Redefining a tradition of melody

Legends of Carnatic music have graced the nine-day music festival at Navarathri Mandapam in Thiruvananthapuram. The tradition continues as stalwarts in the field make each concert memorable.

September 18, 2014 09:04 pm | Updated 09:04 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

HALLOWED SPACE: Navarathri Mandapam in Thiruvananthapuram where musicians perform during the nine-day Navarathri festival.Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

HALLOWED SPACE: Navarathri Mandapam in Thiruvananthapuram where musicians perform during the nine-day Navarathri festival.Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

Just like Christmas is one of the most beautiful times of the year to be in Europe, so is Navarathri/ Pooja/ Dussera in India. The Pooja celebrations at Kolkata and the Dussera festival at Mysore are legendary. The Navarathri celebrations at Navarathri Mandapam in Thiruvananthapuram are no less special, albeit much less ostentatious than that of it’s counterparts in other states.

The beautiful idol of Saraswathy Devi, the Goddess of music, poetry, literature and expression, that was worshipped by Saint Kambar (who wrote Kambar Ramayanam) that normally resides peacefully in the serene environs of Padmanabhapuram Palace in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, is brought to Thiruvananthapuram for a nine-day feast of music every year.

Among the various festivals that we celebrate, Navarathri has always been my favourite, right from the time I was a child; long before I started to study classical music formally.

I use the word “formally” because the single, most important way to learn classical music is to listen to it for hours and hours together. I was very lucky to have had a great grandmother like Amma Maharani Sethu Parvathy Bayi, who was extraordinarily passionate about this divine art form. Though like most normal human beings, she had her share of prejudices, she did an amazing job by inviting the best of the best to give concerts at the Navarathri Mandapam. Though I normally don’t swell with pride at the accomplishments of others, I do feel extremely moved when I think of the fact that Amma Maharani was the only person ever to have honoured one of the greatest percussionists of all time, the legendary Vidwan Pazhani Subramania Pillai, with a title.

While I was born too late to experience Pazhani’s genius live, I was fortunate enough to have listened to a host of other legends such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Puthukode Krishnamoorthy, Alathur Srinivasa Iyer, M.D.Ramanathan, K.V. Narayanaswamy, Lalgudi Jayaraman, Palghat Mani Iyer, Palghat Raghu, Vellore Ramabhadran and others at the Navarathri Mandapam. There are a lot of restrictions at the venue. Men have to wear a mundu/veshti/dhoti and remove their shirts, women have to wear a sari. The Mandapam becomes a temple during these nine days. As the concerts are in the form of musical offerings before the Goddess, there is no applause. The musicians do a pooja in the form of a concert and the listeners quietly bear witness to this. But the kind of music made there plus the unique ambience, with the dim light of oil lamps casting a golden glow, make the experience unique.

The concerts used to be broadcast live on Travancore Radio and, later, on All India Radio. As a result, the timings have been followed strictly and the concerts take place from 6 p.m. sharp to 8.30 p.m. sharp. The main song for each day is fixed and only compositions of Maharaja Swati Tirunal are sung.

This is one of the few places in the world, if not the only place, where the delightful form of improvisation called Thaanam, is sung with percussion accompaniment. The effect of having an accomplished mridangam artiste accompany an equally accomplished singer for thaanam, is something else altogether. Once a music lover requested mridangam giant Palghat Mani Iyer to play the mridangam for Thaanam during one of his concerts at Chennai. Mani Iyer is said to have replied: ‘For that, you would have to come to the Navarathri Mandapam!’

Titans like Mani Iyer and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and a host of legends who are still alive have performed at the Mandapam for several decades. Artistes who have travelled and performed at the most amazing venues all over the world, almost unfailingly cite the Navarathri Mandapam as one of their favourite venues to perform at.

A music buff who always claimed that he was an atheist told me that he was so profoundly moved by M.D.Ramanathan’s rendition of the Saveri song ‘Devi Pavane’ at the Navarathri Mandapam that he became a believer! The vibrations created by the magnificent bass voice of M.D. Ramanathan in that tiny place was just incredible! So was the resonance of Palghat Mani Iyer’s mridangam. The softness of the Manipravalam padams and the Utsava Prabandham songs by Palghat K.V.Narayanaswamy, the pep and verve of a Semmangudi concert where he would be given vocal support by his disciples, the serene atmosphere created by the veena concerts of K.S. Narayanaswamy and Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar, Puthukode Krishnamoorthy’s sublime rendition of songs like ‘Naama Sudha Rasam’, ‘Baajat Murali Murai’ and ‘Ilamarimaan Nayane’, all remain fresh in my memory.

But if the past was glorious, the present is no less glorious and we have an entire new generation of greats, making wonderful music even now. From 90-year-old Parassala Ponnammal to 80-year-old T.V.Gopalakrishnan to 75-year-old Venkataramanan to the cream of the younger generation like Sanjay Subrahmanyam, the musicians change, but the feast of music continues.

Technology has been a huge big blessing and I have been able to share many of the songs and scenes from the Navarathri festival online, on sites like YouTube.com, for the benefit of music lovers who haven’t been fortunate enough to attend these concerts live.

Normally a Mangalam is sung at the end of a classical music recital. But at the Navarathri Mandapam, the mangalam is sung only at the end of the concert on the final day, which serves as a mangalam for the entire festival. One gets a sinking feeling every time one hears this, because one has to count the days and wait for a year before the next Navarathri comes along. But the few weeks leading up to the festival are the best; brimming with the sweet promise of divine music.

(The writer, a leading musician and teacher himself, is the main organiser of the festival)

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