When Fr Joseph Thattarassery was appointed as the parish priest of St Joseph’s Church in Tripunithura eight years ago, it changed his life. A mild interest in Carnatic music became a passion. That, he points out, had much to do with that central-Kerala small town, eight km south of Kochi. “There are some 130 temples in and around Tripunithura,” he says. And most of the major temples, like Sree Poornathrayeesa and Chakkamkulangara, regularly host classical concerts — or kacheris as they are called.
“In the beginning, I could not differentiate the ragas,” says Fr Thattarassery. This was despite having studied the basics during a yearlong course at the St Joseph’s Minor Seminary in Kochi. So he got himself a tutor. P D Sygal started teaching him the ragas for three hours a day.
“Ragas were something I was struggling to learn. Soon, I could see their excellence in concerts,” he says. Then, one day, a brilliant concert by a young Carnatic vocalist changed it all for the priest. Chennai-based T M Krishna’s kacheri inspired Fr Thattarassery to the extent that he thought of starting something similar in the church. So, he took some ragas, and changed the lyrics to suit Christian themes.
The endeavour wasn’t without hiccups. When Fr Thattarassery proposed the idea to the parishioners, the initial reaction was negative. In fact, some people got angry. In one instance, they objected to the word ‘saranam’ in one of the hymns. “They asked me why I was using a Hindu word,” he says. They had linked it to the Lord Ayyappa chant, ‘Swami Saranam, Ayyappa Saranam.’ But Fr Thattarassery told them that ‘saranam’ was a Malayalam word and meant hope. “It does not belong to any religion,” he says. “It is
part of a language. I had to clear their misconceptions.”
Despite the misgivings, Fr Thattarassery began a bhajan recital at 4 am, every Friday, with a group of singers. And slowly the parishioners were drawn in by the power of the south Indian classical tunes. “When you listen to the Gregorian chants (Western liturgical music), you feel the Christianness in the song,” says Fr Thattarassery. “But when you listen to a Carnatic song with Christian lyrics, you get the feeling that Jesus Christ belongs to our land.”
Undoubtedly, when Fr Thattarassery sings, there is a magnetism in the music and the lines:
Divyakarunyam Bhaje
(We adore you Holy Eucharist)
Paramakarunyam Bhaje
(We adore you Supreme Mercy of God)
Sree Yesu Devam Bhaje
(Jesus the redeemer we adore you)
Sree Christu Devam Bhaje
(Christ, the Holy Anointed One, we adore you)
So, did the Church object to this? Not at all. “On the contrary, I received whole-hearted support,” says Fr Thattarassery. Late Archbishop Daniel Acharuparambil, the leader of the Latin Catholics, had won a gold medal in Indian philosophy from the Benaras Hindu University. “So he understood what I was trying to do,” says the priest.
Interestingly, there were a lot of Brahmins who came to listen to the recital. Among them was a man called Raman. “He used to come without fail every week,” says Fr Thattarassery. However, after a few months, Raman moved to the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram, 200 km away. Nevertheless, every Thursday evening he would return to Tripunithura, stay at a hotel and attend the 4 am bhajan the next day. “Raman paid the expenses of all the singers,” says Fr Thattarassery. “I can never forget him.”
After five years, Fr Thattarassery was transferred to the Our Lady of Perpetual Help church at Ochanthuruth in the Vypeen Islands west of Kochi. Quickly, he started a 12-person choir for bhajan singing, which included three Hindus: Unnikrishnan on the mridangam, Lalu on the tabla, and Devadas on the flute. “It has been an amazing experience for me,” says Devadas. “To play Carnatic music inside a church before dawn has brought me nearer to God. I feel an inner peace.”
Jacqueline Patrick, the vocalist, says, “You experience a deeper closeness to God when you sing a hymn using Carnatic tunes, rather than with Western music.”
The bhajan-singing is slowly gaining acceptance. During this year’s Maundy Thursday Mass, Fr Thattarassery even sang a Hindustani raga: Pahadi. And it was well received. The priest also goes back, on the first Friday of every month, to his old parish to do the 4 am bhajan. And he continues an intensive training from veteran master N P Ramaswamy, an A-grade artiste of All India Radio.
Meanwhile, the troupe is getting calls from different places in Kerala to perform. Recently, they went to an old woman’s home at the nearby town of Pallipuram to give a recital. The audience comprised 45 women, who had been abandoned by their families. For one-and-a-half hours, the troupe sang songs in praise of God. Near the end, they launched into Darbari Kanada, a difficult raga, which, the priest believes, if sung with passion, has the potential to create a powerful emotional reaction.
“We started singing very loudly,” says Fr Thattarassery. After a few minutes, all the women stood up, ranging in age from 70 to 90, and with their arms upraised, they began crying bitterly. “The old women were shedding tears of sorrow, because their children did not want them,” says Fr Thattarassery. “Seeing them we also started to cry.”
But after the performance, Fr Thattarassery looked at the positive side. “I was glad that I could bring them some relief by singing such a beautiful raga,” he says. “Our song passed a message to these forlorn women: ‘If no human being, especially those closest to you, offers support, remember, God is always there for you.’”
— shevlin@expressbuzz.com