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News Round UpAugust 04, 2006
Celebrating Gopalakrishna Bharati
By Revathi. R
 

Revolutionary Thamizh Composer

Gopalakrishna Bharati's compositions were only in thamizh at the time when the Trinity was composing kritis in various languages.

A good number of kritis sung in today's concerts are compositions of the Trinity - Thyagaraja, Shyama Sastri and Muthuswamy Dikshitar - all of them lived about 200 years ago. Carnatic music flourished as a sahitya-rich musical form largely after their compositions became known, even though the ancient Tamil music existed with literature and Pann-s. Devotion and philosophy were basic to these compositions.
Illustration by S. Rajam ,
Picture courtesy: www.Carnatica.net

There was one man who chose to compose in thamizh. And he did it brilliantly. That was Gopalakrishna Bharati. There may be hardly any rasikas who have not soaked in the musical opera, Nandanar Charitram. The story of Thirunalaipovar from Sekkizhar's Periya puranam was the inspiration. It is the story of a devotee of lord Shiva, who belonged to the community of the 'untouchables' for whom the nandi at Tiruppunkur gave way for shiva darshanam. He was later accepted by the priests of the temple as a real worshipper and finds a place among the 63 nayanmars. When Bharati saw a sculpture of this saint at the Nataraja temple in Chidambaram (Tamil Nadu), he was inspired and he went on to write the Nandanar Charitram at the request of Nagai Kandappa Chettiar.

Early years and training

Born in a traditional Brahmin family in the village Narimanam, near Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu), now famous for its natural gas resources, Gopalakrishna Bharati had enormous musical ability inherited from his father Ramaswami Bharati. In the years of childhood education, he learnt Sanskrit and perhaps the knowledge of Sanskrit classics and dramas provided him the expertise in portraying the various characters of the dance-drama.

Gopalakrishna Bharati lived in Mudikondan village, near Nannilam for a brief period. He also served at the Sri Saraswathi Temple at Koothanur village. Later, when he moved to Anandathandava puram, near Mayavaram, Annoo Iyer, a local good samaritan supported him and his stay in the village for a long period. Bharati considered Govindasivam, also called Govinda yati his philosophical guru under whom he learnt vedantas and yoga shastras. He trained in music under the veteran Ghanam Kishna Iyer and learnt Hindustani music from another exponent, Ramdas.

Compositions

Very similar to Thyagaraja, Gopalakrishna Bharati also composed Pancharatna Kritis in five Ghana ragas. It is also said that he met Thyagaraja and during the long conversation with him he composed 'Sabapathikku veru deivam samanamaguma' in raga Abhogi. Interestingly, Thyagaraja had composed a kriti 'Rama nee samanamevaru' in the raga Kharaharapriya and a musical opera 'Nauka Charitamu'

In a time when shiva-katha and hari-katha were popular, 'Nandanar Charitram' was a well-known event of musical discourse. The credit for publication of this Tamil opera goes to the then French Collector of Karaikkal, Seesay, who recognised the richness of the sahitya and bhakti in the songs, through his associates.

Gopalakrishna Bharati composed songs in many forms like sindhu, oonjal, lali and kummi or kolattam. A few famous kritis performed on concert platforms are Sabapathikku in Abhogi, Enneramum in Devagandhari and Tiruvadi saranam in Kambodi. His knowledge of Hindustani music is evident in the kritis Eppo varuvaro in Jonpuri, Irakkam varamal in Hindustani Behag. A few songs from 'Nandanar Charitram' became popular when S. G. Kittappa and Dandapani Desikar sang them in films on 'Nandanar'.

Many songs from the opera as well as other independent songs are popular on the dance dais too. Natanam adinar in Vasantha, Varugalamo in Manji and Kanagasabai tirunatanam in Surati are a few to mention.

Music festival

A group of inspired people led by Chennai-based 'Deccan' N. K. Murthy and N. Venkatraman, a retired schoolteacher from Mayiladuthurai (Tamil Nadu) has been organising a annual music festival in memory of this great Thamizh composer for about 18 years now. The festival which was being conducted at Anandathandavapuram where Bharati lived most of his life, is celebrated now at Mayiladuthurai. From this year, another edition of the festival will be celebrated in Chennai city.

The organisers conducted a music competition for children on Gopalakrishna Bharati's compositions in the morning. That evening, a book of Bharati's Pancharatna kritis was released. One of the organizers, K. Viswanathan of Chennai, says that the committee intends to publish all the works of Gopalakrishna Bharati with the help of researchers and the music department of universities. The committee requests the public to share any information about this composer, pictures of him and any works of his that may be in private hands.

The committee also has plans to host the festival in Chennai in future and welcomes suggestions on co-ordinating it.

The book release was followed by felicitations to vocalist T. M. Krishna. Krishna appealed to the organisers to continue the festival at Anandathandavapuram village, as had been the practice and not at Mayiladuthurai, where it is conducted now. Krishna performed that evening, accompanied by S. Varadarajan on the violin, J. Vaidyanathan on the mridangam and S. Karthik on the ghatam.

To know more on the festival contact: N. Venkatraman, secretary, The Anandathandavapuram Gopalakrishna Bharati Music festival Trust, 13, Vijithirayar Street, Mayiladuthurai Phone: 04364 - 221672. K. Viswanathan, Organiser - Chennai, 1, Sri Bhashyam Apartments, 96, R. H. Road, Luz, Chennai - 4. Phone: 24982818.

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