Program Details:

-neelanjana

News channels have started filling in the news about the brand new Solar Eclipse in town.

This eclipse occuring on July 22nd could have been the  “Great Indian Eclipse” – due to the long time of totality (longest in 21st century, with 6+ minutes of totality – although this may not happen in India), had it not occured in the month of July, and  at the specific time of the day  it occurs.

Solar Eclipse of 1999; Image from Wikipedia

(Image taken from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_eclips_1999_4_NR.jpg )

It is monsoon season in India now, and the weather gods may not co-operate with skywatchers. And the eclipse occurs at sunrise, so the Sun is pretty low in the horizon when totality starts.

But whoever can catch it, be it in India, or China, would have their chance of their life time.

“This eclipse is a bad omen” – ” 3 eclipses in one month happened during Mahabharat war”, “The last time this eclipse occured was 360 years ago”, Not good for …. blah blah blah”…. – there is quite a lot of negative publicity in Indian media already.

How much of  this could be  truel? Hard to seperate wheat from the chaff.

I am surprised at how easy it is for the media to fool people. Again and Again they have done it. So predictably. Last year they reported  how rare it was to see two eclipses in a row. This year they might talk about how rare it is to see 3 eclipses in a row!

Here are some eclipse fun facts  (not in any specific order)

• Eclipses repeat  in about every half-year (called eclipse seasons)
• Each eclpse season lasts for about 40 days. If the Sun and the Moon are in the right places around the nodes (rahu & ketu) , and more importantly, if you are at the right location you might see an eclipse
• There can be a maximum of 7 eclipses occuring in a calendar year, but that’s kind of rare
• In each eclipse season – one, two or three eclipses can occur – 2 solar and one lunar, or 2 lunar and one solar
• All eclipses in an eclipse season may not be visible from the same place on the earth, but it is not all that rare to see two eclipses in the same season at a place. For example, this seasons 3 eclipses can be seen from some parts of Indonesia. . (Two of the lunar eclipses in this season are penumbral, and so there is nothing to see, really – That’s another matter )

So if you get an e-mail telling how rare this eclipse triad occuring on July 7th, July 22nd and August 6th is – please hit delete, and do not forward it to anyone!

-neelanjana

No!  This post is not about the famous story ರಂಗನ ಹಳ್ಳಿಯ ರಾಮ by Masti Venkatesha Ayyangar!  Masti is one of the finest short story writers Kannada has seen. May be I will talk about Masti some other time – but today, I will sing a totally different tune

Sometime ago, I was listening to a talk show on the radio, where Papanasam Ashok Ramani was talking about different composers from Tamizh Nadu.

Arunachala Kavi (Birth:1711AD), and his well-known  “En PallikonDIrayya”  was one of the compositions he spoke about.

Click here to listen to ‘yEn paLLikkonDeer ayya’ sung by N C Vasantakokilam  – On Sangeethapriya

Bird’s Eye View of Srirangam Temple (Courtesy: Google Maps)

Watch Neiveli Santhanagopalan singing  this composition:

Here is my translation (of the mOhana section) of the song in Kannada. My Tamizh vocabulary  is not in line for this  composition of 18th century, and so no wonder I had to take the help of the lyrics and meanings of this song posted on  www.karnatik.com to do this translation!

ಏಕೆ ನೀ ಪವಡಿಸಿದೆಯೋ ಶ್ರೀ ರಂಗನಾಥಾ
ಏಕೆ ನೀ ಪವಡಿಸಿಹೆಯೋ? || ಏಕೆ ನೀ ಪವಡಿಸಿಹೆಯೋ? ||

ಅರಳಿದ ಕಮಲದ ಕೊಳದ ಬದಿಯಲಿ
ಹರಿಯುವೆರಡು ಹೊಳೆಯ ನಡುವೆ ||ಏಕೆ ನೀ ಪವಡಿಸಿಹೆಯೋ? ||

ಕೌಶಿಕನ ಆಣತಿಯನಾಲಿಸಿದಕೋ? ಕಡು
ರಾಕ್ಷಸಿಯ ಅಂಬಿನಲಿ ಕೊಂದುದಕೋ?
ಈಶನ ಬಿಲ್ಲನು ಮುರಿದುದಕೋ?
ಪರಶುರಾಮನ ಗರುವವನಳಿಸಿದಕೋ? || ಏಕೆ ನೀ ಪವಡಿಸಿಹೆಯೋ? ||

ಜನಕ ಸುತೆಯೊಡನೆ ಕಾಡುದಾರಿಯ ಸವೆಸಿದಕೋ?
ದೋಷವಿರದ ಗುಹನೊಡನೆ ಗಂಗೆಯ ದಾಟಿದಕೋ?
ಚಿತ್ರಕೂಟ ಮಲೆಯಲಿ ನೆಲೆ ನಿಂದುದಕೋ? ಮಾರು
ವೇಷದ ಮಾರೀಚನ ಬೆನ್ನಟ್ಟಿದುದಕೋ? ||ಏಕೆ ನೀ ಪವಡಿಸಿಹೆಯೋ? ||

ಮಡದಿಯ ಎಲ್ಲೆಡೆಯೂ ಹುಡುಕಿದಕೋ? ಏಳು
ಗಿಡಗಳನೊಂದೇ ಬಾಣದಿ ಬೀಳಿಸಿದುದಕೊ?
ಕಡಲಿಗೆ ಸೇತುವೆ ಕಟ್ಟಿ ದಾಟಿದುದಕೋ? ಲಂಕಾ
ಕೆಡಹಿ ಲಂಕೆಯ ರಾವಣನ ಸದೆಬಡಿದುದಕೋ? || ಏಕೆ ನೀ ಪವಡಿಸಿಹೆಯೋ ||

(The song is about Sri Ranganatha in Srirangam  and it could as well apply to Ranagatha at Sriranga pattana – Both temples are located on islands in river Kaveri)

The moment I set up translating ‘En paLLikondeerayya’, I could not help noticing  the striking similarity with a song of Purandara Dasa (Birth – 1485 AD).

Vitthala of Pandharpur

(Image taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Syayambhuvithoba.jpg)

This song ponders on why Vitthala in Pandarapur, on the banks of river Bheema,  is left standing with his hands on his waist. He wonders, if it is becuase he is too tired after playing with friends; Or tired running around homes of gopikas to steal butter at their homes or is it due to the fatigue after killing wicked demons. The list goes on.

Listen to Vidyabhushana sing kaTiyalli karaviTTanu:

ಕಟಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕರವಿಟ್ಟನೊ ಪಂಢರಿರಾಯ ಕಟಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕರವಿಟ್ಟನೊ ||ಪಲ್ಲವಿ||

ಗೊಲ್ಲ ಬಾಲಕರೊಡಗೂಡಿ ತಾ ಬಂದು
ಗೊಲ್ಲತಿಯರ ಮನೆ ಕದ್ದು ಬೆಣ್ಣೆಯ ತಿಂದು
ಬಲ್ಲಿದ ತೃಣಾವರ್ತ ಮೊದಲಾದ ಅಸುರರ
ಮೆಲ್ಲನೆ ಕೊಂದಾಯಾಸದಿಂದಲೋ ?

ಮುದದಿಂದ ವ್ರಜದ ಹದಿನಾರು ಸಾವಿರ
ಸುದತಿಯರಾಳಿದ ಮದದಿಂದಲೊ
ಮದಗಜಗಮನೆಯರ ಮದದಂತಕ ಕೃಷ್ಣ
ಒದಗಿ ಮಾವನ ಕೊಂದ ಆಯಾಸದಿಂದಲೊ?

ರಾಜಸೂಯಯಾಗದಲ್ಲಿ ರಾಜೇಶ್ವರ
ರಾಜರು ಮೊದಲಾದ ಸುರರೆಲ್ಲರು
ಭೋಜನವನು ಮಾಡಿದೆಂಜಲು ಮೊದಲಾದ್ದು
ರಾಜೀವಾಕ್ಷನು ಎತ್ತಿದಾಯಾಸದಿಂದಲೋ ?

ಸುರಪ ತನಯಗೆ ಸಾರಥ್ಯವ ತಾ ಮಾಡಿ
ಭರದಿಂದ ಚಕ್ರವ ಹಿಡಿದುದರಿಂದಲೋ
ಪರಿಪರಿ ವಿಧದಿಂದ ಕುದುರೆಗಳ ತಾ ತೊಳೆದು
ಪರಿಪರಿ ಕೆಲಸದಿಂದಾಯಾಸದಿಂದಲೋ ?

ಪ್ರೇಮದಿಂದಲಿ ಬಂದ ಭಕ್ತರು ತನ್ನ ಚರಣ
ಕಮಲಯುಗ್ಮವ ಮುಟ್ಟಿ ಭಜಿಸುತಿರೆ
ಮಮತೆಯಿಂದಲಿ ಅವರ ಭವವ ಕಳೆವೆನೆಂದು
ಕಮಲನಾಭ ಶ್ರೀ ಪುರಂದರ ವಿಠಲನು ||

While Purandara dasa came in couple of centuries before Arunachala Kavi, here is another song which came in after Arunachala Kavi, but sharing the same theme.

Yes, I am refering to ‘ElAvatAramettitivo’  of  Tyagaraja (Birth- 1747 AD). In this composition, Tyagaraja wonders why Rama might have taken an incarnation, and took birth as a human.

Listen to Ariakudi Ramanuja I singing this composition on Music India Online:

Here is my attempt in translating  this song to Kannada:

ಏಕೆಂದವತಾರವನೆತ್ತಿದೆಯೋ?
ಏನದು ಕಾರಣವೋ? ರಾಮನೆಂ||ದೇಕವತಾರವನೆತ್ತಿದೆಯೋ?||

ಕಾಳಗವನು ಮಾಡಲಿಕೋ? ಅಯೋಧ್ಯಾ
ಪಾಲನವ ಮಾಡಲಿಕೋ? ರಾಘವ ನೀ ||ನೇತಕವತಾರವನೆತ್ತಿದೆಯೋ?||

ಯೋಗಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಕಾಣಿಸಲಿಕೋ? ಭವ
ರೋಗಗಳ ದೂಡಲಿಕೋ? ಶತ
ರಾಗ ರತ್ನ ಮಾಲಿಕೆಯ ರಚಿಸಿದ ತ್ಯಾಗ
ರಾಜನಿಗೆ ವರವೀಯಲಿಕೋ ನೀ || ನೇತಕವತಾರವನೆತ್ತಿದೆಯೋ?||

These three composers were separated in space, and time – but the commonality of the theme is definitely striking.

This post started off with a song on Ranga, and ended with a song on Rama – making the title quite apt What do you think?

-neelanjana

Exactly 25  miles long, that is. That is how far the summit of Mt Hamilton is from Downtown San Jose. But what makes this 25 miles really long is the change in elevation – from 85ft above sea level to 4209 ft above sea level.

I made this ‘long‘ trip couple of weeks ago. Sort of  funny, because Mt Hamilton and the domes on top are part of the horizon in my view every day for the last 10 years! So near, but so far! Here are some pictures from that drive.

The 4000+ ft change in elevation means there is no shortage of twists and turns and curves. The moment you go past one blind curve, you will face the next! Be ready for motion sickness!

Curves and Turns!

James Lick Observatory is located atop Mt Hamilton. This was the first mountaintop observatory ever built, around the end of 19th century.

An old picture of the observatory

When it was built, it had the world largest Refracting telescope (36″ inches) . This telescope  is still functioning, and being made good use of.

The 36 inch refractor

Now there are few more telescopes atop Mt Hamilton; A 120 inch reflector, a 36 inch reflector and a 100 inch Automatic Planet Finder -to name a few. These are a short walk away from the original observatory, but public access to these domes is limited.

Newer Domes

Mt Hamilton being one of the highest peaks around the south bay, there is an uninterrupted view in all directions.

The picture on the top of my blog page  with  a view of the Moon rising behind the observatory in Mt Hamilton is taken from – “Astronomy Picture of  the Day” ; courtesy NASA.

More information about Lick Observatory can be found here.

-neelanjana

Hoysalas were master temple builders. They have built temples all around in southern Karnataka. The temples at Belooru, Halebeedu and Somanathapura are very well known. You’ll find a wealth of information about Hoysala’s temple architecture on the wikipedia, here and here.

However, what is not so well known is that there are several temples where the temple architecture does not typically look like a Hoysala work, but the idols inside looks like a Hoysala work of art. The temples of Keshva at Kowshika, and at Haasana, Varadaraja at Kondajji are examples for such temples.

The temples do not have the stamp of typical Hoysala architectures, but the main idols do. Were the temples built later on to house original Hoysala images? May be yes. Folk tales also say (at least with respect to the temple at Kondajji), that the idol was buried under sand to protect it from invaders, and temples were built later on when the images were unearthed.

Kowshika is a village about 8 km away from the Haasana, in the heart of southern Karnataka. It has a temple of Lakshmi Keshava. The temple is very simple in structure. As per the information on www.karnatakatemples.com, it is built in the Vijaya Nagara style. You can see the front view of the temple at the top of this blog today. It is also available on here .

Here are few pictures from Kowshika.

Lord Lakshmi Keshava:

A close up – Who doesn’t fall for such a beautiful smile?

Kowshika village as seen from the temple entrance:

Utsavamoorti of Lakshmi keshava getting ready for Garudotsava:

Here is the main idol, decorated in flowers, for a special occasion :

(Picture courtesy: The first three are mine; The last two are by Dr Shreekanth Murthy)

Why am I writing about Kowshika of all places, when there are so many Hoysala temples?

Because it is my ancestral village, and this is the place which I wrote about in some of my earlier posts, here and here.

-neelanjana

No. This is not about Bollywood or Hollywood stars, but about two stars in my own life!

We have two stars right at home, because we named our kids after two bright stars in the sky – one, a bright blue-white star and the other, a bright orange-red star.

This was the conversation I overheard on the morning of Mothers Day, when the ’stars’ were wishing my wife.

Star 1 : “amma, The day I was born, I loved you!‘

Star 2 : “It’s supposed to be “From the day I was born”, and there is should be a comma after that, but that’s OK..“

Star 1 : “There is more to Mother’s Day than correcting people’s mistakes!”

How true! I wish a happy Mother’s Day to all mothers, a day belated.

On second thoughts, I think I am not late at all..

Because mothers indeed deserve every day of the year to be Mother’s Day!

-neelanjana

I knew I forgot something. How did I forget  4th of May happens to be Tyagaraja’s birthday? Stuff happens, but I guess it was somewhere in the back of my mind. Otherwise  I would not have remembered even now! Anyway, better late than never.

Any time  is a good time to listen to some nice compositions of good old Tyagaraja. So off we go.

First, a feast of Kalyani. In my opinion, Tyagaraja must have played an important role in making this ‘alien’ raaga into one of our own, by composing 30 compositions in it – giving it the same status as the other big two – Shankarabharana, and Todi. 

Instead of listening to the oft-repeated nidhi chAla sukhamA or E tAvunarA, here is another lesser known, but equally grand compositon – kAruvElpulu sung by Sri SRJ. I had written about this composition in another post earlier too.

Poor Venkatamakhi should eat his own words saying -”there are millions of rAgas like kalyAni, which are not fit for compositions such as geeta, thAya and prabandha” when he listens to this composition

Tyagaraja seems to have used dEshAdi tALa profusely. In my observation, most of his compositions in this tALa follow a general pattern. Pallavi mostly starts off the first part of madhya sthAyi, exploring parts of mandra sthAyi and madhya styAyi in different sangatis. Anupallavi typically goes from the middle of the madhya sthAyi, all the way to the middle reaches of tAra sthAyi. In many kritis, the landing in the anupallavi is on upper shadja. The charaNa comes back to madhyasthAyi, typically taking off from the madhyama, or panchama. I could give many examples, but I will limit it to three or four here.

First one is ‘atukArAdani balka’ in manOranjani, played on the flute by Sri Tejaswi Raghunath. The pallavi of the song takes off from the middle sa. Anupallavi starts with madhya sthAyi da, and goes all the way to tAra ma, and the charana takes off from madhya panchama.

Next is ‘Ora jUpu’ in kannaDa gouLa sung by Sri Sikkil Gurucharan. You can make similar inferences here too.

The next is ‘brova bhArama’ – another popular composition of this sort sung by Sri Vijaya Siva.

Finally, another such popular composition in a pratimadhyama rAga – ‘bA gAyenayya’ played on the flute by Sri VK Raman.

Why did Tyagaraja follow this pattern? I don’t know, but I find these compositions somewhat easier to learn. Was this his intent? Might be, may be not. I don’t know. But my guess is as good as any!

Tyagaraja passed away in his 80th year, and by known accounts, continued composing till his last days. And his spirit of exploring the unknown and new must have stayed with him till the very end.

Here is ‘Paramatumudu velige’ in Vagadheeshwari, which is one of his last compositions, and probably the first ever composition in this raga, sung by Dr Nagavalli Nagaraj.

Enjoy the clips! As I said, any day is a good day to remember Tyagaraja through his compositions. Isn’t it?

-neelanjana

Whoever named raaga Hamsadhwani probably did not pay attention to the facts that Swans do not have an attractive voice! Take a look at the following videos to hear how exactly swans sound! Not very melodious!

But one good thing about raga Hamsadhwani is that unlike many ragas, its history can be traced quite accurately.

Ramaswamy Dikshita (1735AD-1817AD), father of Muttuswamy Dikshita is credited with the creation of this pentatonic raaga. However, this may be partly true. The Ragalakshana appendix to Chaturdandi Prakashike mentions Hamsadwani. Although the main text of Chaturdandi was composed by Venkatamakhi (~1650 AD), the Ragalakshana appendix was added by is grand-nephew Muddu Venkatamuchi couple of generations after Venkatamakhi.  He describes Hamsadwhani as a pentatonic raga, born of Shankarabharana mEla omitting ma and da. (S R G P N S  – S N P G R S). The current form of Hamsadwani is exactly the same.

This brings the time when Hamsadhwani first appeared around the beginning of 18th century. It is likely that Ramaswamy Dikshita was one of the early composers who popularized it, and hence the credit that goes in his name.I wonder why it took as late as 18th century to come up with this very attractive pentatonic scale. However, once it became popular, there was no going back!

18th century composers Tyagaraja and Muttuswamy Dikshita, each comosed two compositions in this raga.  It can be safely said that the composition Vatapi Ganapatim Bhajesham of Muttuswamy Dikshita is the most famous composition in this raga. Listen to Dr M.Balamuralikrishna singing this compositon.

With this composition, Hamsadhwani raga became a natural associate of Ganapati, and there are a number of nice compositions in this raga with Ganapati as the theme.  Vandenishamaham of Mysore Vasudevacharya, Gam Ganapate of Muttaiyya Bhagavatar, Vara Vallabha Ramana of GNB, Gajavadana Beduve of Purandara Dasa – all these come to mind. Listen here to – Gam Ganapate of Muttaiah Bhagavatar – This is from a concert here in the bay area (Veena-Jyothi Chetan; Mridanga- Ramesh Srinivasan)

During the 20th century saw many raagas from Karnataka sangeetha were adapted to Hindustani. How could they leave out a very appealing raaga like Hamsadhwani?  Not only did they adapt the melody, but also the popular composition Vatapi Ganapatim Bhajeham!

Listen here to Rashid Khan, who sings a beautiful Alap followed by “laagi lagan”. You can’t miss the similarity to Vatapi Ganapatim Bhajeham.

For whatever reason, Hamsadhwani does not seem to have inspired kannada film music composers as much as some other raagas have. I can just think of a few Kannada film songs – ಇನ್ನು ಗ್ಯಾರಂಟಿ from ನಂಜುಂಡಿ ಕಲ್ಯಾಣ and   ಮೀನಾಕ್ಿ ನಿನ್ನ from ರಣಧೀರ. If you are aware of any other songs, post a comment.

-neelanjana

Many people in South India celebrate Yugadi on 14th of April every year. This includes districts from coastal Karnataka as well.

You may wonder  how this festival falls on the same day everyday? This is because it is a festival based purely on the solar calendar – instead of the luni-solar calendar which is used to calculate the date the dates for most other Indian festivals.

This is the day when the Sun enters mESha rAshi (Aries). But if you are used to read your predictions from the newspapers everyday, I’m sure you’d have noted they assign Aries to those who are born between March 21st to April 21st.

So where is the catch? Who is right?

Both , in their own ways.

The year used to be calculated from the Vernal Equinox. Back in that time when constellation boundaries were drawn, the Vernal Equinox also coincided with the time when Sun entered the boundary of Aries and hence the Zodiac begins with the constellation Aries. This point (where the ecliptic, and the celestial equator crossed each other was termed the “First point of Aries”, since it actually was close to the beginning of this constellation boundary. This was made the starting point (zero degrees) for all celestial calculations.

Due to precession, Vernal Equinox falls behind (in time) every year and now it occurs around the 20th/21st of March. The western astronomy found a way to get out of this problem by moving this reference point, and so the “First point of Aries” does not occur near the real boundary of the constellation Aries. However, it is still called by the same name, and causes some confusion. By doing this, the Vernal Equinox, always falls at the time when the Sun is at the “First point of Aries”.

Indian astronomy, on the other hand,  does not move the reference point for the calculation of festivals. Hence, the mESha sankramaNa is celebrated on the day Sun enters the real boundary of Aries,  and not when the Sun is at the “First point of Aries”. The equinox and the beginning of the year have been thus de-linked.

Here are couple of sky simulations showing the position of the Sun, around these days.

Around March 20th,2009 – Beginning of the ‘tropical’ year

Around March 20th,2009 - Near Vernal Equinox

Around April 13th, 2009 – Near the beginning of the traditional Indian solar year:

Solar position near the beginning of Indian solar new year

-neelanjana

The statue of Ugra Narasimha (Narasimha, the ferocious) in Hampe (or Hampi) was erected in the year 1528 AD. This was commissioned by Sri Krisnadeva Raya.

In the year 1565, after the war of  Talikote between Vijayanagara and combined force of Bahamani sultans, tragedy befell on this statue just like most of the monuments in Vijaya Nagara. Today the place goes by the name Hampe or Hampi.

During the 1980s, the Department of Archeology took to some restoration and reconstruction of the statue after excavations revealed many broken pieces of the statue around it.  It was also speculated that the statue depicted Lakshmi Narasimha, instead of Ugra Narasimha as it was believed earlier.

However, there was a court stay order on the restoration (if my memory serves me right), and Lakshmi did not come back  to take her place on Narasimha’s lap. So, to this day, he remains somewhat ‘ferocious’ Narasimha.

Here is a collage showing how the statue looked around 1900 AD, and how it looks today.

Left: Around year 1900 AD. Right: A century later

The picture on the left is taken from the book – “A Forgotten Empire – Vijayanagar” by Robert Sewell. The picture on the right is taken from a blogpost on Sampada, by Nagaraj.

-neelanjana