On Krishna’s trail

A journey through nine temples guided by music and description

Historian Chithra Madhavan

The final programme of Tattvaloka’s ‘Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum’ featured a talk by Dr. Chithra Madhavan.

It highlighted the specialities of nine temples of Krishna, and followed up each with a musical presentation by vocalist Geetha Raja, accompanied by Shraddha Ravindran (violin) and Kallidaikuruchi Sivakumar (mridangam).

The programme was prefaced by the release of a book

Krishna, Everyone’s God by Om Swamiji (from Himachal Pradesh) with a brief talk.

The book (Rs. 599) is an interesting compilation of articles by Asha Krishnakumar with colourful photographs and illustrations.

Chithra Madhavan and Geetha Raja have also written for the book.

Chithra chose nine temples from across the country and brought out some of their interesting aspects including those of the deity, place and architecture through a power-point presentation.

Suitable kritis

The temples chosen were from Kanchipuram (Pandavadootha Perumal), Guruvayur (Balakrishnan), Udupi (Krishna), Mannarkudi (Rajagopalaswami), Tiruvallikeni (Parthasarathy), Puri (Jagannath), Nathdwara (Shrinathji), Mathura (Krishna) and Dwaraka (Dwarkadhish).

After each explanation of Chithra’s, Geetha Raja sang a suitable composition drawn from the some selected Azhwar pasurams, Dikshitar’s kritis, Jayadeva’s Ashtapadi, Meera bhajans, Abhangs and Krishna Karnamritham.

Chithra offered glimpses into unusual features such as the gigantic (over 25 ft high) statue of Pandavadootha Perumal, which contrasted with the tiny figurine of the Guruvayur Krishnan; the popular Mannarkudi Utsavar’s Eka vastram with two types of earrings and a bunch of keys hanging from his hip; Parthasarathy’s moustache and conch in hand; and how the Dwaraka deity’s attire is changed five times a day in addition to several other information on the temple architecture.

Geetha Raja’s selections, brought out the emotional connect between the composers and the Lord in his many forms. The line-up included ‘Pallandu’ in Nattai, ‘Chetasri’ in Dwijavanthi, ‘Srikrishnam bhaja’ in Thodi, ‘Krishna nee begane’ in Yamuna Kalyani, ‘Sri Venugopala’ and ‘Balagopala’ in Kurinji and Bhairavi, ‘Vachamakocha’ in Atana by Mysore Sadasiva Rao. The concluding section featured Ahir Bhairav abhang, Puriya Dhanashri Meera bhajan, and Krishna Karnamritham sloka segued to Brindavani tillana.