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 The
Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana has become world famous, thanks to
its organizational and performance quality. As part of the
festival several competitions are also organized. The
Kathakalakshepam category in competitions was instituted in 2007
and is now a regular feature among the competitions. It is held
the same day as the music competition. The maximum age limit is
21.
The topic for the discourse must be a krithi composed by
Thyagaraja, to be explained in Harikatha form. The participant
should sing bits of the krithi, bring at least 2 analogies,
anecdotes, or supporting stories from the puranas and ithihasas,
and have some humor. They will have eight minutes on stage to
perform. The spoken part of the performance may be in English.
This time, Ramya Sridhar, daughter of Sridhar
and Chitra of Bloomington,IL was the winner. Aravind Hariharan
had taught her the nuances.
The nine-year girl started her harikatha with Dheemikita,
dheemikita tala mridhanga - ganesha thandavam and then themaja
divyamayee saraswathi on goddess saraswathi and bala bheema bala
bheema on hanuman. A sloka from bhagavatham. She narrated the
meaning of the sloka and gave a brief description about saint
thyagaraja. She sang Seethamma mayamma in ragam vasantha. She
rendered each paragraph and explained the same. She concluded
with pavamana suthudu pattu mangalam in madhyamavathi.
It was indeed a rare treat by a young girl, full of confidence
giving interpretation to the Saint's great composition. Little
doubt, she has a bright future.
Kannan Bakthavatsalam
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