ದೀಪವು ನಿನ್ನದೆ, ಗಾಳಿಯು ನಿನ್ನದೆ

I still remember listening to the song “ಹತ್ತು ವರುಷದ ಹಿಂದೆ” (hattu varuShada hinde) decades ago, when I was in my elementary school. This is a bhAvagIte written by K.S.Narasimhaswamy. If I recall correctly, the AIR version was sung by Jayavanti Devi. Or it might have been H.R.Leelavati. I forget. My mother used to sing this song very well too. Even though she was partial towards singing classically tuned bhAvageethes, she sometimes sang songs falling into sugama sangeta genre too, and this was one of them. I came to learn about the book called “Maisooru mallige” by K S Narasimhaswamy from her.

When the cassette revolution started in the early 80’s, it gave a new life for kannaDa  sugama sangeetha, C Ashwath’s album Maisooru Mallige became one of my favorites. I believe this is one of the most highly successful albums in kannada sugama sangeetha, along with the likes of Nityotsava (ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ) and Bhava sangama (ಭಾವಸಂಗಮ). In my opinion Ashwath was in his best during this time.

If you have not listened to this collection, then you must 🙂

Songs from C Ashwath’s maisooru mallige

This online link does not have the song ತೌರ ಸುಖದೊಳಗೆನ್ನ (Toura sukhadoLagenna). Based on Sindhu bhairavi rAga, and sung very nicely by Ratnamala Prakash, (daughter of nonegerian musician Sri R K Srikanthan) I consider that one as the best song in the collection. Very apt music for the lyrics.

Sometime later, probably in mid 1990s a movie was made based on the poems of maisooru mallige. This may have been the first time a story was written with the framework provided by the songs. The movie went on to become commercially successful too. Nagabharana directed the movie. The songs were OK, but in my opinion they were definitely paler, because of choosing mainstream singers like SPB, and S Janaki instead of the original singers from the album for some of the songs. Many songs from the album were in the movie, and some other songs were introduced too.

Last year, during an interview on Udaya TV Nagini Bharana, wife of the director Nagabharana choose one of the songs from the movie Maisooru mallige- this was not part of the original Maisooru mallige album – ದೀಪವು ನಿನ್ನದೆ, ಗಾಳಿಯು ನಿನ್ನದೆ (dIpavu ninnade, gALiyu ninnade) as her favourite song among the songs of all the movies directed by her husband.  This was when I rellay noticed this song. The picturization is wonderful. Just taken with the light of a ದೀಪ, it provides a very nice imagery of the lyrics.

Here is the text of the song:

ದೀಪವು ನಿನ್ನದೆ ಗಾಳಿಯು ನಿನ್ನದೆ ಆರದಿರಲಿ ಬೆಳಕು
ಕಡಲು ನಿನ್ನದೆ ಹಡಗು ನಿನ್ನದೆ, ಮುಳುಗದಿರಲಿ ಬದುಕು

ಬೆಟ್ಟವು ನಿನ್ನದೆ, ಬಯಲು ನಿನ್ನದೆ, ಹಬ್ಬಿ ನಗಲಿ ಪ್ರೀತಿ
ನೆಳಲೋ ಬಿಸಿಲೋ ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ನಿನ್ನದೆ ಇರಲಿ ಏಕರೀತಿ

ಆಗೂಂದು ಸಿಡಿಲು, ಈಗೊಂದು ಮುಗಿಲು ನಿನಗೆ ಅಲಂಕಾರ
ಅಲ್ಲೊಂದು ಹಕ್ಕಿ, ಇಲ್ಲೊಂದು ಮುಗುಳು, ನಿನಗೆ ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ

ಅಲ್ಲಿ ರಣದುಂದುಭಿ, ಇಲ್ಲೊಂದು ವೀಣೆ, ನಿನ್ನ ಪ್ರತಿಧ್ವನಿ
ಆ ಮಹಾಕಾವ್ಯ, ಈ ಭಾವಗೀತೆ ನಿನ್ನ ಪದಧ್ವನಿ

You can listen to the song here:

ದೀಪವು ನಿನ್ನದೆ – Listen here

Or here is an alternate link, if the above does not work:

dIpavu ninnade – On Music India Online

In the  first link above, there is the filmi version sung by S Janaki, and another, more elaborate version sung by Ratnamala Prakash on a stage show – The background music is much better in the stage show version. You can hear the flautist creating magic here!

For those of you who may not understand kannDa, here is a gist of the poem:

The candle is yours;
The wind, yours too;
Don’t blow out the light.
The ocean is yours;
The ship is yours too;
Pray, don’t wreck it.

The hills are yours;
The plains are yours.
Let love blossom everywhere!
The sunny days are yours;
The cloudy days are yours.
Measure them alike.

The great thunder,
The dark clouds
Dress you up in the sky!
The chirping birds,
The smiling faces
All salute thee.

Pounding War Drums
The gentle-sounding lutes
They are both your echo.
The great epic poems
This simple song
They are all your words.

The ocean is yours;
The ship, yours too;
Pray, don’t wreck it.
The candle is yours;
The wind is yours;
Don’t blow out the light.

This song was used in the movie “Maisoora Mallige” – Watch it here.

Now coming to my favorite part 🙂 This song is based on a rAga from Indian classical music. In karnATaka sangIta, this rAga  is called bhOgavasanta (ಭೋಗವಸಂತ). It is not a very popular or well known rAga. This may be because it treads the territory of other well-known rAgas such as kAmavardhini. In fact, there were no formal compositions in this rAga until Jayachamaraja Odeyar, the last king of Maisooru,  composed a kriti sometime during the 1940s.

You can listen to this kriti, in the voice of M S Sheela. This is a recording from a program on Jayachamarajendra Odeyar’s compositions on All India Radio.

Before singing the song, she describes the notes that are used in this melody. This is a shADava rAga, meaning a rAga that uses six of the seven notes.

M.S.Sheela sings amba srI rAja rAjEshwari

You may have noticed that ambA ShrI and dIpavu ninnadu seem very different, even though  I say they are basically the same melody. That is because the song dIpavu ninnade, takes more from the form in the hindUstAni counterpart of this melody.

In hindustAni music, this rAga called din-ki-pooriya. The name suggests it is a rAga to be sung during daylight hours, and is a relative of rAga pooriya. Although not very well known,  din-ki-pooriya stands much better off than bhOgavasanta in terms of the number of recordings available. Pandit Jasraj and his shishyas like Sanjeev have popularised this rAga quite a bit.

Here you can listen to a very nice rendition of rAga din-ki-pooria from Sandeep Ranade, an exponent of mEwAti  gharAna. See if you can spot elements of the song dIpavu ninnade in here.

Sandeep Ranade sings din-ki-pooriya

This din-ki-pooriya recording is part of a rAga mAlika begins with din-ki-pooria and then moves on to lalit, and  then toother rAgas, each time differing by one-note-hamming distance.  I highly recommend you to listen to the entire recording 🙂  of Sandeep Ranade’s raga-morphing rAgamAlike here:

http://www.sandeepranade.com/html/ClassicalSinging/raga-morphing.htm

There  are many more such wonderful recordings for music lovers available on the artists website (www.sandeepranade.com).

As I was writing the lines from deepavu ninnade, I remembered two other haridasa compositions. But let me blabber about that some other time!

Happy listening.

-neelanjana

ಎರಡು ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ, ಒಂದು ಉತ್ತರ:

ಗುಂಡ ಒಂದು ಸಂಗೀತ ಕಚೇರಿಗೆ ಹೋದ; ಅವನಿಗೆ ಒಂದು ಹಾಡು ಬಹಳ ಹಿಡಿಸಿಬಿಡ್ತು. ಏನೇ ಆಗ್ಲಿ, ಅದರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳ್ಕೋಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ಕಚೇರಿ ಮುಗಿದ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಾಡುಗಾರರನ್ನ ಹೋಗಿ ಕೇಳಿದ: ಸ್ವಾಮೀ, ಇಂತ ಹಾಡು ನೀವು ಹೇಳಿದ್ರಲ್ಲ, ಅದು ಯಾವ ರಾಗ, ಯಾವ ಭಾಷೆಯದು ಅಂತ?

ಹಾಡುಗಾರರು ಒಂದೇ ಮಾತಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಉತ್ತರ ಹೇಳಿದರು.

ಕನ್ನಡ

…………………

ಹೌದು: ಕನ್ನಡ ಒಂದಕ್ಕೇ, ಭಾಷೆ, ನಾಡು ಮತ್ತು ರಾಗ – ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಆಗುವ ಸಾಧ್ಯತೆ ಇರೋದು! ಭಾರತೀಯ ಸಂಗೀತದಲ್ಲಿ ಭೌಗೋಳಿಕವಾಗಿ ಬಂದಿರುವ ಹಲವು ಹೆಸರುಗಳಿವೆ. ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ, ಗುಜರಾತ್, ಮತ್ತು ಬಂಗಾಳ ಈ ಪ್ರದೇಶಗಳ ಮೇಲಿನ ಹೆಸರುಗಳು ಹೆಚ್ಚು.

ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಸಂಗೀತದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಂಧುಕನ್ನಡ, ಕನ್ನಡಬಂಗಾಳ, ಕನ್ನಡಗೌಳ, ಕಾನಡಾ ಮೊದಲಾದ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ದೇಶಸೂಚಿ ರಾಗಗಳಿವೆ. ಇವಲ್ಲದೇ ಬರೀ ಕನ್ನಡ ಎಂಬ ಹೆಸರಿನ ರಾಗವೂ ಬಹಳ ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧವೇ ಆಗಿದೆ.

-ನೀಲಾಂಜನ

ದಯ ತೋರಲಿದುವೆ ವೇಳೆಯೊ, ದಾಶರಥಿ!

With the Rama sethu controversy raging, India is literally burning. Two unlucky lives were burnt in a bus that was torched by some hooligans near Bengalooru. I think this is time for Lord Rama, wherever he is, to enlighten such people the futility of such deeds. I can only say “ದಯ ತೋರಲಿದುವೆ ವೇಳೆಯೊ, ದಾಶರಥಿ!”

Not very surprisingly, I am reminded of composer Tyagaraja at this time, because the line “ದಯ ತೋರಲಿದುವೆ ವೇಳೆಯೊ, ದಾಶರಥಿ” – meaning “It is time that you showed mercy, Oh Rama” is the pallavi (refrain) of one of Tyagaraja’s songs. Tyagaraja was a great devotee of Rama. A large number of his compositions are about Lord Rama.

It is said that Rama appeared in Tyagaraja’s dream when Tyagaraja was about 80 years of age, and told him that he will attain mukti in ten days time. Now, many of such incidences have been interpretations from the compositions we have. Four of Tyagaraja’s about eight-hundred kritis have been attributed to the last 10 days of his life. In giripainelakonna (ಗಿರಿಪೈನೆಲಕೊನ್ನ) in rAga sahAna, he describes his dream. One of the other three kritis he composed during the last 10 days is dayajUchuTakidi vELarA (ದಯ ಜೂಚುಟಕಿದಿ ವೇಳರಾ).

It is really surprising to see his creative genius at this ripe age.  He chooses a brand new rAga, (his own innovation), unknown till then  called gAnavAridhi (ಗಾನವಾರಿಧಿ) for this composition. In fact, 3 of the 4 krithis composed during the last fortnight of his life, are new melodies ( ವಾಗಧೀಶ್ವರಿ, ಗಾನವಾರಿಧಿ and ಮನೋಹರಿ).

Here is the kriti dayajUchuTakidi vELara.

daya jUchuTakidi vELarA dAsharathE!  ||pallavi||

bhava vAraNa mRgEndra jalajOd-
bhavArti haraNa manjulAkAra nanu ||anupallavi||

munu nIvAnaticcina
panulAsagoni nE
manasAraga nidAnamuga sali-
pi nAnu vara tyAgarAjApta nanu ||charaNa||

This song is more like a monologue between the saint-composer addressed to Rama. Here is my attempt to translate the composition to kannaDa. If there is something good in it, it belongs to Tyagaraja; All shortcomings, obviously, belong to my 45 nm deep skills ;-).

ದಯ ತೋರಲಿದುವೆ ವೇಳೆಯು, ದಾಶರಥೀ ||

ಜಗದ ಬವಣೆಯೆಂಬಾನೆಯನು,
ಸಿಂಗದೊಲು ನೀನಳಿಸುವೆ
ಜಗದಯ್ಯ ಆ ಬೊಮ್ಮನಿಗು
ಸೊಗಸುಗಾರ ನೀ ತೊಡಕಿಳಿಸಿದೆ || ದಯ ತೋರಲಿದುವೆ ವೇಳೆಯು! ||

ಮುನ್ನ ನೀ ಕೊಟ್ಟಾಣತಿಯನು
ಮನಸಾರೆ ನಿದಾನದಲಿ ನಾ
ಸನ್ನಡತೆಯಲಿ ಪಾಲಿಸಿಹೆ! ಈ
ಗೆನ್ನ ಬಳಿಬಂದೀ ತ್ಯಾಗರಾಜನಲಿ || ದಯ ತೋರಲಿದುವೆ ವೇಳೆಯು! ||

Tyagaraja attained samadhi on Pusha bahuLa panchami in the year 1747,  ten days after his dream. A brindavana stands at Tiruvaiyyaru on the left bank of Kaveri, to mark this spot.  

Let Dasharathi save everyone in distress, and offer peace to the grieving families.

Sarve janAh sukhinO bhavantu!

-neelAnjana

Snake it was, Oh damsel!

Couple of days ago I wrote about hAvu tuLidene: a pada of ShishunALa Sharrief, sung beautifully by Sulochana – Music by C. Aswath.

ಹಾವು ತುಳಿದೇನೆ ಮಾನಿನಿ
ಹಾವು ತುಳಿದೇನೆ

ಹಾವು ತುಳಿದು ಹಾರಿ ನಿಂತೆ
ಜೀವ ಕಳವಳಿಸಿತೇ ಗೆಳತಿ!
ದೇಹ ತ್ರಯದ ಸ್ಮೃತಿಯು ತಪ್ಪಿ
ದೇವಾ ನೀನೆ ಗತಿಯು ಎನ್ನುತ

ಹರಿಗೆ ಹಾಸಿಗೆಯಾದ ಹಾವು
ಹರನ ತೋಳಿನೊಳಿರುವ ಹಾವು
ಧರೆಯ ಹೊತ್ತು ಮೆರೆವ ಹಾವಿನ
ಶಿರವ ಮೆಟ್ಟಿದೆ ಶಿವನ ದಯದಿ

ಬೋದಾನಂದವಾಗಿ ಬರಲು
ಹಾದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮಲಗಿ ಇರಲು
ಪಾದದಿಂದ ಪೊಡವಿಗೊತ್ತಿ
ನಾದಗೊಳಿಸಿತು ನಿಜದಿ ನೋಡೆ

ಸತ್ಯ ಶಿಶುವಿನಾಳಧೀಶನ
ನಿತ್ಯಸೇವಿಸುವಂಥ ಮಾನಿಗೆ
ಕತ್ತಲಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದು ಕಾಲಿಗೆ
ಸುತ್ತಿಕೊಂಡಿತು ಸಣ್ಣ ನಾಗರ || ಹಾವು ತುಳಿದೇನೆ ||

I refrained from translating it because  of two reasons : one – many of Sharrief’s poems are not very  easy to interepret, and two – (and more important) – you can measure my poetic skills in English in the same range as the  45 – 65 nanometer chips I work on.

As luck would have it, I found the book of Shishunala Sharief’s songs compiled by N S Lakshminarayana Bhatta in my collection. When I looked for this song, there was one more stanza, which is missing in sulOchana’s rendition.

Here is the missing stanza:

ಕಾರಡಗಿ ಊರ ಹೊರಗೆ
ದಾರಿಗಟ್ಟಿ ತರುಬಿದಂಥ
ಘೋರ ತರದ ಉರಗ ಅದರ
ಕ್ವಾರಿ ಹಲ್ಲು ಮುರಿವ ತೆರದಿ

There was also a note about this song in the preface. It said that the song was composed, and describes the dilemma  Sharief went through when he met a woman who desired him on a dark evening, outside Karadagi village (where he was a school teacher) as he was walking to ShishunaLa.. But Sharief being what he was, crushed the desire as he describes in the song as “stamping the snake”.

Even though I had understood the symbolism here before, this additional reference definitely improved my understanding.

So here it goes – My attempt at a translation with my 45 nm poetic skills!

Snake it was, Oh damsel!
I did step on a snake!

I stepped on the serpent
Jumping in turmoil
I forgot the three worlds
Calling out my saviour || Snake, it was ||

Snake on which Hari sleeps
Snake adorning Hara’s arms
Snake that lifts mother Earth
By grace of Shiva,I crushed it! || Snake, it was ||

While I walked blissfully,
There it lay on my path
With my foot, I did subdue
sonorously, baring the truth ||Snake, it was||

Desire, trying to befall
The servant of ShishnALa’s* Lord
In the dark, thus aspiring
To wrap around my leg  || snake it was||

*shishunALA = shishuvina hALa -> The village where Sharrief lived

-neelanjana

ಹಾವು ತುಳಿದೇನೆ, ಮಾನಿನಿ

This afternoon when I went out to run some errands, I had a glimpse of Lord Shiva walking on two feet :). Just kidding. But I did see a guy with a snake around his neck, walking his toddler in a stroller. The snake was a python, and not a cobra as always pictured in Shiva’s portraits. However, ನಾಗ (nAga) is a very overloaded word. So, nAga can mean a snake(generic), a cobra (specific), an elephant among a number things. In fact, most samskRuta words are quite overloaded. So, someone with a python around his neck qualifies to be called be ನಾಗಾಭರಣ (nAgAbharaNa)! So much for my sighting of Lord Shiva.

But this sighting made me recollect a very popular kannada song. The songs written by a muslim saint of the 19th century, shisunALa sharief, were brought back the circulation by N S Lakshminarayana Bhatta, a noted Kannada poet of our times. C Ashwath, who is a contemporary music director has made Sharief’s songs extremely popular all over Karnataka.

The song is hAvu tuLidEne, mAnini hAvu tuLidEne ( I stepped on a snake, oh damsel, I stepped on a snake). 

You can listen to the song on the following page.

http://www.udbhava.com/udbhava/songs.jsp?fav_id=1981&user=7528

(Haava Tulidena)

ಹಾವು ತುಳಿದೇನೆ ಮಾನಿನಿ
ಹಾವು ತುಳಿದೇನೆ

ಹಾವು ತುಳಿದು ಹಾರಿ ನಿಂತೆ
ಜೀವ ಕಳವಳಿಸಿತೇ ಗೆಳತಿ!
ದೇಹ ತ್ರಯದ ಸ್ಮೃತಿಯು ತಪ್ಪಿ
ದೇವಾ ನೀನೆ ಗತಿಯು ಎನ್ನುತ

ಹರಿಗೆ ಹಾಸಿಗೆಯಾದ ಹಾವು
ಹರನ ತೋಳಿನೊಳಿರುವ ಹಾವು
ಧರೆಯ ಹೊತ್ತು ಮೆರೆವ ಹಾವಿನ
ಶಿರವ ಮೆಟ್ಟಿದೆ ಶಿವನ ದಯದಿ

ಬೋದಾನಂದವಾಗಿ ಬರಲು
ಹಾದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮಲಗಿ ಇರಲು
ಪಾದದಿಂದ ಪೊಡವಿಗೊತ್ತಿ
ನಾದಗೊಳಿಸಿತು ನಿಜದಿ ನೋಡೆ

ಸತ್ಯ ಶಿಶುವಿನಾಳಧೀಶನ
ನಿತ್ಯಸೇವಿಸುವಂಥ ಮಾನಿಗೆ
ಕತ್ತಲಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದು ಕಾಲಿಗೆ
ಸುತ್ತಿಕೊಂಡಿತು ಸಣ್ಣ ನಾಗರ

Sharief is a mystic poet, and there is some kind of halo or haziness about his songs. They are not as easy to interpret like (most of) the works of haridAsas of Karnataka. So I would definitely not make an attempt to translate it here 😦 , at least for now!

One thing that makes it a favourite song of mine is because it’s classical music base. Most of Sharief’s songs have been tuned in a semi-folk style. This song although has a folkish face, underneath is set in a  very classical rAga of Karnataka Sangeetha – yadukula kAmbhOji, and mishra chApu tALa. This is not an anamoly as it might seem, because indeed the rAga yadukula kAmbhOji has folk roots . This rAga apparently has come from tunes sung by a tribal group called ‘erakala’.  Since the songs sung by these tribal singers resembled the ever popular kAmbhOji rAga, but yet different it was called erakala kAmbhOji – and over the centuries the rAga was ‘civilized’ if you want to call it that way 😉 to yadukula kAmbhOji.

To compare and contrast, here are couple of compositions in the same rAga:

listen to heccharikagA rArA srI rAmachandra  of tyAgarAja sung by M S Subbulakshmi.

listen to ikShvAku kulatilaka  of bhadrAchala rAmadAda, sung by Balamuralikrishna.

You can notice the folkish tinge even in the composition of bhadrAchala rAmadAsa too.

So much for sighting of nAgAbharaNa 🙂

-neelanjana