Bh. Ramadasu Jayanthi Celebrations at Bhadrachalam

[sivakami]

Alivelu Manga Sarvaiah Trust of Sri Chakra Cements and Bhadrachala Sree Seetha Ramachandra swamy temple devasthanam will be jointly organizing the Bh. Ramadasu Jayanthi Celebrations between the 6th and 8th Feb this year, concluding on the Vasantha Panchami day. There will be a “Goshti Ganam” of ‘Bh. Ramadasu Navaratna kritis’ on the 6th Feb, Sunday morning from 11AM for one hour or so, by vidwans and vidhushis from all over the country, led by “Sangeetha Kalanidhi” Sri. Nedunuri Krishnamurthi garu, Sri. Malladi Suribabu garu and the Malladi Brothers. This programme will be telecast ‘Live’ on the SVBC channel. Following this, individual and group renditions of Ramadasu kirtanalu will go on during this 3-day festival.
All are welcome.
*I have given a brief outline about the proceedings, just for information to our forumites. Some other member may be able to describe in greater detail.

[rshankar]

Sivakami, please post a review if you attend this...

[VK RAMAN]

If audio recording is done, please post for those of us who cannot attend due to location.

[sivakami]

Surely Sirs (rshankar & VKRAMAN), we will try to cover as much as possible. I am given to understand that many( incll. me) are attending from Hyd. This event had been conducted in the past 2-3 years it seems. They had arranged for the live telecast by SVBC only last year, which they say will continue now onwards, for the many many rasikas who cannot make it to Bhadrachalam. It being a sunday this time, it is convenient for school children and office-goers.
I am sure some enthusiastic rasika like our venkatakailasam will record the live telecast and upload

[satyabalu]

*It would be nice one such prog could also be organised in Chennai with Nedanuri&Co.?
*looking forward for the recordings in the meantime.

[sivakami]

*It would be nice one such prog could also be organised in Chennai with Nedanuri&Co.?

Then maybe it can be titled as " Madraasil Bhadrachalam" ...similar to "chennayil Thiruvaiyaru"

[sivakami]

Firstly, the title should read as
“Sri. Bhadrachala Ramadasa’s 378th Jayanthi – Prayuktha Vaggeyakara Utsavamulu”.
This year the whole proceedings were conducted in the mandapam called the Chitra Kootam (that’s what someone told me) situated at a lower level than the actual temple. The Utsava Vigrahas were brought from the main temple with veda gosham and vadhyams. The Festival began with lighting of the lamp. At 11AM, before the goshti ganam, Mahasri. Nedunuri garu spoke about the essence of the Bh. Ramadasu kritis and emphasized that, “every one in every household should sing these kritis (prathi inta, prathi nota palakkali)”. Last year, when I saw the Live telecast from Hyd, he had even mentioned that, like Sadguru Thyagaraja swami’s panchratna kritis, they had chosen Annamachrya’s sapta-ratna kritis (representing the sapta-giri!!), and thereafter now nine kritis of Bh. Ramadasu as a “Navaratna Malika”.

Before the rendition of every kriti Dr. Perala Balamuralikrishna(from Vishakapatnam) who is popular for his poetic expressions and eloquence in telugu, spoke a few words about the lyrics and the meaning of each kriti, and added that these have been chosen out of the many Bh. Ramadas kirtanas tuned by Sri. Nedunuri garu (vaaru samakoorchi swaraparichina”). After the brief prelude, the vidushis and vidwans rendered the Navaratna kritis in the foll. order:
1. “Adigo Bhadradri” – Varali – Adi talam
2. “Srirama Namame Jihvaku sthiramayunnadhi” – AtaNa - Adi talam (tisra)
3. “Palukke bangaramayena “ - Ananda Bhairavi - Adi talam
4. “Sriramula Divyanama, smaraNa chesiyunna chaalu” – Saveri - Adi talam
5. “ Ramajogi mandhu” – Khamas – Adi talam
6. “Taraka mantramu korina dorikenu “– dhanyasi - Adi talam
7. “Harihari Rama nann” – Kanada - Adi talam
8. “Thakkuvemi manakku” – Sowrashtram - Adi talam
9. “ Kanti nedu maramula, kanukonti nenu maramula” – Nadhanamakriya _Kanda (eka)
(last year they had chosen “ Entha pani chesithivi rama” also in Nadhanamakriya, which was replaced with #9). Somebody was saying that composition of kritis in this melodious ragam began with Bh. Ramadas…..

TTD’s SVBC are covering the whole proceedings. They said they will be showing in parts after compilation. Since I did not have any recording device, I am not able to upload. Hoping that some other rasika will do it soon. I have also requested the organizers and some others ( who are not yet members of our forum).
Audio CD of these Navaratna kritis was released last year. This year they released another CD containing the recordings of the Ramadasu keerthanas in the Bhakti TV programme called “Pahi Rama Prabho” rendered by Nedunuri garu (being taught to the Malladi Bros). I think there are 22 kritis (priced at Rs.150/-). Bh. Ramadasu’s “Dasarathi satakam ( 2 CD-pack)” rendered by Malladi Suribabu garu are also available, priced at Rs. 100/-.

Basically, as mentioned earlier, the events (for 6th & 7th Feb) were sponsored by Charitable Trust established by Nendrakanti Krishnamohan garu of Sri Chakra Cements (on the name of his parents). He is simplicity personified, an ardent devotee and is known to donate liberally for the various music-related activities as well (atleast in the twin cities, I have seen their banner in almost every event!). Events were sponsored by Prof. P.V. Ramana garu, I.T.M. group of Institutions Mumbai (for 8th Feb), and co-sponsors were Nadhasudhatarangini (Vishakapatnam) and Saama gana Lahari Cultural Trust (Vijayawada). They had provided pick-up from & drop at the railway station, accommodation and food for all the participants.

Perhaps contacting any of these people, may help to obtain recordings. Generally everyone (here at Hyd) is busy now with music festivals and other social functions. So, it may take a little time...

After the goshti ganam, for the individual and group concerts, budding artistes, as well as senior people were scheduled to perform. Since I did not stay after the 1st day evening, I donot know further. We got to hear to Chaitanya Brothers, Sri. D.V. Mohana Krishna, Vishnubhotla Sistersetc., One young lady, Kum. Niveditha, rendered some new krithis (atleast for me)of Bh. Ramadasu, such as 1. Ninnu Ponichitina (khamas), 2. Enno vidhamula avadharamu (Kambhoji), 3.O raghunanadana Raa ra (kanada) & 4. Paalaymaam Srirama in Mukhari...

Smt. Saraswathi Vidyarthi, Priya Sisters, Smt. E. Gayathri (Veena) and other stalwarts were to perform in the next 2 days.
Lastly, we only wished we could stay more to enjoy and immerse completely in carnatic music, particularly of Bh. Ramadasu, being away from home, the related mundane activities etc., ...