Late Thiruppugazh A. S. Raghavan has contributed immensely to popularise the Thiruppugazh hymns composed by Saint Arunagirinathar about 600 years ago by setting to tune over 500 of these hymns in more than a 100 ragas and also teaching these hymns to his disciples. To commemorate 60 years of the Gururji’s teachings of Thiruppugazh, the Thiruppugazh Anbargal recently organised a two-day event at the Capital’s Sankara Vidhya Kendra, Vasanth Vihar. The event saw his disciples, devotees and music lovers participating in an overwhelming manner. The Chennai-based brother-sister duo J.B. Sruthi Sagar (flute) and J.B. Keerthana (vocal) gave a scintillating Carnatic music recital based entirely on the Thiruppugazh hymns on the first day of the celebrations. The siblings interwove their musical skills into the thoughtfully chosen hymns. They also structured their renderings brilliantly in a format which gave a full-fledged concert experience. The organisers deserve credit for their choice of these artistes who not only did full justice to the event but also enthralled the audience in a spirited performance.
The opening piece of the duo was a verse “Nencha kana” from the Kandar Anubhuthi in the form of a virutham in the raga Hamsadwani, followed by the Thiruppugazh “Umbar tharu” tuned in the same raga. The siblings’ musical depth (Keerthana’s excellent diction of the hymns, the duo’s grip on the laya and their bringing out the raga bhavas of the ragas) came to the fore even while they were just presenting their opening item. While presenting “Parimala kalaba” set in Vasantha raga, the siblings introduced the improvising technique ‘neraval’ by taking up the lines “Tiripura dhaganarum vandhik kunjara gurunatha” and “Jayajaya harahara sendir kandap perumale”.
Detailed presentation
While presenting “Alankara Mudikirana”, set in Saranga raga, the duo presented a brief sketch of the raga in a scintillating manner. Keerthana took up a verse from Kandar Alankaram and presented this in the form of virutham before singing in a lively manner the popular Thiruppugazh “Muthiatharu” set in Shanmukhapriya raga. The duo took up “Marukkulaviya” set in Poorvikalyani for a detailed presentation by presenting neraval of the line “Thirukkuraadi nizhaltanil uraivone” and kalpanaswaras. “Thamaru mamaru” Thiruppugazh was skilfully taken up in ragamallika pattern in four ragas. Yet another Thiruppugazh set in Todi raga came in for detailed presentation where the duo prefixed verses from Kandar Alankaram in the form of virutham and suffixing detailed kalpanaswaras. The duo also included in their recital the Vel Virutham “Vengala” and concluded with “Erumayileri” in a befitting manner.
Delhi based Raghavendra Prasath on the violin rose to the occasion. Besides closely following the duo, the young lad’s sketch of the ragas Shanmukhapriya and Todi were enjoyable. So was the case when he handled the other improvising techniques. The seasoned Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan’s mridangam accompaniment, including his brief Tani avartanam, was riveting. On the whole, the enthralling rendition of Thiruppugazh hymns by the duo in the capital will remain etched in the hearts of the devotees and music lovers.