When carnatic composer Tyagaraja visited the town of Lalgudi near Trichy, Tamil Nadu he composed five songs in praise of the deities in the local Saptharishishwarar temple. The songs collectively referred to as the Lalgudi Pancharatnam are Esha Paahimam Jagadeesha (Kalyani), Lalithe Shri Pravrutha Shrimathi (Bhairavi), Mahitha Pravrutha Shrimathi (Kambodhi), Gathi Neevani (Thodi), and Devashri Tapatheertha Puranivasa (Madhyamavati). For more details about these five songs, click here.
These songs are all the more special for me as my father’s native village is Edayathumangalam, the hamlet next to Lalgudi. This recording of Lalithe Shri Pravrutha Srimathi is from a concert at BTM Cultural Academy, Bangalore with N.N.Ganesh Kumar (violin) P.Srinivasamurthy (mridangam) and A.V.Kashinath (kanjira).
Chitra Srikrishna 