SANGEETHA MAARUTI (1998)

The base for the theme is an old Taanavarnam in 'Kalyanavasantham' intermingled with songs from Hanuman chalisa of Tulsidas, Kamban, Ramanatakam, Arunachala Kavi, Guru Rajee Narayan and Samskrita slokas on Hanuman.

People usually see Hanuman as a character in the Ramayana or in some dance dramas, but how could a whole repertoire be conceived in Bharatanaatyam with Hanuman as the central character? Much earlier, Pushkala Gopal�s mother Kalpagam Balasubramaniam had given Dhananjayan an old varnam to create something on Hanuman like he had done for Vinayaka. It was sort of forgotten till certain incidents set Dhananjayan working on it again.

This is a very inspired piece. The inspiration was Panchamukha Hanuman. Hanuman is the son of Vayu or Wind, one of the 5 elements. So, apart from Dhananjayan, there are 5 others in the cast, signifying the 5 elements brought out in very beautiful verse by Kamban.

Hanuman was the son of Vayu (Wind), he went as messenger to Sita (born of the Earth), he crossed the sea (Water) to Lanka, he helped Rama of the blue hued body (Sky), and he destroyed Lanka with Fire.

There is a little shrine of Hanuman at the Theosophical Society Campus, which I used to visit as a young boy. Even after we left Kalakshetra, we used to go there for a walk and do Saturday prayers at the Maruti shrine. One particular morning like this, an old family friend Seshadri, nearly 85 years old, whom I had not met in ages, but who kept track of our dance activities, tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I had done anything on Hanuman. He suggested I should. On returning home, I turned on the radio and Hanuman chalisa was being broadcast then. As I was doing my morning work prior to lunch, an old man came to see me. My staff thought he had come to ask for some donation or something. The gentleman introduced himself and said, he had been on his way to visit a relative, saw my name board and dropped in to personally say he liked my productions. Before he left, he gave me a small picture of Panchamukha Hanuman, presiding deity of the Hanuman temple at Nanganallur (in Chennai). Since I had never been to the temple, he invited me to go there whenever I was free. Within the space of a few hours, 3 instances with references to Hanuman had taken place.
Around 4pm, Mr.Krishnaswamy of Narada Gana Sabha called and invited me to perform some new thematic presentation for the December festival. The Panchamukha Hanuman picture was in front of me and in a flash, I told him Sangeetha Maruti was the title! He was surprised at the quaint title. A little girl I knew always used to sing a bhajan which started with �Sangeetha Maruti, Sangeetha Maruthi..� and this served as inspiration for my title. Hanuman is Mr. Krishnaswamy�s favourite God and he asked me if I had been to the temple at Nanganallur. The events of the day were truly amazing. Within a month, I had to compose and choreograph and none I knew was aware of material on Maruti. Then I remembered the old varnam given by Mrs. Kalpagam, but she had forgotten the lyrics! She recalled half the lyrics, wrote the other half herself and keeping this varnam as the base, we interwove lyrics from other works.

Unfortunately, Mr. Seshadri passed away before he could see our production and I dedicated our first performance to his memory. Though people may not be aware of the divine inspiration behind many pieces, I find such inspirational work leave a much more lasting impression on their minds.

SANGEETHA MAARUTI - Reviews - Photo Album