What is Nama Sankeertanam?
Nama Sankeertanamis the practice of congregational chanting of the divine names and sacred expressions of God. More than a musical performance, it is an act of collective devotion — singing the glory of the Lord, individually or in chorus, as the highest expression of Bhakti.
According to the Bhagavata Purana, Nama Sankeertanam is the designated spiritual practice — the yuga dharma — for attaining liberation in the Kali Yuga, the present age. Where other ages demanded rigorous meditation, elaborate rituals, or temple worship, the Kali Yuga asks only for the sincere chanting of the Lord’s name:
“In Kali Yuga, the Lord resides wherever His devotees sing His name.”
The Bhakti Movement
The tradition of Nama Sankeertanam is inseparable from the great Bhakti movement that swept across India over the last ten centuries. In northern and central India, saints such as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Kabir Das, Tulsi Das, Soor Das, Meera Bai, Sant Namadev, Tukaram, and Gnaneswar propagated the singing of divine names as the most accessible path to God — transcending barriers of caste, language, and ritual orthodoxy.
Sri Chaitanya, in particular, carried the tradition of congregational chanting across the length of India, propagating the Sri Geetha Govinda (Ashtapathi) of Sri Jayadeva and establishing sankeertana as the central practice of Vaishnavism in Bengal and Odisha.
In Maharashtra, the Abhangatradition of the Varkari saints — Namadev, Tukaram, Gnaneswar, and Eknath — created a vast body of devotional poetry sung in processions to the temple of Vitthala at Pandharpur, a tradition that continues unbroken to this day.
The Southern Tradition: Dakshina Sampradaya
In southern India, Nama Sankeertanam took its distinctive form through three illustrious saints who lived in the Cauvery Delta region of Tamil Nadu between the 17th and 19th centuries:
Sri Bodhendra Saraswathi Swamigal(1638–1692), the 59th Pontiff of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, was among the earliest to formally establish the primacy of Nama Siddhanta— the doctrine that the chanting of God’s name alone is sufficient for liberation. His works Bhagavan Nama Rasodayam and other treatises laid the theological foundation for the southern Sankeertana tradition.
Sri Sridhara Ayyaval(1635–1720), a contemporary of Bodhendra who settled in Thiruvisanallur near Kumbakonam, composed the celebrated Bhagavan Nama Mahima— a Sanskrit work extolling the glory of God’s names. His life is remembered for both scholarly brilliance and miraculous devotion.
Sri Marudhanallur Sadguru Swamigal (1777–1817) is credited with shaping the core of Dakshina Bharata Sampradaya Nama Sankeertanam in its present form. He integrated the musical and devotional traditions of both northern and southern India into a structured format of congregational singing that is followed to this day.
Hari-Katha
Closely allied with Nama Sankeertanam is the tradition of Hari-Katha— the musical narration of divine stories from the epics and Puranas. A Hari-Katha performance weaves together narrative discourse, poetry, devotional songs, and classical music into a single seamless presentation. The performer, known as a Bhagavatar or Harikatha-kalakshepam artist, is at once storyteller, singer, musician, and spiritual teacher.
In the hands of a master, Hari-Katha becomes a vehicle for transmitting scriptural knowledge, philosophical insight, and devotional ecstasy to audiences of all backgrounds. The tradition demands mastery of multiple languages, ragas, and literary works, combined with the dramatic ability to bring sacred narratives to life.
The Carnatic Connection
The great composers of Karnataka Sangeetam (Carnatic music) were themselves practitioners of Nama Sankeertanam in its broadest sense. Purandaradasa, the “father of Carnatic music,” composed thousands of devotional songs in Kannada meant for congregational singing. Saint Tyagaraja, who lived in Thiruvaiyaru and composed in Telugu, created a body of kritis that are simultaneously concert repertoire and vehicles of profound devotion. Bhadrachala Ramadasa composed keertanams in the Sankeertana tradition that are performed to this day in the temple of Lord Rama at Bhadrachalam.
Narayana Teertha, the saint-composer of Sri Krishna Leela Tarangini, created an operatic masterwork of devotional music drama that bridges the worlds of classical composition and Sankeertana. These composers did not merely set poems to music — they carried forward the ancient understanding that the divine name, when sung with devotion, is itself a path to the divine.
A Living Tradition
Nama Sankeertanam is not a historical artifact. Across India and in diaspora communities worldwide, the tradition continues in homes, temples, and concert halls. The annual Bhajana Sampradaya gatherings — particularly the Margazhi(December–January) season in Chennai — draw thousands of participants in day-long and all-night sessions of congregational singing.
Sangita Acharya Thiruvaiyaru S R Krishnan stands in a direct line of transmission stretching from Swami Gnanananda Giri through Swami Haridoss Giri. Having performed Nama Sankeertanam and Hari-Katha across four continents since 1955, he carries forward one of the oldest and most revered spiritual practices of India into the present day.