 Tributes to Tanjore Quartet
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| T V Sankaranarayanan |
Natya Kalanidihi PANDANAI NALLORE Subbarayya Pillai, Chinniah Sivakumar, son of Sangita Kalanidhi K P Sivanandan and Sarada Sivanandan, and the family of the famed Tanjore Quartet (1676-1855) – Chinniah, Ponniah, Sivanandan and Vadivel – organised the ‘TANJAI NAALVAR MUSIC & DANCE FESTIVAL’ at the Music Academy Mini hall,
Chennai, recently.
Senior Prince and Hereditary Trustee, Tanjore, S. BABAJI RAJAH BHONSLE, presided. Former DGP of Tamil Nadu, V R Laxminarayanan, Periyakulam Zamindarini and fine arts patron Haripriya Ramabhadran and Manna Srinivasan, Roving Editor, Sruti, and eminent musicologist, were the chief guests.
T V Sankaranarayanan, eminent dance performer guru Professor C V Chandrasekhar, violin maestro M S Gopalakrishnan, Karpagam Swaminathan and Palghat Raghu were warmly felicitated and pleasingly honoured for their significant services to music, vocal and instrumental.
Senior dance artiste Meenakshi Chittaranjan and her KALA DHIKSHA troupe Aparna Chittaranjan, Poorani Goundan and Hungarian ICCR scholar Ildiko presented an appropriate dance recital titled ‘NAALVARIN NAVARATNA MALAI’ featuring the compositions of the Tanjore Quartet. This was the highlight of the evening’s
programme.
It is universally and unreservedly acknowledged in Margam Bharathanatyam that the Tanjore Quartet have formulated and codified dance and dance-music transcending the passage of time. It has ever been the fervent wish of Meenakshi to pay a reverential homage to these four greats.
In this instance, Meenakshi and her disciples presented winsomely the nine number garland of gems from Prayer to Mangalam. The goddess Devi was addressed as MAYA THIRTA SWAROOPINI and worshipped as Shri RajaRajeswari in Rama Manohari. She was also paid homage as Vaishnavi, Mathangi, Parvathi and Vaarahi. The Mother’s grace, compassion, majesty, grandeur, and ferocity were well picturised in this opening number.
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| M S Gopalakrishnan |
Following this invocatory address, the Margam format comprising Alarippu in Misram, Jatiswaram in Thodi-Roopakam, Sapdam in Kampodhi-Misrachapu, the prime number varnam in Ragamalika-Roopakam, the Javali in Saveri-Adi and the finale Thillana in Sankarabaranam-Misram were offered in perfect harmony and rhythm to the varied nuances of Bharathanatyam. Meenakshi’s solo presentations included the quartet’s celebrated varnam composition “SWAMI NINNE KORIYUNAANURA”(Ragamalika-Roopakam) and delineated, in exquisite style, the esoteric and symbolic reflections, stressing Meenakshi Chittaranjan’s rich expertise and experience in this beautiful art form. As a senior dancer, she was able to present the number portraying the agony and ecstasy of the tormented nayika in true perspectives. The nayika pleads, ‘Am I not the right girl for you, Brahadeeswara?’ The timid entreaties soon got transformed into confident assurances effectively. The lithe, decorous movements (Sancharis and Theermanams) were just too good. The three disciples also displayed commendable artistry that won good appreciation from the audience.
The vocalist was Gomathinayakam, the cymbal-wielder was Pandian and the percussion support came from Viswanathan. All the three combined well to polish the ‘navaratna malai’ lustrously.
R Srinivasan
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