 Overwhelming religious fervour, in the minds of pure souls, finds invariably ecstatic panegyric expression in the form of devotional poetry of a rare and blessed kind. Tallapakka
Annamacharya (1408-1503 A.D) hailed as the Pada Kavitha Pitamaha, Hari Sankeerthanacharya and Panchamagama Sarvabhowma, composed 32,000 devotional compositions, all dedicated to the Lotus feet of Lord Venkateshwara of Tirumala, during his lifetime.
The Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams and the Bharatiya Sangeetha Vaibhavam (a Trust for Preservation, Perpetuation & Propagation of Bharatiya Sangeetham) jointly presented the three-day
Annamacharya festival at the Narada Gana Sabha, Chennai-18, recently.
On the inaugural day of the Festival, Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam, one of the few musicians fervently committed to the propagation of
Annamacharya Keerthanas, gave a 90-minute vocal recital which was thoroughly in keeping with the laudable spiritual tenor and ambience generated by the organisers in this context.
 Vijayalakshmi has taken specialised delivery training all too evident in all her renditions, more particularly in respect of
Annamacharya Sankeerthanas. The bhava, the diction and the well-balanced fervour (no artificiality at all) she put into all the 13 compositions she rendered that evening added impeccably to the ‘bhakti’ element that permeated the air.
It is necessary to understand in this context that the tunes for the melody of these Sankeerthanas were developed in later centuries, specially in the twentieth century and cannot be attributed to saintly minstrel. The original songs are not embellished by the saint with svaras and neravals. The latter day musicians are the blessed authors of these embellishments.
 Vijayalakshmi’s alapanas and limited swara prastharas, attuned to the time constraints, were blissfully inspiring. She made her concert more impressive by brief explanatory statements relating to the chosen composition. She brought out the lyrical sophistication wherein the same word had different meanings in particular compositions, strikingly.
The Malayamarutham, Bhimplas,
Saamantham, Vasantha, Shanmukhapriya, Bhairavi, Mohanam, Hindolam, Yaman Kalyani
delineations were all so sweet which not only enhanced the spiritual content of the composition (particularly – Evam Sruthi, Palukate, Ayameva ayameva, Garuda Gamana, Bhaavayami) but also were enriched by her own inimitable, distinct artistry dedicated to melody and divinity.
Vijayalakshmi’s concert was delayed by more than 45 minutes (as is inevitable on inaugural days) and she also chose to keep it short to avoid audience restlessness – a wise move that prompted profuse audience appreciation, later. Nishant Chandran on the violin and Mannarkoil J Balaji on the Mridangam assisted the main artiste ably. Her CD on select
Annamacharya Keerthanas was also released on the occasion.
R Srinivasan
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Concert on Annamacharya Keerthanas
