it was heartening to watch a stream of people who kept joining the core group singing the compositions of Tyagaraja with great fervour. “Sri Ganapathini”, “Gurulekha Etuvanti”, “Telisi Rama”, “Bantureeti Kolu”, Purandaradasa’s “Dasana Maadiko enna” and several other kritis were rendered by the group. As they moved along young violinists, mridangam players, khanjira players joined along, offering their bit for the great saint of music.

After a couple of hours when the Tyagarja Aradhane began, this crowd had grown manifold. While all the seniors and performing musicians occupied the front rows, old and young everyone crammed into every little space that was available, most of them armed with the booklet of pancharatna kritis. On the one hand, there were musicians like Kalavathi Avadhooth, T. Srinivas and T. Ravi, B.K. Chandramouli, D.V. Nagaraj, Vinay Sharva, B.C. Manjunath, Charulatha Ramanujam, Anoor Dattatreya Sharma, B.C. Manjunath, Guruprasanna, Somashekhar…, apart from the aspiring youngsters who had gathered at the venue. People from all walks of life congregated to express their gratitude to Tyagaraja who had enriched their lives with music. The goshti gayana began with the recitation of Pillari geethegalu to be followed by the Pancharathna kritis, “Jagadanandakaraka” to “Endaro Mahanubhavulu”. It’s always a thrilling experience to listen to a large group sing Tyagraja together and this one was no different.

For Tyagaraja, the body was the temple, the consciousness was the site of wisdom, beauty and thought. He believed that music was an important route to the spiritual realm. Therefore, one finds that most of his compositions embody the feeling -- as the late president, S. Radhakrishnan, says in his Foreword to the Spiritual Heritage of Tyagaraja -- “the kingdom of God acquired through devotion is the greatest of all treasures.” In celebrating the Aradhane, and keeping a culture alive in the public realm is not only bringing back the simplicity and humility of a great soul like Tyagaraja, but also as Radhakrishnan further notes, “Civilisation is not a static condition: it is a perpetual movement. The heritage we possess includes not only elements which make for greatness but also forces of reaction, narrow-mindedness, disunion which enslave us. The world over, religion has often degenerated into superstition, sectarianism, enslavement. It gets confused with the codification of custom, the consecration of usage, the dead hand of the obsolete. Tyaga-raja distinguishes the spirit of religion from its trappings. For one who sees God in everything, there is no need for asramas.” Hence, Rama for Tyagaraja was the supreme one and not as we know him in the 21st century. The Aradhane is important for the spirit that it carries, and for furthering the spiritual values that Tyagraja believed.

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