Tradition Lives - 9 | Ramacandram Bhavayami | Karaikudi Veena Tradition

God, in the Hindu tradition, is a personified reverential humanistic conception of divinity in all creations. According to this concept of God, qualities that we perceive as human, are in fact divine in its origin and need to resolve in the divine, the eternal beginning. This philosophy is misunderstood by some. In this respect, one of the foremost of philosophers, Swami Dayananda Saraswathi unequivocally states: “There is only God”.

The cyclic process in the eternity is evidenced in Karnāṭak compositions in two ways. 1) in the compositional structure – Pallavi, back to Pallavi, Anupallavi back to Pallavi and Caraṇam back to Pallavi. Every musical statement is complete by itself; 2) in the devotional identification of God and the Human. In this composition, for example, describing Rama, Mudduswami Dikshitar, whose compositions sweep through advaita philosophy, states: “the foremost among men devoid of illusions, intelligent and eternal”.

Few performing musicians have respectfully, without their intentions perhaps, appended some favorite compositions of theirs with “ciṭṭasvaras” which have become part and parcel of the compositions through popular older performers. The ciṭṭasvara for this composition is by Karaikudi Veena Sambasiva Iyer. But some older musicians have appended this ciṭṭasvara to Tyagaraja’s composition, Sītamma Māyamma with a similar musical structure. Rāmacandram Bhāvayāmi is one of the favourite compositions in the Karaikudi Veena Tradition.

Brhaddhvani presents Rāmacandram Bhāvayāmi in the Karaikudi tradition performed by Karaikudi Subramanian accompanied by Karaikudi Krishnamurthy on the mridangam. Karaikudi Subramanian is joined by his disciples Thenuga-Mathuriga Thevapalan & Veera Raagavan Srinivas. Karaikudi Krishnamurthy is the disciple of the legendary maestro, Ramnad Murugabhoopathy. His playing is rich with musically elevating feelings for this song, which he has heard from his childhood.

Composer: Muddusvāmī Dīkṣitar
Rāga: Vasantā
Tāḷa: Rūpaka

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