Credit: Special arrangement
Last Sunday, the streets of Vidyaranyapura came alive with a Karnatik music procession comprising 40-50 singers and musicians.
The ages-old tradition, called nagara sankeerthana or unchavrithi, was organised by the Bharat Cultural Association. It was spearheaded by Karnatik musician Naveen Namboodiri, one of the members of the Association.
“Growing up in Kerala, I would witness these kinds of processions during the Tyagaraja festival. I wanted to bring that tradition to north Bengaluru, which does not have enough avenues for Karnatik music,” says Namboodiri, who has been a Karnatik vocalist for more than 30 years.
The group sang compositions by the trinity of Karnatik music — Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar, and Syama Sastri and other south Indian composers such as Purandaradasa and Annamacharya. “Tyagaraja never wrote down his compositions. He would just sing and his disciples would take down notations. He often took to the streets to sing and seek alms, and people would offer him rice and other essentials. So one of our singers in the procession was dressed as Tyagaraja,” Namboodiri says, adding that they also held placards and photographs of other composers. The singing was accompanied by the ganjira.
The procession began at 7.30 am at Shirdi Sai Baba temple and concluded at 8.30 am in the same place. This was followed by aradhana and pancharatna kritis at the temple premises. They hope to conduct the procession once a year.
The Bharat Cultural Association was set up in March 2025 by a group of senior citizens with a keen interest in music. “People from north Bengaluru have to travel long distances — to Malleswaram, Jayanagar or J P Nagar — to attend performances. So we wanted to create a hub for classical music in this part of the city,” says Surya Prasad, secretary of the Association. So far, they have held nine concerts featuring musicians like Karnatik vocalist Prince Rama Varma, and veena player Ramana Balachandran.