On the way to work this morning, I was listening to a show on raaga kalyAni on Stanford Radio at 90.1FM (www.itsdiff.com) presented by Sri Ragavan Manian, an eminent musician of SFO bay area.
Kalyani, or yaman if you are from north of river Krishna, is a very captivating rAga indeed. I have rambled on it this rAga earlier, here and here. Today, it is the chance to write a bit more!
What if I were to be stranded in an island, and had only one rAga to listen to? Which rAga would I pick? Of course, kalyAni. Actually that reminds me of a comment made by one of the callers in the radio program this morning – “How can anyone in the right frame of mind NOT like kalyANi?” 😉 ?
Texual traditions place Kalyani to be an import from the music of the Middle-Eastern music. The word ‘yaman’ comes froman’ or ‘iman’ in Persian – which means “blessed”. When this rAga was adopted to Indian music, the name was indianized with the same meaning as ‘kalyaNa’, or ‘kalyANi’. This import should have happened sometime around 1400 AD (or before), since we have the name of the rAga mentioned in a composition of SripadarAya (1402 AD-1500AD).
Sometime back, the blog avadhi asked it’s readers to name their Top Ten kannada books. My list was published there too. Today’s show on rAga kalyAni made me list my top ten favourite compositions, set in kalyAni rAga.
Disclaimer: This order is not set in stone, and I will just say that it is today’s list; if I were to set to do the list another day I might come up with a slightly different order 🙂 🙂 🙂
For those interested, I am pointing to some of my favourite audio links as well.
1. nidhi chAlA sukhamA :
One of the Kalyani gems composed by Tyagaraja. It was supposedly composed in response to the invitation of Serfoji (king of Tanjavoor) to Tyagaraja to become a court musician. He asks “Does wealth give you bliss, or being close to Rama give you bliss”? You can listen to it here sung by S Sowmya.
2. EtAvunnarA:
Another grand kriti of Tyagaraja in kalyAni. Listen it here on the Veena, by Eemani Shankara Shastry.
3. sundari nI divya rUpamunu:
Yet another wonderful kriti of Tyagaraja in Kalyani. Tyagaraja visited Chennaipattanam (now Chennai) to visit one of his deciples. There he visited the temple at Tiruvottriyoor, on the northern outskirts of current day Chennai, and composed five compositions on the goddess Tripurasundari. These are termed as the “Tiruvottriyoor Pancharatna kritis”. This composition is one of those five. Listen to it sung by Dr M Balamuralikrishna , unquestionably my personal favourite.
4. nija dAsa varada:
No wonder the first three were compositions of Tyagaraja. He has composed more than 30 songs in this rAga. And for the same reason, it seems Patnam Subramaniyam Iyer, who comes in the lineage of Tyagaraja did not compose anything in Kalyani for a long time because he felt that Tyagaraja had almost exhausted all the possibilities in kalyAni rAga. But finally he came up with a his own grand composition, to match those of the saint, set slightly differently to showing his individuality. Listen to it on the nAdaswara by Namagiripettai Krishnan.
5. SringapurAdhIswari shAradE:
A very nice composition of Krishnamachar, popularly known as Padmacharan. Till recently I did not know this kriti – but once I listened to this the rasika forum (www.rasikas.org) (sung by M N Sriram, a fellow rasika on the forum) sometime back, this has become one of my favourites!
6. nannu brOvamani cheppavE :
I love the folksy touch given to this composition of Annamayya. Listen to this song here sung by Dr BMK .
7. kamalAmbAm bhajarE :
Here comes the composition of Muttuswami Dikshitar (MD). This majestic composition is one of the Kamalamba Navavarana kritis. Listen to this played by U Srinivas on the mandolin
8. bhaja rE chitta:
Another kriti of MD. Listen to this here sung by Sanjay Subramanian
9. himAdri sutE pAhimAm :
A composition of Shyama Shastri. One of the few compositions that has two different set of words – one in Samskrita and one in Telugu (birAna varAlicchi brOvumu) . Here is the samskrita version from a kannada movie, Hamsageethe, by Dr BMK
10. shivE pAhimAm ambike :
While I could not locate the audio for this kriti, I wanted to list it here because this was the first Kalyani kriti I became aware of! This is a kriti of Tyagaraja, on Dharmasamvardhini, the diety of Tiruvayyaru, the hometown of Tyagaraja.
I wish I could add more compositions, but ‘Top Ten’s are supposed to be what they mean – Right? So even though I don’t want to add these to the list, I will just mention few other must listens in this rAga – kAru vElpu of Tyagaraja, abhayAmbA jagadambA of MD, kELano hari tALano or Purandara dAsa sung beautifully by BMK for a kannada movie – gAnayOgi rAmanna ( Listen to it here) and the ThAya mAlika tillAna composed by Dr MBK come to mind immediately. The last one definitely merits a post on it’s own. May be some other day!
-neelanjana
9 comments
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ಮಾರ್ಚ್ 20, 2008 at 5:50 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
hpn
nice list!
You should write about this in Kannada! 🙂
@hari,
I will, sometime ! This write up was unplanned – Just came in after I listened to the program, and made my list as I was writing 🙂
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ಮಾರ್ಚ್ 20, 2008 at 10:12 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
neel3
I listen to music as a lay person. I like kalyaaNi / yaman. I love some film songs based on this raaga.
some of these are on shaam /evening and when I ride my scooter (on the highway) in the evening I unknowingly hum these songs…
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ಮಾರ್ಚ್ 21, 2008 at 4:36 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
Prasanna
Purandara Dasaru’s ‘Daya Mado Ranga’ is considered one of the finest compositions in Kalyani.
I am a little surprised that Tyagaraja’s ‘Vasudevayani’ (a composition from the opera Prahlada Bhakthi Vijayam) has not made your top ten list.
But again, as you have said, the candidates to make your list of ten can always be changed at a future date!
I have heard from people who adore Kalyani like you, say that the
‘Alapane’ that one should do for a sedate kruthi like ‘Nidhichala’ should vastly differ from the one that one should do for vivacious kruthis like ‘Vasudevayani’ and ‘Nijadasa’. Swaraprastharas also, likewise, might have to be different, I presume.
@prasanna,
Welcome to my page 🙂
Yes , The list could be quite dynamic – But at least half of those in the list would always be there 🙂
vAsudEvayani is indeed catchy – but IMO, among Tyagaraja’s compositions in Kalyani, it does not have the grandeur of nidhi chAlA sukhamA or the grace (I mean lAlitya) of sundari nI divya rUpamunu.
Among dEvaranAmas, nambi keTTavarillavO, anjikinyAtakayya, kallu sakkare koLLiro ( all these are pretty much the same maTTu), and dayamADo are excellent and have been rendered very elaborately.
Yes, a rendering definitely shines when the AlApane and swara prastAra are in line with the composition.
-neelanjana
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ಏಪ್ರಿಲ್ 2, 2008 at 4:15 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Murali Ravali « ಅಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆ
[…] that I am writing about this again! In an earlier post, I mentioned this composition and said it will need a post dedicated to itJ . So, I am not writing more now! I will just say, […]
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ಏಪ್ರಿಲ್ 15, 2008 at 4:48 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
Kansen
Yaman, Yaman-Kalyan….
In the early days of cassette recorders, i began taking a deliberate interest in hindustani to wean away from voracious reading habit (but failed, like the drunkard who wanting to give up drinking started yoga, but found himself drinking in sheershasana mode). I started recording radio programmes which were from 10 to 11 PM, ideal for a hindustani baithak.
one silent night, my elders had retired to bed and i was recording rag yaman by hangal mother and daughter duo – mother’s dominant rough male voice and daughter’s sweet melodious. “merA mana bAndha leno.. vilambit cheez saw me completely immersed in the gAyan. 25 minutes later when the drut cheez “AjA bajAye kAnA bAnsuri” began it was the height of ecstacy and i felt as though i was wandering in brindavan mathura gardens. my elder in the nearby bedroom came out from sleep, sat till the end of the baithak, and made me break the erase tab of the tape which is still there with us; but that day’s unique experience for the two of us could never be duplicated, proving that to have maximum impact, proper environment, silence, time of the day or night, proper mood of the listener, etc. also are essential.
Amazing that a mere recording could cast the magic of a live baithak.
Similar experience with Vilayat Khan’s Yaman on sitar, which every time I listen makes me feel like dancing.
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“Kalyani, or yaman if you are from north of river Krishna…..” I had thought it was Tungabhadra river in Harihar town, the border between the old districts of Chitradurga and Dharawad, though Gangubai’s biography reveals that it was Carnatic music which dominated the Hubli of her childhood and she had started learning Carnatic initially; so, river Krishna was true during her youth.
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“iman.. an import from …Persia”
One would have thought modern Islamism had banned music in the middle east; but, no. Vilayat’s son Shujaat Khan teamed up with Kurdish-Iranian Kamencheh player Kayhan Kalhor and together they played in The Rain, a 2003 live album which was nominated for the Grammy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazal_%28band%29
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ಸೆಪ್ಟೆಂಬರ್ 23, 2008 at 4:18 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
A Very Special Concert « ಅಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆ
[…] have written about Ragavan Manian before , more than once. If you already know that I am a die-hard fan of Dr Balamuralikrishna, you might think that it is […]
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ಮೇ 3, 2010 at 4:01 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Raga Sudharasa « ಅಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆ
[…] Kalyani -Top Ten […]
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ಜೂನ್ 12, 2012 at 5:41 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
Nada priya
To complete your list of top ten Kalyani raga audios…..here is Sive Pahimam sung by Madurai Somu
http://musicmazaa.com/carnatic/audiosongs/album/Madurai+Somu.html
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ಜೂನ್ 13, 2012 at 9:47 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
neelanjana
Thanks very much!
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