My pilgrimage to Ettaiyapuram

 This is the 250th birth anniversary year of Muthuswami Dikshithar, born on Krithikai nakshatram in the Tamil month of Panguni in the year 1775. It was a blessing to be there in Ettaiyapuram at his samadhi last Sunday. This is the 15th year that this is being celebrated by Ravi Kiran's Guruguhaamrata with more than 40 high calibre musicians. Dikshithar is supposed to have come to Ettaiyapuram twice . Firstly for the coronation of the Yuvaraja and the second time to spend his final years before he shed his mortal coil on Narakachaturdasi day in 1835. 

The proceedings started aptly enough( given that Dikshithar was a vainika) with Jayashri Arvind playing the Thodi dhyana krithi on the veena. I think at least 3 or 4 of the navavarnams were sung by various vocalists. I remember hearing the ones in Khamboji, Anandabhairavi, Punnagavarali and Ahiri. In addition through the day, starting at about 9 am one got to hear so much of Dikshithar. Of these , Shri Venugopala in Kuranji, Pahimam Ratnachalanayaka in Mukhari and Nagalingam Bhajeham in Shankarabharanam were totally new to me. I had gone there only to pay homage and listen since I registered very late and there was an announcement that the slots for performers were closed. However, when I was there I realised quite a few people had dropped out and slots were available. So decided to sing Shri Subramanya in Thodi, inspite of my trepidation in singing in front of very high calibre vocalists. But I am unlikely to be going to Ettaiyapuram again in this lifetime, so yes it was now or never.

One has to comment on this labour of love by Ravi Kiran and his Guruguhaamrata. The arrangements were excellent, starting from rooms at Kovilpatti for people to freshen up, the pick ups at the station, the to and fro to Ettaiyapuram, the really lovely meals and the excellent sound system. I know there are week long celebrations in Chennai starting on Monday. I will try to log on to these online. So immense respect and admiration for the work that he is doing and sure that the Universe will continue to support him in this endeavour.

I am happy that I went this year. Sure I was the oldest person there. Most of the musicians were in their 20s or 30s. All these activities are physically arduous. ...going to Ettaiyapuram( incidentally Subramanya Bharathis's house is also here a stone's throw away) consists of flying down to Madurai, driving down to Kovilpatti, which is 103 km away , staying the night and making an early morning trip to the samadhi. So my advice to other Dikshithar bhakthas is to do this sooner rather than later.

The next day I went to Kaghugumalai, the 300 feet rock temple. I actually knew it was nearby only as the result of a casual conversation with a lady on the bus. Subramanyena rakshitoham in Sudha Dhanyasi refers to this sthala in the charanam Kankashaila viharena.. It was one of the earliest krithis I learnt. It is a very quiet temple . So I got to sing the composition . While I did try to go the Vettuvan Koil nearby, there is a fine line between adventurous and fool hardy. Climbing this in the midday heat , with a whole lot of monkeys around and by myself seemed foolish. So I went half way up and decided to come back.

The whole trip also left me ever so slightly embarrassed and conscious yet once again about how privileged and elitist one's life is. Kovilpatti is a small town. Ettaiyapuram even smaller. And Kazhugumalai seems nothing more than a little hamlet. Going in buses to these places and observing the people who live there  makes one realise that we have lived in this ivory bubble and have no real idea of what living is for 90 percent of India's population. Well, it is what it is..but there can be no real understanding without an actual experience of these cities. Also, it made me understand at some level, Dikshithar ..the eternal pilgrim. I was exhausted after travelling and staying in air conditioned comfort. But he did these pilgrimages from Nepal( Pashupatiswaram in Subha Pantuvarali) to deep South long before even the advent of trains. That frail body sure housed an indomitable spirit.

The next three days were in Madurai. After Kovilpatti,  Madurai felt so wonderful.. much better hotels, availability of vegan cuisine etc. My first trip was to the Azhagar Koil in Pazhamudircholai. This is really quite lovely.. the Vishnu vigraham at the foothills with Bhudevi and Shridevi was exquisitely decorated. The Murugan temple on the top of the mountain is small, but beautiful with the Noopura Ganga and the Rakkayi Amman temple right on the top of the mountain , approachable only by foot.

The next trip was to Tiruparikundram, the first of Murugan's six abodes. As luck would have it , I landed up on the day of his Tirukalyanam to  Deivanai. Mention has to me made of our absolutely endearing trait in the humanising of our Gods. Apparently the day before the Meenakshi temple was closed since she and Sokkanadar had come to Tiruparikundram for the wedding of their son. The evening of the wedding saw the beautiful vigrahas being sent back to their abode by Subramanya.

With these two, I have now been to four of Subramanya's six abodes. Swamimalai and Tiruttani are still pending. Guess they will happen when they do. But I need to go to Trichendur again since I went there before learning Shri Subramanya in Thodi. Somewhere for me, going to a sthala before learning the particular krithi does not count. Which is why I have to go to Kalahasti too again, so I can sing the Husseini panchaboota krithi and the Kalyani one on his consort( Gnyanaprasoonambike)

The last day was devoted to the Meenakshi temple and the Teppakulam Mariamman temple. The Meenakshi temple is one I have been to before. There are enough images and write ups on the net. The sculptures, the murals, even the painted kolams on the ground are all breath taking. Even with special darshan tickets, one has to be prepared to spend a minimum of 2 to 3 hours in queues. Gives one time to softly sing the Varali and Poorvakalyani songs on her by Dikshithar.

I am back in Mumbai now energised after my trip and ready to get back into year end meetings with CAs and planners and all the other humdrum work of daily living.

 

Last night at the NMACC

 Last night was quite thrilling. And I almost missed it. The event was billed as Wild Women: A Jugalbandi in Verse. Featuring Alarmel Valli and Arundhati Subramaniam. Much as I love both artists individually and collectively, I was fearful of an extremely avant garde event that would have Valli demonstrating abhinaya or doing adavus to English poetry. Since I had not seen Valli forever and was reconciled to turning up even if she was in track pants talking about Bharatnatyam, I decided to risk it. This was actually, clever misdirection by the duo. The event was broadly based on Wild Women, a book by Arundhati about sacred poetry by and about women.

 There were a total of four pieces. The first an invocation to the Goddess with verses from the Devi Mahatmyaham, Mahalakshmi Ashtakam, Subramanya Bharathi's Vellai tamarai and the Abhirami Andaadi. Now, one has heard Vellai Taamarai so many times.. and mangled so often by enthusiastic school children that I have personally become immune to it's beauty. But yesterday with Valli, I discovered the original sentiment once again. Saraswathi is not some Goddess in an ivory tower, remote and unapproachable. She is everywhere even in the most common place. In the vellai taamarai( white lotus) and the veenai naadam and so on. Almost all of it sung by Prema Ramamurthy.

The second piece was called Ecchal( Spit) by Senkottai Avudai Akkal. Akkal was born in the very early 1800s and was widowed while still a child. Her Guru was supposed to be Sri Sridhara Venkatesa Ayavaal, a contemporary of Sadasiva Brahmendra. A jivan mukta , she is believed to have composed over 200 songs in various formats. These songs in turn inspired legends like Subramanya Bharathi and even Ramana Maharishi, whose mother apparently would sing these compositions. Akkal , it is believed went up the mountains near Kutrallam and disappeared without leaving any trace of her body!!

The third piece was from Tallapaka Annamacharya, the 15th century musician,  writing not as a devotee of Venkatesa but in the voice of his consort, Alamelu Manga. It was amazing how Valli transformed herself in this piece. From her first steps on the stage for this number, she became somebody else.. playful and capricious. It was in everything, her gait, her hand movements. I have seen demos where an ageing Kalanidhi Narayanan transmuted right in front of my eyes to a coy blushing nayika. And everything about her physical body was forgotten in that moment. Valli as Alarmelu Manga was something like that.

The last was a thillana in Nalinakanti with the sahithya portion by Neelambike the wife of the 12th century philosopher Basavanna. Long after I left the theatre and I was having my Mongolian Rice in the nearby Earth Cafe, I was humming the first line S G R,,, M,, P, N,,,S,,

A little bit about the structure. I am reasonably sure that this will go on the road at least to cities with a large Indian diaspora. The compositions are all pre recorded with Prema on the locals. The backdrop and the lighting is all minimalistic.. no HD screens , no multicolor lighting arrangements.. just some marigolds in the background. So very apt. Nothing but powerful verses, music and dance. If I could be allowed to quibble , I would have preferred a marginal reduction in the sound volume and the percussion sound while mixing. What will also help(when they take this show abroad) is a small pamphlet with the lyrics and translations of the four pieces.

I will now end with my favourite poem of Arundhati's. Especially relevant today on Holi when my household staff is all absent and I have to wash dishes and cook meals. I have long been a fan of hers and am both mesmerised and energised by her words. So much of it can only be described as some sort of preternatural dejavu since I am left bewildered wondering whether she is articulating her experience or mine. So here goes.

Give me a home

that isn't mine,

where I can slip in and out of rooms

without a trace,

never worrying

about the plumbing,

the colour of the curtains

the cacophony of books by the bedside.

A home that I can wear lightly,

where the rooms aren't clogged

with yesterday's conversations,

where the self doesn't bloat

to fill in the crevices.

A home, like this body,

so alien when I try to belong,

so hospitable

when I decide I'm just visiting.

Rasa by RaGa

 Yesterday's Rasa by RaGa program at the Tata Theatre in Mumbai presented by Pancham Nishaad was really quite remarkable. Of course, it is a few months since I have been inside a concert and a few years since I have heard a live performance by the duo. That helps. As in much else, too much exposure to anything dulls our palate and gives us diminishing returns in terms of enjoyment.

The single thing that stood out was the sheer innovativeness in presentation. I think except for two compositions, Mariveregati( Shyama Shastri, Anandabhairavi) and Manasa Sanchara re( Sadashiva Brahmendra, Saama), not a single composition was a straight presentation. There were medleys in a particular raga, medleys in related ragas, griha bhedam demos etc. But more about that later.

And it was long. Today, we are getting used to a two hour or even a 90 minute presentation. Which makes one wonder if you want to spend three hours travelling and 30 minutes listening to the organiser's ramblings.

The concert started with Gambeeranattai. Two compositions, one in a straight forward Adi talam and the other Uthukaadu's Shri vignarajam bhaje in kanda chaapu

The second piece was a really slow and wonderful Marivere in Anandabhairavi..simply superb

However for me the most interesting was the next griha bhedam starting with Hamsanandi, a janya of the 53rd melakartha Gamanasramana( S R1 G3 M2 D2 N3 S) Using a thillana in Hamsanandi( or Purvi, Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar's nrnr gmgrs) as the base, the artists moved on to Hindolam by moving the shadjam to R1..Piece demonstrated here was Samajavara( Thyagaraja).. onto Durga by moving the Shadjam to G3.. piece demonstrated was a bandish on Durga. This was followed bySudha Dhanyasi by moving to M2( Dikshithar's Subramanyena Rakshitoham), followed by Mohanam ( Swagatham Krishna moving to the D) and lastly Madhyamavathi( Bagyadalakshmi) by moving to Nishadam. This was an extraordinary exercise because each of the compositions had some swarams or alapana or neraval, some manodharma component. And finally at the end a simple demo of singing the base flat notes to demo the shift. Was both thrilling and  enjoyable.

The next big segment which they dubbed as the main piece had four compositions, all in Deshadi talam and janyas of Kharaharapriya( 22nd in the melakartha scale). They were also all on Rama. They started with Bhuvini dasudani in Shriranjani, followed by Ikka Naina ( Pushpalatika, Tirupati Narayanaswamy) with neraval at akalanka neeve adharudani. This was followed by Kamalaptakula( Thyagaraja) in Brindavana Saranga and lastly Neekelana in Devamanohari of Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar. 

The last two segments were  medleys of popular songs derived from films,  folk or devotional in nature. The first segment had pieces by Subramanya Bharathi on Muthumaari, ram ratan Payoji and muddugare yashoda. The second was a medley of popular songs in Kapi in a variety of languages like Tamil Telugu Kannada, Hindi and Marathi beginning with a 1991 SP Balasubramanian song( lyrics by Vairamuthu, Composed by Ilayaraja) - Vannam Kondu Vennilave.

And one cannot end without mentioning the tani portion. Which was again different and innovative. Started with a segment consisting of konnakol by S Krishna, the ghatam artist and mridangam by Sai Giridar. And The konnakol portion, such incredible voice modulation ranging from soft as a whisper to a rising crescendo. Till I heard that, it never occurred to me that it was one of the tools available for a konnakol artist. This might seem laughable to many. But listening to him made me realise how that is a tool to differentiate too. Students need to hear stuff to get the myriad possibilities in various places. Followed by a tani segment in the usual format between a mridangam and a ghatam artist . But this was followed by a segment where Charumathi Raghuraman , the violinist started the simple takadhmi takajanu shol in chatusra , joined by the vocal artists and then the percussionists who went on to tisram and khandam etc . Given that we are used to seeing the tani portion of a concert as one where basically the percussionists perform with the others just keeping a talam, this collaborative exercise was a refreshing change.

The simple fact was that there was so much freshness and innovation in the entire presentation from a small thing like the vocalists alternating among themselves in taans once as swaras and once as aakar to the many ghatams and mridangams on stage for the griha bhedam segment.

And it showed. The Tata Theatre fully packed with not a soul moving out till the last note.