Thiruvanaikaval Othuvar Srinivasan

41 year old R Srinivasan (Shiva Jagan) is a remarkable Othuvar. A Saama Veda Brahmin by birth, he holds a Masters degree in Chemistry and is a University rank holder. His parents wanted him to take the corporate route to career growth and lead a normal family life but the young man’s mind lay firmly entrenched with the Lord of Thiruvanaikaval for even as a young teenager, his mind had set on the recital of the Thevaram verses as a way of life having imbibed the interest from his uncle.

Soon after his Master’s degree, he received a lucrative R& D job offer from a firm in Bangalore that entailed a monthly salary of Rs. 1Lakh. He was also offered a college lecturer post that would have been financially rewarding in the long run. He rejected both and began reciting the sacred verses at the Jambukeswarar temple as a devotee.

Born in Thiruverambur, Srinivasan spent his childhood at the RS Krishnan School inside the BHEL complex. His father, V Ramani, worked at the PSU. When he was in class VI, his parents initiated him into Bala Vihar to learn Carnatic Music from Guru Cheran Maha Devi Somayajalu. He used to sing film songs well at that time. Within three years, he had progressed so well that his Guru organized the Arangetram for Srinivasan.

His uncle who was deeply into Thirumurai and the Thevaram Verses printed the invitation that had Sundarar’s Verses – ‘Ezh Isaiyai Isai Payanai’- as the headline. It had a big impact on the young boy. His uncle regularly recited Thiru Gnana Sambandar’s 11 verses – Kan Kaattum Muthalaano – in praise of the Lord of Thiruvengadu. His uncle used to also recite Periya Puranam and the teenaged Srinivasan listened to those verses with a great deal of interest. From the sacred verses of the Saint Poets, he realised that the purpose of life was to liberate oneself from rebirth. To that end, one had to dedicate the mind, thought, body and talks in service to the Lord. Thiru Gnana Sambandar in his praise says that for those who believe in the Lord of Thiruvanaikaval, no other security is required in life. This had a positive impact on his life and he began pursuing that as a way of life right from his college days.

He also found from the verses of Appar that one had to take an oath in life to praise the feet of the Lord at every given opportunity.Sundarar has in his praise of the Lord of Thiruvanaikaval says that he bows before those who invoke the Lord here while Thiru Gnana Sambandar says that those who believe in Jambukeswarar and invoke him with unconditional surrender for them there is no security required and will remain protected for ever.

He had no formal initiation into the Thevaram verses. Out of the 12 Thirumurais, he was keen to make at least one his own. In 1999, through sheer hard work and perseverance, he learnt over a 1000 verses of Sundarar from the 7^th Thirumurai within a period of 10 months. When he was once reciting the verses at the Oonjal Mandapam at Thiruvanaikaval, the temple authorities, impressed with his devotional rendition, asked if he could present the verses as an Othuvar at the Kumbabhishekam that was just coming up in mid 2000. 

He happily agreed and has ever since been performing the role of an Othuvar at the Thiruvanaikaval temple. For a dozen years from 2000, he was paid a daily wage of just Rs. 50!!! Only subsequently was he given the official appointment order as an Othuvar by the HR & CE.

As foreseen by his parents, he has remained single for no woman was ready to come forward to marry a Brahmin Othuvar. But he had mentally tuned himself to this way of life right when he decided to let go the tempting R & D offer. Everyone thought that he would go the corporate route to career growth for he was a Brahmin and hence not into traditional service of Othuvars. But he has stayed away from the corporate lure despite being a University rank holder in Chemistry. 

He never went after awards but many prestigious ones have come his way in recent years. He has accepted these as God’s gift. 

Srinivasan Othuvar, who lives in an agraharam house in Thiruvanaikaval, says that in these two decades it was likely he would have earned a lot of money had he joined the corporate life but no amount of financial reward could have equaled the joy and satisfaction of standing and singing the sacred verses in front of the Lord and Ambal ‘There is an inexpressible feeling of singing with devotion at the Thiruvanaikaval temple. Till my last breath, I want to sing the Thevaram verses.’

He is now looking forward to rendering the sacred verses during the Kumbabhishekam that is coming up over the next fortnight (December 12) for it was the one 18 years ago that provided the platform for him in his journey towards seeking liberation from rebirth.