The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Music festival begins at Tirupati

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 31, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Music festival begins at Tirupati

Special Correspondent

Over 60 musicians participating

TIRUPATI : The 64th Annual Festival of Music and Dance organised under the aegis of the Thyagaraja Festival Committee and the Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams began on Sunday amid chanting of hymns by TTD pundits and rendition of a Thyagaraja krithi as a prayer song.

Over sixty artists from the southern States and West Bengal are participating in the 10-day programme which was inaugurated by the Princess of Travancore, Aswathi Thirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bayi.

The Managing Director of The Hindu , N. Murali, who is also the president of Music Academy, Chennai, chaired the inaugural session with TTD's Executive Officer A.P.V.N. Sarma. Durga Sarma, wife of Mr. Sarma, lit the traditional lamp.

Ms. Gowri Lakshmi Bayi traced the link of the classical music to `Sama Veda' and said all indigenous art forms and fine arts, whether classical or folk, were nothing but the essence of `Bhakthi.' She quoted extensively from the Vedas, Bhagavat Gita, Mukundamala and other scriptures.

She also recalled the yeomen services rendered by her ancestors like Kulasekhara Alwar and Swathi Thirunal.

Mr. Murali said it was only in the fitness of things that the Trust was conducting the annual festival at Tirupati, the only place of pilgrimage which the poet-saint visited during his sojourns.

He complimented TTD for its munificence in co-sponsoring the festival and said that if only some more benefaction was forthcoming from the TTD, the long-cherished dream of the Thyagaraja Trust to have a full-fledged air-conditioned auditorium in place of its make-shift one would not be a distant dream.

Mr. Sarma lauded the Trust for conducting the fete amid all odds and hoped it would go a long way in perpetuating the ancient art form which was now struggling for want of patronage. He promised continued support in all its future endeavours. The inaugural dance by Gopika Varma was a good draw.

Trust secretary K. V. Ranganathan proposed a vote of thanks.

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