Tiruvempavai and Tirupalliezhuchi sung by Saivite minstrel Manickavasagar can be the last religious works one will associate with Srivilliputhur, one of the 108 Vaishnavite shrines, and the birth place of Periyazhwar and his daughter, Andal.
But late K. Sankaranarayanan, a physician by training and who lived all his life in Srivilliputhur, effortlessly crossed the barrier between Saivite and Vaishnavite literature. A self-taught man when it came to Carnatic music, he set tunes to Tiruvempavai and Tirupalliezhuchi with the help of noted vocalist late T.M. Thyagarajan way back in 1957. Now, the hymns, rendered by vocalist Sangeetha Sivakumar, will be released as a new album on April 19.
“On the one hand, we see it as an opportunity to pay our respect to our father and on the other we as Saivites would like to popularise Tiruvempavai and Tiruapalliezhuchi ,” said K.S. Subramanian, son of Sankaranarayanan, who died in 1974.
Sankaranarayanan, a close friend of Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and G.N.Balasubramaniam, kept T.M. Thyagarajan as a guest at his house-cum-clinic in Srivilliputhur and they together completed the task. “He embarked on the work as desired by late Chandrasekara Swamy of the Kanchi Sankara Mutt,” said Mr. Subramanian.
Even though late M.L. Vasanthakumari, who had rendered all the 30 Tiruppavai songs, set to music by Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, had also released a disc containing Tiruvempavai and Tirupalliezhuchi , the Saivite hymns packed with highly metaphysical ideas could not gain popularity on a par with Andal’s bhakti -laden poetry on the concert platforms.
“Ramanuja Iyengar not only set tunes for Tiruppavai , but also performed as a main item in his concerts. He would sing raga varali , followed by a azhi mazhai kanna and swarams . His student Palghat Narayanasamy took it to the next level through his style of singing. When MLV cut the disc, it reached the masses and one important aspect is all of them stuck to the same raga pattern,” said Ms. Sivakumar.
Historian V. Sriram said unlike the Vaishnavite Brahmins, who attached enormous importance to Tiruppavai and renditions of other Azhwars , saivites did not take any special effort to promote their religious literature in concert platforms.
“Of course Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, who learnt Thevaram and Thiruvachagam from M.M. Dhandapani Desikar, included some songs in his concerts, he said. It was he who set the tunes for MLV’s rendition of Tiruvempavai and Tirupalliezhuchi ,” and it was published by Tamil Nadu Sangeetha Nataka Sangam, now known as Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram, in 1965.
Thevaram and Thiruvachagam , which include Tiruvembavai and Tirupalliezhuchi , are traditionally rendered by Oduvars in a particular style and they stick to Tamil puns, an equivalent to Carnatic raga. Deviations are normally looked down and even M.S. Viswanathan who scored music for some of these saivite hymns and released them as Annamalai Kaithozha and Ilayaraja's Thiurvachagam symphony failed to make the desired impact.
