SquareShooter

Kulasekhara Perumal's lullaby to Ram Lalla  I was away enjoying Carnatic music in Chennai when the whole country was getting engaged with the details of the upcoming Ayodhya Ram Janmabhumi temple consecration. There was little time to look at news then, but once I returned, I could see lots of debates, especially in the Tamil country over our connections with Sri Rama. Luckily, with social media many scholars have started sharing diverse details, ranging from temples, literature, epigraphy etc., to show how deep our connections are. The last time, when the foundation stone laying ceremony happened, I blogged on one particular connection, the elaborate Ramayana dance drama of Sirgazhi Arunachala Kavi. I hope and pray some day like the Banaras Ram Lila, the Arunachala Kavi’s Rama Nataka will also be performed in Ayodhya. This time around, coming fresh from that immersive music season where we definitely hear, debate Rama kirtanais, kritis, my mind has been thinking of the temple cere...

  From silence to the sound of recitation After a period of “silence”, the anadhyayana period starting from Kartigai Kartigai, Thirumangai Alvar’s birthday temples would reverberate with the recitation of Nalayira Divya Prabandham the scared text of Sri Vaishnavas, the compilation of 4000 songs of the Alvars from Margazhi when the Adhyayana Utsavam starts. Today (14-12-2020), a day ahead of the beginning of Adhyayana Utsavam across Vishnu temples, sounds of Thirunedunthandakam would fill the Santanu mantapam, when Araiyars start the festival in front of Periya Perumal. The 21-day Adhyayana Utsvam is unique in that it is a complete celebration of a text and its recitation. For hundreds of years it has continued, keeping the text and the tradition alive. The days prior to and ten days following Vaikunta Ekadasi is celebrated as Adhyayana Utsavam, when the first ten days the first two thousand of the 4000 is recited during the day time literally called “pagal pathu” utsavam, and after...