Intakanna Anandamemi - Bilahari - Tyagaraja - M Balamuralikrishna - Annavarapu - Dandamudi (1984)

In this offering, we present you a remastered 1984 AIR Vijayawada recording. Dr. M Balamuralikrishna (BMK) is accompanied on the violin by Annavarapu Ramaswamy and on the mridangam by Dandamudi Ramamohana Rao. In this broadcast, BMK renders Saint Tyāgarāja’s song of happiness “Intakanna Ānandamémi” in the rāga Bilahari, set to Rūpaka tālam. When the radio broadcast was recorded on a tape, the recording paused halfway, and the entire broadcast could not be recorded for want of a spare cassette. I just listened to the entire transmission intently, as if recording the missing part in myself. BMK’s contemplative sangatis and electrifying swara-vinyāsam were etched in my mind and I was in search of the entire rendition since then. After some 25 years, I was fortunate to locate the recording in its entirety. Sri. D V Mohana Krishna, helped me in getting the recording from the source and my grateful thanks to him and AIR Vijayawada for curating the recording. While the composition portrays the flow of Saint Tyāgarāja’s blissful state, the rendition that mirrors the mood of Tyāgarāja finds expression in Balamurali’s musical spate. The composition that embraces both “sath-sanga [companionship with devotees] and “advaita” [realisation of being the Self] as experienced by the Saint touches us profoundly by the rendition, nudging our awareness towards that. William J Jackson in his book “Tyāgarāja - Life and Lyrics” discusses this composition and here is an excerpt for your appreciation. Saint Tyāgarāja, in this composition “Intakanna Ānandamémi (“What happiness”), describes the highest bliss as a harmony of souls in devotion: What happiness could ever surpass this bliss, O Rāma When there is unanimity in the meeting of devotees... In devotion they dance, they sing tunefully praying That the Lord appear before them (What happiness..) It is enough to merge one's mind in Him… When one says 'I am He' forgetting the body With its bundle of senses, singing the Lord's glories (What happiness ..) When I murmur over and over again, your name -- O Prince Whose story is praised by Tyāgarāja -- these worlds Seem to shine! What happiness could ever surpass this bliss, O Rāma?" When I listened to the rendition again and again, as I type these lines, my inner voice continuously murmurs “Intakanna Ānandamémi”. Enjoy listening to it!