Arundhathi Subramaniam, Chitra Srikrishna to celebrate spiritual temperaments through art

Arundhathi Subramaniam and Chitra Srikrishna to present a jugalbandi of performance poetry and musical rendering to celebrate the plurality of spiritual temperaments

Why do we hear so little about women mystic poets? For poet Arundhathi Subramaniam and Carnatic vocalist Chitra Srikrishna, this quest led them to discovering women mystics and their works; the duo will present their learnings as a jugalbandi at the Indian Music Experience in Bengaluru on June 16. 

In a bid at creative experimentation, Wild Women - A jugalbandi will be based on Arundhathi’s latest book, an anthology of sacred Indian poetry titled Wild Women: Seekers, Protagonists and Goddesses in Sacred Indian Poetry while Chitra will present a few verses in melody.

“The idea for a jugalbandi with poet Arundhathi came about through our mutual passion for Bhakti poetry. I had invited her as a guest speaker when I was handling a music appreciation course at the Ahmedabad University, where I delved into the roots of the Bhakti movement, the works of the mystic poets and their social impact. Arundhathi shared her insights of the Bhakti mystics and their poetry. During the pandemic, we began discussing a collaboration inspired by our shared love for this poetic tradition,” says Chitra.

For Chitra, this jugalbandi is a natural corollary to the success of her previous musical production, Bhakti - A Musical Journey with Mystics, presented at local and global platforms. “Our aim with this unique collaboration is to blend Arundhathi’s insights on Bhakti poetry with my musical interpretation, creating a new experience that delves deeper into the essence of mysticism and music with an emphasis on sacred feminine outpourings, based on her book,” she says.

Did the two choose verses to suit raga and tala? “This program is a creative dialogue, where Arundhathi will present a poem and I will follow it with a musical interpretation, with Deepikaa Sreenivasan on the mridanga. Some of the selected poems have been previously set to music by renowned musicians such as Pt. Kumar Gandharva and Lata Mangeshkar, while others, such as the Kashmiri verses by Lal Ded or Rupa Bhavani, I have newly set to music,” says Chitra.

Understanding the deep-rooted significance ingrained in the poetic verses was fundamental to Chitra in order to score the right raga and cadence. “The selection of poems was a collaborative process; I approached the selection from a musical perspective and considered its appeal to a diverse audience. The poems to be sung in this jugalbandi span various languages, including Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, and Kashmiri.”

While engaging with the poems of Arundathi’s book, Chitra says she realised how little she knew about Bhakti poetry. “The poets were unfamiliar, the vernacular poetry in its original form was diverse, as were the nuances of poetry appreciation including rhyme and alliteration.”