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Are you scared yet?
We are ready for Halloween!
Perfect smile for a cold night
Today is the tenth, and the last day of Navaratri – Vijaya Dashami. We celebrate this festival to commemorate Rama defeating Ravana, and goddess hamundeshwari slaying demon Mahishasura.
Yesterday when I wrote about a composition of Mysore Vasudevachar, I also wrote about his illustrious deciple – Jayachamarajendra Odeyar, the last king of Mysore. Odeyar was another notable composer of the 20th century. Initially, he was trained in western classical music. He received the highest honors possible to be awarded for student at the Trinity college of Music in London. Later on, went on to learn the intricacies of Karnataka sangeetha from Vasudevachar for some years. Between 1945 to 1947, he composed 94 kritis (A few more have been unearthed recently, I heard). Apparently he played his compositions on the Piano first, and got feedback on them from Vasudevachar and other court musicians and shape his compositions. Click here to read some more about this “Gem among Kings”.
Another unique feature about his compositions is that he has composed only one kriti in one raga, thus using 94 ragas for the 94 kritis. He is probably the only composer who has done this. In this process, he has composed in very rare ragas resurrecting some ragas such as Poorna Lalita and Pratatpa Varali in which Tyagaraja had composed earlier.
Odeyar was a practitioner of Srividya worship, and he has used the signature as ‘Srividya’ in the compositions. He has also used his initiation name ‘chitprabhananda’ in some compositions. All his compositions are in Samskrta.
Chamundeshwari is the deity of Mysore from where Odeyars ruled. In a few hours, Goddess Chamundeshwari will be in a grand procession through the city. On this occasion, I think Jayachamarajendra Odeyar’s composition in Hindola raga – ‘Chintayami Jagadambam’ is the most appropriate composition to listen to, and to conclude this series “The Days of Navaratri”.
I consider myself fortunate to have written this series on this auspicious time of Devi Navaratri 2010 and to have been able to listen to some wonderful music in that process!
I wish this year’s Navaratri brings you the very best in your lives.
-neelanjana
Today is the ninth day of Navaratri – Mahanavami. I start with some of my translations of some popular samskrta shlokas.
ಮೈಬಣ್ಣ ಮಂಜುಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆಚಂದಿರರ ಬಿಳುಪು; ಬಿಳಿಯರಿವೆಯನುಟ್ಟು
ಕೈಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹೊಳೆವವೀಣೆಯ ಹಿಡಿದು ನಿಂದಿರುವೆ ಬೆಳ್ದಾವರೆಯಲಿ;
ತಾಯೆ! ಆ ಹರಿಹರಬೊಮ್ಮರೂ ಅನುದಿನವು ಪೂಜಿಸುತಲಿಹರು ನಿನ್ನನು!
ಕಾಯೆನ್ನ ಸರಸತಿಯೆ ಎನ್ನನೆಂದಿಗೂ ಬಿಡದೆ ತೊಲಗಿಸಿ ಆಲಸಿಕೆಯನ್ನು
ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ ಮೂಲ:
ಯಾ ಕುಂದೇಂದು ತುಷಾರಹಾರ ಧವಳಾ ಯಾ ಶುಭ್ರ ವಸ್ತ್ರಾವೃತಾ
ಯಾ ವೀಣಾವರದಂಡಮಂಡಿತ ಕರಾ ಯಾ ಶ್ವೇತಪದ್ಮಾಸನಾ|
ಯಾಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಚ್ಯುತ ಶಂಕರಪ್ರಭೃತಿಭಿಃ ದೇವೈಃ ಸದಾ ಪೂಜಿತಾ
ಸಾ ಮಾಂ ಪಾತು ಸರಸ್ವತೀ ಭಗವತೀ ನಿಶ್ಶೇಷ ಜಾಡ್ಯಾಪಹಾ||
ಸರಸತಿಯೆ ತಲೆಬಾಗುವೆನು ಮನದಾಸೆಗಳನೀವಳೆ
ಅರಿವಿನಾಸೆಯೆನಗಿರಲು ಹರಸು ಕೈಗೂಡುತಿರಲೆಂದು
ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ ಮೂಲ:
ಸರಸ್ವತೀ ನಮಸ್ತುಭ್ಯಂ ವರದೇ ಕಾಮರೂಪಿಣೀ|
ವಿದ್ಯಾರಂಭಂ ಕರಿಷ್ಯಾಮಿ ಸಿದ್ಧಿರ್ಭವತು ಮೇ ಸದಾ ||
ಶಾರದೆಯೆ ನಮಿಸುವೆನು ಕಾಶ್ಮೀರದಲಿ ನೆಲೆಸಿಹಳೆ
ಕೋರುವೆನು ಅನುದಿನವು ಅರಿವು ತಿಳಿವನು ನೀಡು
ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ ಮೂಲ:
ನಮಸ್ತೇ ಶಾರದಾ ದೇವೀ ಕಾಶ್ಮೀರ ಪುರವಾಸಿನೀ |
ತ್ವಾಮಹಂ ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥಯೇ ನಿತ್ಯಂ ವಿದ್ಯಾ ಬುದ್ಧಿಂ ಚ ದೇಹಿಮೇ||
On the ninth day, the performer elaborates the last Navartri Kriti of Swathi Tirunal – Pahi parvata nandini in Arabhi rAga.
In Karnataka, there is a tradition of doing Saraswati pooje on Mahanavami. So, it is a good time to listen to a nice composition about Saraswati.
Mysore Vasudevacharya was a very important composer of the 20th century. Coming in Tyagaraja’s school, he has composed more than 300 compositions – most of them in Samskrta and Telugu. He was born in Kanakapura, and spent most of his life as a palace musician at Mysore. He is also the guru of Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Odeyar. Just like Tyagaraja, his compositions have his own name – ‘Vasudeva’ as the signature. Since his compositions are very much on Tyagaraja’s lines, he was called ‘Abhinava Tyagaraja’. He has chronicled his experiences with other artists in his memoir in Kannada – “Naa Kanda Kalavidaru”.
The kriti for today is Mysore Vasudevacharya’s ‘Mamavatu Sri Saraswati’ in raga Hindola, which is quite popular.
Tomorrow is Vijayadashami – the day when Goddess Chamundeswari takes her stately ride on the royal elephant! I’ll conclude this series with a composition fit for that ocassion.
-neelanjana
Today is the eighth day of Navaratri. Durgashtami is celebrated on this day. The Swathi Tirunal composition that would be elaborated at Navaratri Mandapam is ‘Pahi janani santatam’ in raga Natakuranji. Listen to this composition sung by Amrutha Venkatesh, sung at the Navaratri Mandapam in 2008. Till quite recently, women did not perform in the Navaratri Mandapam concerts. Thankfully, that has changed now!
Here is another rendition of the same composition, by K V Narayanaswamy.
Thanks to my post yesterday, I am in a ‘ranjani’ mood! The raga ranjani is a contribution of Tyagaraja. It is one of the many ragas that sprang to life with his compositions. There are a number of ragas with end with the suffix ‘ranjani’. They are not related musically, though.
But how about making creating a garland of such ragas? The composition you are going to listen to is indeed a garland – a ragamalilke in four ragas – Ranjani, Sriranjani, Megharanjani and Janaranjani. Interestingly, each section also includes the name of the raga in the sahitya. This is a composition of Tanjavoor Sankara Iyer, and quite well known as ‘Ranjani Mala’ because that is what it is – A garland made of Ranjanis.
Tanjavoor Sankara Iyear, born in 1924, is a well known composer, and known as ‘Musician of musicians’. Ranjani Mala is one of his famous compositions.
If you can read Kannada, here is the composition in Kannada script. The song is in simple Samskrta, and there are nice chitte svaras after each raga.
ರಂಜನಿ ಮೃದು ಪಂಕಜ ಲೋಚನಿ
ಮಂಜು ಭಾಷಿಣಿ ಮನೋಲ್ಲಾಸಿನಿ ಮಂದಗಮನಿ ಶ್ರೀರಂಜನಿ
ಸಾಮಗಾನ ವಿನೋದಿನಿ ಶಶಾಂಕವದನಿ ಮೇಘರಂಜನಿ
ಪಾಮರಜನ ಪಾಲಿನಿ ಶೂಲಿನಿ ಪಾಪವಿಮೋಚನಿ ಜನರಂಜನಿ
Listen to Dr Nagavalli Nagaraj and Ranjani Nagaraj singing Ranjani Mala here:
Happy Durgashtami to all!
-neelanjana
Today is the seventh day of Navaratri. The composition of Swathi Tirunal that would be sung at Navaratri Mandapam is ’Janani pAhi sada’ in raaga Shuddha Saveri. The first six of the Navaratri Kritis of Swathi Tirunal are in praise of Saraswati, while the last three are in praise of Parvati. Listen to this composition by clicking here – sung by Sankaran Namboodiri.
In yesterday’s post where the composition of the day was a varna, I also wrote about different beginner lessons that a student of Karnataka sangeetha learns. Swarajatis part of such lessons. Today before presenting the ‘composition of the day’ I’d like to present you a swarajati which happens be a composition of my own 
. It is set in rAga ranjani and in Adi tALa.
Right now I have posted only the notation and hope to post a recording shortly.
For a PDF version, click here: A Swarajati in Ranjani.
Please note while the notation says “italics indicate mandra sthAyi” it should have read “lower case indicates mandra sthaAyi”.
Click here to listen to another swarajati I composed last year.
Since the swarajati is in Ranjani, I would like to choose another comspoition in Ranjani for listening on the seventh day of Navaratri. The sahitya is in Kannada, and written is by Kankadasa.
ವರವ ಕೊಡು ಎನಗೆ ವಾಗ್ದೇವಿ ನಿನ್ನ
ಚರಣ ಕಮಲಂಗಳ ದಯಮಾಡು ದೇವೀ || ಪಲ್ಲವಿ||
ಶಶಿಮುಖದ ನಸುನಗೆಯ ಬಾಲೇ!
ಎಸೆವ ಕರ್ಣದ ಮುತ್ತಿನ ಓಲೇ
ನಸುವ ಸುಪಲ್ಲ ಗುಣಶೀಲೇ ದೇವೀ
ಬಿಸಜಾಕ್ಷಿ ಎನ್ನ ಹೃದಯದಲಿ ನಿಂದು ||ಚರಣ ೧||
ರವಿ ಕೋಟಿ ತೇಜ ಪ್ರಕಾಶೇ ಸದಾ
ಕವಿ ಜನ ಹೃತ್ಕಮಲ ವಾಸೇ
ಅವಿರಳಪುರಿ ಕಾಗಿನೆಲೆಯಾದಿ ಕೇ-
ಶವನ ಸುತನಿಗೆ ಸನ್ನುತ ರಾಣಿವಾಸೇ || ಚರಣ ೨||
Like many of the haridasa compositions, the music for this has been set by a later day musician. I am not sure who set this devarnama to Ranjani raga. Listen to ‘Varava koDu enage vAgdevi’ here, sung by Nagavalli & Ranjani.
-neelanjana
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