The
Saint who was a Mahanubhavulu
By P.T.Narendra Menon
The ancient temple
on the banks of the Muvattupuzha river is still there; its walls grey with
thesmoke of oil-lamps, and its stone-paved floor worn smoth by the tread of
many generations of worshippers.Here was the sopana, the little flight of
steps leading o the sanctum-sanctorum, where sat the
bedecked figure of Narasimhamoorthy (man-lion), shining in an assortment of
flower garlands, and dancing wicks of light.
This was the exact spot where the legendary bard of the village, famed Shatkala
Govinda Mararstood and sang his paen to the deity more than one and a half
centuries ago. The doves are still there cooing at the turrets, and the handful
of worshippers are also there, but the ancient style of singing, sopana,has
all but disappeared.This sleepy and sequestered village of Ramamangalam saw
the birth of Govinda Marar in 1798,who drew forth from no less a saint-singer
than Tyagaraja, the immortal pancharatna materpiece 'Entharo mahanubhavulu'.
Very little is known about his childhood. The present-day Marar families who
live in the village,who claim descent from him have only sparse information
about their illustrious ancestor. Some enthusiasticpeople of the locality
have organised a 'Govinda Marar Smarakam' in a building adjacent to thetemple
and music and dance classes are conducted there. The Government of Kerala
has this year announced yearly grant to it. But the Smarakam has not succeded
in acquiring any records on the life ofthe singer.
The old Marar ladies have heard from their grand-mothers the following: Govinda
has a goldenvoice, with immense range. From his infancy, he was something
of an outsider, a loner obsessed with music, spending all his time ceaselessly
singing, and playing on the edakka at the temple. An uncle, who had been to
Thiruvananthapuram had gifted him a tambura, with which he was greatly entranced.
By experimenting he had converted it into a seven-stringed instrument. All
the strings, except the mandram were doubled with the result it had two panchamas,
two sarinis, two anusarinis, and one mandram. Marar used this tambura all
through his life. At 18, he suffered from an acute attack of rheumatism, but
he curedit with what we now call music-therapy, by a relentless singing of
some kind of music.
In spite of his astonishing musical talents, Govinda Marar was of a restless
disposition, his restless-ness being the first for attaining some sort of
realisation. So, we find him leaving his village at the age of 21, on foot,
never to return, carrying only his tambura and edakka. He sang soulful tyanis
and ashtapadis in many temples, sometimes before the deity and often sitting
beneath the banyan trees, and eating whatever was brought to him by those
who heard his music. The legends attached to many temples in Kerala say that
Marar used to do the Kottippadi Seva (ritual singing of devotional music during
the five daily poojas to the accompaniment of edakka) there for a month. The
one at Ambalappuzha Krishna Temple recounts that on reaching the sanctum sanctorum,
he found the stick of his edakka missing, and he played it with an ezhuthani
(writing quill)supplied by a devotee. He sang the whole of the Geet Govind,
and had the congregation spellbound by the flow of his music.
We do not know, where else he wandered, but eventually we find him as one
of the vidwans of Maharaja Swati Tirunal's court. The Maharaja himself was
utterly dedicated to music, he was a composer of no mean ability, and his
court was studded with a galaxy of musicians including Vadivelu, Palghat Parameswara
Bhagavathar, Meruswamy, and Kanniah.
Once Swati Tirunal wanted Marar to sing the Puraneer raga in the evening.
This raga is usuallyrendered only for the early morning pooja. Marar had to
comply, and such was the haunting quality of his alapana that the assembled
had the illusion of breaking down. The appreciative Maharaja honoured Marar
by bedecking his seven-stringed tambura with a vaijayanti (flag of victory).It
is believed that Marar had this flag on his tambura, till he reached Benares
in the last years of his short life, where he discarded it, as all pride in
his musical prowess had deserted him by that time. In spite of being soaked
in music and art, the palace and its patronage did not satisfy Marar for long,
for whom music had a higher aim. While at Thiruvananthapuram, he had heard
with deep admiration the kritis of Tyagaraja, sung by Kanniah, a direct disciple
of the saint. To him Tyagaraja became a holybeacon. One Haripad Ramaswamy
Bhagavatar also had learnt those kritis. Marar learnt a few such kritisfrom
him. Soon he was all agog to have darshan of the saint at Tiruvayyaur, and
in 1837 he set forth onfoot, and reached the house of Tyagaraja on an ekadeshi
day.
The daily bhajan session led by Tyagaraja himself was on when the weary wayfarer
reached theplace. When the first half of the bhajan session was over, the
guest was invited to sing as was the custom.Marar had already been noticed
by those assembled due to his glowingly ascetic appearance, and hisunusual
tambura, with the flag. Being ekadeshi, it was a day dear to Hari, and he
chose his favourite GeetGovind song, 'Chandana charchitha neela kalebara',
in Pantuvarali raga.
Prof.Sambamoorthy reconstructs the memorable scene from information gathered
from the palm-leaf biography of the saint written by his direct disciples,
Walajapet Venkitramana Bhagavathar and Tanjore Rama Rao, and from the notebook
of another direct disciple, Krishnaswami Bhagavathar, thus: "He (Marar)
started singing in the ati ati vilambita kala (first degree of speed). People
were wondering why he started at such a dead slow tempo, but they were struck
by the precision in durationbetween count and count. Then he sang the chosen
theme in ati vilambita kala (second degree) Vilambita(third degree), Madhyama
kala (fourth degree), druta kala (fifth degree) and ati druta kala (sixth
degree).As he approached the fifth degree of speed, the entire audience was
spellbound, and when he sang in thesixth degree of speed, Tyagaraja himself
was taken aback by his laya sampat''. During the performance hewas strumming
the tambura with his right hand , and playing the ganjira with his left hand,
holding the latterinstrument in position between the toes of his right leg.
Tyagaraja immediately perceived in Marar a brilliant musician of rare genius.
His spiritually evolved soul also recognised him as a mahanubhava (great soul),
who like himself was seeking satchidananda, through Sangeetha. To pay tribute
to the visitor, Tyagaraja asked his disciplies to sing his scintillatingPancharatna
kriti 'Entharo mahanubhavulu' . The Walajapet disciples have used the word
'prasthutimpa' inTelugu, meaning 'in order to pour out praise'.
The belief in Kerala is that Tyagaraja composed the kriti extempore in his
spontaneous joy onhearing the spiritual and musically fantastic singing of
Marar. But the version of the Walajapet disciples would have it that the kriti
was already composed, and the disciples had learnt it before the arrival of
Marar.
Anyway, the time of the composition of the kriti is immaterial. That Tyagaraja
wanted his disciples to praise the strange ministrel by describing him as
a mahanubhava, and that too through one of his out-standing kritis was in
itself a recognition of not only Marar's music, but also of his personality.
The latter fell at the feet of Tyagaraja with tears in his eyes, who lovingly
asked Marar to stay withhim. The association with Tyagaraja must have strengthened
the vein of renunciation in his mind, andbidding adieu to his beloved ideal,
Marar started on an indefnite itinerary.
Again he became an avadhoota (wandering mendicant in the process of salvation).
He finallyreached the temple of Panduranga in Pandharpur, near Poona. By this
time he must have attained what hisrestless soul had been seeking from infancy,
and he used to sit in the temple and pour out music in a frenzy of ecstasy.
He was looked upon as a Paramahamsa Govind Das by the people flocking to the
temple, ajeevanmuktha. The temple records reveal that he attained samadhi
in 1843,while singing.
Copy
Right 2003 , All Rights Reserved, Designed and Maintained by C-DIT ,
www.cdit.org