Lyricist to be honoured

TRIPUNITHURA: This year’s Navaratri celebrations organised at the Kalikotta Palace will see Poornathrayee Jayaprakash, the lyricist from Tripunithura,  being honoured with 'Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Aasthana Vidwan' title.In 2008, ten compositions penned and composed by Poornathrayee Jayaprakash were presented by  stalwarts like Thrissur V Ramachandran, Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Maharajapuram Sreenivasan and many others in the celebrations which made him quite popular.In a function to be held on September 27, at Sri Vanchinathan Memorial Hall at Kaanchi Kaamkshi Ambal Sannidhi Street, Kancheepuram, the title will be awarded to Jayaprakash. The function is proposed to be held in connection with the 118th Jayanthi Celebrations of Chandrasekhara Saraswathi Swamigal.  Poornathrayee Jayaprakash, a native of Tripunithura, started writing and composing classical compositions right since his childhood. Later he chose Sree Poornathrayeesha as his subject and did more than 500 compositions lauding the deity. For the past twenty five years Jayaprakash has been conducting Sree Poornathrayeesha Sangeetholsavam (the music festival in association with the birthday celebrations of the presiding deity, known as Uthram Thirunal Maholsavam). Jayaprakash learned carnatic music from the late Mavelikkara R Prabhakara Varma and later from T K Govinda Rao. Almost all the compositions penned by Jayaprakash were presented at Sree Poornathrayeesha Temple during the Poornathrayeesha Sangeetholsavam.  The same festival was conducted at Hyderabad and Madras Music Akademi with strong musical support from Dr M Balamurali Krishna and others.“In 2008 a mystic power guided me to pen ten compositions on Goddess Kanchi Kaamakshi,” Jayaprakash recalled the memories of the Music Festival held in 2008 at Kalikotta Palace. “I selected ten popular ragas like ‘sankarabharanam’ (shailaputhri sung by Neyveli Santhanagopalan, ‘kalyani’ (chandrakanta sung by K Omanakutty), ‘thodi’ (kooshmanda bhagavathy sung by Thrissur V Ramachandran), ‘kama vardhini’ alias ‘panthuvarali’ (skantha matha sung by T K Govinda Rao) sudha saveri (kaalakanti sung by Maharajapuram Sreenivasan) and other compositions”, he said.The music festival, though, conducted with limited resources, could attract the attention of many stalwarts, he said. Jayaprakash has also penned many devotional songs for various albums and is the yoga teacher at Adarsha Bhavans Vidyamandir. Coincidentally  Poornathrayee Jayaprakash is the grandson of late Seetha Rama Saraswathi Swamigal, who had received the sainthood from Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam.