The Seventh Day of Navaratri

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