Sandhya Anand started Saüskçtasaïgãtam School of Music with the sole objective to teach Karnataka sangitam in its authentic form to seeking minds and bring out the best in them. She looks forward to share with potential students, the beautiful teachings that she has reveived from her revered Gurus. Her aim is to make them torch bearers of our sampraday and shape them into future performers, rasikas and Gurus.
We have amazing and talented young minds that still cherish their culture and roots. It is with a sense of honor, privilege and pride, that she has embarked on this journey by establishing an institution where she hopes our Sanatana Dharma, Sangitam, Samskriti and Sahityam can coexist in a joyous manner. She wants to impart the beauty of Samskrit literature -- Kàvyas, Nàtakas, Itihàsas, Puràõas coupled with the beautiful Kãrtanas, Kçtis and other musical forms to enthusiastic aspirants. Practical music, theoretical aspects and requisite language skills is taught to bring out overall development in the students. She holds workshops and summer camps for aspirants to share whatever she has learnt from her Gurus. Her students have performed at several prestigeous venues and bagged awards in several national and international festivals.
Why did she name her institution "Saüskçtasaïgãtam School of Music"?
Right from childhood, Sandhya has had a fascination towards Saïgãtam (music) and Saüskçtam (Sanskrit) language. When she was thinking of a name for her school, she wanted to highlight and integrate the two worlds dear to her heart Saüskçtam and Saïgãtam. Placing them together unveiled several meaningful imports(samasa) -- 'Classical and pure music', 'Saüskçtam and Music' or 'Songs, the lyrics of which are in Saüskçtam'as well as 'the deeper and intimate bonds between these ancient entities as elaborated in the Sàmaveda scripture'.
The logo of the school expands on the latter. The "Saüskçtam" in "Saüskçtasaïgãtam School of Music" is depicted by the small two headed drum, ôamaru. The ôamaru is known as the instrument of Lord Shiva. The powerful vibrations and sounds that emanated from the ôamaru were heard and interpreted by the great sages as a sequence of letters. Thus the first sounds came into existence. Below is the quintessential ÷loka that describes the origin of the Sanskrit alphabet from Lord Shiva's ôamaru.
नृत्तावसाने नटराजराजो ननाद ढक्कां नवपञ्चवारम् ।
उद्धर्त्तुकामः सनकादिसिद्धानेतद्विमर्शे शिवसूत्रजालम् ॥
At the end of His Cosmic Dance, Shiva, the Lord of Dance, with a view to bless the sages Sanaka and so on, played on His ôamaru fourteen times, from which emerged the following fourteen såtras, popularly known as øiva-såtras or Màhe÷vara-såtras.
01. अ इ उ ण् ।
02. ऋ ऌ क् ।
03. ए ओ ङ् ।
04. ऐ औ च् ।
05. ह य व र ट् ।
06. ल ण् ।
07. ञ म ङ ण न म् ।
08. झ भ ञ् ।
09. घ ढ ध ष् ।
10. ज ब ग ड द श् ।
11. ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व् ।
12. क प य् ।
13. श ष स र् ।
14. ह ल् ।
"Sangitam" in Samskrtasangitam is depicted in the logo, by the instrument Violin. The two achalasvaras S and P originated from the powers of Lord Shiva and Shakti and each of the notes R G M D and N originated from the five faces of Shiva- Sadyojata, Ishana, Tatpurusha, Aghora and Vamadeva(Tyagaraja swami's famous kriti Naada tanumanisham quotes this, in the line- sadyojatadi pancha vaktraja SRGMPDN vara saptasvara). The origin of the Music as svaras is also referred to in the Nàrada-parivràjaka-upaniùad.
Thus both the svaras in Karnataka Music and the alphabet of Saüskçtam had a unitary origin -- Lord Shiva himself.
Accordingly, in the logo, as the Saüskçtam alphabets radiate from the ôamaru on the left, SRGMPDN the saptasvara notes of classical Saïgãtam emanate from the violin on the right.
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