By M.L. Krishnaswami

In the Royal City of Mysuru, there are a few organisations which have completed a hundred years and more of fruitful service to society in many respects like it may be in education, social service, medicine, religious etc., to hit a century and continue to run their activities in a remarkable manner, thus lending themselves to a strong foundation of selfless service of the people connected with them. Kudos to such noble souls, who have made this possible.

One such organisation is Sri Ramabhyudaya Sabha Charitable Trust situated in Srirampet in Mysuru. It is celebrating its 129th anniversary this year.

A century or more ago, even a hundred rupees donation had great value in the market and several philanthropists came up to loosen their purse strings in this respect and this activated many fledgling organisations to continue their activities in a big way. Names of donors like Srikanta Sastry, M. Hiriyanna V. Lingappayya, B. Cheluvaiah, etc. are glowing examples in this respect.

It will surprise many of this generation to know that M.N. Krishnarao, a late Dewan of Mysore State, visited the Sabha in 1934 and gave a handsome donation of Rs.100 — which had great buying value then. Some devotees had donated Rs.50 or Rs.25 in the form of a puduvattu, a term deposit the interest of which can be used for a specific purpose.  

The site donor (Daani) for the Sabha was B. Cheluviah. Aravinda Parimala works partner Ramathirtha and his wife have helped the Sabha in a big way in the initial stages.  You might know that Rama Mandira was / is called Moole (Corner) Rama Mandira, situated in a corner opposite Nallappa Taana Police Station.

Till the year 1949, the Sabha was being managed by the members of the Uluchu Kamme Brahmin community and thereafter, the present Broad-based Committee under the leadership of Dr. N. Sriram is managing the affairs of the Sabha.

Even now, the original Founder and a few benefactors are being remembered on their birthdays by way of special pujas and the like. Some of them have their photos put in the hall.

The Sabha has been organising Music Festivals during Ramanavami and for the past few years, the venue is the spacious rainproof pandal, specially put up, in the premises of the Smt. Alamma Choultry a two hundred meters towards West of the Srirampet Road, which can seat about five hundred connoisseurs and music lovers on chairs.

Thus far is a brief account of the activities of the Sabha over the last one hundred twenty eight years. Now read on for this year’s Fest. This year’s Music Fest starts on Apr.14 and ends on Apr.24:

The calendar of events of this year’s Festival at Alamma Choultry Pandal that features a rich and vibrant variety of classical music recitals is as follows:

Apr.14 — Vocal: Vid. Bharat Sundar; Violin: Vid. Vittal Rangan; Mridanga: Maestro Umayalpuram Sivaraman; Khanjira: Vid. Guru Prasanna.

Apr.15 — Vocal: Vid. Sri Sikkil Gurucharan; Violin: Vid. Vittal Rangan; Mridanga: Maestro Umayalpuram Sivaraman; Khanjira: Vid. Giridhar Udupa.

Apr.16 — Vocal: Vidu. R. Anahita and R. Apoorva; Violin:  Vid. Gokula; Mridanga: Vid. B.C. Manjunath; Ghata: Vid. G.S. Ramanujam.

Apr.17 — Vocal: Vid. Vinaysherva; Violin: Vid. Gokula; Mridanga: Vid. B.C. Manjunatha; Ghata: Vid. G.S. Ramanujam.

Apr.18 — Vocal: Vidu. Srividya Janaki Raman, Hyderabad; Violin: Vid. Sumanth; Mridanga: Vid. Radhesh; Morching: Vid. Vikram Bharadwaj.

Apr.19 — Vocal: Trichur Brothers — Vid. Krishna Mohan & Vid. Ramkumar Mohan; Violin: Vid. B.K. Raghu; Mridanga: Vid. Trichur Mohan; Ghata: Vid. Kovai Suresh.

Apr.20 — Violin Duet: Vid. Venkataram and Vishu Venkatram; Mridanga: Vid. Anur Anantha Krishna Sharma; Khanjira: Vid. Sunad.

Apr.21 — Vocal: Vid. Ashwathanarayana; Violin: Vid. Mathoor Srinidhi; Mridanga: Vid. K.V. Prasad; Ghata: Vidu. Sukanya Ramagopal.

Apr.22 — Chitra Veena Vadana by Vid. N. Ravikiran; Violin: Akkarai Subbalakshmi; Mridanga: Vid. Tumkur B. Ravishankar; Ghata: Vid. Vazhappally Krishnakumar.

Apr.23 — Vocal: Vid. Dr. T.M. Krishna; Violin: Akkarai Subhalakshmi; Mridanga: Vid. K.V. Prasad; Ghata: Vid. Vazhappally Krishnakumar.

Apr.24 — Devaranama Shastriya Sangitha by Vid. Vidyabhushan and Group.

Apart from the above events being arranged at the Alamma Choultry premises, everyday, the Sabha has concurrently organised (at the Temple premises) daily discourse on ‘Ramayana’ by a senior Engineer and Vidwan K. Ramachandra and ten more interesting and religious-oriented programmes by noted artistes in the field culminating with a procession in Srirampet Main Street. Entrance to all the above programmes is free to culturally oriented citizenry of Mysuru.