Tyagaraja Aradhane 2009

It has become customary to remember Tyagaraja on his Aradhana day, the day commemorating his passing away at the age of 80 in 1847. It was the fifth day of the dark half of the month Pushya. This is the day when huge crowds descend to Tiruvaiyyaru, to sing in front of the composer’s samadhi.

As a a lover of Karnataka sangeeta, I would not probably go even a single day without humming or listening to some composition of Tyagaraja. But the aaraadhane is sure a special day, and I hope to sit and sing at least a few compositions of the great composer on 15th January 2009.

In addition, I thought it would be a great time to translate one of his compositions. Since last year, I had translated mEru samAna in mAyAmALavagouLa, the 15th mELa rAga, I thought it was apt to translate a composition in chakravAka, the 16th mELa rAga, and … – well let me come clean 🙂 I chose it because it was easy to translate into kannaDa, and also because I could sing the song in the original meTTu without any hiccups! The translated version of mEru samAna made it’s way to a concert, so then I thought I should make a conscious effort to keep the sing-ability of the translation!

Here is the kriti , eTulA brOtuvO teliya. rAga chakravAka. miSra chApu tALa:

pallavi:

eTulA brOtuvO teliya EkAnta rAmayya ||

anupallavi:

kaTa kaTa nA caritamu karNa kaThOramayya || eTula brOtuvO teliya ||

caraNa:

paTTu goDDU rIti bhakShinchi tirugItI
puTTu lObhulanu poTTakai pogaDiti
duShTulatOgUDi duShkRityamA salipi
raTTu jEsina tyAgarAjuni dayatO || eTulA brOtuvO teliya ||

And here is it’s translation in kannaDa:

ರಾಗ: ಚಕ್ರವಾಕ ಮಿಶ್ರ ಚಾಪು ತಾಳ.

ಪಲ್ಲವಿ:

ಎಂತು ಪೊರೆವೆಯೋ ಅರಿಯೆ
ಏಕಾಂತ ರಾಮನೆ!

ಅನುಪಲ್ಲವಿ:

ಕಟಪಟೆಯಾ ಎನ್ನ ಚರಿತೆ
ಗಡುಸಹುದು ಕೇಳಲಿಕೆ || ಎಂತು ಪೊರೆವೆಯೋ ಅರಿಯೆ ||

ಚರಣ:

ಗೊಡ್ಡು ಹಸುವಿನಂತೆ ತಿನ್ನುತ್ತಾ ತಿರುಗಿದೆ
ಹುಟ್ಟು ಜಿಪುಣರನೇ ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಗಾಗಿ ಹೊಗಳಿದೆ
ದುಷ್ಟರ ಒಡಗೂಡಿ ಬಲು ಕೆಡುಕುಗಳ ಮಾಡಿ
ಕೆಟ್ಟು ಹೋಗಿಹ ತ್ಯಾಗರಾಜನಿಗೆ ದಯತೋರಿ || ಎಂತು ಪೊರೆವೆಯೋ ಅರಿಯೆ||

By the way, Tyagaraja was one of the very first composers to take a note of this rAga. Although vEgavAhini had a long history, its krama-sampoorNa counterpart chakravAka got its firm roots only because of compositions of Tyagaraja.

-neelanjana