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Do not miss May 9 Oothukadu Day at Keefe tech

Mahakavi Venkatasa Subbhayyar, popularly known as Venkata Kavi, spent his entire life in front of the thulasi mada composing a number of melodious songs in praise of this deity. Due to the extreme devotion of Sri Venkata Kavi to the Lord, he is believed to be a reincarnation of Sage Naradha who witnessed the Lord's dance in the village. He was a complete master of music in all senses of the term – melody, rhythm or lyrics and was fluent in Sanskrit and Tamil. He was proficient in a variety of musical forms such as the krti, javali, tillana and kavadichindu.Aruna Sairam's rendition of one of his Tillana's allows us to imagine how he himself may have sung his compositions.

He composed several types of krtis apart from the usual style of pallavi, anupallavi and charanam with the tune of the last few lines coinciding with that of the anupallavi. Venkata Kavi composed many songs with madhyama kala passages, some with more than one charana but with the same tune, others with multiple charanas in different tunes, some with just a samshti charana, some with gati bhedam and so on. He used talas and themes that few other Carnatic composers have used before or since.

Some of the famous songs of Venakata Kavi are: "Thaye Yasodha," Alai Payudhe Kanna,"Paal Vadiyum Mugam", "Asaindadum mayil", "Enna Punniyam" and "Aadadhu Asangadhu Va Kanna","Brindavana Nilaye Radhe". The starting verses of some of these songs can be found on the temple walls. It is believed that Lord Krishna appeared in person and danced to these melodies. Lord Krishna also performed the entire Kalinga Nardhanam for the pleasure of Sri Venkata Kavi.

He seems to have composed an entire opera narrating Krishna’s birth and childhood, beginning from Devaki-Vasudeva’s wedding and Kamsa’s curse. I have not been able to ascertain if these stories go on further after Krishna’s childhood. But there are separate group songs describing Krishna’s wedding with Rukmini and another group covering his marriage with Radha.

There is a set of songs narrating the story on Lord Rama’s childhood starting from Dasharatha’s Putrakameshti yagna to Rama’s trip with Vishwamitra. Each song is so vivid and the description of the demoness Tataka alone is worth the whole read!! There is also another lovely ragamalika piece ‘Sri Rama jayame jayam’ which covers the whole Ramayana.

We have a chance to listen to many of his wonderful compositions on May 9 at the Keefe Technical Auditorium.

Click here to learn more about the May 9th event honoring this composer

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