VEENAVAADHINI Pilgrimage with Dikshitar

Tiruvateeswarar Temple is a beautiful serene place in the heart of Chennai, right in the midst of busy Jambazaar (Tiruvetiswaran Pettai). Muthuswamy Dikshitar has composed the beautiful “Tiruvateeswaram Namami” in praise of the Lord here, and his consort Champakavalli. As part of our Pilgrimage with Dikshitar, a small group of us sang this song sitting in front of the shrine just after the abhishekam was performed. It was a wonderful experience. We started off with Mahaganapathim in Nattai, and then Sri Guruguha in Devakriya was rendered. We concluded with Somaskandam, a Nottuswara Sahityam, and Sri Abhayamba as mangalam.

Those who participated in the group singing along with us were Kamakshi, Meenakshi, Vidya, Rajani, Archana, Bhuvana, Syamala Thyagarajan, Selvaprasad (violin) and Venkataraman (Mridangam). Smt and Sri HP Ramamurthy, and the temple authorities organized the prasadam.

The audio recording of the song is available on Veenavaadhini’s podcast.