“Carnatic-Circle Bhajan Samaj” is a group of bhagavathas who have been performing Bhajan events across the United Kingdom. This was founded by Sri Santhana Gopal who had listened to bhajan uthsavams in Bhagavatha villages of Rayapuram/Perambur village in Thiruvarur district during his formative years. In a bid to spread this sampradayam in UK, he formed a team to teach ashtapadhis and bhajan songs as per Sampradayam. With the support of Pavan Srinivas & Preetha Gopal who are trained in Carnatic music, the team started holding house events and travelled to impart knowledge in this subject.
In a bid to spread bhakthi through Dakshina Bharatha Sampradayam, our group started teaching this paddhati or syllabus to children and adults. The students have learnt and performed in the past events. Lively Divyanaamam events were hosted to provide opportunity for bhakthas to participate. Keeping Raasa Leela from the Bhagavatham as the theme, story telling was initiated. In a country like UK, people will not understand the meaning of songs, so upanyasam style bhajan events were started. Till date we have completed 11 large Divyanaamams across the country since 2018.
In 2022, with the addition of Sri Ramabadran to the team, we started conducting Seetha Rama kalyanam and Radha Madhava Kalyanams in various places and have now completed 6 kalyanams UK wide. Sri Ramabadran comes from a family that has conducted 50 years of annual bhajan uthsavams with stalwart bhagavathars. All kalyanams are replete with full explanation of the steps in English so that audience get to understand the meaning behind this interesting subject.
With Guru’s blessings and all your best wishes we expect to do more and put efforts in spreading Bhakthi and the meaning behind our traditions. Should you wish to arrange a Seetha kalyanam or a Radha Kalyanam in UK/Europe, feel free to stay in touch. A sample brochure detailing the same is available here.