Sri. B.M.Sundaram at vidya bharathi

semmu86 · Post by **semmu86** » 23 Dec 2009, 21:45

Sri. B.M.Sundaram at vidya bharathi - Lec dem on " harikathA chakravarthi - srI. embAr vijayaraghavAchAriAr " ( hence EV for simplicity ) .

Few intresting points which he had mentioned . As he was telling in a good speed , didnt make note of all of them , but a few important ones .

1. Pre requisites for a good harikatha performer - good music , sound knowledge of tamizh , sanskrit , thorough knowledge of the sAstras and the epics , spontaneity .
2. harikathA was previously practised in the name of " keerthan " in mahArAshtrA before it came to tanjore , where it was popularised by sri. krishna bhAgavathar .
3. In those days , in harikathA programmes , gents and ladies were seated seperately , with the pakkavAdhyam artists performing behind the main artiste , as against today .
4. harikathA is to be performed STANDING ONLY . ONLY THAT IS CALLED HARIKATHA and what the others do now ( except kalyAnapuram AravmudhAchAriAr ) IS NOT HARIKATHA .
5. The performers should tell the organisers that it is not hariikathA , but sangeetha upanyAsams . But unfortunately that is not the case today .
6. EV was born on 24.11.09 in chidambaram . learnt music from vazhuvoor sundaram pillai and advaitham from Dandapani dikshitar , acquired double siromani in vedAntha and sAhitya.
7. Was well versed in Tamil , Sankskrit and telegu , as his father sri. embAr srirangAchAriAr was a scholar and a great harikathA artist himself.
8. in 1933 he went to baroda to assist his uncle for his research , and his stay for an extended period of 4 years enabled him to master hindi and marathi .
9. He joined a govt school in sirkAzhi as a sanskrit teacher but resigned due to various reasons .
10. Debut performance in 1935 and the topic was " krishna avathAram " .
11. He was the first vidwAn to perform the charitram of 12 AzwArs for 12 continuous days .
12 . EV and his father performed at a marriage , with father telling jAmbavathi kalyAnam from evening 5-8 and EV performing pArvathi kalyanam from night 9-1.30 .
13 . In 1942 , performed srimad bhAgavatham in mannargudi for 18 days .
14. kAnchi periyavA conferred on him the title " keerthana kulasEkarA " in 1942 . It was this title which he cherished the most .
15. In 1943 , for the first time he performed " tyAgaraja rAmAyanam " and also performed " trivEni rAmAyanam " combining " vAlmiki , kamban and the works of tyAgarajA " .
16 . Invited in srivilliputtur in the same year and performed " AandAl kalyanam " .
17. Invited in dharmapuram in 1945 , and as per the request of the locals , performed an harikathA on the Adheenam of the mutt .
18 . He was the first to perform harikathA on the life of vAggeyakArAs like sadAsiva brahmendrA etc ( though harikesanallur muthiah bhagavathar set a precedence by doing kathA on swAmi tyAgarajA )
19 . He willingly gave performances on saivam topics as well .
20. Performed harikathA about ramana maharishi in front of the swAmi himself ( in fact it seems this was the first instance when harikathA was performed about a living person and that too in his presence ).
21. sri.BMS here recalled an incident , where EV was asked to give a performance impromptu about a vaishnava achArya . Sri.BMS wondered what is intresting there to tell about an achArya vargam like an

epic like rAmaynA / mahAbharatha .. But the fact EV enthralled the audience for close to 3 hrs , proved that he is born for harikathA . Sri.BMS also stressed , that the kind of topics which EV has handled ,

proved that almighty himself propelled within himself to deliver .
22 . Upon requests , he travelled to pune and gave performances purely in marathi , purely in telegu @ many places in andhra .
23 . Also gave performances about buddha , mahAveer , swAmi vivekananda , mahatma gandhi and nayanar .
24 . Abul Fazal in the court of king Akbar had said this about TANSEN - " not before 1000 years before or 1000 years later will there be a musician like him " . But had he seen EV , he would have said that to him .
25 . Toured malaysia and singapore and assisted toward the building of srinivasa perumal temple in singapore .
26 . Attained mukthi in srirangam on 2.6.1991 .

Few of the important points , which i managed to note down . If someone else was there , request them to pendown what all i had missed .

Arvind ..

appu · Post by **appu** » 23 Dec 2009, 22:09

Arvind, You mean EV was born on 24/11/09, that is 1909 not 2009

semmu86 · Post by **semmu86** » 24 Dec 2009, 06:28

appu wrote:Arvind, You mean EV was born on 24/11/09, that is 1909 not 2009

ya it was indeed 1909 - 1991

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 24 Dec 2009, 16:10

Thanks Arvind for having noted so painstakingly and sharing the details.

maduraimini · Post by **maduraimini** » 25 Dec 2009, 04:17

Arvind,
Thanks for the write-up on a great By-gone era Harikatha expert. I have heard beautiful reviews about him, but never heard him in person. As I remember he had a brother or son, who was also into Harikatha- I think his name was Embar Rajagopalachari or something ( I may be wrong). Surprising to know how much he knew. Thanks for taking the notes and sharing it with us.

thanjavooran · Post by **thanjavooran** » 26 Dec 2009, 05:39

Shri Arvind,
Excellent write up. Many thanks.

semmu86 · Post by **semmu86** » 26 Dec 2009, 12:01

my pleasure cienu sir , sri.maduraimini and sri.thanjavooran avl .. sri.thanjavooran avl , infact you are my inspiration to write about the lec-dems

infact i attended all the lec-dems at vidya bharathi which you had written about ( TRS , Chengalpet ranganathan and trichy venkatraman ) , but laziness prevented me from writing about them , and also what to write and what to leave was a problem .. Hence thanks to you as well for making lazy bones like me to share with rasikas whatever we had attended and learnt.

Arvind..