![]() COMPOSER Sundara Narayana |
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Sundara Narayana, whose real name was Vadakke Palazhy Narayanankutty Menon, entered the music field by accident. He was an environmental engineer by profession and had been a resident of New Jersey, USA for a major portion of his life, with his wife, Dr. Sreedevi, daughter, Dr. Lakshmi and son, Jaykumar, a computer engineer.
Sundara Narayana began writing songs in praise of Lord Guruvayoorappan after his 60 th birthday in 1999.It all began with a dream he had, wherein Guruvayoorappan instructed him to write classical songs about Him. Untrained in formal music, he dismissed the dreams at first. However it became a recurring dream which compelled him to try. Inspired by devotion toward Guruvayoorappan he sat down to write his first song starting with “Hari Om Narayana”. To his own wonderment words came out of his mind as if “a tap was opened”. Since then he has composed over 220 songs as well as a dance-drama, Manjulacharitham, one of Guruvayoorappan's legendary miracles. All his krithis are in Sanskrit, Malayalam or Manipravalam (Sanskrit- Malayalam). A few are in Hindi. Some of the songs he composed were Bhajans and a few were Thiruvathira songs. Most of the songs were in praise of Guruvayurappan. He also wrote songs in praise of Poornathrayesa, Ganesha, Devi and Ayyappa. Two songs about Swami Chinmayananda were also composed by him.
The music community of New York and New Jersey gradually started appreciating and accepting these songs. Many prominent musicians started singing them in kacheris. In 2001, famous Carnatic musician Dr. Omanakutty, herself a devotee of Guruvayoorappan, came to know of Sundara Narayana's story and expressed willingness to help in his mission to promote these songs. In 2002, Dr. Omanakutty, the favorite disciple of the legendary Dr. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Head of Kerala University Department of Music, sang these krithis at Guruvayoorappan temple in Guruvayur. At that time, Sundara Narayana produced a 2 CD album rendered by Omanakutty. Soon many other CDs were produced which were rendered by Dr. Omanakutty, Dr. Sreevalsan J Menon ,Sri Muraleedharan Unny, Sri Shenkottai HariHara Subramanian,and Pranavam Sankaran Nambuthiri . All these Musicians have sung these songs in Melpattur Auditorium, Guruvayur and other venues in Kerala and USA.
The Guruvayurappan Temple of New Jersey, Nair Benevolent Association of New York, Carnatic Music association of North America (CMANA) and other organizations in the United States honored him with accolades in 2012.
Manjula Charitham was presented as a dance drama in Bharathanatyam style by Rema Rao and group in Melpattur Auditorium in Guruvayur and by Chitra Venkateswaran and group in Guruvayurappan Temple, New Jersey. In July 2013, a new CD of Bhajans was released,which was sung by Biju Narayanan and group. Some songs in each CD are reproduced in this website.
Sundara Narayana left his mortal body on March 31st2013. His Bhakthi filled compositions continue to inspire devotes worldwide.
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