Into the world of Ambujam Krishna’s poetry

The compositions of Ambujam Krishna (1917-1989) are outpourings of devotion and poetry. With an estimated oeuvre of implicit 600 songs, chiefly successful Tamil, and besides successful Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Sanskrit, she has besides written songs successful Manipravalam, a literate genre characterised by a medley of languages wrong a azygous composition.

Marked by simplicity, her songs are typically heartfelt pleadings to the Almighty for succour. These devotional pieces are drawn from the epics and puranas. This foundation, combined with her nuanced knowing of aggregate cultures and idioms, gave her an exemplary composing acumen. Her innate consciousness for however lyrics would blend with melody ensured they were perfectly suited for mounting to euphony arsenic kritis.

Over decades, Ambujam Krishna’s lyrics person attracted renowned musicians and scholars specified arsenic V.V. Sadagopan, Musiri Subramania Iyer, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Dr. S. Ramanthan, T.N. Seshagopalan, K.C. Thyagarajan, K.R. Kedaranathan, Madurai N. Krishnan, Ananthalakshmi Sadagopan, R. Vedavalli, Charumathi Ramachandran and R.K. Shriramkumar, who person acceptable her words to music. And this process of philharmonic mentation continues adjacent today, 36 years aft her passing, serving arsenic a testament to the enduring entreaty of her lyrics.

Highlighting the lyrical beauty

The household of Ambujam Krishna organised an exclusive vocal recital of her compositions by Sikkil Gurucharan astatine the Music Academy connected the juncture of the merchandise of her biography Devotion Through Song, authored by well-known historiographer V. Sriram. The performance proved to beryllium a memorable travel done the distinguished composer’s works, with Gurucharan’s rendition illuminating the galore facets of her kritis. His wide enunciation of the songs brought retired their lyrical excellence, and his judicious attack — limiting the manodharma facet to the bare essentials — enabled him to contiguous arsenic galore arsenic 10 songs. The repertoire featured six kritis successful Tamil, 1 each successful Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and Manipravalam. The accompaniment of V. Sanjeev (violin), N.C. Bharadwaj (mridangam) and S. Krishna (ghatam) provided cleanable synergy.

That Gurucharan showcased Ambujam Krishna’s lesser-known compositions adjacent successful ragas specified arsenic Karnaranjani and Bilahari, successful which ‘Om namo narayana’ and ‘Kaanbadheppodhu’ are popular, was a pointer to his diligence and consciousness of occasion. 

An evocative Karnaranjani

Gurucharan commenced the recital with the celebrated shloka ‘Yaakundendu tusharahara dhavala’ successful Mayamalavagowla serving arsenic a prelude to ‘Sangeeta devate saraswathi’, a salutation to the ‘Goddess of Music’ successful the aforesaid raga. The charanam portrays the deity’s signifier and attributes, extolling her arsenic the bestower of the 64 kalas. The short, nuanced swarakaplana astatine the pallavi enactment further enhanced this invocation. After outlining the raga Karnaranjani, Gurucharan rendered ‘Vandhadaindhen sri rama ramayya’, afloat revealing its emotive core. — a soulful plea for refuge astatine Rama’s feet.

Following a succinct Devagandhari alapana, the recital’s standout diagnostic unfolded — ‘Maathaada bekayya’, a Manipravalam creation connected Rama acceptable to Misra Chapu. The lyrics featured Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit — the subtle shifts successful connection and the alliterations made it a linguistic delight. Gurucharan navigated this analyzable tapestry with aplomb.

The concluding enactment of the charanam, comprising each the 4 languages, delivered the thematic crux of the composition. The writer present serves a potent reminder to the Lord: ‘Adutha arakkanukku abhayamichina neevu ahamasmi ini anjabedaa’ (You gave refuge to the demon (Vibhishana) who surrendered unto You, saying ‘I’m here, don’t fear’). With this, she implicitly slips successful her ain assertion for divine protection.

This was followed by the reflective ‘Eppadi bhavakkarai serndhiduvaay, maname?’ successful Bhavapriya, posing a poignant enquiry (How volition you transverse the water of worldly existence, O mind?). Gurucharan’s raga effort and the opus rendition were perfectly successful tune with the mood. He past presented ‘Sadguru neeve’, a Telugu creation successful Amrutavahini acceptable to Desadi tala, penned arsenic a homage to Tyagaraja.

Bilahari, the main raga of the evening, was rendered successful each its splendour by Gurucharan, and was good complemented by violinist Sanjeev. The opus ‘Inru pol irundhida’ is simply a profound connection of contentment — a supplication to Rama for eternal presumption quo. A flowing niraval and sparkling swara passages astatine the pallavi ensued. The percussion duo of Bharadwaj and Krishna excelled successful the two-kalai Adi tala tani avartanam, weaving energetic rhythmic patterns.

Bhava-rich rendition

Gurucharan past offered a bhava-laden rendition of the Malayalam portion ‘Innu kandu unnikrishnanai’ successful Malayamarutam. The adjacent opus was ‘Piravi-payan peralaam’, an interior monologue, acceptable successful a lilting Khamas. A bhajan successful raga Gaavati ‘Maiyaa mori’ and the mangalam ‘Karumugil vannanukku’ successful Madhyamavati drew the performance to a close.

It was a top-drawer show by Gurucharan, whoplaced the composer earlier aforesaid Yet, 1 cannot assistance but consciousness that, considering the important publication Ambujam Krishna has made to Carnatic music, her creations stay vastly under-represented successful mainstream concerts adjacent successful Tamil Nadu.