Unique Bhakti theatre tradition

ARAIYAR SEVAI - Theatre Expression in Srivaishnava Worship: Srirama Bharati; Bhavan's Book University, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kulapati Munshi Marg, Mumbai-400007. Rs. 295.

IT WAS given to the Azhwars to subsume the Sangam aesthesis of secular living to the Bhakti aesthesis of sacred existence. The Bhakti movement was inaugurated when Periazhwar saw the Transcendent Divine as a babe in the cradle at home, the little children at play as the Lord in the cowherd settlement, the young daughter of the house decking herself with ornaments as the Jivatma preparing itself to merge with the Paramatma. The message of such a close-knit relationship with the Supreme spread quickly all over the sub-continent. Fifteen hundred years later, today, we marvel at the magnificent sociological and spiritual revolution set in motion by the Azhwars that has helped keep the nation spiritually one, indivisible.

The Bhakti movement chased away all notions of inequality based on gender, class and caste. Among the Azhwars we have a Dalit and a woman. The message has never been forgotten inspite of purblind orthodoxy and inimical external forces bent on sowing seeds of divisiveness among the Indian people. The Bhakti movement has embraced all religions that have come to India as well. And it is an unbroken stream, electrically alive, as is demonstrated by the recent phenomenon of Srirama Bharati.

Srirama Bharati's services for Srivaishnavism were manifold and include the temple to Muddu Tirunarayanaswami at Jalladampet where he installed the image of his guru, V. V. Satagopan, a renowned musician of yesterdays. The crucial force for his work came from the Araiyar Sevai, a bhakti theatre of Vishnu temples that has had an unbroken run for a millennium. Instituted by Nathamuni, the Sevai has music, dance, drama and poetry subsumed by self-forgetful ecstasy. The dramatic renderings in the temple premises begun by the Acharyas who lived in Srirangam spread all over India. Even today we have regional variations, as in the Ras Leela dramas in the temple towns of Mathura and Brindavan during the Janmashtami and Holi festivals.

The Araiyar Sevai itself remains frozen in time, as it were, in the same style that was practised by Araiyars (reciters) of old. It is performed only in a few temples (Srirangam, Azhwartirunagari and Srivilliputtur) and the Araiyars have been loath to perform in public outside the temple premises.

Finding in the Araiyar Sevai a rich load of emotive exuberance that could carry a high energy of devotion to be transmitted to the masses, Srirama Bharati set about the task of learning the art, reviving it in all its classical spirit by instituting the Araiyar Sevai in the Tirunarayanaswami temple at Jalladampet, publishing the hymns of the Azhwars with notation and English translation, and boldly presenting Araiyar Sevai in public halls like the Music Academy. He was registering a phenomenal success when fate snatched him away from our midst early this year.

Fortunately for us, Srirama Bharati also carried the Azhwar spirit of ``now'' when it came to expressing one's devotion. He started a 10-day Araiyar Sevai at the Jalladampet temple held during the month of Thai (January-February) and also prepared a format for it which he published as Araiyar Sevai. It is good to have this handbook so that the tradition he started can continue in Jalladampet and also inspire others to use this programme for disseminating the message of the Azhwars to the masses.

The chosen hymns from the ``Nalayira Divya Prabhandham'' have been translated into chaste, simple English by Srirama Bharati. A connecting commentary provides the needed links.

In the process we learn a good deal about the Azhwars, the way they transcended caste distinctions, the negative capability of the male Azhwars to speak in the voice of a female, the utter perfection of Andal writing in trance about Her wedding to the Lord, the spiritual monologue of Tirumangai Azhwar recorded in terms of bridal mysticism, the philosophy behind the Araiyar Sevai, the science that informs the special headgear and cymbals of the Araiyar and the reigning mood of surrender to the Lord.

We realise that with his involvement in the Araiyar Sevai in particular, Srirama Bharati had made a sure approach to God. Poignant memories swirl about as one remembers Srirama Bharati in the dress of an Araiyar triumphantly throwing out a challenge to diseases when he acted out Perizhwar's Pasurams which he referred to as a song-therapy that takes away the fear of birth, death, oldage and disease. Death, be not proud!

An informative preface by T. S. Parthasarathy and an eloquent afterword by K. S. Srinivasan add excellences to the book which has been produced beautifully. Additional bonus comes from the appendices on ``Divya Prabhandham as a musical form'' and a note on the important Vaishnava temples. A masterful summary of the twin epics, the Bhagavata and some Puranic myths bring up the rear of the English section.

The volume concludes with Krishnamachariar's essay on the Araiyar Sevai as it is held in the Srirangam temple during the Vaikunta Ekadasi festival.

PREMA NANDAKUMAR

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