Portrait of Shadkala Govinda Marar by Raja Ravi Varma

Govinda Mārār (Malayalam: ഗോവിന്ദ മാരാര്‍)(1798–1843), or Ṣaṭkāla Govinda Mārār was a Carnatic Musician from Kerala, India. He was a contemporary of Saint Tyāgarāja and Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma. He was also adept in playing musical instruments like Chenda, Edakka and Thimila. His expertise in singing in the six degrees of geometric speed earned him the title Ṣaṭkāla.

Early life [edit]

Govinda Marar was born in 1798 in Ramamangalam village near puthupally in Kerala. His parents belonged to community of Marars who performed the traditional singing in the temples of Kerala. He took to singing from a very early age. He received his musical lessons from Haripad Ramaswamy Bhagavathar.^[1]

He is said to have used a Tamburu having seven strings.^[1] At the age of 21, he left his home to begin a life of wandering. He is believed to have sung in many important temples all over Kerala.^[2]

Meeting with Saint Tyāgarāja [edit]

According to Mr. P.T. Narendramenon, the famous scholar from Kerala, "legend has it that while at Thiruvananthapuram, Marar had heard with deep admiration the kritis of Tyagaraja, sung by Kanniah, a direct disciple of the saint. To him Tyagaraja became a holy beacon. One Haripad Ramaswamy Bhagavatar also had learnt those kritis. Marar learnt a few such kritis from him. Soon he was all agog to have darshan of the saint at Tiruvayyaru, and in 1837 he set forth on foot, 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 the place. 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 his unusual tambura, with the flag. Being ekadeshi, it was a day dear to Hari, and he chose his favourite Geet Govind 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 duration between 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 the sixth degree of speed, Tyagaraja himself was taken aback by his laya sampat. During the performance he was strumming the tambura with his right hand , and playing the ganjira with his left hand, holding the latter instrument 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 scintillating Pancharatna kriti 'Entharo mahanubhavulu' . The Walajapet disciples have used the word 'prasthutimpa' in Telugu, meaning 'in order to pour out praise'. The belief in Kerala is that Tyagaraja composed the kriti extempore in his spontaneous joy on hearing 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." This according to Mr. P.T.Narendra Menon was the legendary meeting between two great musicians. Tyagaraja was 70 years old at that time and Marar was aged 39 years. The kriti 'Endharo mahanubhavalu' is said to have been composed by Tyagaraja at a young age. So it is possible that after hearing Marar sing and in appreciation of the greatness of Marar, Tyagaraja could have asked his disciples to sing the kriti, written by him earlier.

Death [edit]

After leading a wandering life for a long time, he reached the temple of Panduranga in Pandharpur, Maharashtra. He was revered as Paramahamsa Govinda Das. The temple records note that he attained Samadhi in 1843.

Shatkala Govinda Marar Smaraka Kalasamithy [edit]

Prof. M. P. Manmadhan (late) – the eminent sarvodaya leader and social worker came to know about Sri. Govinda Marar from a speech delivered by the great Malayalam poet Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer. He decided to set up a suitable memorial to the saint musician at his birthplace at Ramamangalam. The Shatkala Govinda Marar Smaraka Kala Samithy took birth under the chairmanship of Prof. M. P. Manmadhan in 1980. The Samithy engages in the establishment of several institutes to promote the study of traditional music and temple arts of South India with facilities for advanced research in all branches of arts and music. After the death of Prof. M. P. Manmadhan, Sri. C. Radhakrishnan (writer, film director), Sri. M. P. Gopalakrishnan (Rtd. R. D. O.) and Prof. Mavelikkara Prabhakara Varma (musician) lead the Samithy. Prof. George S. Paul (art journalist and columnist) is presently leading the Samithy.

A memorial building consisting of class rooms and auditorium was set up with the help of Central/State Governments, Local Self Government Institutions and well-wishers in the vicinity of the Narasimhamoorthy Perumthrikkovil. Classes have been arranged to impart training in classical music (vocal and instrumental), classical dance and temple arts. website : http://www.shatkalasamithy.org

Shatkala Govinda Marar Sangeetholsavam [edit]

A musical festival dedicated to the memory of the musical prodigy is being conducted under the auspicious of Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy from 1992. Several famous artists from South India came to Ramamangalam to pay their homage before the saint musician during the last two and a half decades.

Padmasree Dr. K. J. Yesudas, Kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan, T. N. Krishnan, Neyyattinkara Vasudevan, K. S. Gopalakrishnan, M. G. Radhakrishnan, Neyyattinkara Mohanachandran, Dr. K. Omanakutty, Kudamaloor Janardhanan, Thiruvizha R. Jayasankar, Valayappetty Subramaniam, Njaralath Rama Poduval, Janardhanan Nedungadi, Mattannoor Sankarankutty, Prof. S. Gupthan Nair, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Kavalam narayana Panicker, Kavalam Sreekumar, Prof. Vishnu Narayanan Namboothiri, Kamala Das, Ambalapuzha Rama Varma etc. were some dignitaries among them.

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b} Kerala Gov-Music
2. ^ Shadkala

http://marar.in/

External links [edit]

• [1]
• Kerala Gov-Music
• Shadkala Govinda Marar
• 14th Shadkala Govinda Marar Music Festical
• Kerala-Gov
• [2]