A Recitation That Many Hindu Households Wake Up To

Which is the largest selling non-film recording in India's musical history? 

Actually, it is not a tough one to guess. It is that of Venkateswara Suprabhatam rendered by the peerless M S Subbulakshmi, whose rendition to this day remains the early-morning anthem of many Hindu households, across continents.

I have heard the strains of Suprabhatam streak out unobtrusively from a small Indian restaurant one cold September morning in Oslo, Norway. The rhythmic lines 'Kousalya Supraja Rama Poorva Sandhya Pravarthate...', have woken me up in Malaysia. The soulful voice of 'MS' singing paeans to Lord Venkateswara has reassuringly embraced me in the distant hills of Gangtok. 

The Venkateswara Suprabhatam, combining both musicality and piety, remains a Hindu anthem of sorts, and this year marks the 60th anniversary since the most famous recording of it was made available to the public as a LP (vinyl) recording. Since then it has literally sold many millions in vinyl records, then cassettes and CDs. 

The first verse in the Venkateswara Suprabhatam is taken from the Bala Kanda of Valmiki’s Ramayana, and the rest was written by the Sanskrit and Tamil scholar-poet Prathivadhi Bhayankaram Annangaracharya.

Anna or Annan, as he was later known, became a disciple of Manvala Mamuni, the Vaishnava theologian whose influence can still be felt in the religious traditional practices in Perumal temples across Tamil Nadu. (Some zealous followers of Tamil and Telugu film music would have by now recalled that the yesteryear singer PB Srinivas belonged to this lineage - the initials PB refers to Prathivadhi Bhayankaram).  

But Venkateswara Suprbhatam becoming a clarion chant in Hindu homes is mostly a 20th century phenomenon, and perhaps owes it to, according to the book Venkatesa Suprabhatam: The Story of India’s Most Popular Prayer, an unsung employee of HMV (His Master's Voice) recording company whose brainwave was to record the Suprabhatam and put it out in the market as a commercial offering.

He is believed to have been a regular visitor to the Tirumala Tirupati temple where the Lord is woken up daily to the verses of Suprabhatam

But a few years before 1963 --- 1958, to be precise --- All India Radio (AIR) on the occasion of Vaikunta Ekadasi had MS render the verses in a 20-minute episode. It is not clear whether a copy of this original recording is still available. But before MS, it was the rendition of PV Ananthasayanam Iyengar that was well known.

Ananthasayanam Iyengar's version, which is available on YouTube, though eminently good, does not somehow carry the divine touch that almost all of MS songs are embraced with. The thing to note is it is this Ananthasayanam Iyengar whom MS reached out to, through the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam, to grasp the nuances of Sanskrit pronunciation of the tricky verses. 

The MS version, which brings rare peace and solace to many of the believing listeners, did not happen overnight. 

Before committing herself to the venture, she, as is her wont, sought the permission and blessings of the Kanchi seer Shri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Mahaswamigal.

After Periyava's benediction, MS intricately understood the inherent prosody of the verses to help deliver them musically. Many accounts of people acquainted with MS say that the great singer, along with Radha Vishwanathan (her step-daughter), practised the song day in and day out for nearly six months.

She is said to have rendered the full version at least 100 times before she sat down for the rendering. It was a show of humility before the art and a grand exhibition of professionalism.

In any case, a rendition fit enough to wake up the God daily could not be delivered with casual abandon.

She worked on her enunciation with monkish one-pointedness, and her innate musical sense took off from there. 

As TJS George said in the biography of MS, "From the time she was learning to tune the tambura in her mother’s rooms, something seemed to cause in her the kind of ‘auspiciousness’ that Krishna mentioned in his reply to Arjuna. That inborn trait stayed with her and culminated in the astonishing dictional clarity she achieved in her Suprabhatham hymnals, all of which were in chaste Sanskrit. The ease with which she mastered such purity of pronunciation in Sanskrit became a topic of discussion among ordinary listeners and pundits alike."

The HMV recording was done at a stretch and there was nothing to patch up.

On listening of the same, the recording crew, it is said, was convinced that this was a divine rendition as it touched their souls. But none of them present at the recording knew that it would go on to break all records in musical history of India.

The LP vinyl record was released in November 1963 (along with her rendition of Swati Tirunal's Bhavayami Raghuraamam, and this too had an earlier AIR version) by the then President Sarvepillai Radhakrishnan.

It was in the aftermath of India-China war and India was looking for morale uplifting things. And in the words of the President, musical and religious works like Suprabhatam remind people about the core values and help them find solace in times of strife. 

And on MS' voice and rendering, Radhakrishnan declared, "Her magnificent voice is one of the richest treasures of our generation, and if that voice is brought into homes and if people are able to listen to it, that is the greatest service one can render."

The recording brought enormous financial rewards to HMV.

The royalty proceeds to MS were also huge. And as it always happened with her, she donated all of it to Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam. Her music was bhakti in intent, content and delivery. So was her life. With MS, music and life were the same.

Her rendition of Venkateswara Suprabhatam became so popular that not only the Tirumala temple but also other big ones began to invoke the song for their early morning rituals. And in one one fortunate case, it led to a dispute that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

The issue was whether the Suprabhatam, immortalised by MS, could be played in the morning at the Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram.

The Travancore royal family, which has claims over the temple, contended that the Lord Padmanabha at the temple is in yoga nidra (posture of relaxation and sleep) and should not be woken up. 

The Supreme Court, however, had the gumption to say that it lacked expertise in the matter and declined to intervene. 

Perhaps, it was the verses of the Suprabhatam that kept the court awake to reality.

Did you know?

Suprabhatham means 'auspicious morning'. 

The divine process of waking up the holy Lord at Tirupati begins with the recitation of Venkateswara Suprabhatam at 3 am. Everyday. 

The Venkateswara Suprabhatam comprises 29 slokas.

The first part of the Suprabahatam consists of 'Stotram', which means an entreaty. This includes 11 stanzas in praise of Lord Venkateswara requesting Him to offer protection from all the evils.  

The second part, Prapatthi, has 16 verses that are about complete surrender to Him.

The last part, Mangalaa Saasanam, which means 'auspicious felicitations', has 14 slokas in praise of His noble qualities.