Thiruvananthapuam, Nov 22 (PTI) A row has broken out overthe move to re-record a devotional song played as a lullaby toLord Ayyappa at the famed Sabarimala temple, with a trustnamed after iconic musician G Devarajan, coming out againstit.
The Kerala-based G Devarajan Master Memorial Trust, whichis gearing up to celebrate the 90th birth anniversary of thecomposer, suspected a "conspiracy" behind the sudden move tore-record the song by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB),which manages the shrine.
Late Devarajan, known as a colossus in the Malayalam filmmusic, had brought out the nine-decade-old 'Harivarasanam,' aSanskritised Malayalam song, into the present popular musicformat through the voice of legendary Carnatic vocalist andplayback singer K J Yesudas during late 1970s.
Though there are many versions of 'Harivarasanam,' theone created by Devarajan-Yesudas combination, has been playingfor decades at the hillock shrine after final poojas as an"urakku paattu" (lullaby) to put the deity to sleep.
The office bearers of the Trust said that they havelaunched a campaign through social media urging music buffs toprotest against any move to make changes in the heartfelt'bhajan.' "Harivarasanam, composed by Devarajan master, has beenplaying at the hillock shrine for the last 45 years withoutany interruption." "Iconic musicians, Tantri family or Sanskrit scholarshave not pointed out any fault with its composition orrendition so far," music director and general secretary of theTrust Satheesh Ramachandran told PTI today.
"Nobody has so far said that Lord Ayyapa was unhappy withthe present lullaby, he said.
"We suspect a large scale conspiracy behind the move..
Those who are trying and lobbying to make changes in thepresent version may have their own agenda.. It seems thatsomebody wants to establish that there were errors in thecomposition of Devarajan Master," he added.
The newly-appointed TDB president A Padmakumar hadrecently said that they wanted to bring out the song afresh byadding a word that exists in its original text and missing inthe popular musical version, and by correcting a pronunciationerror.
The word 'swamy' was there in every line of the originaldevotional song, believed to have been penned in 1920s, and itmight have been omitted for the easiness of rendition when itwas brought out in the musical format, he had said.
TDB president also said they had discussed the plan tore-record with Yesudas and its final date would be fixed whenthe singer reaches Kerala later this month.
Ramachandran, who is a disciple of Devarajan, however,said master himself had clarified in various interviews aboutthe reason for omitting the word 'swamy', how Lord Ayyappa ispopularly known as.
"Master had said that when we try to lull a child througha song, we never use his name repeatedly which is the reasonwhy the word 'swamy' had been omitted by him," Ramachandranclarified.
On the alleged pronunciation error in the famous linethat goes 'Ari Vimardhanam,' he said scholars have differentopinion whether the words should be spelt together orseparately.
Yesudas himself had admitted some time back that thewords 'ari' (enemy) and ‘vimardhanam’ (destroy) should havebeen spelt separately.
The trust official further said they do not hold any viewthat Devarajan Master or his compositions should not bequestioned by anybody.
"But, we are protesting against the move by somebody toproject that Master as having committed some grave error andit should be corrected.. Nobody has even sought the permissionof Devarajan's family in this regard so far," he added.
Devarajan had originally composed 'Harivarasanam' songfor the 1975 Malayalam film, 'Swamy Ayyappan' and recorded itafresh later, which has since been played at the shrine. PTILGK UDROH.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.