Sree Purandara Ganamrutham- Text With Notation (Set of 2 Volumes)

Foreword Sangeetha Vidwan Sri A. S. Panchapakesa Iyer is the youngest of the famous Alathur brothers (Sreenivasalyer) of all India fame. He has done a signal service to the world of Sangeetha. He has the extraordinary honour of having been the Principle of Rasika Ranjani Sabha Music School, Mylapore, and Madras for about 35 years. For the last ten years, he has been successfully discharging his duties as the Principal of Bharatiya Music College Sation Bombay. With his deep and profound knowledge of sangeetha he has been able to render considerable service of permanent nature to the student world of Camatic music by eutnotinq a brilliant book entitled IISRI PURANDARA GANAMRUTHAM" where he has rendered fifty one thrilling Kannada Lyrics of the most renowned Saint Sri Purandaradasa of Kamataka. Here he also gives the central meaning of these lyrics Social, Moral, Metaphysical and Spiritual to help interested students appreciate the significance of devotional songs of the great Purandaradasa. Shri Panchapakesa Iyer has also considerably obliged el! the lovers of Camatic music by giving Musical notations to these devotional lyrics.

I am sure that such a book was a long felt need of the hour. The Tamil speaking Public $hall definitely stands to gain a good many benefits by the study of such a book: I can safely recommend this book to the Tamilian lovers of Camatic music and heartily congratulate the author on the successful implementation of his long cherished desire. He has thus brought Kamataka culture to the gates of Tamilian Culture.

Preface Sri Purandaradasar is hailed by everybody as the ancestor of musical traditions because he did the pioneer task of organizing the Camatic music. His keerthanas in Kannada which comprises of profound thoughts conveyed in a simple and easily understandable language, inspired others composers also. The ideas expressed in' his keerthanas. were seen in the compositions of Tyagaraja’s Swami also. It is believed that Sri Dasar composed more than four lakhs and seventy thousand keerthanas. Only about two thousand keerthanas are available now in the form of printed books. Since he lived in the 15th century, it is not possible to know the exact format and tunes of the songs. Hence the present day musicians 'sing his compositions according to their grasp end imagination.

It was my very old. and cherished desire to set tunes for the compositions off Sri Purandara Dasar and release this book consisting of 51 of his compositions with proper tala notation. Some of the selected songs are already well known having been popularized by great, vidwans. In order to find out the correct pronunciation and meaning of the songs, I approached Srimathi Rathnabai, wife of D.K.Ragavendra Rao, who is the retired General Manager, Tata Oil Mills, Bombay. They explained the correct pronunciation and meaning of the songs with enthusiasm. Later Srimathi Rathnabai introduced me to her guru, Revered M.R. Gopalacharya. I read out the meanings of the songs I had chosen for my book and sang a few songs in his presence. The great, noble and learned scholar, Sri M.R. Gopalacharya, was pleased with my effort and blessed me for the success of the book. I requested , the great and revered scholar to write the foreword to this book, which he gladly did. My humble respects and heartfelt, sincere thanks for having readily obliged to write the foreword.

My sincere thanks for Srimathi Rathnabai, Sri O.K. Ragavendra Rao (who explained the meaning of all the songs), to Veena vidwan Sir K.S. Narayanaswami Iyer, Principal, Shanmugananda Music college, Bombay, and to Sangeeth Vidwan Sri Tiruchi Swaminatha Iyer, Hon. Director of Shree Vallabh Sangeetha Vidyalaya (Carnatic Music section) and member of Expert Committee, Music Academy. My sincere thanks to Sri Vijaya Raghavan (Madras) who helped me to select and sort out my works and to Ms. C.R. Syamala (National Kannada Educational Society, Vadala, Bombay).

Book's Contents and Sample Pages