Music fete begins today
S. VINAYA KUMAR
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A week-long music festival will begin today to pay homage to Neelakanta Sivan.
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Two composers who were influenced by Neelakanta Sivan are T. Lakshmanan Pillai and Papanasam Sivan.
IN PRAISE OF A SAINT: Thiruvizha Jayasankar and Sanjay Subramoniam will join other musicians in paying tribute to the saint composer.
The annual Neelakanta Sivan Sangeetha Aradhana Festival organised by Sri Neelakanta Sivan Sangeetha Sabha, which begins onJuly 29, promises a week-long musical feast to rasikas in Thiruvananthapuram.
Commemoration
The festival commemorates the 105th samadhi year of the saint composer. Neelakanta Sivan was born in 1839 in a village in Nagerkovil and grew up within the precincts of Fort Padmanabhapuram in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu. Right from boyhood he is said to have showed a mystical inclination and he showered his adoration on the presiding deity of the Fort's grandest temple - the Neelakanta Swamy temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. He composed many songs in praise of this deity and this continued even after the youngster was persuaded to marry the daughter of an affluent man residing at Karamana in Thiruvananthapuram. Thereafter he shifted residence to the capital city and it was also in Karamana that he died in the year 1900.
Two great composers who were influenced by him are T. Lakshmanan Pillai and Papanasam Sivan. Neelakanta Sivan composed innumerable songs, mostly in the Shaivite tradition. It is said that a large number of these songs are now lost. But many of those that remain - like `Navasiddhi pettralum' in Kharaharapriya immortalised by Semmangudi, `Ihaparam tarum' in Khamas, and `Anandanatam aaduvartillai' in Purvikalyani - have found a place of esteem in the repertoire of Carnatic musicians. Sivan's compositions are not mere extolment of divine grandeur.
In the case of many composers, a song is little more than a paean of praise followed by a rather pathetic appeal for self preservation. They begin by reciting the name of a deity, and go on to embellish it with a whole lot of adjectives. There is no real poetry, no message, no shadow of a philosophical reflection, nothing that moves either the head or the heart. Neelakanta Sivan's compositions belong to a different class altogether. His diction is highly poetic and his songs convey a message in the best tradition of composers like Thyagaraja.
To give only one example, in the anupallavi of the famous kriti in Mukhari, `Enraikku Sivakripai varumo...' the poet writes, `Kanrin kuralaik kettu kanindu varum pasu pol.... '
Poetic touch
Tamil scholars have pointed out that the mother cow hastening to its lowing calf is usually expressed by the Tamil idiom `padari varum pasu.' Sivan, however, deliberately says `kanindu' instead of `padari', thereby injecting into the event a heart-warming tenderness. The Neelakanta Sivan Sangeetha Sabha was started 30 years ago largely owing to the enthusiasm of the late Venuganam Janardana Iyer. This year's festival begins with a Nadaswaram recital by Thiruvizha Jayasankar. On succeeding days, a number of seasoned musicians like Kudamaloor Janardanan, Sanjay Subramoniam and Neyveli Santhanagopalan, are expected to appear on the stage.
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