Othuvar Sargurunathan Kapali Temple

A seemingly innocuous discussion at a tea shop with its owner transformed the life of B. Sargurunathan of Karukadipatti village. That morning, he decided that he wanted to be known to the ‘common man’ and that meetingt led him to focus on the Thevaram Songs with musical intonation. Two decades later, he is one of the few Othuvars actively presenting the verses of the Saivite Saint Poets in ancient temples and a popular one at that whose presentation is eagerly sought after everywhere. Here is the story.

As a teenager studying in a school in a remote village near Thanjavur, Sargurunathan was not keen on pursuing academics for his mind was clearly devotionally attached. He was destined to present the sacred verses in front of the Lord in a historical Paadal Petra Sthalam and thus quit school at 12 to move into a Thevaram Patshala in Chidambaram, where his uncle D Somasundaram was the Guru. 

(with the dwindling of students, that patshala saw a natural death in the 2nd half of the 1990s. Recently another patshala has been launched in Chidambaram - https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/02/thevaram-patshala-chidambaram.html)

The Patshala was started by AC Muthiah (SPIC Group) and with the corporate backing and the personal attention of Devaki Muthiah the students were taken care of well in that phase. Sargurunathan recounts the joyful five years he spent there “We woke up early in the morning, plucked flowers in the Nandavanam and presented it to Lord Natarajar at Thillai. Every evening, we presented the sacred verses that we learnt at the Patshala in front of the Naalvar Sannidhi at the temple. During the Utsavams, we went on the Lord’s street processions presenting the sacred verses of the Saint Poets.”

He learnt the Thirumurai by heart and that became an integral part of his life even as a teenager. He also took special interest in ‘Arbutham’ Pathigams. Sargurunathan took a special liking of Thirunavukarasar’s verses (Appar) for he found that to be simplistic and easy to grasp for a common man. Even during the fortnight’s break when he returned to his native village for Deepavali and Pongal, Sargurunathan focused on ‘home work’ that centered on excelling in the sacred verses. During that phase, he also accompanied his Guru Somasundaram on Kumbabhisekam trips and presented the sacred verses during the multiple sessions leading up to the Kumbabhisekam event. 

In 1990, as a student of the Patshala, he presented his first major Thirumurai programme at Tamil Isai Sangam and has been a regular there ever since.

However, as he neared the end of his five years, there was anxiety at his home. His two elder brothers were on corporate duty while his father was an elementary school teacher. It was only this young boy who chose the Godly route to life. 

There were no Othuvars in most of the Paadal Petral Sthalams in Tamil Nadu and hence there was an opportunity that existed for a trained Othuvar to be hired in any of the popular temples in the state. He remembers that final year at the Patshala “I had discontinued school education after class VIII. So there was no question of getting into a corporate life. None of the ancient temples were hiring Othuvars at that time and my parents were anxious as to what would happen to me.”

The most disappointing aspect as a 17 year old was the fact that temples did not look at securing the services of the few trained Othuvars that were on offer in the early 1990s. As a young teenager, it was difficult for him to understand. It was a historical service dating back several centuries and there was a severe shortage of the trained personnel. And those that came out of Patshala were not absorbed by even the large temples in the state. 

Even as he was exploring options after completion of his Patshala in September 1991, AC Muthiah’s father the legendary cricket administrator MA Chidambaram noticed the insecurity that was creeping in and offered him an Othuvar role at the temple run by his group firm TN Petro in Manali. And thus he came into contact with the city life for the first time that year. For almost seven years, he spent his life in North Madras living in a ‘bachelor’s’ room.

Very early on, he had what was one of those innocuous tea shop discussions. He says that the meeting with the tea shop owner transformed him and made him what he is today. While he was practicing one of the Thevaram Verses there, moved by the devotional recital of Sargurunathan, the tea shop owner asked me if he knew Dharmapuram Swaminathan, a question that stunned him. He recounts that moment as his life changing one “I did not imagine that a tea shop man would know the verses of the Saint Poets. Even more, it just did not occur to me that he would know a man who recited the sacred verses of the Poets. I clearly underestimated the devotion of the common man and how the historical verses moved him.”

Swaminathan was part of the Dharmapuram Aatheenam and had been a prominent Thevaram personality in the 1970s and 80s.

That morning, Sargurunathan promised to himself that like Swaminathan he would endeavour to be ‘known’ among the common man on the street. He took to Swaminathan as his role model and as the first step, through his goldsmith friend Bhuvaneswar in Tondiarpet, he became a music disciple of B Achutha Raman and learnt the nuances of music for five years under his tutorship.

During this phase, he also got an opportunity to present a 25 minutes Thirumurai programme at the AIR, in 1993 as a 19 year old. It was the phase the word spread in the city that there was a next gen Othuvar with a devotional voice, one who seemed to have a mastery over the Thirumurai presentation. He visited over 200 Paadal Petra Sthalams along with Adiyars and presented the relevant verses in those temples on festive occasions.

The wedding bells also brought with it the greatest opportunity of his life. Within months of his marriage with the daughter of the renowned Vedaranyam Ganapathi Desikar in Feb 1998, by when he had completed his five year musical initiation under Guru Achutha Raman, he received a surprise call. The HR & CE decided to appoint Othuvars in the historical city temples. He had been stationed in North Madras in Thiruvottiyur for seven years and he applied there as well as at the Vadapalani temple. But his mind was clearly focused on Mylapore, the headquarters of music connoisseurs and the most traditional spiritual location in the city at that time.

Chidambaram Sirkazhi Siva Chidambaram was the Thakkar of the Kapaleeswarar temple at that time and he interviewed Sargurunathan and impressed with the knowledge and the devotional recital he offered him the Othuvar post at the temple. He also received offers from the other two temples but his mind lay with Lord Kapaleeswarar and Karpagambal and thus he joined the temple as the Othuvar in June 1998 at a consolidated pay of Rs. 1200 for presenting the sacred verses six times a day, each day of the year!!!

For the last 22 years, he has been an Othuvar at the Kapali temple a phase when his popularity has shot up worldwide. Devotees look forward to his recital on Pradhosham evenings, among other festive occasions. IT entrepreneur R Shiv Kumar (of CSS fame), who runs multinational firm iOPEX engaged him to bring out Thirumurai cassettes and CDs. He has also been initiating the sacred verses to those that are interested.

He looks back at his over two decades at the Kapaleeswarar temple with great happiness “The Lord and Ambal have helped me reach out to the common man. Wherever I go, people recognize me and convey their appreciation of my recital. And that really is the greatest blessing I have had.”

However, things have not been all that rosy financially. Anyone who has been associated with a temple as popular as the historical Mylapore temple should be sound financially by now after over two decades of service. Unlike priests of the temple, the Othuvars do not receive Thattu Kaasu. Anyone who visited him in the 2000s are aware of the dilapidated condition of the house he lived in, one that had not been refurbished for several decades. 

However he is not unduly worried. Sargurunathan counts presenting in front of the Lord and Ambal as a divine God sent opportunity and his mind is focused on that. Over the last two decades, he has graduated to Grade A artiste at the AIR and presents the Thirumurai at least once a quarter. He is also a regular at Sabhas in the city when opportunities present itself for presentation of the sacred verses. During the lockdown, he has presented, online, the sacred verses at regular intervals. He has also been taking Thirumurai classes, online, over the last nine months.

His greatest joy is when he presents the Appar’s verses at the Kapaleeswarar temple for he believes Appar has gained the acceptance of the devotee with his simplistic verses. Like Appar, Othuvar Sargurunathan too has captured the mind of the devotees at the Kapali Temple and elsewhere.