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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00071 Oct 2006

 
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Dear members,

Thanks to Sri Malolan Cadambi for posting this
obituary.

The passing away of Sri TS Parthasarathy, the doyen of
Musicology and Sanskrit Literature of the past 75
years, is a great loss indeed. Sri TSP at the age of
94 passed away peacefully in his sleep.

TSP mAma was a family friend of my parents. He took a
great interest in the musical career of my mother
Sangita Kalanidhi (Dr) Smt Mani Krishnaswamy. He
helped her immensely in the production of her
commercial recordings of rendering Swami Vedanta
Desika's works "Daya Satakam", "Goda Stuthi",
"achyutha-satakam" and "BhagavadhAna-sOpAnam". He was
also my mother's guide for her research-paper on
Talapakka Annamayya which she presented for her
Fellowship of the Sangita Nataka Academy, New Delhi.
Whenever my mother had any doubt on 'sangita' or
"sanskrit" -- be it 'sAhitya' or the correct notation
of any 'kriti' or the meaning of a Sanskrit phrase or
word --- she would reflexively turn to TSP mAma for
clarification. He was a multi-faceted scholar indeed.

In recent years, my personal interaction with TSP mAma
was quite frequent. Whenever I visited Chennai on
holiday, I never failed to call on him at his house in
CIT Nagar. Although he remained healthy and mentally
razor-sharp throughout his life, due to a slight
physical handicap he was able to move about only on a
wheel-chair. But he was always cheerful everytime I
met him and he used to welcome me with great warmth
and affection. He was so glad about my own interest in
the subject of SriVaishnava religious literature and
philosophy. I remember fondly today the many hours of
engaging conversation that I had with him. His
erudition was phenomenal. Even at his advanced age, he
could recall Sanksrit and Tamil passages at will from
the "mani-pravAla" texts and the AzhwAr "prabhadhams".
If he could not recall from memory, he would wheel
around briskly around his personal library and pick
out exactly the book he wanted to refer, and singled
out exactly the passage from the correct page in the
book in order to make his point. He had a truly
formidable scholar's mind. 

The last time I met Sri TSP mAma was in July when I
visited his house to formally invite him for my
father's "sathAbhishEkam" held later in the same
month. Sri TSP mAma gave me a gift on the occasion
that I can never forget and will treasure all my life.


Way back in 1952, Sri TSP had published his book, an
English translation of the "Sri Rangam
"kOvil-ozhughu". This "kovil-ozhughu" was originally
written sometime even before the time of Sri
RamanujAchArya (10th CE) and it survives to this day
as an excellent historical record of the history and
temple-practices of the great temple of Sri Ranganatha
at Sri Rangam. But since the original is in difficult
"mani-pravAla" script, which only the loftiest of Sri
Vaishnava scholars/pundits can really appreciate, Sri
TSP had undertaken the labor of love to translate the
"kovil-ozhugu" into simple and eminently readable
English. His book in 1952 was published by the
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam. 

Sri TSP gave me an autographed copy of that book of
his and blessed me profusely wishing me all good
things in life.

That is my last memory of a wonderful human being, a
formidable and versatile scholar with hardly an air or
pretension about him, an utterly friendly person and
an engaging conversationalist, a lover of life and of
all God's blessings on earth.

May his soul in 'parama-padam' revel in the presence
of the Almighty!

Regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan    


--- Malolan Cadambi <mcadambi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/15/stories/2006101504170900.htm
> 





                
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