What is the significance of Chethulara in Bhairavi?

Carnatic_novice · Post by **Carnatic_novice** » 25 Apr 2009, 20:29

Friends,

Can some one explain the significance of playing Chethulara in Bhairavi before the Pancharatna krithis in a Thyagaraja festival? I understand the tradition is to play it in Flute, why?

Was the original krithi composed in Karaharapriya?

Regards

Carnatic Novice

suma · Post by **suma** » 26 Apr 2009, 18:36

http://www.karnatik.com/c2242.shtml

Meaning:
O Sri Rama! Let me have the ecstatic joy and thrill of decorating you with my own hands, in such a way as to elicit the envy and admiration of Brahma, Indra and others. That done, I will feast my eyes on your beauty to my heart's content with intense devotion. Decorating your feet with golden anklets, waist with silken garments inlaid with gold lace, tresses with fragrant flowers from celestial gardens and kissing your charming face, let me have the ecstatic joy. Adorning your waist with a golden girdle with golden jingles and your forehead with a lovely dot of fragrant sandal paste and with a gem-studded pendant dangling above it from a ringlet of pearls, I shall hug you to my bosom with exhilaration. Having decorated your headdress with pearls, I shall smear your body with sandal paste rendered fragrant by admixture of a variety of scents. Goddess Saraswati will then arrive and fan you softly and gently. I shall then exclaim in exaltation, "Well done, well done!" in appreciation, having relegated everything else to be able to indulge in this service whole-heartedly.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 26 Apr 2009, 21:30

Thanks Suma for that.

Given such elaborate and beautiful sentiments expressed through words, it is strange that in the biggest stage given to this song it is played on the flute rather than vocals.

ksrimech · Post by **ksrimech** » 27 Apr 2009, 05:06

It is like doing alankAram (chEtulAra SRingAramu...) before archanam. BTW, jagadAnandakArakA is tyAgarAjasvAmi's version of an aSTOttaraSatanAmAvaLi for SrIrAmA.

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 27 Apr 2009, 06:46

SUMA, wonderful. there cannot be more apt words to describe SRI RAMA. IT is a shame that I have been hearing the aradhana for nearly 70 years even before the advent of AIR, in temples and houses of staunch devotees, but never cared to know about chethulara .Thankscarnatic=novice for ratsing thequestion... gobilalitha

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 27 Apr 2009, 06:52

ksrimech wrote:It is like doing alankAram (chEtulAra SRingAramu...) before archanam.

VK in tamizh it would be 'kai Ara singAricci'

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 27 Apr 2009, 07:17

Nice. Thanks Ravi.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 27 Apr 2009, 13:44

Carnatic_novice wrote: Was the original krithi composed in Karaharapriya?

yes.
it was...

Smt. R Vedavalli, amongst a few other musicians still render it in kharaharapriyA. Another version in natabhairavi also exists in vogue.

revanthv552 · Post by **revanthv552** » 27 Apr 2009, 20:29

Sangeethapriya provides Kharaharapriya version of SSI and bhairavi version of MLV

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 28 Apr 2009, 10:22

revanthv552 wrote:Sangeethapriya provides Kharaharapriya version of SSI and bhairavi version of MLV

i thought SSI usually sang it in natabhairavi...

Carnatic_novice · Post by **Carnatic_novice** » 29 Apr 2009, 02:59

Thank you all for the explanation.

What is the significance of playing the song in flute?

What is the reason for the change in raga?

Regards

Carnatic Novice

Carnatic_novice · Post by **Carnatic_novice** » 29 Apr 2009, 07:38

revanthv552 wrote:Sangeethapriya provides Kharaharapriya version of SSI and bhairavi version of MLV

Can you please send me the link of the Bhairavi version. I am not able to find it on the Sangeethapriya.
Thanks in advance.

srinivasrgvn · Post by **srinivasrgvn** » 06 May 2009, 08:09

Can anybody please upload/tell the link for both kharaharapriya and bhairavi versions of the song??

srutishree · Post by **srutishree** » 06 May 2009, 12:21

According to an article ("Natabhairavi and its janyas") by Sri S. Rajam and "Sruti" magazine staffers appearing in Issue 26, November 1986:

"........there are only a few compositions of Natabhairavi in vogue. Among them: TyagarajaÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s Chetulara (Telugu), Ramanathapuram Srinivasa IyengarÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s Parulaseva (Telugu) Papanasam SivanÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s Sri Valli Devasenapathey (Tamil) and M. BalamuralikrishnaÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s Nalina Nayana. The Tyagaraja kriti is rendered nowadays in Bhairavi and sometimes in Kharaharapriya. The Bhairavi version can be heard on the flute at the commencement of the SaintÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s aradhana in Tiruvaiyaru every January. This convention apparently began when the late Palladam Sanjeeva Rao used to open the proceedings. To start anything with Sanjeeva RaoÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s flute was, in those days, firmly believed to be most auspicious. Chetulara has also been a favourite of nagaswara vidwans, particularly Tirumarugal Natesan (TN Rajaratnam PillaiÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s uncle) and the Kiranur brothers who played the song in the original Natabhairavi mode.

Nagaswara artistes who came later switched to playing the song in Bhairavi, presumably because of the difficulty of playing the suddha dhaivata note in the ascent. Despite this difficulty, many nagaswara vidwans have chosen Natabhairavi for displaying their creativity in raagam-thaanam-pallavi. The difficulty in playing the shuddha dhaivata, referred to earlier, probably also explains why the derivative ragas of Natabhairavi that omit the suddha dhaivata in ascending phrases and swara combinations are very popular while the parent raga itself is not.... "

The original article uses slightly different words, but the import is the same.

The importance of "Chetulara" therefore seems to be more due to a tradition directly attributed to the auspicious presence of a personality (Palladam Sanjeeva Rao) rather than any special significance attributable to the kriti itself. There are other kritis that are equally laudatory of Sri Rama and could be more appropriately sung at the Aradhana (eg. "Raagarathnamaalikajey")

On a similar note, it seems "Sathguru Swamiki Saatiyuleda" of Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar in Reethigowlai used to be sung by Bangalore Nagarathnammal before the commencement of the early-morning puja on the day of the Aradhana (per V Sriram's book,"The Devadasi and the Saint"). It would be interesting to know why this did not crystallise into an enduring tradition the way "Chetulara" has.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 06 May 2009, 12:45

Thanks srutishree for that insight. This is just an another example of how customs and traditions morph into standard practices. The modern kutchery padhdhati (concert format) is another example, in this case the format adopted by Ariyakudi became more or less the standard practice in later years.

Carnatic_novice · Post by **Carnatic_novice** » 08 May 2009, 03:48

srutishree, Thanks for the detailed reply. Much appreciated.

gn.sn42 · Post by **gn.sn42** » 08 May 2009, 04:32

srutishree wrote:Papanasam SivanÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s Sri Valli Devasenapathey (Tamil)

srutishree, thanks for the very informative post. A minor aside: I think the Sivan song is in Sanskrit, not Tamil.

sunayanaa · Post by **sunayanaa** » 09 May 2009, 23:26

Carnatic_novice wrote:
revanthv552 wrote:Sangeethapriya provides Kharaharapriya version of SSI and bhairavi version of MLV
Can you please send me the link of the Bhairavi version. I am not able to find it on the Sangeethapriya.
Thanks in advance.

http://sangeethamshare.org/hariharan/57 ... airavi.mp3
http://sangeethapriya.org/tributes/thya ... i--SSI.mp3