When legends tuned in at Navarathri Mandapam

Aswathy Thirunal Rama Varma recalls the Carnatic music greats who have paid musical homage at the Navarathri Mandapam of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram

September 21, 2017 01:33 pm | Updated 01:33 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

Navarathri Mandapam where musicians perform during the nine-day Navarathri Festival.

Navarathri Mandapam where musicians perform during the nine-day Navarathri Festival.

This is in no way, a comprehensive list of all the vidwans who have graced the Navarathri Mandapam, at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, with their music, but just a few nuggets that I recollect from my direct experience, plus a few stories that I have heard from my seniors.

Carnatic vocalist Rama Varma.

Carnatic vocalist Rama Varma.

With its absolute silence, the dim light of oil lamps and applause-free audience, the ambience inside the Navarathri Mandapam is like no other. This has been a venue where many musicians have come out with their best, over the decades. Some credit it to the divine blessings of the Goddess, others to the quality of the listeners and yet others, to the magical and exotic atmosphere there.

One of my earliest (recurring) memories from the Navarathri Mandapam would be any concert where mridangam legend Palghat Mani Iyer played, usually, with Alathur Srinivasa Iyer or Palghat K.V. Narayanaswamy. The biggest crowd would be for these concerts and the atmosphere would be absolutely electric. Mani Iyer had the knack of getting most of the attention from the listeners, both when he played as well as when he paused, when people would hold their breath, waiting for the next clap of thunder from him!

Navarathri Mandapam is one of the few places where people sing thaanam with mridangam accompaniment and Mani Iyer’s accompaniment for thaanam singing would be a feast in itself.

M.D. Ramanathan

M.D. Ramanathan

The one voice that reverberated most magnificently and one which continues to reverberate in my heart, soul and spirit the most, would be that of the legendary M.D. Ramanathan. His extended explorations of Bhavayami Raghuramam... , his Paripalaya maam... , his majestic thaanams, all available on YouTube now, remain milestones in how grand a concert could be.

Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer

Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer

Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer probably sang at the Mandapam (and elsewhere) longer than most other singers did, starting his innings as a teenager and continuing well into his 80s. His Deva Deva Kalayami ..., Pankaja Lochana ... and other renditions remain perennial favourites among music lovers.

With his own gentle and refined touch came Palghat K.V. Narayanaswamy, who was affectionately called KVN.

K.V. Narayanaswamy

K.V. Narayanaswamy

He scored higher than most others with his charming renditions of padams and javalis such as Aliveni ... and Saramaina ....

Each of these legends seem to have almost patented certain compositions! When we think of Swathi Thirunal’s Dasavathara kriti Kamalajasya ..., we automatically think of Alathur Brothers. When we think of Kalayami ... in Begada, we think of G.N. Balasubramaniam.

Although I was born too late to listen to either of these artistes, I did get to listen to quite a few concerts by the surviving Alathur Brother, Alathur Srinivasa Iyer and got to sample the GNB flavour through his disciple Trichur Ramachandran.

D.K. Jayaraman

D.K. Jayaraman

D.K. Jayaraman brought to life his set of favourites like Rama Rama Pahi ..., Bhavaye Sarasanabham ..., Samodam ... in Ramapriya and Smara Sada Manasa ... Certain combinations like DKJ with V.V. Subramaniam and Palghat Raghu were simply out of this world.

Amazing baritone

One of my all-time favourite singers was Puthukode Krishnamurthy. He was one of the few musicians who was strong and richly endowed in all aspects of music, be it his amazing baritone voice or his neat renditions of songs or his classic manodharmam. As a child, I used to dream that someone would bring out a recording of him singing all the nine Navarathri kritis by Swathi Thirunal, but sadly, it never happened.

Carnatic vocalist Parassala Ponnammal is the first woman vocalist to sing at the Navarathri Mandapam

Carnatic vocalist Parassala Ponnammal is the first woman vocalist to sing at the Navarathri Mandapam

My own beloved Guru Vechoor Hariharasubramania Iyer enriched the festival for several years with the kind of sterling fare that 94-year-old Parassala Ponnammal teacher sings now, both being products of the Semmangudi school of music, but with their own distinctive and pleasing touch.

Carnatic musician Musiri Subramania Iyer

Carnatic musician Musiri Subramania Iyer

One of the regulars from the past was Musiri Subramania Iyer, whose disciple T.K. Govinda Rao was a regular at the Mandapam. Their renditions of the Thodi pada varnam Rasa Vilasa... and Anjaneya ... remain fresh in the memories of music lovers even now. Once I saw a log from the Travancore Radio Service from the 1930s and the concert for the evening was Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer, accompanied by Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu on the violin, Palghat Mani Iyer on the mridangam and Pazhani Subramania Pillai on the ganjira! The mind boggles just imagining how the concert would have been! Vishwanatha Iyer’s son Maharajapuram Santhanam, gave many unforgettable concerts here too.

I have heard musicians from Semmangudi mama , KVN, my own gurus and others that during the 1950s, the most outstanding concert year after year would be by K.R. Kumaraswamy, until he developed a problem with his voice. It is a tragedy that none of his recordings seem to have surfaced until now, though one does keep hoping. There have been musicians like P.S. Narayanaswamy and T.N. Seshagopalan, who have sung for many years, and musicians who have sung a few times, such as T.V. Sankaranarayanan, Trivandrum R.S. Mani, Neyyattinkara Mohanachandran, Voleti Venkateshwarulu, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, R.K. Srikantan, N.P. Ramaswamy, Nookala Chinnasathyanarayana, Neyyattinkara Vasudevan and others.

Setting a record

Carnatic musician M. Balamuralikrishna

Carnatic musician M. Balamuralikrishna

M. Balamuralikrishna gave just one concert here, but the audience that day broke all records and extended all the way from the steps of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple to the entrance of the road, after overflowing from the packed mandapam!

A few aristes have done seva to the Goddess in more than one way. One of them was M.A. Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar who has given both singing as well as veena concerts at the mandapam, sometimes during the same festival!

T.V. Gopalakrishnan similarly has sung here for more than 25 years and played mridangam there too. Professor T.N. Krishnan started to play the violin at the mandapam as a nine year old and continued to do so for more than 50 years!

Kumbhakonam Rajamanickam Pillai, Mayapuram Govindaraja Pillai, Prof. K.S. Narayanaswamy, Lalgudi Jayaraman, T.K. Murthy, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Vilvadri Iyer, Umayalpuram Vishwanatha Iyer... the list of musicians runs like a who’s who of Carnatic music, with a few unfortunate and notable omissions like the legendary Madurai Mani Iyer and Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar.

But if the past was rich, the present is no less rich and we have great artistes of today, who continue to give the kind of concerts, about which future generations will surely speak of with the same kind of nostalgia that we experience, when we speak of concerts from the past.

The author is a Carnatic musician and organiser of both the Navarathri music festival at Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple and the Swati Sangeetholsavam at Kuthiramalika in Thiruvananthapuram.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.