Bajans (பஜனை ) Tamil month Margazhi

Now it is mid December and Karthigai deepam celebrated with usual pomp and bright lights. Slowly the chillness creeps in. I have started taking bath in hot water. Morning time there is fog and chill in the air. Woolen sweaters and mufflers stored inside taken out dusted and kept ready for use.

Margazhi month is arriving soon. So also the famous bajans.

What is a Bajan?

According to Wikipedia,

 A Bhajan is any type of Indian devotional song. It has no fixed form: it may be as simple as a mantra or kirtan or as sophisticated as the dhrupad or kriti with music based on classical ragas and talas. It is normally lyrical, expressing love for the Divine. The name, a cognate of bhakti, meaning religious devotion, suggests its importance to the bhakti movement that spread from the south of India throughout the entire subcontinent in the Moghul era.

The first Bajan I heard was during 1950s. Famous Thirupugazhmani, Sri. T.M.Krishnaswami Iyer, used to conduct bajan on every Friday at around 0700 PM. They used to sing various songs and go round Mylapore Mada Streets. That was where I first heard Sri Pithikuli Murugadoss songs. He used to sing in his usual beautiful voice with playing harmonium alongside. Even in those days Murugadoss was famous with his dark glasses and Bandana around his head and orange dress.

Then came the famous Mylapore Margazhi Bajans. Maragzhi, the Tamil month is called சூனிய மாதம் ( Evil month in Tamil ). Tamilians don’t conduct any good functions during the month. No wedding, no house warming, nothing good done. But in actual practice Maragzhi is the month we see so much divotional activities.people take out தேவாரம், திருவாசகம், திருப்பாவை, திருவெம்பாவை ( Devaram, Thiruvasagam, Thiruppavai, Thiruvembavai) from the puja room and there is hectivity pn the roads and side streets of Mylapore. We can see children singing and grown up reciting thiruppavai and thiruvambai, earnestly. Andal (Tamil: ஆண்டாள் Äṇţāḷ, an( 8th century or earlier) is the the only
female Alvar of the 12 Alvar saints of South India, who sang Thiruppavai. Thiruppavai, a collection of thirty verses in which Andal imagines herself to be a Gopi or cowherd girl during the incarnation of Lord Krishna. She yearns to serve Him and achieve happiness not just in this birth, but for all eternity, and describes the religious vows (pavai) that she and her fellow cowherd girls will observe for this purpose.

Most of us go to temple and on the whole there is more religious activity during the month then other months in Tamil calendar.

One of the important activity is BAJAN. Every day during the Margazhi month the bajans around Mylapore temple starts around 0500 am. The singers go round the four mada streets singings hymns. When I was young I used to get up in the morning hearing the songs. First bajan at 0500 am, then comes Srim Annaji Rao Bajan at 0530 and finally Sri Papanasam Sivam group around 0600 am. Each has got its own way of singing. Annaji Rao bajan, loud and vibrating Papanasam Sivan bajan soft melodious. With light glowing on the eastern sky and day becomes brighter the crowd swells and finally around 0700 am there used to be big crowd around each group. People used to hear one bajan and once it is over they move to the next enjoying the songs. So many eminent musicians used to perform. I saw other day in net the history of bajans and a picture of Papanasam Sivam in early 1930s. Seen, Sri.Papanasam Sivam even at his old age used o participate in bajans and atleast sing one or two favourite songs at the end of the rounds. He used to come and sit in a moda provided by some rasika and sing.The tradition started around 1920s, still going on uninterrupted with Papnansam Shivam’s daughter Rukmini and her son Ashok Ramani, following the practice and conduct the bajans.

The above picure was taken from internet from an article written by a sishya of Papanasam Sivam ( Sri Sivam standing second from left ). The following picture taken from the same site shows how Sri Ashok Ramani, follows the tradition

After that they used to distribute hot pongals which are always appreciated by public.

Then of course Music season starts in December. High and mighty of he Music world and also our local big wigs descend in Chennai for music season. When USA and western world shivers under the intense cold, like Europeans go to south of France for some respite from cold, Indians living there comes to India to escape the cold and also get warmth from weather and scintillating sweet music. The people throng the venue of music performances whether it is Music Academy hall or Naradha Gana Sabha, Krishna Gana Sabha. The seats fill up so quick mostly one has to be satisfied if he gets a standing space. Most also fix loud speakers out side, so every one can hear the music even if they cannot have the comfort of a seat.  I remember in 1950s Music academy used to conduct the performance (கச்சேரி) at the vast ground behind P.S.High School ( Where now P.S.Senior Secondary School is situated) under a tatched pandhal.With lot of sand and folding chairs. I remember the camera man used to sit on the top in a cradle like thing and film the performance.

Generally most of the persons start from home in the morning and return home around 1100 pm at night, tired but happy. The canteen in Music academy venue was famous and along with , who the musicians going to perform that day the menu in the canteen is equally given importance and discussed.

The tradition of music  is even now followed. Only difference is now even most of the musicians travels from USA and Europe to perform in this great tradition and make the month margazhi a prosperous one instead of a bad month

Mid 60s saw the emergence of Sai Bakthas and Sai bajans started sounding in lot of houses. With Puttaparthi Sai Baba becoming famous, most of the houses had bajans on Thursdays. In our house I went to first Sai Bajan in 1966 or 67 on Perambur and we also started Sai bajans on Thursdays.

With the advent of TV as an important media we have started hearing Bajans on various channels. In the recent years we are hearing so much bajans in sabhas and Televisions, performed by greats like,  Udayalur Kalyanaraman and Jai Krishna Baghavathar. JKB always remind me of Late Annaji Rao.

I see more and more people performing bajans and happy to see that the tradition of bajans are carried forward.