Bowing in gratitude to a genius – Celebrating Vidwan Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman’s 80th Birthday

Through this blog

Mr. K. Srikantiah and family wish the great maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman the following:

" Happy 80th Birthday celebrations throughout the year and fond wishes for a long and healthy life full of many more musically wonderful moments. May the Almighty shower His blessings on our friend and musician nonpareil ! "

These were Sri Srikantiah’s sentiments and felicitations as he personally called the Maestro from Mysuru, on the evening after the ceremonies in Chennai on September 18, 2010

"The Way We All Once Were !" - Parvathi in the '1960s
Celebrating Devi Bhagavata Saptaha and Gayatri Homa

[ L to R: K.K. Murthy (future builder of the Chowdiah Memorial), Vidwan Umayalpuram Sivaraman, K. Srikantiah, Vidwan Lalgudi Jayaraman, Vidwan Alangudi Ramachandran, Vidwan M.A. Narasimhachar ]

In our last posting (on Vidwan Madurai Mani Iyer) we drew a link to Sri Lalgudi’s impending 8oth Birthday and the felicitations planned in his honor, in Chennai and elsewhere.

We, ourselves, had to wait a little longer (so enraptured were we with the proceedings in Chennai) before we could express our own gratitude to this immortal maestro, who in more ways than one has lived an exemplary life, in decency,in humility and in spirituality, while bequeathing so much joy to fans all over the world through his own brilliant artistry.

We put the following question to Sri Sachi ( our chronicler on ‘Parvathi’ matters and please click here to see his homage to Sri Lalgudi ) “How is the veteran Mr. Srikantiah taking it on this great day ? (in his own devotion and friendship to Sri Lalgudi)”

Pat came the answer “ As in every other day, where he listens to these two pieces without fail and in particular to Lalgudi’s rendering of them (from the full concert posted on Aug 29, 2009 ).

(1) Marugelara: Mr. Srikantiah is particularly fond of this Thyagaraja's song in Jayanthashree, He often talks of how Thyagaraja seems to be in a continuous dialogue with Lord Rama whom he is questioning on so many things.

In this song, Thyagaraja asks, “O Raghava (Lord Rama)! Why do you need to conceal yourself? The Universe itself is your form, with the sun and the moon as your eyes. By deep contemplation, inquiry, and search, I have directly perceived that you are everything, and everything is within you. There is no place in my mind for any other God. I solicit your protection.”

Lalgudi Jayaraman's genius in interpreting this song is very impactful. Listen to the clip below, and see how he collaborates with Palghat Raghu to create a profound effect, all within 8 minutes.

(2) Brovabhaaramaa: It is special, because, if you listen, it sounds like 2 violinists are playing it (one in higher octave and another in lower octave) . It is simply that wonderful . When Sri Lalgudi happened to visit "Parvathi" some years back, Sri Srikantiah played this piece for him, and the maestro himself was thrilled to listen to it, forgetting in a most innocent demeanor that it was after all his own playing. A great artist admiring his own great art !!

O Raghurama! While You are present in and as all Universes,
is protecting me alone a burden to You?
Sri Vasudeva! Don't you have crores of Universes
in Your stomach? Yet, is protecting me a burden to You?
Didn’t You, out of compassion, lift mountains
(once) in the Ocean of Milk for the sake of celestials,
and again, for the sake of gOpis? O Merciful Lord!
(Yet) is protecting Thyagaraja alone a burden to You?

"Homams"

We mentioned somewhere in our introductory theme that "Parvathi", besides its music, was also well known for its congregational worship and prayer. Somewhere in his speech, Chowdiah too mentions the fact that the matriarch Smt. Parvatamma would be found to be in supplication of the Lord almost twenty four hours of the time.

We show you a photo below of a 'Maha Bhagavata Homam' being performed at Parvathi in 1966. Performing the Homam are Harikatha Vidwan (Gamaki) Ramakrishna Shastriar (left) and the high priest of functions in "Parvati", Krishnaswamy Shastriar (right). Taking a momentary backseat to the rising flames before their performance, are Vidwans Umayalpuram Shivaraman, Lalgudi Jayaraman, Mysore M.A. Narasimhachar and Alangudi Ramachandran.

With Chowdiah's passing away, the entire Rama Navami music festivities came to be held in the former's honour and was shifted to the outside of the house to make room for the thronging crowds. The 'mantapam' and the portrait (shown below) were positioned below a 'Parijata' tree and the worship to both diety and tree (signifying ecological respect) was conducted publicly for decades to come.

The great Diva M.S. Subbalakshmi had performed earlier in Mysore when K. Puttu Rao was still alive. Here she is shown in 1967, many years after he passed away, settling down comfortably with "Parvathi" family members for the invocation 'Homam' prior to her performance.

Being that "Parvathi" was a vast and joint family (though not all of its members essentially lived there), the daughter-in-laws were always regarded with a certain filial pride by the man of the house ( Chowdiah also mentions this in the audio!). One remembers the house as having always retained the fresh smell of Jasmine emanating from perpetual garlands for gods, visitors and for women's constant hair adornings. The flowers would be brought in abundance each day from the copious flower houses of Devaraja Market or collected from its own gardens. Shown in the photograph (below) is Puttu Rao's second daughter-in-law Smt. Indiramma performing the necessary honors on so famous a visitor.

Finally, we show you a photo of the first couple offering their repects in front of the traditional fire(sometime before 1959! )

and a photo many decades later of Head Priest Krishnaswamy Shastriar and "Parvati"'s trustee couple offfering prayers to a single stone sculpture of Lord Sri Rama.