A small compilation of Palakkad iyer contributors to Carnatic music

 

A small  compilation of   Palakkad  iyer  contributors  to Carnatic music

 

(This collection was  done   some 20  years back  and since I do not belong to field of music, there may be very many omissions .Please excuse  me  for short comings and suggest   whom I should include)

 

The three major centers of development of Carnatic Music in South India are the Tanjore District of Tamil Nadu, the areas surrounding Mysore state, and Kerala. The major part of the development of music in Kerala is due to the Kerala Iyers. This may be due to the possible fact that most of the Kerala Iyers trace their origin to Tanjore district. Some of the great musicians among Kerala Iyers are:-

 

Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar who has been called the Gana Gandharvan of Kerala. It was this great musician who gave a fillip to Singing of Malayalam songs in concerts. He has a very large disciple following including the famous Jesudas.

 

Palakkad Mani Iyer, understandably an emperor of percussion instrument called Mridangam. His amazing mastery used to dumbfound connoisseurs.

 

Nurani Parameswara Bhagavathar who lived in the 19th century who was with Swati Thirunal Maharaja of Travancore.

 

Thondikkulam Anantharama Bhagavathar who was an acknowledged exponent of Harikatha style of music.

Mundai Rama Bhagavathar who was an acknowledged leader in pure classical music.

 

Parur Sundram Iyer and his sons M.S.Gopala Krishnan, M.S.Anantharaman and daughter M.S. Rajam. This school of violin music is considered by many as the innovators in mixing Hindustani and Carnatic Music. They were possibly the forerunners of the modern day Jugalbandhi.

 

Palakkad Narayanaswamy possibly the greats musician of musicians.

Palakkad K.V.Gopalakrishnan known for his mastery of Mridangam and Vocal style of music .He also delved in to Hindustani classical music.

 

M.D.Ramanathan was known for his pure rendering of the classical style of Carnatic Music. He was the well-known teacher of music in Kalakshetra of Madras.

 

Bombay sisters who used to thrall their listeners by mellifluous rendering of famous Kritis and Slokas.

 

Sri.M.A.Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar who was well known for his rendering of classical music and his son

 

Sri.M.K.Kalyanakrishna Bhagavatar who was known for his proficiency on Veena

 

Gurvayur Dorai and Palakkad Raghu both well known for their proficiency in Mridangam

 

Ayilur Krishnan, Chalakudy Narayanaswamy and Puducode Krishnamurthy well known vocalists.

 

Sri.T.N.Krishnan who is a great player on violin

 

Trichur Ramachandran one of the present day Greats in music.

 

One of the other ancient great contributors to the music was Ennapadam Venkatrama Bhagavathar.

 

Sri.Thiruvarpu Krishna Bhagavathar (1860-1945) was considered as a great authority in singing                        Muthuswami Iyer Kritis.

 

Sri. T.V. Gopalakrishnan (Very famous Mridangist and Vocalist) and his brother Sri. T.V. Vasan (Ghatam vidhwan) - both belong to Tripunithura.

 

Sri. V.V. Subramaniam and his brother Sri. V.V. Ravi (famous Violin Vidhwans), Wadakkancheri

 

Late Sri. Thiruvilamalai Vilwadri Iyer (Very famous Ghatam Vidhwan)

 

Late Sri. Chathapuram Subba Iyer (Mridanga Vidwan)and the first Guru of Late Sri. Palghat Mani Iyer.

 

Kunisseri Sri. Mani Iyer (Mridanga Vidwan)

 

Late Sri. Thiruvilmalai Kondhai (the only Iyer to play leading role in Chandamelam and Guru of Stalwart, Pallavoor Appu Marar)

 

Another great in his own right is Mr.Dakshinamurthy who attained lot of fame as music Director in Malayalam and Tamil films.

Late  Parassala  ponnama  was  another  of those  greats

 

The Gazal singer Hariharan, the great  Shankar  Mahadevan , the light music queen Mrs.Usha Uthup and Smt Anuradha Sriram , Bombay Jayashree and present light music mastero Manohar Iyer also belong to the group of Kerala Iyers.

Sri Mohan Iyer who has collected remarkable information on all aspects of Carnatic Music as well Dr.P.P.Bharata Iyer an authority on Kathakali again are Kerala Iyers.

 

These are but a few of the real top ranking musicians of Palakkad. Their contribution to the development of this school is really great by any standards.

Mathikere jyosyar Ramachandra mama alias P.R.Ramachander alias Raja Thatha

Mathikere  jyosyar Ramachandra mama alias  P.R.Ramachander alias  Raja Thatha

 

     Right  from  age of 40  I having helping people to match horoscopes for matrimony  . After  I retired I started doing it as a cservice in on line.Thousands of people   consulted me including people  from Lanka, Australia, USA  and far east

      There  are  several families  all whose marriages have taken place   after matching horoscopes by me.Slowly the next generation of people    from same families   are approaching me.

     At the time , I started  the service , I was staying in Mathikare. I became  extremely  popular  in  all  Brahmin localaties  near by. At  that time my  e mail  id started  with ramya 475 (ramya name of my house , 475 number) .

     Due to need of old age, we left  Mathikare and moved  to Koramangala. My original  e mail id was hacked

    It was then a stuggle   to reestablish myself  in a new locality  with new e mail id

   I thought my  earlier clients  forgot about me  . Recently  I annonunced  that I will help people for  horoscope matching Then I realized   that all people  were telling each other  that  I am the mathikare  josyar  mama   and referring to my old e mail id

 

My present  e mail id  is ramachander926@ gmail.com . Please request me by e mail  to know  my telephone number  and do not use old land  line number

Faith and devotion causes miracles

Faith and devotion  causes  miracles

 

It is usual    for people   to ask me  questions?  One gentleman wanted to know, how   to get  cured of  Diabates

 

I searched and in my collection there was one , I had reference to a temple called “Venni karumbeswarar  of Venni in Tamil nadu.

 

https://rajathathablog.blogspot.com/2017/11/venni-karumbeswarar-temple-of-kovil.html

 

It was written there

 

“   People with  Diabetes come to this temple  with a 50:50 mixture of sugar   andwheat Rava   and go round the temple sprinkling the mixture .It is believed that  as the ants keep  on removing sugar  , our sugar level would also get reduced ,After this they should worship the God and goddess  of the temple   and offer the God  SArkarai pongal.”    I communicated this   to him about 8  months back

 

   Today he   writes toi me

 

Some few months atleast  may be in oct.last year. I had sought your help in getting cure for diabtetis and other problem you had suggested me to just visit veni  Karumabershwar temple and put raw wth suger for ants in that temple. Although i could not visit that temple and I had visted our shiva temple which is there near our house and thare was also a Saibaba idol in that temple and sincerely praayedt o baba putting sugar mixd  rawa near baba idol for ants to eat and I prayed that both shiva and baba are one please heal my brother's diabetis and BP and herpes with heart problem
I had regulary vistited temple till April.2021 and now my brother is fully recovered from diabteris and herpes altthough doctor informed to continue mediicne for some more time
Thanking you for you advice.

 

I think  what   cured him was  his rock like faith   and devotion to God

Chelakkara ganapathi

Chelakkara ganapathi

Compiled by

P.R.Ramachander

 

   The temple in my native plave chelakkara is a  Narasimha murthy temple facing east.On the  right nand corner wall , there  are statues  of Ganesa   and lord Ayyappa. There walls are  enclosed in a small  temple (they  are not consecrated  there)   ,

   The ganaparthy  temple in side  the chelakkara  temple was  extremely  important for all  the 108  homes chelakkara  agraharam .Now about   10  brahmin families  live there.

   Every  individual member  of the village  would pray  this Ganapathy  for success of   their venture , examination, marriage  proposals etc , normally  they used to pray “we will break 108 coconuts  in front of of our Ganapathy  and these  coconuts  were  be distributed one per house  . AS soon as  the coconut  breaking starts , one representative  of each house  will  rush to the temple  .It is not exaggeration to say  that almost  every week , every home  in chelakkara used to  get a coconut free

 

   Realizing  the greatness  of  that  Ganapathy, long baxck  the people of the village  started  ganapathi homam.Almost  on all  important days  there  would l be a  ganapathi homam in the temple , in thehoma kundam inside the  temple

 

    Slowly  one by one   the Brahmin  families  started  leaving chelakkara .Most of them initially  went to Mumbai  and they  are organized  a chelakkara association there .starngely more   than 200  families  which migrated from chelakkara settled  down near palghat town. They formed an association called  Chelakkara friends association  and  being not far  off from chelakkara   this association started  the upkeep of their temple  , and performing   the ganapathi homam  for their Ganapathi. Initially  it was 108 coconuts, later  it became  1008 coconuts and recently 10008 coconuts.  They  built a huge homa kundam in the temple

The friends  from Palakad  travel to Chelakkara the previous night along   with coconuts. They start taking bath  and breaking the coconuts so that , it would be ready aroung 4.30 am. Sufficient kozhakattais   are  made by the women folk . The vadhyar  will help them finish the homam  early and they   will  be all back  in palghat   next day .Very many people  contribute for this homam and always  it is a grand affair

 

    If you see the very small ganesa in temple of Narasimha  murthy, you will  not believe  it was being done for him

  But to any one  hailing from Chelakkara that  Ganapathi  is their Ganapathi and without praying to him,  they will not start any  important job in  their home

Some opinions about me b by others

Some  opinions about me b by others

 

Compiled by

P.R.Ramachander

(makes me happy)

 

Dr.Sankaran who  was  not known to me  wrote  in his  whatsapp   group

 I have been disseminating the above information about Dr P.R.Ramachander's translation contributions during the past several years in a few WhatsApp websites. Particularly, Carnatic musicians who sing in several languages will find these extremely helpful to learn the lyrics and meaning of the songs. Also Pandits and students and others who recite slokas and stotras in various languages. Although the detailed meanings are also available from KarnatiK, ragas.org and other Carnatic websites, PRR has covered several other fields and has done a thorough painstaking job. We should all recommend his name to GOI to consider him for a PADMA SHRI award for his phenomenal contributions. He is an agricultural scientist from ICAR with a Ph.D hailing from Chelakkara, Kerala and is now based at B'lore. He is unique in giving his work free to one and all - no copywright for his work. For many of our young musicians and scholars in other fields working abroad, who do not know their mother tongue, his work forms a ready reference to know the lyrics/ meanings. He is a multi-linguist and I have been regularly consulting his websites available through GOOGLE.

I wish him all the very best for his noble work.

Can Natanapriyanadam with their wide popularity take up this onerous job of recommending his name to the concerned authorities for a suitable award, please?

Sankaran

 

One of my friends  wrote like this to me

 

 This is the message, my wife received from one her friends yesterday. He is not known to you but heard about you. For heavens sake don't think of death

 

OMG! After learning that the Gentleman in question is a former colleague of your husband, I am motivated to submit a few lines as Tribute to this wonder-gift of Lord Sri Narayana to humanity--- the Pride of   the Hindu community.                He seems to me no ordinary mortal being like all other human beings.  I am simply flabbergasted by his dedication and devotion to further the cause of spiritualism and Hindu culture and promotiin of fine arts like musical compositions of Dikshithars and Bhagavathars besides excelling at multi-tasking portfolios like authoring, compiling, translating  hundreds of religious works like sthotras etc.  By virtue of being a multi-linguistic  virtuoso, he might have endeavoured to have acquired the unique prowess that distinguishes him from the rest run-of-the-mill humans. What gene he is made up of is worth investigating if necessary through an in-depth DNA analysis that characterizes the making of such unique and unimaginable innate traits in a person. I wonder if future scientists would be able to create by cloning a similar person with such extraordinary  traits

 

Book of achievers said https://bookofachievers.com/articles/let-me-gift-the-ancient-scriptures-to-all-by-translating-into-english-says-this-81-year-old

81 YO translating ancient scriptures into English so all can benefit and understand. Noble deed.

This 81-year-old retired man is on a mission to translate Upanishads, scriptures and Carnatic Kritis into English in order to gift them to young generations.

 

Dr.Christa sheler

  

     Who translates hindu literature  to german  wrote

 

It's me a pleasure

In December 2012 the desire of a website dedicated to my beloved India arose. Not a website with Taj Mahal and Yoga postures, but a unique website showing the real India, the home of wisdom. I came accross a website with hymns and asked the owner, P. R. Ramachander, for permission to translate and publish some of them on my website http://shivadarshana.de/  that was online since Shiva Ratri 2013. The ‚yes‘ was the beginning of an exciting journey. I had found a wonderland, a goldmine. All I had to do was to collect the gems Sri Rudram, Shivananda Lahari, Bhaja Govindam, Manisha Panchakam, Prashnottara Ratnamalika, Anatma Sri Vigarhana, Prakaranam, Totakashtakam, Pancha Devata Stotram, Ganesha Mahimna Stotra, Shiva Mahimna Stotra, Shiva Tandava Stotra, Hanuman Chalisa, Nandanar Charitram, Shivavakyam, Vema Satakam.

In 2014 Krishna requested a website of His own, on Janmashtami http://www.krishnadarshana.de/ was online with the gems Bhagavad Gita, Gopi Gita, Bhaja Govindam, Vishnu Chalisa, Vishnu Sahasranam, Mangalya Sthava, Tirupalliyeluchi, Amalanadhipiran, Tiruppavai, Kanninum Siruthambu, Nauka Charitram, Narada Bhakti Sutras, Narayaniyam, Shri Krishna Karnamrita, Jnappana, Samkshepa Ramayana, Adhyatma Ramayana, Kabir Dohas, Yamuna Ashtakam, Tulsi  Stotram, Prayer to mother cow, Questions to Krishna, Shikshashtakam, Purundara Dasa Bhajans, Bhaja Govindam, Vasudeva Sthuti, Devaki Sthuti,  Govindam Adi Purusham, Devaki Garbha Sthuthi, Govindam Adi Purusham, Indra Sthuthi, Indra Krutha Krishna Stotram, Kunti Sthuti, Bhishma Sthuti, Guruvayur Puresa Bhujanga, Guruvayur Puresa Suprabatham, Guruvayur Puresa Sthavam, Guru Maruth Puradhisam, Anjana Sridhara.

When I found an amazing website on mythology a third website was necessary in 2015 http://www.hindumythen.de/ where King Vikramaditya and the story of Mahamaham found their place.

I was guided to many Indian bloggers, no one said ‚no‘ to my request to translate their works. In 2017 it tourned out that a fourth website, a dictionary, is needed. During lockdown I translated it into English http://indian-mythology-dictionary.com/ . It is with nearly 2000 entries an overview of Indian heritage where all Indians who made this story possible are linked with their works.

The father of all this is P. R. Ramachander. All my thanks to him!
Christa (female)

Routine life 80 years back and now

Routine life 80 years back and now

 

By

P.R.Ramachander

 

Then

I was born in a small agraharam in kerala about 80 years back. All the people were very particular about cleanliness and if they are not ill they used to take bath in the early morning . Then wearing the wet cloths they used to go to the temple , worship God and return home .Boys at very young age used to wear half pant and shirt when going out and graduated to wearing two yards Mundu (mostly mal or kora cloth) and shirt. They used to comb their hair and the only make up they used to wear was a dash of talcum powder. Girls used to wear gown initially , graduated to petticoat and blouse , Petticoat , half sari and blouse later.Still later they used to start wearing Sari ,They used talcum powder , Mehandhi on their palms and feet , kajal on the eyes and used to wear glass bangles and Bindi . even if they grow old. .They used maintain long hair which was neatly braided and maintained it nicely .Married ladies used to chew Thamboola some times and their lips and mouth was red because of that . There used to be no beauty parlours any whereand if a lady gets her hair cut people used to get shocked. All ladies used to apply turmeric on their face after bath and also Kumkum on their forehead.

 

Slightly big boys used to try smoking if they get in to bad company and they used to gamble by playing cards . Some of them used to stand in the gate of the temple and tease girls coming to the temple.Slightly older gents used to start chewing tobacco , start using snuff and in towns used to smoke. Their major entertainment was playing cards . An extremely small percentage of boys going to college used to drink and taste non vegetarian dishes also. Men were the masters of the homes . Wife beating was not very rare .

 

The life span of the people were very short then with most of them dying before they reached 60 and most of them used die before they reached eighty. IN my first 15 years of life I had seen only one person celebrating Sathabhishekam, Many ladies died during child birth and men used to marry immediately , Some of them were forced to marry several times.Most of the old people were hunched back , with a huge belly and used to walk with help of walking stick. Death was almost certain when with even ordinary diseases like Hernia, prostate , pneumonia , Typhoid , small pox etc.

 

Most of the old parents after retirement used to move to their villages. The children used to toil in far off places and send money to the expense of their parents. There were no old age homes anywhere.

 

Now

Half sari is not seen anywhere .Most of the girls go to Beauty parlours to get their hair cut and eye bow trimmed and many other techniques to enhance their beauty several times. Braiding hair has gone out of fashion for girls In Bangalore I have seen very many young girls smoking in the street .I understand that in Parties they also drink beer. They hire beauticians to tie Sari for the girls during marriage,

 

Mot of the boys smoke drink as well as gamble Chewing tobacco and snuff are the things of past.Most of them prefer to go to hotels that serve non vegetarian dishes.The preferred food is not food prepared at home but Italian, Chinese and Punjabi food .Several middle aged people have the habit of partying and drinking as well as dancing.Inter caste marriages are dime a dozen.

 

In the last ten years i have seen atleast 10-15 people celebrate their hundredth birthday. Almost every month there are several SAthabishekams .Without any doubt people live much longer . You do not find people wit walking stick or hunched back on the road.AS time progresses most of the diseases are getting cured,

Payyalur or Payilur , the village which was heaven for me

Payyalur or  Payilur , the village  which was  heaven for me

By

P.R.Ramachander

    Payyalur  is a small agraharam near kollengode  town on the  way to kachankurichi temple,My  mother’s  elder  sister was livening  there  with her family.

   I possibly  visited  here  some  70 years  back.Buses  were  not plying to that village then.We have  to   travel in palakkad kollengode bus and walk for about 2 miles to reach this agraharam. When I visited them first , their family  was living in a thatched roof house  with mud walls.After  we enter  through  first door there  used be a broad passage  with  granite  stone  on top .My periyamai explained that it was  called  “Thee mara  kallu”  and  if the house  catches fire all  peope  used to go and stand under it. Their family at that  time  was very poor , Being accustomed  top one  brother  and one  sister  in my house, I was  taken aback to see  five sisters   and a young boy brother. The elder two brother’s  had gone out  in search of  work in Mumbai. 

     All sisters  used  to tease me, play  with me   and make  fun of me  and laugh uproariously. The boy   who was  youngest among them took me  to bath in the kanhamkurichi   temple tank(another  one mile). He  only told me  that  the temple pond had  large number of  steps. He also told me that  one  of his job  was collecting  chapaka poo  for his sisters.  Periyammai was simply marvelous cook. Inspite  of having  all most  nothing in the house  , she used  to cook  nectar like food  there  .I simply  was transferred  to heaven in my  periyammai’s home. There   used to be a small  Krishna temple  adjacent to their home

    There  after  I kept  on visiting their home   whenever there was opportunity .Though my sisters  kept on growing  , they  some how never lost  all the fun, teasing and joy.

    Just  like  all homes  except one  all of them shifted  to Mumbai. Got married  and became busy.    My visit to Mumbai  was not that  frequent. Slowly we  moved away

    They   did destroy that  thatched  home   and built a  house called “ayodhya”  but some how   it was not a heaven to me any more.

     If I am asked  to tell the heaven that  I  visited, without any  hesitation , I will  tell Payilore ofcouse with my five little sisters , brothers  and my Periyammai