swami dayAnanda saraswati

Carnatic composers (other than performing vidwans)
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rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Post by rajeshnat »

Swami Dayananda Saraswati (born 1930) is a distinguished Hindu teacher of Vedanta and Sanskrit in the tradition of Adi Shankara.

I have been to his ashram in anaikatti near coimbatore long time back, and very recently his lectures are held in chennai , one of the finest of finest communicators,straight from heart.

Swami dayananda saraswati is also a respected vagggeyakkara. The most defining number he composed was bho sambhO in revati(tunesmith was L.krishnan , dad of arunprakash) and to an extent rAmam bhajE shyamam manasa in rAgam durgA.He was very close to shri maharajapuram santhanam.

His gurukulam awarded few artists (MSG,UKS,N Ramani,MSG,TVS and AKC Natarajan) .More about it here
http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/21/stories ... 100700.htm

http://www.karnatik.com/co1017.shtml gives a short biography with his krithis.

VK RAMAN
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Post by VK RAMAN »


rshankar
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Post by rshankar »

Rajesh,

The svAmi is a great composer, but I am not sure if he is a true vAggEyakar - IIRC, Maharajapuram Sri Santhanam was the one who tuned his compositions. In my mind, I bracket him with ANDavan piccai, and Smt. Ambujam Krishna - great composers, whose compositions were tuned by others.

rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Post by rajeshnat »

rshankar wrote:Rajesh,

The svAmi is a great composer, but I am not sure if he is a true vAggEyakar - IIRC, Maharajapuram Sri Santhanam was the one who tuned his compositions. In my mind, I bracket him with ANDavan piccai, and Smt. Ambujam Krishna - great composers, whose compositions were tuned by others.
Yes you may be right, I think just to get the terminology right
vaggeyakara = lyricist (composer) + tunesmith

So may be all the compositions of swami is tuned by others, most notably maharajapuram santhanam. Once the tunesmith maharajapuram ramachandran sang a small prayer of swami , in dEsh , that was splendid. This has not hit the carnatic kutcheris yet.

rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: swami dayAnanda saraswati

Post by rajeshnat »

Pujyashri Swami dayananda saraswati passed away few days back at rishikesh. His lectures were always well attended and in chennai his lectures are held usually in NGS. His speech did not have any pseudo secularist tone and he was vehemently opposed to conversion . He is an excellent orator.

In music he has composed lot of songs , Bho sambho tuned by L krishnan (mrudangam vidwan arunprakash dad) and lot of songs tuned by maharajapuram santhanam . HIs songs are still in circulation particularly taken by maharajapuram school.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/t ... 682135.ece

VK RAMAN
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Re: swami dayAnanda saraswati

Post by VK RAMAN »

Great Soul, Leader and Messenger, Swamiji left an indelible legacy in U.S and helped several temples to motivate community to donate. He will be greatly missed.

Ramasubramanian M.K
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Re: swami dayAnanda saraswati

Post by Ramasubramanian M.K »

Pujya Swamiji was a great soul and spiritual leader. We have attended his lectures every year in the US(Saylorsburgh). We had his benevolent blessings in August this year just before leaving the US for good. The Arsha Vidya Gurukulam that he started in the US has made tremendous strides.Also the AIM for Seva initiative that he started in the beginning of this century has also grown by leaps and bounds-a lamentable point being that 70% of the Donations come from outside India. In my humble opinion no one -- besides Vivekananda--has made such forceful contributions to Hinduism and as Rajesh has said without the pseudo-secularism blanket!!

During his last visit to the US in August despite his debilitated condition--needing frequent dialysis--he made it a point not only to address us all during the lectures by other Swamijis but also granted tirelessly audience to the assembled--much against the Doctors' advice. He was adamant about receiving treatment but at the persuasion of people from all walks of life including the Prime Minister Modi he agreed to the dialysis sessions and finally his will prevailed. He was also a very good singer.An anecdote:

We have a music choir group(of about 40 people in NY associated with the Hindu (Ganesha) Temple in Flushing Queens, led by Chandrika Tandon ( management consultant.trustee of NY University who recently donated $100 MM to NYU School of Engineering)). Once during the Summer 2 years back when Swamiji was in the Ashram at Saylorsburg he had sent word thro Chandrika that we should perform at the Ashram for his Birthday celebrations. Chandrika had modified Swamiji's Bharatha Desa Hithaya(in Desh) slightly to accommodate us(included some male/female members who had never learnt or sung even Sa Pa Sa before!!!). When we finished singing Swamiji asked Chandrika--looks like you have made some changes and we were all floored how perceptive and attentive he was.!!!

I am sorry for this belated post--I did not see this topic before!!!

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