Religious personalities honoured

CHENNAI: It was a stage like no other, where religious celebrities, legal luminaries, a businessman and a lyricist came together with no conflict of interest: to celebrate and preserve Hindu culture. This was at the award ceremony at the 22nd anniversary of the Sri V Narayana Iyer Memorial Trust, held in the city recently. The event began with a captivating bhajan by Udaiyalur K Kalyanaraman, who was presented with the GK Subramaniya Iyer Award for his achievement in the bhajan tradition. Ending on an equally high note, the award ceremony closed with a thought-provoking lecture on Bhakthi in the Kaliyugam by Dhamal S Ramakrishnan, who was conferred the title of Pravachana Vachaspathi, for being a doyen in the field of Pravachanam (discourse). Vedic scholar Nannilam V Rajagopala Ganapatigal was presented the Sankari Narayanan Award while Rajkumar Bharathi, musicologist, lyricist and great-grandson of writer Subramaniya Bharathiyar was presented the Janaki Vaidyanathan award.Presenting the awards, Justice AR Lakshmanan, former Judge of the Supreme Court, said the awards were presented to the right persons, praising their efforts towards propagating Hindu culture. Referring to the Nagarathaar community that he belonged to, the judge acknowledged the role of members of the community towards building temples across the country. In his acceptance address, Udaiyalur K Kalyanaraman said the awards were honours bestowed upon not the performers but the artforms they practised. Also present on the occasion were Narayanan Vishwanath, chairman of the Trust, S Balasubramanian, chairman of City Union Bank Ltd, Kumbakonam, and V Vaidyanathan, honorary secretary of the Sringeri Jagadguru Sanathana Dharma Vidya Samithi.