Remembering Thiruvengadu Jayaraman’s contributions to Carnatic music

Swetharanyam Sisters performing at the 90th birth anniversary celebrations of guru Thiruvenkadu Jayaraman at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai, 2023.

It was thoughtful of Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha to have organised a special event on the occasion of the 90th birth anniversary of vidwan Thiruvenkadu Jayaraman. Because of his passion for Carnatic music, Jayaraman opted out of school. He did his gurukulavasam with the redoubtable Madurai Mani Iyer, almost becoming a member of the family. Jayaraman had a wide repertoire of kritis and was a master of the finer nuances of the art. He never traded traditional values for popularity. As a guru, he trained many musicians.

At this function, rich tributes were paid to the vidwan by N. Balasubramaniam, disciple of Jayaraman and secretary, Brahma Gana Sabha, and by M. Krishnamurthy, secretary, Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha. The evening programme also included two concerts by Jayaraman’s disciples — Swetharanyam Sisters and G. Meenakshi.

The highlight of the Swetharanyam Sisters’ concert was the Bhairavi kriti by Syama Sastri, ‘Sari evaramma’, preceded by an exhaustive alapana shared by the sisters (R. Nithya and R. Vidya), who are presently trained by senior violinist R.K. Shriramkumar. Violinist Srikrishnan Subramaniam offered a lovely elucidation of the raga. So was the thani presented by Mannarkoil Balaji (mridangam) and Nerkundram Shankar (kanjira).

The niraval and swara exchanges between the sisters at the anupallavi, ‘Parama pavani’ was enjoyable. The duo rendered a rarely heard Tyagaraja Kriti, ‘Karmame balavanta’ (Saveri, Misra Chapu) on goddess Neelayadakshi of Nagapattinam. They rendered a comprehensive swaraprastara at ‘Neelayadakshi’.

Beginning with Dikshitar’s ‘Manasa guruguha rupam’ (Anandabhairavi), they rendered ‘Diwakara tanujam’ by the same composer, ‘Jaya jaya padmanabha’ (Sarasangi) by Swati Tirunal, ‘Chandiranin oliyil’ (Subramanya Bharati — Bagesri), ‘Sankaranum jaganmohananum’ on Ayyappa by sage Agastyar and ‘Anjel anjel’ on Muruga by Mayuram Viswanatha Sastri.

G. Meenakshi performing at the 90th birth anniversary of guru Thiruvenkadu Jayaraman, held at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai, in 2023.
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Special Arrangement

Fine exposition of raga

Earlier, G. Meenakshi (another disciple of Thiruvenkadu Jayaraman and presently under the tutelage of R. Suryaprakash) at her concert offered the ever popular Sankarabharanam kriti, ‘Sarojadalanetri’ (Syama Sastri) after a delightful alapana. On the violin, R. Srikritii, a standard 12 student and disciple of vidushi A. Kanyakumari presented an equally fine exposition of the raga.

Meenakhi’s rendering of ‘Vallinayakanive’ of Muthiah Bhagavathar in Shanmukhapriya after a detailed alapana was the highlight of her concert. She commenced her recital with ‘Panchamatanga mukha ganapathina’ (Malahari – Dikshitar), which was followed by Tyagaraja’s ‘Seethamma Mayamma’, and ‘Aanirai meykka nee’, a Pasuram of Periyazhvar in Kanada and Jhampa tala.

Delhi Rajasubramanyam (mridangam) enriched the concert with his soft strokes.