Songs of Swarnavenkatesa Dikshitar rendered
LALITHASAI
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In a day-long programme, 108 compositions were sung.
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PHOTO M. KARUNAKARAN.
TRIBUTE: One of the groups performing.
The 86th birth anniversary of Chidambaram Swarnavenkatesa Dikshitar was celebrated by the Sri Swarna Vaishnavi Trust on July 21 at the Sri Kanchi Mahaswami Anantha Mandapam, Sri Ananthapadmanabhaswami Temple Complex, Adyar. The Trust presented an Ash
tathara Satha Swarna Pushapanjali — offering 108 kritis of Sri Swarnavenkatesa Dikshitar.
The celebration was inaugurated by N. Murali, Managing Director, The Hindu, and president, Music Academy.
The kritis were rendered by about 60 students of Chitra Madhavan, who had been taught the tune by Lalitha Ramakrishnan, founder, managing Trustee of the Trust and the spiritual disciple of Swarnavenkatesa Dikshitar.
The concerts began as early as 8. 30 a.m. and went on till 8 p.m. Most of the songs were in Tamil. Nine groups of students presented 12 songs each.
In praise of Adi Sankara
The first group sang navagraha kritis. Three groups presented pratana kirtanas. Senior students rendered Sankara Nava Raga Tala Kirtanavali. They are a sequence of nine compositions in Sanskrit in nine different ragas and different talas in praise of Adi Sankara.
These were composed in a single evening and earned the Dikshitar the title Sahitya Bhushanam conferred by the Ayodhya Sanksirt Samithi in U.P. Junior students of Chitra Madhavan rendered kritis in rare talas.
Songs on the holy city of Chidambaram and its deities were rendered by other groups.
The presentations were judged by T. Loganatha Sharma, Meenakshi Seshadri and V. Gurumurthy.
A galaxy of musicians, artistes and representatives of various sabhas graced the occasion. They commended the efforts of Chitra Madhavan in training the young singers.
Appreciating the efforts of the organisation, Neyveli Santhanagopalan, who was one of the special guests, said, “The Trust deserves to be commended for making this attempt to remember Swarnavenkatesa Dikshitar who composed more than 2,000 kritis.”
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