As announced yesterday in this column, I am reproducing what I wrote about K. Srikantiah in Star of Mysore in 1990.

Hey Ram! Hello Ram!

We may be rid of the Ramayana serial on TV but not the annual feature of Ramanavami — Lord Rama’s birthday.

I don’t know why Ramanavami is linked to music concerts and I don’t know if it is a feature only in South India or all over India.

Mercifully, unlike during the Ganapathy Festival and Ayyappa Swamy season, Ramanavami music festivals are not only full of religious fervour but also have only classical music by the well-known musicians. That of course, is doing a great honour to our King Rama and showing devotion to God Rama at the same time.

I am very happy that Ramanavami has not yet degenerated into a pop culture and its solemnity is maintained.

Mysoreans particularly seem to be very devoted to Lord Rama if we go by the number of music concerts that are being currently held. Important among them are, of course, the famous Bidaram Krishnappa Rama Mandira and Chowdaiah Memorial Trust of Mr. K. Srikantiah.

Incidentally, K. Srikantiah used to hold his annual Chowdaiah Memorial Ramanavami music programmes in his own premises on Vani Vilas Road on a specially constructed pandal which used to be an ideal locale for the music concerts, particularly in summer with a sort of open-air atmosphere. I wonder why the venue had to be shifted to the Jaganmohan Palace Auditorium.

Incidentally, Kosambari (a mixture of Bengal gram and coconut spiced with mustard and green chilly), Panaka (juice), and Neeru Majjige (butter milk) are being customarily served to the people who visit the Rama Mandiras. I don’t know if this tradition is still maintained or shelved because of the cost of the ingredients that go to make them.

And finally, my friend Vijay says that a function was held at the Maharaja’s College on the Ramanavami day to felicitate Kuvempu on his winning the Jnanpith Award for his magnum opus ‘Sri Ramayana Darshanam’ and, of course, the organisers did not forget to serve Kosambari, Panaka and                  Neeru Majjige.

And on this occasion, I also remember the famous last words of Mahatma Gandhi    ‘Hey Ram!’

— 4th April 1990

K. Srikantiah on Saint Thyagaraja

Reacting to my remarks in this column, about Ramanavami, Mr. K. Srikantiah of Chowdaiah Memorial Trust has this to say:

Taking up my first point, why during Ramanavami classical music festivals are held etc., Mr. Srikantiah says: It is be-cause most of the Krithis about Sri Rama are composed by Saint Thyagaraja in praise of Lord Sri Rama. It seems Saint Thyagaraja, as his name indicates, was a great Saint who was an ardent devotee of Sri Rama. He always sang in praise of his Lord. Nearly 90 percent of all the songs that were composed by Thyagaraja are about Sri Rama.

However, he never sat down and wrote his songs. He simply sang them out of sheer inspiration. And we owe a debt to Saint Thyagaraja’s disciples who wrote down those compositions and put the notations so that they could sing them properly.

Now I know why Ramanavami festival cannot degenerate into a pop musical concert. Thanks to Saint Thyagaraja, the solemnity of the occasion can be maintained.

As regards why Mr. Srikantiah has shifted the venue of his popular musical concert to Jaganmohan Palace, he says it was because of irritants that he had to suffer while organising this concert. He started getting letters from his friends, well- wishers and also from those who are not quite friendly saying that the atmosphere in the pandal was not congenial for a classical music concert

Moreover, he was also plagued by constant power failure, thanks to KEB. Power supply from the Genset often disturbed the vocalists and instrumentalists. Added to all this, the inconvenience caused to the general public as a result of the road being blocked in front of the pandal. And then Mr. Srikantiah had to arrange for Police bandobust and face the public complaints (from the students and the neighbourhood) about the loud-speaker menace.

According to Mr. Srikantiah half his energy used to be lost in putting up the pandal and attending to other arrangements. He says, “Twenty one marriages could be conducted for the trouble of conducting one Ramanavami music concert.” I should say he is right.

At the Jaganmohan Palace, there are no irritants. More than that there is less room for any distraction, both for the RASIKAS and the ARTISTES.

Mr. Srikantiah tells me that he had conducted the programme under the special pandal for the last 20 years and it is only since last year that he shifted the venue to Jaganmohan Palace

— 7th April 1990

Shifting of Ramanavami Music Concert Venue

Last Saturday, I had mentioned about the reasons why the Chowdaiah Memorial Trust of K. Srikantiah shifted the venue to the Jaganmohan Palace Auditorium.

Now Mr. Srikantiah tells me that no one told him that the pandal was not congenial for classical music concerts, not even those who are not quite friendly.

In fact, the venue was rather ideal, particularly with regard to the acoustics and many had asked him why he shifted. The ‘Why’ of it, of course, has already been answered.

— 10th April 1990

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