The Ghana raga Pancharatnam kritis of Thyagaraja are perhaps the only monumental Carnatic compositions which offer scope for perfect congregational singing, immaterial of what one’s Patantharam is. For the past five years, Mudhra has been organising a unique Pancharatnam singing on January 1, exclusively by women artists who render them in sruti five. The reason behind organising such an event is that a few artists expressed the lack of satisfaction in participating in the conventional Pancharatnams which are usually set in sruti one, making it suitable only for male singers. To add an edge to the presentation, vocalist Radha Bhaskar decided to have an all-women music team including the accompanists and that is how the ‘Sree Thyagaraja Pancharatnam’ became ‘Sthree Thyagaraja Pancharathnam!’
Every year, about 50 accomplished women artists participate and apart from vocal, the team comprises artists on flute, violin, veena, mandolin, mridangam, ghatam and ganjira as accompanists.
This year’s event had Mambalam Sisters, Radha Bhaskar, Gayathri Girish, Subha Ganesan, Subhasini Parthasarathy, Vasuda Kesav, Aiswarya Shankar, Varalakshmi, Apoorva & Anahita, Chithra & Kala, Jayashre Vaidhyanathan, Swathi Srikrishna and Radha Parthasarathy on the vocals; Meera Sivaramakrishnan, Kalyani Shankar and Shraddha on the violin, Jayalakshmi Sekhar, Shobana and Anjani on the veena, Rajam and Ashwini on the mridangam, Jayalakshmi (ghatam) and Krishnapriya (ganjira).
