“What stands on 156 acres and is 2000 years old? The Srirangam temple — the abode of Sri Ranganatha and Thayar Ranganayaki. Immersed in checkered history, it is one of the oldest, grandest, biggest in the world,” as historian Chithra Madhavan put it.
‘Sriranga Vaibhogame,’ an illustrated presentation at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan recently, had vocalist Sowmya adding raga alankaras to this glorious history.
It was a unique experience — Chithra’s recounting and Sowmya's evocative singing withNagai Sriram (violin) and Neyveli Narayanan (mridangam) providing wonderful support.
Speaking of the source, it was a temple chronicle, ‘Kovil Ozhugu’. It all started with a visual of noorkal mandapam. Vibhishana carrying the idol of Rangaswamy that Sri Rama gifted him. Vibhishana could not take the deity to Lanka as he wished. So Ranganatha faced South towards Lanka to honour Vibhishana.
Sangam literature ‘Ahananooru’ mentions Arangam and its Panguni Uthiram festival as the verse sung by Sowmya ‘Aru Panguni’ in Nata proved. Sixth Century Silappadikaram also has references to Srirangam. Chithra spoke about the contributions of Pallava and Pandya kings to Srirangam. Moving on to the Bhakti era, the historian mentioned Azhwars singing, and how Andal merged with Ranganatha at Srirangam. Sowmya presented a beautiful Andal pasuram in ragamalika. She next rendered Thiruppalliyezhuchi ‘Kathiravan’ and ‘Pachaimaamalaipol’. Except one, all the Azhwars sang about Srirangam. Of these, Chithra chose Thiruppaan Azhwar , who was not allowed to enter the temple, but finally merged with Ranganatha. Sowmya sang ‘Amalanadhipiran’ in ragamalika.
Chithra praised Ramanuja’s systematisation of the temple administration, backed by Sowmya’s ‘Sri Ranga Gadhyam’, wherein Ramanuja extols Ranganatha in chaste Sanskrit. Traversing through Chola and Pandya periods, she threw light on the Hoysala contribution — the Krishna temple in Srirangam. Sadayavarman Sundara Pandyan I lavishly adorned the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple in gold, diamond, emeralds and precious gems.
This, however, brought in turbulent times for Srirangam as word spread to Delhi, and a huge army led by Malik Kafur entered the temple. The massacre was immense, the researcher said. When the soldiers brought the idol to Alauddin Khilji's durbar, the royal princess fell in love with it. The story goes that she merged with Ranganatha at Srirangam. Beevi Nachiyar’s sannidhi at the temple is an unforgettable chapter of history.
Muhammad bin Tughlaq, later descended on Srirangam, and devotees smuggled the idols of Azhagaiya Manavalan with his two consorts. If today, we are seeing Srirangam in its glory, it’s because of the Vijayanagara king Kampanna, who conquered Srirangam, brought the image back to Srirangam, and reopened the temple.
With better times, the Nayaks contributed sculptures, paintings and the outermost Nayak Gopuram. Then came the Marattas to Thanjavur.
We then hear of Tyagaraja and other composers’ visit to Srirangam. Tyagaraja sang ‘O Rangasayi’ at the sannidhi, the speaker concluded. Sowmya rounded off the wonderful talk with an impeccable presentation — ‘O Rangasayi’ (Kambhoji), Dikshitar's ‘Rangapuravihara’ (Brindavana saranga), her guru Dr. S. Ramanathan's composition ‘Parimala Rangapathe’ (Nayaki), and ‘Ananda roope’ (Madhyamavathi) from Sri Ranganathashtakam.
