Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Carnatic composers (other than performing vidwans)
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Lakshman
Posts: 14019
Joined: 10 Feb 2010, 18:52

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by Lakshman »

bhojju: Did someone help you with the 3rd caraNa?

fduddy
Posts: 243
Joined: 07 Jun 2010, 18:16

Re:

Post by fduddy »

keerthi wrote:Venkataramana bhagavatar was a very, very good composer.. He has composed several krtis on his Guru thyAgaraja including vada rasane in pUrvakalyANi besides a pair of stotra-s in praise of thyagaraja

The famous Harikambhoji swarajati - SdN-dPdn or RAma nA morAlinci is attributed to him..

His varnam in Kedara is a masterpiece..

Ananda mayamanave in Jyotiswarupini used to be sung by Dr. S.Ramanathan, and is , by Prof.SRJ..
KanulAra, in DhanyAsi, on kanchi Varada was a staple of the alathur duo.

Guruvaru mahimala in Anandabhairavi and RAmabhakti jEsina in Begada are part of TNS's repertoire, as is the popular thodi piece, RarA vasudeva varakumAra..

Neela ramgopal sings the Namanarayani piece, PagasEya beautifully..

Vinaradu manavi in janjUti is a lovely piece, which S.Ramanathan has sung.

There are songs of WVB in Gaula and bhairavi floating somewhere in sangeethapriya.

I have heard praises of the Lalitha song Chedi poke, and the nAdanamakriya song Paravasamaye, but haven't heard them yet.. Recordings are most welcome!

Veena Kuppayyar and WVB are said to have collaborated to produce a fantastic palindromic bhairavi varnam Sarasaku rAku sarasa..

Sadashiva rao of Mysore was a student of the bhAgavatar; and the quality of his compositions speaks for his musical lineage..

There is a beautiful kriti in Kambhoji. All that I remember is the intro given by Sri TVS in his Narada Gana sabha Dec 2008 concert. It was an awesome rendition. any idea which one it is and any recording available ?

rajeshnat
Posts: 9906
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Re:

Post by rajeshnat »

fduddy wrote:
There is a beautiful kriti in Kambhoji. All that I remember is the intro given by Sri TVS in his Narada Gana sabha Dec 2008 concert. It was an awesome rendition. any idea which one it is and any recording available ?
fduddy
To the best of my knowledge tvs sings the vada rasane in poorvikalyAni and neeve nannu in darbAr . I am not sure if there is a popular kAmbOdhi by WVB

Lakshman
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Joined: 10 Feb 2010, 18:52

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by Lakshman »

He has composed four pieces in kAmbhOji:

nI tappulannu, rama na moralincara, rama manavini (sj) and tatvamu teliyaka.

venkatakailasam
Posts: 4170
Joined: 07 Feb 2010, 19:16

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by venkatakailasam »

There are two more articles in The Hindu.
One is reproduced below as i am not able to get the link:

The Hindu-Friday, Mar 18, 2005 (SUGANTHY KRISHNAMACHARI)

Illustrious disciple of saint-poet (Walajapet Venkata Ramana Bahavathar)

He would memorise Tyagaraja's kritis, and after returning home, put down the sahitya and the notations. Venkataramana Bhagavathar has composed slokas and songs in praise of deities and his guru. SUGANTHY KRISHNAMACHARI flips through the pages of his life history.
KUPPAYYA BHAGAVATAR, a Sourashtra Brahmin who lived in Ariyalur, near Tiruchi, was a scholar who knew Sanskrit, Telugu and astronomy. He wanted to choose a bride for his son Nannusami Bhagavathar from a family of scholars. He therefore moved to Ayyampettai, in Thanjavur district, where there was a significant population of Sourashtra Brahmins. His grandson, Venkataramana, born on February 18, 1781, under the star Moolam, proved to be a child who would make any grandparent proud.
Venkataramana paid as much attention to his physique as he did to his studies. He became a hatha yogi. He was well versed in Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil. Right from his childhood, he evinced keen interest in music, and trained under his father. Venkataramana was a regular worshipper at the Prasanna Rajagopalaswami temple in Ayyampettai.
But this Krishna bhakta left for Tiruvaiyaru to learn music from the great Rama bhakta, Tyagaraja. He would memorise Tyagaraja's kritis, and after returning home, would put down the sahitya and the notations.
Venkataramana was so caught up in music that marriage was the last thing on his mind. In fact, he even felt it might come in the way of his learning more kritis from guru Tyagaraja. His father sought the help of Tyagaraja and it was only when Tyagaraja advised him to marry, did Venkataramana relent, at the age of 41.
The marriage was solemnised in Ayyampettai, and Venkataramana and his wife Muthulakshmi set up their family in Ramachandrapuram in Ayyampettai. They had three children — two sons and a daughter. Venkataramana named his first son Krishnaswamy, after his favourite deity Krishna, and his second son Ramaswamy after his guru's favourite deity. His daughter was Tulasiammal.
The Raja of Karvettinagaram wanted to learn music from Venkataramana Bhagavatar, but found it difficult to travel frequently from Ayyampettai to Karvettinagaram. So in 1834, he moved to Walajapet. Narayanaswami Chettiar, tahsildar Lakshmana Naidu and Kambili Munuswami Chettiar, all residents of Walajapet, bought a house for him in Raoji Street. In course of time, the street came to be known as Venkataramana Bhagavatar Veedhi. When Tyagaraja visited Walajapet, he was taken out on a ceremonial procession to Bhagavatar's house. One of Bhagavatar's disciples, Sadasiva Rao, composed a song, "Tyagarajaswami Vedalina" in Todi, and sang it in the presence of Tyagaraja. When Tyagaraja left Walajapet, Venkataramana Bhagavatar asked him to accept his son Krishnaswami as a disciple. Tyagaraja acceded to the request.
When Venkataramana Bhagavathar moved to Walajapet, he gifted a Narasimha idol to one of his disciples, Venkatasuri, who spontaneously composed the song "Sri Naraharidarisana Karesi." Venkatasuri also composed an opera, "Rama Natakam."
After Venkataramana Bhagavatar died on February 15, 1874, his son Krishnaswami is said to have written down the notations of 800 Tyagaraja kritis. Madurai Mani Iyer said in an interview that he had heard many rare Tyagaraja kritis from Nagaswami Bhagavatar, who also belonged to the Walajapet school.
Walajapet Venkataramana Bhagavatar composed Pancharatna slokas in praise of Lord Kodandarama, the presiding deity of the temple in Ramachandrapuram. He also composed Ashvamalika stotras in praise of Prasanna Rajagopal, the deity he had worshipped since childhood. He composed the Tyagaraja mangalashtakam in praise of Tyagaraja and some kritis in rare ragas like Jothiswaroopini, Natana Velavali, Vijayanagari and Nadavinodhini.
Years ago, this writer accompanied her lawyer father to the house of a Sourashtra client in Ayyampettai. His family had lived there for many generations. He said that many Sourashtra families included Venkataramana Bhagavatar's kritis in their daily pujas. To name a few, "Neeve Nannu" (Darbar), "Rama Ravikulasoma" (Kedaragowla), "Bhaja Srirama" (Kambhoji), "Kuchelaparimela" (Sankarabharanam), "Paravasamaayenura" (Nadanamakriya) and "Ramachandra Nannu" (Anandabhairavi).
The Sourashtra gentleman said it was his dream to collect all the kritis of Venkataramana Bhagavatar known to different Sourashtra families, and publish them. But it was not a dream that he realised, for, shortly after our visit, he passed away.
Venkataramana Bhagavatar's manuscripts, his puja vessels, his padukas, the Rama idol that he worshipped, were all taken to Madurai in January 1943, by the efforts of P. S. A. Krishna Iyer. They have been preserved by the Madurai Sourashtra Sabha.
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The other one is linked below:

http://www.hindu.com/ms/2006/12/01/stor ... 280500.htm by Lakshmi Devanath

Both I found to be informative about "pivotal link in the continuance of a great parampara."

venkatakailasam

Sivaramakrishnan
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Joined: 02 Jan 2010, 08:29

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by Sivaramakrishnan »

Smt. Usha Shankar (Coimbatore), disciple of Smt Balamani (Bombay) and later Shri T K Govinda Rao gave an exclusive concert of WVB kriti-s in a recent Amrita TV programme.


vilomachapu
Posts: 81
Joined: 06 Jan 2016, 17:20

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by vilomachapu »

Venkataramana Bhagavathar (1781-1874), born into a family of Saurashtra Brahmins at Ayyampettai....

WVB was not a brahmin but born into the Saurashtra weaver community. Subsequent generations of that community claimed themselves to be brahmins.

“Tyagaraja handed over all his belongings, including his tambura , idols of Rama and some deities, palm leaf manuscripts and his padukas (wooden sandals) to Krishnaswamy Bhagavathar. While the idols are still in Wallajapet the other things have been brought to the Saurashtra Sabha in Madurai,” said Mr. Damodaran.

Idols? I have seen the Rama Idol worshipped by Thyagaraja in a lane in South Street Thanjavur. There was a write-up about this in this site some years ago. So what is this idols that Mr.Damodaran is talking about?

satyabalu
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Joined: 28 Mar 2010, 11:07

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by satyabalu »

In Varagapppier street Thanjavur where Rama idol is being worshipped .

pvs
Posts: 210
Joined: 21 Jan 2008, 19:28

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by pvs »

There's an excellent rendition of WVB's "Bhajare Manasa Sri Raghuveeram" in Gaula by TVS from long ago. I think it is on sangeethapriya. It is a must listen.

SrinathK
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Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by SrinathK »

Of late, I see official recording companies have opened their own Youtube channels and share their albums for online listening. So here's an album from the Bombay Sisters of WVB krithis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdVm2V9Q9tQ

I think it's time to reshare many of those old collections that were once upon a time upload to rapidshare or sendspace that didn't last long due to time and space restrictions -- that was an initiative ahead of its time. However, Youtube. cloud storage and cheap broadband has now brought many more of these collections back to the limelight.

The album channels also allow you to pick and choose what you want to listen. For this particular album the time stamps are as below

00:00 - Manasaramuni
07:19 - Pagaseyadaguna
18:03 - Radha Ramana
22:27 - Rara Vasudeva
27:56 - Chapalamumani
33:50 - Vinaradu Kadara
38:55 - Paravasamayanura


shankarank
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Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 07:16

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by shankarank »

I found this link https://venkataramanabhagavadar.org/Sri ... uraman.pdf as part of the website: https://venkataramanabhagavadar.org/History.html - when searching on SrI Bhagavatar.

The PDF book needs rotated using the PDF page rotate icon ( available in Chrome PDF viewer itself). Contains lot of information which is in tamizh.

Some recent historical happenings like the conduct of Jayanti and coverage by AIR in 1965 along with a program listing finds place in later pages. One can see Madurai Sri G.S Mani giving a concert in 1965 on bhagavatar kritis.

Lakshman
Posts: 14019
Joined: 10 Feb 2010, 18:52

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by Lakshman »

The book of his compositions with notations can be downloaded from here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/31n2se0frcy9d ... 6.pdf?dl=0

kmrasika
Posts: 1258
Joined: 10 Mar 2006, 07:55

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by kmrasika »

Lakshman wrote: 28 May 2021, 17:39 The book of his compositions with notations can be downloaded from here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/31n2se0frcy9d ... 6.pdf?dl=0
@Lakshman Sir,: Were you able to source the follow-up publication of additional compositions mentioned in this review?

Lakshman
Posts: 14019
Joined: 10 Feb 2010, 18:52

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by Lakshman »

I don't have this new publication. No idea where to purchase a copy.

The Lost Melodies
Posts: 78
Joined: 28 Jan 2021, 21:40

Re: Walajahpet Venkataramana bhagavathar

Post by The Lost Melodies »

An unpublished gita of Valajapettai Sri Venkataramana Bhagavathar published by The Lost Melodies.

https://youtu.be/IlSoRwsi74M

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