![]() ![]() Much later, around 1420, a poet in Andhra Pradesh called Prativadi Bhayankar Anna composed the stanzas that followed Valmiki’s opening verse that came to be sung as the Suprabhatam. The prince’s guru, sage Vishwamitra awakened his pupil Rama with the verse, ‘Kaushalya supraja Rama purva sandhya pravartate’ or ‘Awaken Rama, Kaushalya’s son, as the world lights up with the sun’s rays and your duties for the wellbeing of the Earth beckon’. ![]() It all began as a short verse in the Balakanda canto of Valmiki’s epic Ramayana. The author Venkatesh Parthasarathy traces the tale of how a “prayer song became a way of life”, as millions of Indians, especially in south India, wake up to a recorded version of the Suprabhatam sung by the Carnatic doyenne MS Subbulakshmi in their homes even today. The Suprabhatam continues to be a marvel in its modern recorded audio form, thanks to its radio broadcast first, then audio cassettes, CDs and now downloadable apps. Venkatesa Suprabhatam – The Story of India’s Most Popular Prayer (Westland publications) is a recent book that tells the curious story of how a prayer song, whose origins date back to sometime in the 5th century, found a new form at one of India's prominent temples and which we listen to even in the 21st century in our homes. How did an unusual morning greeting by a teacher to his pupil become one of the most popular prayer songs in India? ![]()
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