The Ramanavami festival was celebrated in the Capital recently in a befitting manner. Various organisations came forward to celebrate this festival in their own way in multiple venues. Music lovers as well as devotees of all age groups enjoyed the events.
The Lok Kala Manch organised a Carnatic-based musical discourse titled “Tyagaraja Ramayana”. In a rather lacklustre discourse, the Delhi-based Subhasri Ramamurthi intertwined Tyagaraja kirtanas in her proceedings. However, the amount of hard work done by the artiste became evident in her informative narration. She was ably assisted by Delhi R. Sridhar on the violin, Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan on mridangam and N. Harinarayanan on ghatam.
At neighbouring Noida, the Vishnu Sahasranamam Satsangam organised a musical programme titled “Bakthi Pravaham”, by another Delhi-based vocalist Sudha Raghuraman. In a two-hour recital, Sudha delighted music lovers as well as devotees with her musical talent. Sudha rendered songs based both on Carnatic and Hindustani ragas laden with the respective raga bhavas. Sudha too was ably assisted by G. Raghuraman on flute, Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan on mridangam and Shambu Nath on tabla. While Raghuraman’s accompaniment was soothing, the percussionists had perfect understanding and nowhere did they overdo their roles.
At Sarojini Nagar Vinayagar Mandir, it was the mother of all events. The 24-hour “Akhand Ghana Yagam” – a musical offerings by Delhi-based artistes, teachers, students and devotees – started with a procession of artistes with the portrait of Saint Tyagaraja to the accompaniment of nadaswaram on the Ramanavami day. And it concluded the next day with a group rendering of Tyagaraja’s Pancharatna Kirits, led by yet another Delhi-based vocalist Dr. K. Vageesh. Participants’ age ranged between seven and 70 years and a number of persons sang in the Akhand Ghana Yagam, besides the accompanying artistes. The enthusiastic participation of young students of Carnatic music, even if they had to wait for hours together to sing one song, was enlivening. The “Akhand Ghana Yagam” returned to the Capital after a gap of 14 years. Looking at the overwhelming response for the programme, it is hoped that the event will be conducted every year.
