Devotion to Lord Rama

A noted musician who is vocalist and violinist, music-guru, scholar and musicologist Dr Komanduri Seshadri is much-respected in the world of Carnatic music. He is known for his extensive theoretical and practical knowledge of Carnatic music, learned lecture-demonstrations and concerts.

He has accompanied stalwart musicians on the violin. In turn, he too has been accompanied talented instrumentalists when he has performed as vocalist. Among the highlights of Dr Seshadri's career is a record, non-stop, 24-hour vocal concert at Vijayawada in the 1980s. He is also a viola player.

Dr Seshadri had an illustrious career in the academic field. He has worked as a faculty member teaching the violin at several colleges. He also worked as a Principal for SV Music College, Tirupathi; and Principal of several Government Music Colleges in Kurnool, Secunderabad and Hyderabad.

He has also served as Head of the Department of Music at PS Telugu University, Hyderabad. He currently functions as an examiner for several universities and Board or Studies for their theory and practical examinations. He is also honorary editor of Ganakala, a Telugu music magazine. Among his latest works is a book, which has been receiving appreciation from fellow musicians and music-scholars. This is the book ‘Rama Bhakti Samrajyam Rama Tattva in Vaggeyams’ (Publisher: Sivananda Supatha Foundation).

The title or rather the sub-title of this book by him, says it all. The book is about the perceptions of different vaggeyakaras about Lord Rama and his philosophy that is Rama Thathvam and the kind of compositions this perception or viewpoint inspired them to create. Dr Seshadri offers his expert take on each composition including its musical merit, philosophical features and how it reveals different aspects of Rama as brought by each composer's approach.

Devotion to Lord Rama has inspired some of Carnatic’s music’s greatest lyrics and notably the great Telugu compositions of Thyagaraja. The compositions of Thyagaraja on Rama represent the high point of Carnatic music. Incidentally, the title of the book itself is inspired by a Thyagaraja krithi Ramabhakti Samrajyamu in Bangala ragam.

A polyglot with knowledge of several languages, Dr Sesahdri examines the works on Rama by 19 composers in Telugu language from Bhadrachala Ramadasu and Tumu Narasimha Dasu to Thyagaraja of course, as well as lesser-known ones like Alluru Venkatadri and Bommaraju Seetharamaraju. This is followed by nine Kannada composers beginning with Purandarasa. He also comments on the works of 17 Tamil composers and several Malayalam composers. In between are discussed the poetry on Rama by Kamban, the Alwars, etc.

By Aruna Chandaraju