South India: Flowers and Ashes Hymns to Shiva

This is a disc of South Indian (Karnatic) singing in the temples of Tamil Nadu, the large state at the southern tip of India. It features a style called oduvar – hymns in Tamil dedicated to Lord Shiva, almost all of which are drawn from 12 sacred books written between the seventh and 12th centuries. The supreme deity in the Hindu south, Shiva features prominently in the famous Chola bronzes, the most celebrated artworks of the region.

It is said that there are now very few perhaps fewer than ten – cantors still practising in this tradition. A high– quality recording such as this one offers us a rare glimpse into the authenticity and purity of a near–extinct tradition. The album features R Velayuda and three of his students – S Tirugnanasambandan, V Tyagarajan and P Shanmugasundaram who were taught by him at the Shiva monastery school of Dharampuram, which is also a training centre for priests. The hymns are much shorter and punchier than one might expect from such an ancient tradition: the single disc features no less than 33 tracks. The song texts, known as pan, which can also mean musical mode, are composed in well– known ragas of the Karnatic tradition. In every instance, they are sung by a solo voice accompanied by a barely audible drone and, occasionally, the manjira temple bells, akin to miniature cymbals. I suspect this will be very much an acquired taste and could take some getting used to. But fans of Karnatic devotional music are sure to be thrilled by this all too rare, brilliant quality recording, which has the added bonus of song translations and some very substantial liner notes.