Hundreds of musicians and instrumentalists rendered the pancharatna kritis in unison at the samadhi of Saint Thyagaraja on the Cauvery banks at Tiruvaiyaru on Saturday at the high point of the aradhana celebrations of the composer.
Young and old, men and women, music literate and the uninitiated all occupied the available space in the special pandal outside the sprawling complex since early morning to offer their tributes to the divine composer who attained siddhi on the Pushya Bahula Panjami day 168 years ago. Even as the priests commenced the special abishekam for the statue of the composer, the mangala isai with nadaswaram by the assembled artists set the tone. Then followed the flautists' essay that ended with the vocalists and percussionists, commencing the rendering of the famed pancharatna kritis in chorus.
Prominent among the musicians who participated included Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Haridhwaramangalam A.K. Palanivel, Srimushnam V. Raja Rao, O.S. Arun, Sudha Raghunathan, Sirkali G. Sivachidambaram, Sheikh Mehaboob Subhani, Kalisha Bi, Injikkudi Ganesan, Thanjavur T.K. Govindaraj and Magadhi.
Judges from the Madras High Court and Andhra Pradesh High Court, senior bureaucrats R. Kannan, Girija Vaidhyanathan, T.N. Venkatesh, Thanjavur Collector N. Subbaiyan, former Union Minister G.K. Vasan, Sri Tyagabrahma Mahotsava Sabha president G.Rengaswamy Moopanar, and treasurer Ganesan were present.
