Famed Carnatic violinist A. Kanyakumari has to have a special event marked in her calendar for the month of June.
To pray for rains.
If the south-west monsoon arrives on time and its span does cover the city, then she can sit back and say a prayer of thanks to god at her daily pujas.
But then, Chennai has been parched at this time of the year almost every year now. This year, the agni natchatram period extended well into late June. And Kanyakumari realised she had to bring out her violin.
On June 21, she organised a special prayer for rains at Sri Kapali Temple for three hours along with her students.
On hearing about the event, other musicians voluntarily joined her. On that day, she played on the violin with her students for about one and a half hours, followed by vocal rendition of kritis by A. Bhavadharini, Vidya Kalyanaraman and Uma Maheswaran. They were accompanied on the mridangam by A. S. Ranganathan and N. Rajam. Kanyakumari says she believes that if one worships the Ambal (Goddess
Parvati), that too on an auspicious full moon day, the prayers will be heard.
She recalls her experience of her playing the 'Bhairavi swarajati' Amba Kamakshi, 101 times on the violin followed by the performance of other vocalists at Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple at Adyar a few years ago and the rains that lashed the city the same night.
Since then she had been organizing the prayer for rains at the Adyar temple and now, for the past four years, at Sri Kapali Temple, Mylapore. Apart from this kriti, she also plays kritis in the raga amritavarshini, which is believed to bring rains.
This year her experience was different. She approached the temple for permission to conduct the prayer on the full moon day. There were some showers earlier in the week but she went ahead with the event.
"If we do not have good rains by late July, I plan to invoke the goddess by performing the Bhairavi swarajati 101 times at Sri Kapali Temple", says the violinist.
