Following up on Big six: The gana ragams

kamalamba · Post by **kamalamba** » 27 Feb 2009, 06:48

Following up on Vijay's post on the big 6, which was indeed very interesting, I wondered if we can do a similar exercise on the 5 Gana Ragas.

The question being, are there compositions as "complete and substantive" as Thyagaraja Swami's Pancharatna kritis in NAttai, Gowla, Arabhi, VarAli and Sri.

Regards

ksrimech · Post by **ksrimech** » 27 Feb 2009, 09:58

IMHO, the following compositions give a good map of the rAga.
nATTai: bhajanAmRta paramAnandA (UttukkADu vEnkaTasubrahmaNyayyar), jaya jayA jaya jAnaki (purandaradAsaru - MLV (????))
goULa: agaNita mahimAdbhuta lIla (UttukkADu vEnkaTasubrahmaNyayyar)
ArabhI: narasimhA mAmava (svAti tirunAL mahArAjA - semmanguDi SrInivAsayyar), nAda sudArasam bilanu (tyAgarAjasvAmi)
varALi: SESachalanAyakam (muttusvAmi dIkSitar), yETi janmamidi (tyAgarAjasvAmi), vanajAkSi (aTa tALa varNam - pUchi SrInivAsayyangAr)
SrI: vandE vAsudEvam (annamAchAryA - nEdunUri kRSNamUrti), Adi varAhana (purandaradAsaru - TMK (???))

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 27 Feb 2009, 10:22

My picks would be:

nATTai: pavanAtmaja Agaccha, ninnE bhajana, sarasIruhAsana priyE
gauLa: tyAgarAja pAlayAshu mAm
Arabhi: O rAjIvAksha, nA moralanu vina [Tyagaraja], mArakOTi kOTi lAvaNya mAm pAlaya [Dikshitar]
varALi: marakatamaNi varNA, kA vA vA
shri: tyAgarAja mahadhvajArOha, nAmakusumamulaCE, shri mUlAdhAra, shri varalakshmi, shri kAmAkshi [svarajati - Spencer Venugopal]

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 27 Feb 2009, 10:52

Nattai - Ninne BHajana (Thyagaraja) - Hyderabad Brothers
Gowla - Thyagaraja (MD) - Sanjay
Arabhi - Almost all of Thyagaraja's songs - but fav Nada Sudha Rasa (Voleti)
Varali - Too many to list. Maragadha Manivarna, the Pancharatna, Ka Va Va, Seshachala Nayakam and Mamava Meenakshi but Kamakshi (SS) is my fav (Pantula Rama)
Sree - Karunajuda Ninnu (SS) - Pantula Rama

ramakriya · Post by **ramakriya** » 27 Feb 2009, 11:08

I assume I can't list the panchartna's themselves ..

nATa : ninnE bhajana (T), pavanATmajAgaccha (MD)
gouLa : Personally don't know many kritis, except may be praNamAmyaham - but that does not fall in the big league
<hhe hhe totally forgot Sri mahAgaNapatim

>
Arabhi: nAmorAlanu (T), ADidanO ranga (PD)
varALi: shEShAchala nAyakam (MD), mAmava mInAkShI (MD)
SrI: ShrI varalakshmI (MD)

gmohan · Post by **gmohan** » 27 Feb 2009, 11:24

NATTai - Ninne BHajana
GauLa - TyAgarAja pAlayAshu MAm
Arabhi - O RAjIvAksha
VarALi - kA vA vA (MMI)
Shri - nAmakusumamulaCE(MDR)

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 27 Feb 2009, 11:32

not counting the pancharatnams..

nATTai - pAhimAm srI rAjEsvari, ninnE bhajana

gauLa - srI mahA gaNapati

Arabhi - mAra kOTi kOTi lAvaNyAya, O rAjIvAksha

varALi - Eti janma midi hA

srI rAgam - tyAgarAja mahA dvajArOhaNA, vanajAsana

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 27 Feb 2009, 11:33

Funny how the little heard Ninne Bhajane is on so many lists! Anyway I did not know that Pancharatnas were not to be included. I am editing my post above and also including favourite renditions

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 27 Feb 2009, 11:36

I really must hear tyagaraja maha dvajarohana

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 27 Feb 2009, 12:39

Nattai: Ninne Bhajana (MDR singing the pallavi's extended R3 in his resonant voice in my head right now)
Gowlai: Thyagaraja Palayashu
Arabhi: Nada Sudha (SSI)
Varali: Eti Janma
Sri: Nama Kusumamula

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 27 Feb 2009, 13:07

Naattai : Whatever you say,Jagadanandakaaraka and nothing else!!
Gowlai : Thirupppavai (Vaiyathu Vazhveer)
Arabhi: Maragatha mani maya chela(OVS)
Varali: Obviously Kanakanaruchira. I don't find that feel in any other song! Sorry!!
Sri: Sri Kamalambike

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 27 Feb 2009, 21:11

varALi has many elaborate compositions. Arabhi too I suppose. Thanks to Dikshithar, I think Sri also.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 27 Feb 2009, 22:01

there is this varNam 'srI nAtA' by vINai kuppaiyyar in nATTai, set to aTa tALam. A brilliant varNam it is. i somehow missed it while i had put the list there..

sadly, nobody sings/plays it...

ramakriya · Post by **ramakriya** » 27 Feb 2009, 22:18

vijay wrote:Funny how the little heard Ninne Bhajane is on so many lists! Anyway I did not know that Pancharatnas were not to be included. I am editing my post above and also including favourite renditions

Similar to kAruvelplu in kalyAni

I suppose - For me, it is simply the best composition in nATa after JagadAnandakAraka.

ksrimech · Post by **ksrimech** » 28 Feb 2009, 02:15

Prashant, marakata maNi varNa is also a beautiful kriti in vArALi. I completely forgot it. Thanks for the "subtle" remainder. I'm not a big fan of kA vA vA. But its a beautiful kriti. I want to hear a neraval at dEvAdi dEvanE vA paradEvi maDiyil amarum guhanE vA. IMHO, it will ve very nice.

perarulalan · Post by **perarulalan** » 28 Feb 2009, 10:02

ksrimech wrote: I want to hear a neraval at dEvAdi dEvanE vA paradEvi maDiyil amarum guhanE vA. IMHO, it will ve very nice.

I heard Ms. Gayathri Satya (a member here with id sahitya) sing neraval at dEvAdi dEvan maghanE vA in her concert for Karthik Fine Arts during 2008 season! She did good justice too

keerthi · Post by **keerthi** » 28 Feb 2009, 11:24

The ghana rAga varnam of Kuppayyar has excellent passages in nAta,gaula and srI. the 14 rAgamalika of dikshitar has good srI, nAta, arabhi and excelllent gaula.

nA moralanu is the best Arabhi I have heard. SrISarasvathi is a neat representation as well.

Itarulaku ninu neruga in sree(Annamacharya) and MulAdhArachakra are good treatments. vanajAsana is excellent.

kAmajanaka [S.tirunAl] and the Nilotpalamba song in gaula are good, but don't hold a candle to dudukugala..

SheSHAchalanAyakam, karunajoodu[S.Shastri] and Azhi-mazhai in varali... kAvAvA is really good.

Poorva · Post by **Poorva** » 05 Mar 2009, 02:50

Hi all

Nice forum. Lot to know about carnatic. I need a help from you all. We all know that Saint Thiagaraja has composed 108 Rama Namavalis from his first Pancharatna Kriti Jagadanandakara in Nattai.

Does any body has that namavalis. I came to know that there are different versions. Please do provide me with that namavalis.

It will be very helpful and grateful to you all.

Thanks in advance.

Poorva.

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 05 Mar 2009, 15:26

rbharath wrote:there is this varNam 'srI nAtA' by vINai kuppaiyyar in nATTai, set to aTa tALam. A brilliant varNam it is. i somehow missed it while i had put the list there..

sadly, nobody sings/plays it...

Isn't this the one that has 7 swara passages in the charaNam? Its a mammoth and great composition - it must be very demanding to sing!

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 05 Mar 2009, 16:55

vijay wrote:I really must hear tyagaraja maha dvajarohana

Yes you must. It is nothing short of monumental...

ignoramus · Post by **ignoramus** » 05 Mar 2009, 20:27

hi Prashant

is there a known llink for tyagaraja maha dvajarohana which you point us to>? I echo vijay's comment, need to hear that.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 06 Mar 2009, 13:06

prashant wrote:
rbharath wrote:there is this varNam 'srI nAtA' by vINai kuppaiyyar in nATTai, set to aTa tALam. A brilliant varNam it is. i somehow missed it while i had put the list there..

sadly, nobody sings/plays it...
Isn't this the one that has 7 swara passages in the charaNam? Its a mammoth and great composition - it must be very demanding to sing!

defly!
totally!
very very demanding...

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 06 Mar 2009, 13:12

prashant wrote:
vijay wrote:I really must hear tyagaraja maha dvajarohana
Yes you must. It is nothing short of monumental...

vijay, ignormaus...
yes.. please do listen to it. it is a kriti which everybody SHOULD listen to. preferable version being those by Vedavalli or Kalpkam Swaminathan or RK Shriram Kumar..

I still remember Smt. Vedavalli explaining its meaning at a lec-dem. It outlines the full utsavam of thyagaraja swami temple, including each day's vahana, alankara, neivedhyam... everything.

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 06 Mar 2009, 13:41

Dikshitar uses the PDN prayOga only once during the song, with a stunning swarakshara at 'anugrahAtmaka pAda darshanam'. Supposedly the pAda darshanam of Lord Tyagaraja is only possible once a year, and therefore while describing it, Dikshitar has used a prayOga that should be only used once in a krithi. Amazing attention to detail. The krithi also has some very arresting mandra sanCAras in the CaraNam at 'sRSTi svarUpa vasanta vaibhavam', 'krishNagandhadharaNam' etc.

One of Dikshitar's finest works. Smt. Vedavalli's and Sri Shriramkumar's versions are very similar - closely following the SSP with some small differences here and there. I have not yet had the privilege of hearing Kalpakam Mami sing / play this krithi but of course the version will be impeccable and pristine [as are all her renditions!]. I am quite surprised that there is no rendition of this krithi available on the Dikshitar site!

malavi · Post by **malavi** » 06 Mar 2009, 20:27

Nattai:saraseeruhasanapriye ,pranatosmi devam by tulaseevanam popularised by Sri.T.V.S
Gaulai:ainkaranai by Periasami tooran , sankari satodari by Muthaiyah bhagavatar
Arabhi:amba gauri a beutiful varnam by iraiyamman thambi ,ganarajena m.d.
varali:sarasakshi sada by G.N..B. Paramapurusha by ponnaiyah pillai ,natanam aadinar p.tooran
Sri:sri abhayamba ninnu m.d. ,karunajudavamma syama sastri ,raman edukku arunachala kavi

ignoramus · Post by **ignoramus** » 07 Mar 2009, 09:26

Bharath, Prashant

No link, so sad. Let me start by addressing a prayer to Coolji here. Coolji, Can you help us pl with a rendering of "tyagaraja maha dvajarohana"

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 08 Mar 2009, 15:13

rbharath wrote:
prashant wrote:
rbharath wrote:there is this varNam 'srI nAtA' by vINai kuppaiyyar in nATTai, set to aTa tALam. A brilliant varNam it is. i somehow missed it while i had put the list there..

sadly, nobody sings/plays it...
Isn't this the one that has 7 swara passages in the charaNam? Its a mammoth and great composition - it must be very demanding to sing!
defly!
totally!
very very demanding...

I had a chance to revisit this varNam today from viNa kuppayyar's 'Pallavi Swara Kalpavalli'. Bharath is right - it is VERY demanding. Kuppayyar's imagination is just mind-boggling, conjuring a vast array of rhythmic and melodic patterns from a rAgA of seemingly limited scope. From a pass through the notation, this appears to be a composition well in the same league as the panCaratna in its originality and scale.