It was a shower of Carnatic music in the Capital recently at different events in the city.

Chennai-based popular artist Ramakrishnan Murthy gave a well-structured and captivating concert during the Panguni Uthiram celebration and inauguration of the Golden Chariot at the Uttara Swami Malai Temple at South Delhi recently.

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He started the concert with one of the popular krithis of Sri Tyagaraja, “Sri Ganapathini”, in the raga Sowrashtram, dedicated to Lord Ganesha.

Ramakrishnan continued his spell with another popular krithi of Muthuswami Dikshitar, “Swaminatha Paripalaya” in ragam Nattai, rendering the swarams skillfully, this time invocating Lord Karthikeya, the presiding deity of the temple. Next was a divine rendition of Thiruppavai, “Katru Karavai Kannangal” in the melodious ragam Husaini.

Ramakrishnan then took up Natabairavi ragam with a detailed rendition of the alapana in Adi Talam. He chose a composition of Papanasam Sivan in Sanskrit “Sri Valli devasenapathe”.

His rendering of swaraprastharas in this song was very impressive. Theday being Prodosham, the artist chose a composition of Gopalakrishna Bhrathi, dedicated to Lord Siva, “Thiruvadi Charanam”.

He brought out the emotive touches in the alapana of the ragam Kambhoji in Adi Talam. He took up the Neraval, a portion to exhibit creative talent, or manodharmam, on the words “Aduttu vanda ennai tallalagadu ara-haravenru shonnalum podado”.

His rendition of swarams were noteworthy showing his best form. He then sang a short Viruttam followed by a composition of Koteeswara Iyer in a mesmerising Vivadi ragam Jyothiswaroopini, “Ganamudhapanam”. The audience were seen enjoying this song very much.

Then it was the turn of his much-awaited central item the “Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi”, which he rendered in Sahana ragam. He exhibited his skills by rendering three more ragas, namely, Bairavi, Begada and Kapi, intertwining the swaras between these four ragams nicely. The audience got a bonus song in the same ragam Sahana, a kind of acknowledgement for the felicitation he received in between from the temple authorities.

Charumathi Raghuraman’s takes on Nattai, Natabairavi, Kambjoji and RTP were very niceand matched the masterly rendition of the singer. N C Bharadwaj gave an excellentsupport throughout the concert on the Mridangam, with riveting thani for Kamboji and hadto fill the gap of upapakavadhyam. It was an excellent soulful rendering concert for therasikas of Capital.

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Akhandam~Non- stop Musical offering

The Capital also witnessed another musical event, the 5th Akhand Gaya Yagyam, organised by Sree Vinayaka Mandir Committee at their temple in Sarojini Nagar recently. It was a non-stop musical offering to all composers by all musicians and music students for 24 hours.

The musical offering started with traditional Nadaswaram recital by AlangudiPakkiriswamy and party. A host of senior, upcoming and students of music like K Vageesh, Radha Venkatachalam, S Vasudevan, Sowmya Gurucharan, Jyothi Sridevi, Subashree Ramamurthy, Mukund Sharma,Shyamala Venkateswaran, T V Manikandan and a host of artists of Violin, Mridangam, Kanjira and Veena participated in the musical offering.

On the concluding session, Malladi Suribabu, father of well-known Malladi Brothers, gave a short recital featuring krithis based on Shankarabaranam and Kapi ragams.

This was followed by group singing of Saint Thyagararaja’s Pancharatna Krithis by all the senior and junior musicians. In all there were 253 krithis sung by 163 musicians of 55 Gurus with 30 vadya artists, who participated in the akandam.

Rohini Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Satsangam recently celebrated their 17th Anniversary Celebrations by conducting Sri Radha Kalyana (Celestial Wedding) Mahotsavam at Adhya Sakti Dham Mandir, Rohini. This was led by Brahmasri P Subbarama Bhagavathar and Brahmasri Shankar Bhagavathar.

While Brahmasri Subbarama Bhagavathar, 85, is a retired government official, Brahmasri Shankar Bhagavathar, 67, is a retired vice-president of a well-known corporate company.

Rohini Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Satsangam honoured the two brothers with the title”Namasangeerthana Pracharaka” during this function.