The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Spirituality and culture inseparable, says scholar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 30, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Spirituality and culture inseparable, says scholar

By Our Special Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM, OCT. 29. Spirituality and culture could not be separated in Indian society and Sankeertana was an important aspect of the country's cultural system, said writer and scholar, Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma, here on Friday.

His Sivapadam, a compilation of more than 1,000 songs, was written in tune with this fact, Mr. Sarma said at a press conference held in connection with the programme to be held on Sunday in which Garimella Balakrishna Prasad of the TTD would render songs from Sivapadam. Sri Maha Kameswari Peetham would organise the programme.

He said Sanskrit and Telugu literary trends were also followed in his Sivapadam songs. The Sarvani Sangeeta Sabha of Chennai was the first organisation to hold a programme for rendering Sivapadam. Artistes of the Sangeeta Sabha composed music for 60 songs of Sivapadam and held the programmes for five years, he said.

Playback singer, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, and his sister, Sailaja, too had rendered some songs and an audiocassette was released. Later, Mr. Balakrishna Prasad sang songs from Sivapadam at programmes held in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntur and Tirupati.

Film lyrics

Mr. Sarma also has to his credit several well-acclaimed film songs too. He had also penned some songs for K. Viswanath's new film Swarabhishekam. He wrote songs for Bapu's TV serial Bhagavatam and title songs for several other serials.

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