Sangeetham Aishwaryam

As I walked into the Music Academy on 19th afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot people, who had come to listen to Aishwarya Shankar sing. That increased my expectation and trust me, I was not disappointed at all.

Aishwarya is a very committed vocalist who has a bright future. She began her concert with Dikshitar’s ‘Sri Gananatham Bhajare in Ragam Isamanohari. Clear diction with very good voice quality, good training and sincere rendition…..isn’t this a prescription for a good performer. All this was clearly in her to reach better heights, as she moved to her next song, by Patnam Subramania Iyer in Ragam Lathangi ‘Aparaadhamulanniyu’. Very beautiful Ragam ( but all Ragams are beautiful ) which has been incidentally used for a good number of film songs. Aishwarya was very impressive & confident with the Swaras and her voice is very clear and melodious.
Her next song was Shyama Sastri’s popular ‘Brovavamma Taamasamele’ in Ragam Manji. Here Shyama Sastri expresses his longing to see his favourite Goddess and asks her the reason for the delay in her arrival. Aishwarya could convey the pathos and grief of the song very well and I could see several people shifting to the mood. Like they say for actors ‘getting into the skin of the character’, for musicians it probably should be getting into the song and doing it complete justice. It is not enough if it is sung admirably and is technically great, we the audience need to connect with the song.
Aishwarya moved on to sing a brisk Papanasam Sivan composition in Ragam Hindolam ‘Nambi Kettavar Evarayya’. She explored all the nuances of this Ragam and it was enjoyable.
Can we have a concert without a Sri Thyagaraja composition ? It was ‘Nadhopasana’ in Ragam Begada.

The concept ‘Nadopasana’ means ‘worship ( upasana ) through music( nada )’. Today, people may like to project Thyagaraja in a controversial manner but this song should give us an idea about the person he was. Tyagaraja was a devout practitioner of Nadoposana. He considered it to be the path to spiritual salvation or Moksha. In his kriti Nadopasanache he expresses that even the great gods practice Nadopasana. Those who have mastered the soulful music are realized souls, even during their life-time. In his own words, music was a tool to reach God. I don’t think we can even match up to his pious attitude, we shouldn’t even try. Here we are using music for different purposes such as commercial, political agendas, Bach too was, in spirit, a devout practitioner of ‘Nadopasana’. Music was an act of worship for Bach. His artistic activity and his personality are both based on piety. If he is to be understood from any standpoint at all, it is from this. For him, art was religion, and so had no concern with the world or with worldly success. It was an end in itself. Bach includes religion in the definition of art in general. All great art, even secular, is in itself religious in his eyes; for him the tones do not perish, but ascend to God. Anybody reading this may wonder, how Bach and Thyagaraja are connected, well the connection is music !!
Aishwarya’s RTP was so good that I was wondering how we have such a good artiste, right under our nose and we are running behind only a handful of artistes who are wonderful no doubt but artistes such as Aishwarya should be listened to & spoken about. After all listening will be the proof…
The RTP was DwiRaga, Dwi Nadai, and the Pallavi was in Saveri & Sama, it was set to Khanda Jati Triputa Lagu, Khanda Nadai, Dhritarashtra, Misra Nadai. If anyone is impressed by my sudden display of knowledge, the truth is that she announced all this before she began the RTP.
The concert ended with a Shlokam from Ramakarunamruta. and Thyagaraja’s ‘Pahi Ramachandra Raghava’ in Ragam Yadukulakhamboji.
An afternoon well spent !!

About the Author:

Sandhya Shankar belongs to a well respected business family in Chennai. She is a Life Skills & Corporate Trainer by profession. She is an avid reader and a natural writer, who has written several poems and articles. She even presented her poems as a reading at the British council. She has keen interest in all art forms  and has explored many different forms of painting like stained glass and Tanjore being among them. 

Music being her first passion, she had her formal training under Terakotti Chandrasekharaiah at Bangalore and later briefly under Mrs Champa Kumar. She is a regular visitor of concerts, theatre and other live performances. Her witty reviews have gained a loyal and interactive readership for their sound technical commentary and relevance for every kind of melophile, from the casual-goer to the ragam expert, frequenting Chennai’s rich music scene.

(*The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of Music of Madras.)