Layout 3 - India Foundation for the Arts - IFA

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ArtConnect: The IFA Magazine, Volume 6, Number 1
There were also public narrations of
the Ramayana called Katha
Kalakshepam. These were also grand
narrations very similar to the
narrations done at home. My mother
always took us for these Katha
Kalakshepam events, which were
regularly held. These grand
narrations and their narrative
techniques and other elements
associated with them remain deeply
imprinted on my mind.
In public Ramayana narrations there
was always an empty wooden plank
placed on the dais. It was reserved for
Hanuman. It was believed that
wherever the Ramayana was narrated
Hanuman would come to listen to the
narration and the wooden plank was
for him to sit on. It was said that every
time he listened to Rama’s story, his
eyes became wet.
Yatra yatra raghunatha kirtanam
Tatra tatra kritha masthakanjalim
Bhaspavaari paripurna lochanam
Maarutim namata raakshasanthakam
(We bow to Maruti, who stands with
his palms folded above his forehead,
with a torrent of tears flowing down
his eyes wherever the names of Lord
Rama are sung.)
The empty wooden plank, the verse and
the image of Hanuman with his hands
folded above his head with tears in his
eyes became an indelible memory
associated with Ramayana narrations.
Even musical narrations by eminent
Harikatha artists such as Embar
Vijayaraghavachariar based on
Thyagaraja’s compositions were very
moving, as one got drawn into the
world of bhakti. When he sang
‘Nagumomu ganaleni na jali telisi’ in
Abheri raga, where Thyagaraja begs
Rama to come and alleviate his
suffering, the utter surrender and
devotion used to spread a silence in the
audience and only his voice and the
sound of the chipalakattai, a castanetlike
instrument that marked time, used
to resonate through the big hall. And
with the lyrics ‘Khagaraju ni yanati vini
vega canaledo’ when he asks if his mount
Garuda, the eagle, did not hasten to his
bidding, so absorbed would one be in
the song that one could almost hear the
flapping wings of a big bird.
Occasionally other composers’ songs
were also interspersed with those of
Thyagaraja’s. Set in the same mode of
surrender was Patnam Subramania
Iyer’s composition in Sahana raga,
‘Rama, ika nannu brova raadha, dhaya
ledha?’ which asked Rama in a
plaintive tone if he did not have the