The place, filled with people, wore a festive look. On the last day, people were jostling for every available inch of space. No, the venue was not the India International Trade Fare, it was the hall of of Sri Ishta Siddhi Vinayakar temple in the Capital's Mayur Vihar Phase III, where a unique ten-day “Sasthapreethi Mahotsavam” was organised by Kondli Shree Dharmasastha Satsang in association with Sri Adi Sankara Sewa Samajam.
The festival included scintillating bhajans by renowned bhagavathars like Kovai S. Jayaraman and Erode S. Rajamani. Relative youngsters like V. Karthick Gnaneshwar, Melarcode Ravi and the city-based Nurani Balagokulam group participated enthusiastically and put up impressive performances. Kondli Shree Dharmasastha Satsang and Sri Adi Sankara Sewa Samajam certainly deserve credit for organising the bhajan festival on such a large scale. The overwhelming participation of the devotees from Mayur Vihar and other parts of the National Capital Region even on weekdays was heartening.
Chennai-based B. Srividya's Carnatic music vocal recital too was included in this festival. The 21-year-old artiste's performance was very impressive. The concert was organised in association with the Ramakrishnapuram South Indian Society. Srividya's depth in both the kalpiha (music as learnt) and kalpana (creative music like singing raga, niraval and swaraprastaras) aspects came to the fore in her recital that lasted about two hours. Dikshitar's “Visalakshi” in raga Pantuvarali and Shyma Sastri's “Palinchu Kamakshi” in raga Madhyamavati which she took up for detailed rendition, were well presented. Srividya's creative talents during her detailed delineation of these ragas, niraval of the phrase “Kasiragni Kapalini” from the samasthi charanam portion of the former composition and subsequent swaraprastaras too were very impressive. Holding a diploma in music from the renowned institution Kalakshetra, Chennai, Srividya is also under the tutelage of T.M. Prabhavathi, a senior disciple of the legendary late M.L. Vasanthakumari. While A.G. Subramanian provided violin support, K. Sreeram on the mridangam and Umesh Sudhir on the morsing provided the percussion.
Bhavan festival
The Carnatic music session in the Sangeet Samaroh (festival of Indian classical music and dance) organised by the New Delhi chapter of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan concluded in a fitting manner with a Chitra veena recital by N. Ravikiran. Though the concert was brief, Ravikiran included in his recital a ragam-taanam-pallavi, considered to be the highest form of creative music in the concert format. The pallavi was composed in two ragas, namely Sahana and Varali, and set to Adi tala. After presenting fine expositions of these ragas, he took up a melodious taanam. Ravikiran started his concert with Tyagaraja's popular composition “Tulasidala” in raga Mayamalavagowla, suffixing crisp swaraprastaras. His recital concluded with a delightfully played tillana in raga Hamsanadam.
Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi on the violin, Mannargudi A. Easwaran on the mridangam and C.S. Venkataramanan on the kanjira provided excellent support. Vijayalakshmi's delineation of the ragas Sahana and Varali was delightful. So was her taanam presentation when it was her turn. The percussionists' brief tani avartanam in Adi tala was exhilarating.
