By Dr. Padmavathi Narasimhan
The 61st Heritage Music Festival of Sri Prasanna Vidya Ganapathi Mahotsava Charitable (SPVGMC) Trust — popularly known as 8th Cross Ganesha Music Festival — is ready with its artistes for the year. Established in 1962, the Trust has been celebrating Ganesha Festival in a meaningful way. The Trust has acquired the hues of a prestigious Sangeeta Sabha over the years.
The skeleton of the Ganapati pendal here is a permanent one occupying a small stretch of 8th Cross in V.V. Mohalla. Every year the pendal is constructed on this skeleton, into a rain-proof auditorium. Ganapati is installed in this pendal in front of which artistes perform on the platform.
8th Cross artistes span genres — D.K. Pattammal, Madurai Mani Iyer, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, K.V. Narayanaswamy, G.N. Balasubramanyam, S. Ramanathan, T. Chowdiah, R.K. Srikantan, N. Ramani, MSG, Kadri Gopalnath, T.N. Krishnan of the past have performed here. T.N. Seshagopalan, T.M. Krishna, Ronu Majumdar, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Bombay Jayshree, Nithyasree Mahadevan, Hyderabad Brothers, Malladi Brothers… and the list continues… Name the artiste and they have performed here. The flood of quality music is on here. Artistes yearn to come and perform here, not only for the prestige of the dais but because of the Mysuru audience who eagerly sit till 11 in the night to listen to the music. The artistes are prescribed the list of main items by the Secretary Himamshu to avoid repetition of the raga. RTP is a must and the artistes exhibit their talent enthusiastically before the eager audience. It is now the 61st year of this Heritage Music Festival.
As usual, the Festival is from the day of Ganesha Chaturthi, Aug. 31 and continues till Sept. 11. The concerts start at 6.45 sharp every evening. From Sept. 2 to 11, Gamaka Vachana is organised by various artistes across the State between 5.30 pm and 6.30 pm.
Like every year, the first day of the Music Festival begins with the auspicious Nadaswara Vadana by Vid. Rangaswamy who is a recipient of ‘Karnataka Kalashree’ award.
August 31
6.45 pm: Nagaswara by Vid. Rangaswamy. He will be accompanied by Keshava Mohan (violin), Vid. R. Nagesh (tavil) and Vid. Sai Shivu (mridanga).
September 1
6 pm: Inaugural Function. Shantakumar, Director, The Printers (Mysuru), Publisher, Prajavani and Deccan Herald, will inaugurate the music series. Jagannath Shenoy, President, SPVGMC Trust, will preside. Vasu, former MLA and patron, SPVGMC Trust, will be present. Ramesh Narasaiah, Assistant Commissioner, Commercial Tax, Mysuru, first recipient of the Chief Minister Tax Service Award, will be felicitated.
6.45 pm: Vid. T.M. Krishna will present a vocal concert with Vidu. Akkarai Subhalakshmi (violin), Vid. K.U. Jayachandra Rao (mridanga) and Vid. Vazhappally Krishnakumar (ghata).
September 2
5.30 pm: Rannana Gadayuddha – Bheemasena Pratignye. Vaachana: Ganesh Udupa and Vyakhyaana: Dakshinamurthy.
6.45 pm: Vocal recital by Akkarai Sisters — Vidushis Akkarai Subhalakshmi and Akkarai Swarnalatha. They will be accompanied by Vid. Vittala Rangan (violin), Vid. K.U. Jayachandra Rao (mridanga) and Vid. Vazhappally Krishnakumar (ghata).
September 3
5.30 pm: Rannana Gadayuddha-Duryodhana Vilapa. Vaachana by Annapoorna Nagendra and Vyakhyaana by Dakshinamurthy.
6.45 pm: Malladi Brothers — Vidwans Malladi Sriram Prasad and Malladi Ravikumar — will present vocal duet. They will be accompanied by Vid. Embar Kannan (violin), Vid. Arjun Kumar (mridanga) and Vid. G.S. Ramanujam (ghata).
September 4
5.30 pm: Shivatatva Chintamani – Ardhanareeshwara leele. Vaachana by Khasim Malligemaduvu and Vyakhyaana by Morabada Mallikarjuna.
6.45 pm: Piano-Bansuri concert by Vid. Anil Srinivasan and Pt. Pravin Godkhindi accompanied by Ananth R. Krishnan (mridanga).
September 5
5.30 pm: Mohana Tarangini – Kandarpaharaninda Bendudu. Vaachana by Dhanya and Vyakhyaana by Srinivasa Phani.
6.45 pm: Vocal concert by Vid. Abhishek Raghuram. He will be accompanied by Vid. H.N. Bhaskar (violin), Vid. Mannargudi Vasudevan (tavil) and Vid. Ananth R. Krishnan (mridanga).
September 6
5.30 pm: Shivatatva Chintamani – Bhikshatana Leele. Vaachana by Padmalatha Nagesh and Vyakhyaana by Morabada Mallikarjuna.
6.45 pm: Vidu. Jayanthi Kumaresh and Vid. Kumaresh will present a veena-violin concert. They will be accompanied by Vid. Ananth R. Krishnan (mridanga) Vid. Giridhara Udupa (ghata).
September 7
5.30 pm: Mohana Tarangini – Shambarasurana Vadhe. Vaachana by Bhagyalakshmi and Vyakhyaana by Srnivasa Phani.
6.45 pm: Vidu. Bhargavi Venkataram will be presenting a vocal concert. She will be accompanied by Vid. H.K. Venkataram (violin), Vid. K.V. Prasad (mridanga) and G.S. Ramanujam (ghata).
September 8
5.30 pm: Shabara Shankara Vilasa – Arjunana Tapassu. Vaachana by Shyamala Prakash and Vyakhyaana by L. Shobha Anand.
6.45 pm: Vidu. Varijashree Venugopal will present a vocal concert.
He will be accompanied by Vid. Mattur Srinidhi (violin), Vid. A. Radhesh (mridanga) and Vid. Shamit Gowda (ghata).
September 9
5.30 pm: Shabara Shankara Vilasa – Shabara Shankara Parthara Yuddha. Vaachana by Mahima Kashyap and Vyakhyaana by L. Shobha Anand.
6.45 pm: Violin concert by Vid. Lalgudi GJR Krishnan and Vid. Vittal Ramamurthy. They will be accompanied by Vid. Thiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam (mridanga) and Vid. Bhargav Halambi (kanjira).
September 10
5.30 pm: Pampa Bharatha – Bheeshma Senadhipatya. Vaachana by Shubha Raghavendra and Vyakhyaana by Dr. Jyothi Shankar.
6.45 pm: Vocal concert by Vid. Sikkil R. Gurucharan accompanied by Vid. Kartik Nagaraj (violin), Vid. Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman (mridanga) & Vid. Karthik (ghata).
September 11
8 am: Dhanvantari Homa by Veda Scholars Challakere Brothers; 12.30 noon: Poornahuthi in the presence of Suttur Seer Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji.
5.30 pm: Pampa Bharata – Duryodhanana Vadhe. Vaachana by Satyalakshmi Anatapadmanabha and Vyakhyana by Dr. Jyoti Shankar; 6.45 pm: Vocal concert Vid. Sandeep Narayan accompanied by Vid. H.N. Bhaskar (violin), Vid. Umayalpuram K.Sivaraman (mridanga) and Vid. Guruprasanna (kanjira).
“8th Cross artistes span genres — D.K. Pattammal, Madurai Mani Iyer, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, K.V. Narayanaswamy, G.N. Balasubramanyam, S. Ramanathan, T. Chowdiah,, N. Ramani, MSG, , T.N. Krishnan of the past have performed here.”
During 1950s and 1960s, this place was not even known. The above artists, I doubt would have performed there. I attended the music recitals in those periods in Mysore, and listened to the above artists in Bidaram Krishnappa Mandira and Aralikatte Rama Mandira. but never here.
No need to doubt. The list is accurate
@Shankar
You are ignorant and deluded.
if this is 61st year, then it started in 1960-61.
For example, by 1960,, GNB’s golden voice was gone, he was not well too, and he accepted the position of principal of the Swathi Thirunal College of Music in Trivandrum.. Chembai was getting old, and would not travel. Even Gopala Iyengar who hosted the famed Ramanavami celebrations in Seshadripuram high school premises could not persuade Chembai to come to Bangalore.- a straight train from Chennai.
Those old stalwarts residing in Chennai like GN Balasubramainiam , Chembai and Madurai Mani cared only to perform at Bidaram Rama Mandira managed by Choudaiah then in early 1960s, as he accompanied them in their concerts.
It was very difficult to persuade them to preform elsewhere in Mysore.
Bangalore-Chennai was served by express trains and overnight sleepers convenient for these Chennai-based musicians to arrive and perform in Bangalore.
Hence the second half of that list in the article from RK Srikantan perhaps is true.
This 8th cross concerts took off only after the Aralikatte Ramanavami arrangement closed down.
GN Balasubramaniam stopped performing by early 1960s even in Chennai, as his voice broke down by then. He was tutoring until he was offered the position of the principal of Swati Tirunal college of Music in Tiruvananthapuram in 1964. He was ill by then
I too attended all Ramanavami concerts in Mysore, this 8th cross was relatively unknown in mid-1960s.
@gautam,
Since you mentioned that you attended the best concerts, I thought you are cultured and hence I responded. Obviously not.
@Shankar
You originally responded: ” No need to doubt. ”
That was not how a Mysorean with culture should respond.
You live in a country which is corrupt and in a city where college girls are molested. An innocent young woman ‘Nirbhaya’ was raped and abused in the capital city of your country.
No Mysorean /Indian these days has the right to talk about the culture.
You should hang your head in shame, looking at how you Indians have degenerated.
correction: ” innocent”
What makes me angry is a Mysorean teaching about what a culture is, just like their wife deserter Narendra Modi, does when meeting foreign leaders.
Not a day passes without hearing news about dowry killing, youth molesting girls in college premises, and a young woman lecturer taking her own lives, not tolerating the harassment of her college management.
This person @Shamkar who talks about culture should read the stories that appear in this SOM website: job scam, 40% commission, etc.. etc..
Indians are good in pontification about culture, which they do not have in any percentage.