Vasantika Sundararaman Devotional Drawings Mylapore

Some children are naturally blessed with devotion and are positively impacted by specific Gods and take a liking to them at an early stage in their lives. This section had featured a story in May last year on the then ten year old Thiruvallikeni boy S Prahaladh, who has been spending his free time devotionally sketching Lords of Divya Desam and Paadal Petra Sthalams. His amma’s encouragement in this devotional process has been very important taking him to temples that are close to his heart and locating for him rare pictures of his favourite Lords for him to sketch. 

He had begun his first Pencil Sketch at the age of five with a drawing of Srirangam Ranganatha after coming across an old photograph of Ranganathaswamy of Srirangam in his South Facing Sleeping Posture. And before his parents realized, he had picked up a plain paper and begun sketching the Lord with his pencil. Similar was their experience when after visiting Nelliappar Temple, he began sketching them within the next few hours and presented to them his drawing of Nellaiappar. When the family visited Melkote, Prahladh refused to return as he simply could not take his eyes away from his favourite Lord Narasimha. And by the time he returned to Madras, he had already sketched out Narasimha atop the Melkote hill leaving his mother in happy tears.

If Prahladh’s amma moved from Mylapore to Thiruvallikeni, another amma made the reverse - moving from Thiruvallikeni to Mylapore after her wedding. Kesava Perumal Sannidhi Street's Pavithra Sundararaman is just beginning to experience the early phase of the devotional interest of her five year old daughter Vasantika, a UKG student of Vidya Mandir, Mylapore. 

Pavithra has found that her daughter has taken to an early interest in Godly drawings. Just like Prahladh, Vasantika too has begun her devotional drawings at the age of five. Every time she sees a Lord she goes back home and picks up her colour pencil to draw her favourite Lord. Around the Navarathri festival, with so many Godly idols in front of the kolu, Pavithra’s interest in drawings has seen a rise.

She has made three sketches –Vaishnavite Acharya Vedantha Desikar, Lord Krishna carrying the Govardhana Mountain in his hand and adding some finishing touches to her amma’s sketch of Srivilliputhur’s Andal.

Vasantika’s devotional interest has been such that she narrates every story of the idol that has been placed in her kolu at home this year. Alongside, she is also capturing each of these deities in the form of drawings. The drawing class at school has also been an inspiration for Vasantika to latch on to an early interest in drawing.

Like Prahladh’s amma, Vasantika’s amma too has now begun the process of locating for her interesting idols that she could draw with her colour pencils.

Vasantika’s appa P Sundararaman has combined outstanding academic achievement with complete knowledge of the traditional scriptures. By the time he graduated in Commerce, he had completed his CA with very minimal coaching!!! And much prior to that, even before he had completed his schooling, he had completed his course on Divya Prabhandham. It is no wonder that his Prabhandham Acharya Natteri Srihari Parthasarathy (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/10/natteri-srihari-prabhandham-acharya-35.html), who will be felicitated later this month for his contribution to creating the next generation of prabhandham members, considers him as the best student in his 35years of Prabhandham initiation. Srihari had spoken highly of Sundararaman’s ability to capture the essence of the Prabhandham verses and to understand the nuances of the presentation of the Azhvaars, especially many of the difficult and long verses of Thiru Mangai Azhvaar.

Vasantika's grand father S Padmanabhan is the Sri Karyam of the Ahobila Mutt and former HOD- Sanskrit, Madras University.

It has been an interesting way to develop devotional interest in children and creating in them Bhakti towards the Lord through these drawings. 

After five years of devotional sketches, Prahladh had in July this year, driven by his deep devotion and a liking for Lord Narasimha, spotted an interchange of Moolavar and Utsava idols at Ahobilam (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/07/ahobilam-yogananda-narasimha.html) from the decades goneby, something even the regulars to that Divya Desam were not aware of. Such has been the impact of early initiation into devotion, that at the age of 11 he has been able to pick up changes that is not so visible to the normal eye.

While Prahladh has already sketched several hundreds and has even been allocated an almirah to store his drawings, Vasantika is just starting out on her devotional endeavour. With the personalized devotional motivation, and the regular Divya Desam, Azhvaar and Acharya storytelling of  her amma and with the traditional background of her appa and thatha, it is likely that Vasantika's interest in devotional sketches, much like Prahladh's, is only likely to increase in the years to come.