Oduvar Shri.Sargurunathan was born in Karukkatippatti, about 20 km from Thanjavur, where his father worked as a primary school teacher. As a teenager, he was taught Tirumurai music by experienced Odhuvar Murthis—Tamil scholars and singers—in an institution supported by the industrialist A.C. Muthiah. Like all students, he learned all 12 Saiva Tirumurais perfectly, along with the songs composed on each of the 275 temples and their histories. His later training in Carnatic music under Vidwan B. Achutharaman helped him bridge the traditional pann system with Carnatic ragas.
He is especially known for the Poompavai Padhigam, part of Mylapore’s temple legacy—the plaintive song in which the boy saint Gnanasambandar asks the young girl Poompavai to return to life as her grieving father holds her ashes. That poem is incomparable; it records the temple’s antiquity and its festivals, many still observed today. He sings six times through the day, from the Thiru Palliezhucchi at dawn to the soothing Ardha Jama Puja at night, and he takes particular joy in reviving rare songs, like Sundarar’s ‘Meela Adimai.’Sargurunathan’s work represents the living continuity of a precious, intangible cultural heritage.
Arsha Seva Kendram honoured the Odhuvar ji with the award of Arsha Seva Chudamani for his extraordinary contributions to the Odhuvar community and the preservation of this tradition.
