He settled on the idea of doing it in Mantralaya – for Raghavendra Swamy undoubtedly. The swamy is a vainika par excellence and exponent of classical music. With the blessing of the current Peetathipadhi, Sushmeendra Theertha Swamigal, this mega event was celebrated on a grand scale.

Layavinyasam on March 5, a percussion fest, was an aural treat. This was followed by ‘Rathotsavam’ where nagaswara vidwans Tiruppanbaram T K S Swaminathan and Meenakshi Sundaram played ‘Mallari’.

On Vardhanthi day, the programmes started with Mangala Isai by Thiruppambaram Brothers followed by the special event, Nada Haaram, which was inaugurated by Sri Venkata Narayana, Chief Editor of Usha Kirana in the presence of Chandrasekar, Minister for Urban Development, Government of Karnataka and Sri Rajagopalachar, secretary to Sri Sushmeendra Theertha Swamiji of the Math.

Eminent musicians sat around the idols of Prahlada Rayaru and the Silver idol of Sri Raghavendra Swamigal in 16 groups — each group consisting of artists of various categories.

The group singing was led by musicians T.K.Govinda Rao and P.S.Narayanaswamy. Layavinyasam was led by T.K.Murthy after which the artistes who participated were honoured individually by the Math.

For more details on Mantralayam click here

                                                                                             By Vaishnavi Rao

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