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Worthy effort
Mayuram Visvanatha Sastri.
MAYURAM VISVANATHA Sastri's contribution to South Indian music is immense. This great vaggeyakara of the 20th Century, (1893-1958) composed over 550 songs in Sanskrit and Tamil, a few in Telugu, nearly 400 more songs based on the Thirukkural, and notations for more than 750... a remarkable achievement indeed! He has composed five varnams and his publications include "Valli Pariniya Manipravala Sathakam" (1926), "Vedapuri Keerthanai"(1937), "Murugan Madura Keerthanai" (1940), "Bharat Bhajan" (1947) in praise of Bharata Mata and Mahatma Gandhi and "Thirukkural Madura Keerthanai Vol. 1 (1958).
Visvanatha Sastri was the first composer to set the entire Thirukkural to music. All the verses of the Thirukkural have been made into songs that number 289. His "Jayathi Jayathi Bharata Mata" still rings in the ears of many a connoisseur and patriot. It is the favourite choice of school children. Musicians such as M. M. Dandapani Desikar and S. Rajam Iyer have rendered his compositions on AIR.
Though the manuscripts of the 289 songs of the Thirukkural were ready even as early as 1946, due to paucity of funds the first volume comprising 41 songs was brought out only in 1958. T. R. Vaithisvaran's (Visvanatha Sastri's brother) efforts bore fruit when the second volume with another 41 songs was published in 1987.
The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms. J. Jayalalithaa, has rendered a grant of Rs. 5 lakhs.
The primary objective is to bring out the Thirukkural songs, Thiruppavai, Thiruvaimozhi and Thiruppugazh in the form of books, audiocassettes, etc. And working towards this goal are Visvanatha Sastri's nephew, T. K. Ramanathan, who is the managing trustee of Mayuram Visvanatha Sastri Trust, (No. 49, Habibullah Road, T. Nagar, Chennai 600017 (Ph: 8342360) email: jayathijayathi@sify.com) and veena artiste and niece of Sastri, Parvathavardhini Balasubramaniam.
The next project to be taken up will be Visvanatha Sastri's Sri Tyagaraja Stuti and Sri Tyagabrahma Vijayam.
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