It all began as a short verse in the Balakanda canto of Valmiki’s epic Ramayana. The author Venkatesh Parthasarathy traces the tale of how a “prayer song became a way of life”, as millions of Indians, especially in south India, wake up to a recorded version of the Suprabhatam sung by the Carnatic doyenne MS Subbulakshmi in their homes even today. The Suprabhatam continues to be a marvel in its modern recorded audio form, thanks to its radio broadcast first, then audio cassettes, CDs and now downloadable apps. Venkatesa Suprabhatam – The Story of India’s Most Popular Prayer (Westland publications) is a recent book that tells the curious story of how a prayer song, whose origins date back to sometime in the 5th century, found a new form at one of India's prominent temples and which we listen to even in the 21st century in our homes.
How did an unusual morning greeting by a teacher to his pupil become one of the most popular prayer songs in India?
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