Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

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rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019
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Vocal : Srikantham Nagendra Sastri
Vocal Support : SaiGanesh
Violin : Kandadevi Vijayaraghavan
Mrudangam : Madurai Sundar - disciple of UKS

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , Non Ticketed concet
Day/Duration : Friday / 2 exact hours
sabha/Hall : Music Academy/ MA Mini Hall
Time : 6:00 to 08:00 pm
Occassion : Jayachamaraja Wadiyar
All krithis was composed by maharaja JC Wadiyar

01A. slokham -sukhlAm bharatharam - TOdi
Slokham took a course extending the praise of JC Wodeyar and Mysore samasthanam
01B. gajAnanam gaNapathim (S) - tOdi
swaras for 6 mins
02. kamalAbikE mAmava sadhA (R,CS,CS)- nAttai
2 mins each of alapana and violin return

03. kamAkshi pahimAm meenAkshi (R) - shivakAmbOdhi
3 mins alapana and 2 mins violin return

04. vandeham sadhA shAradham (S)- hamsanatani
2 mins swaras
05. sammOdham chintayAmi jagadhambhAm (R,S) - sarasangi
9 mins alapana and 5 mins violin return
9 mins swaras

06. shree vidhyam lalitAm (R) - naadabrahma
4 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
07. balakrishnam bhAvayEham balarAmanujam devaki - neelaveni

08A. (san)geethapriyA yOhini mAmava(R S T) -geethapriya(lathangi)
  • 9 mins alapana and 5 mins violin return
  • 6 mins swaras
08B. tani for 7 mins

09A. national anthem of erstwhile mysore state
kAyam shreee gowri karunA - yamunakalyani ??? -basavappa sastri
09B. brief slokham end with chirambhi.... yadhukula santhana shreee????
Last edited by rajeshnat on 18 May 2019, 16:43, edited 1 time in total.

rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

JC Wadiyar in my mind brings back the contributions of 2 prolific posters of our forum ,one is cmlover and other is DRS (srikanth murthy) way back to years 2004 to 2006. Both In sangeetham.com and rasikas.org there was so much prolific content where DRS explained krithis of JCW and the greatness of compositions with CML asking such insightful questions. IT is very sad that all the posts of sangeetham.com have been taken out and even web crawlers destroyed with no trace of sangeetham content. Sad sad , i hope sangeetham is restored as readonly for all the contributors sake.Posts by DRS and CMLover in sangeetham.com are the finest treasures

JCW compositions are not that popular , my orientation of JCW is with the famous atana composition srimahaganapathim and the authorship disputed shree venkatesham in kalyanavasantham . Those are the 2 krithis that i recollect the most- Thanks to santhanam of maharajapuram. Heard few krithis here and there from say RK shrikantan and definitely heard the rare shivakambOdhi from Bangalore shankar where he sang another composer krithi in shivakambodhi. As such hearing JCW is like hearing a bit of dikshitar,shyamasastri, Swati, a bit of vasudevacharya etc . His krithis have lots of words in praises of that krithis focal god or goddesses . As i walked out with crama, srk and with me seated behind coolkarni family, it was well spent evening . Personally very nice feeling to meet shri kulkarni after a long time.

The start of the concert brought in to each of our ears a very strong voice of Nagendra sastri. The slokham sukhlam bharatharam was detailed . The slokham took a detour with some custom imported lines in praise of Mysore ,karnataka and wadiyar etc , tOdi rasa was indeed there . The lovely krithi gajananam gaNapathim in todi brought in a great grandeur of the majestic todi. There was intense karnatakam (as in tamil phrase karnatakam as in classical not karnataka as carnatic music) was indeed there. The 2 down nattai was crisp with a bunch of words in praise of goddess kamalAmbikE , one can see so many words here and there taken from dikshitar, swati tirunal , etc all stitched to still give a great nattai. 2 cute rounds of cittaswaras did show JCW musical intellect. If there are any pregnant mothers who are undecided to name their babies go for JCW krithis instead of even google , for every god or goddess you get atleast 25 names in each krithi.

I am assuming i have just graduated to identify shivaKAmbOdhi even if the ragA is say not announced .Many years back Bangalore shankar sang a song of BK padmanabha rao in this same ragam shivakAmbOdhi. Certainly this raga as sung by nagendra sastri did make me feel that it is more than a short filler .This raga is certainly a unique creation and lot of words ending like kamakshi , meenakhi , pahimam etc was another krithi may be kind of lifted from some slokham like soundaraya lahiiri mernakshi slokhas etc.

Another rara raga by name hamsanatani followed with a crisp krithi , i heard hamsanatani ragaswaroopam as though the ragas appa or amma was mayamalavagowlai. I adore every child of mmg and this hamsanatani did not let me down . One has to give it to nagendra sastri for even singing rare ragas as though it is quite prevelant in concert circuit.This krithi of hamsanatani was in praise of goddess sharadham.

Sarasangi came in next ,with me hearing saraasangi few concerts back , i found his sarasangi sung bit with heavier texture . For my ears this sarasangi had a bit more orientation like brother charukesi - ambiguity was not completely eliminated. More than the sarasangi alapana i liked the krithi sammodham chintayami and nice swaras that he did . Ganesh was the supporting artist and he sang quite well for few songs.

Another 2 rare ragas followed , the first was naadabrahma raga.The song was nice and i lost the stickiness to write bit more now . He mentioned meesu krishna iyer and JCW have composed a song in this rare ragam naadabrahma. All krithis always had srividya mudhra and this krithi in naadabrahma starts with sree vidhyam lalitham and he sang well the rare naadabrahma. Neelaveni not neelamani came in next .The krithi was kind of xerox copied from gopikavasantham balakrishnam bhavayami of dikshitar . Post photostat copy with few corrections was done that JVW and Nagendra sastri only knew.He sung very well this rare neelaveni krithi . Balakrishnam bhavayeham balarAmAnujam in neelaveni is by JCW whereas balakrishnam bhAvayAmi in gopikavasantham is by MD.

The main was geethapriya. geethapriya is asampoorna name of lathangi . Personally I felt nagendra sastri did not bring in that depth to this lathangi krithi with clock of 8pm hanging over his head . This concert did not have a neraval (I went out for 2 mins during main krithi rendition and i am assuming i did not miss 2 mins neraval). The last national anthem of mysore was I think in yamuna kalyani and I liked it. This did not have any western notation . Nagendra sastri asked if possible the rasikas can stand and all rasikas stood up for the song, certainly it is great to understand the diversity of erstwhile mysore state and I liked the song a lot. In Tagore national anthem he gives just one word dravida and clubs all states of southern india , this atleast speaks distinctly of erswhile mysore . More power to diversity of Classical carnatic music, let the north indians hear and know CM. CM is as much as NorthIndian music as much as southindian music.

The violinist kandadevi vijayaraghavan had a fairly clean naadham but during swaras there was a bit of ok play not strictly maintaining the right layam leash . The mrudangam artist Madurai Sundar is the disciple of UKS. Madurai Sundar could have worked better for the whole concert , i found his play not that great for this concert, may be it was his one off day. Many places the layam was whatever that was ingrained in the throat of nagendra sastri.

The biggest disappointment of the concert was lathangi main selection considering that the submain was sarasangi main. Lathangi is prathi equivalent of sarasangi . I am not a big fan of lathangi too,but as such this musician could have taken another raga instead of latangi.Main was not in line with how and what he sung before .

All said voice of nagendra was very strong and extremely carnatakam. He reached every nook and corner of every krithi and very rare ragas. Nagendra sastri finds maximum music in the structural beauty of krithis. I kind of felt a shade of nedanuri here and there. His school is in the andhra-karnataka border , the place is chintlapalli , now i dont know where is chintlapalli in andhra or telengana. I hope i hear shri nagendra sing a full length concert with a galaxy of composers soon where he,can surely sing atleast one neraval. Thanks to academy , they do these kind of exclusive vageyakkaras concerts thrice a year or so , papanasam sivan went past that crama reported with CR Vaidyanathan , with JCW going past with this review.There is one more lined up that is subha ganesan who sings GKB krithis . I only wish academy extends till 08:15 pm, let me first plead 08:15 then goto 08:30pm. As such the stoppage of 08:00 pm was ok for one big reason , i felt i was seated inside mysore voltas refigerator.

Overall a very good to excellent concert for two exact hours.

Sivaramakrishnan
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Joined: 02 Jan 2010, 08:29

Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by Sivaramakrishnan »

Me, CRama and Rajesh returned together after the concert by 8.30 p.m. discussing the event. But within 12 hours, a detailed review has been posted by Rajesh in his characteristic analytical style. Hats off, friend! உன்னால்தான் முடியும் தம்பி!

Shastri did not sing niraval for the main (Latangi). However swaraprastara was rendered for take offs at Geethapriye and Sangitapriye.

An authentic, refreshing recital with some rarest of rare kritis of the Mysore Maharajah.

Sachi_R
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Joined: 31 Jan 2017, 20:20

Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by Sachi_R »

What a lovely review. Hats off Rajesh.

I did a detailed interview of Prof Nagendra Shastry and it was published in SRLKMandira.org newsletter Lalitha Kala Tarangini. The link is here:

http://www.srlkmandira.org/newsletters/ ... -Sep18.pdf

I had also translated and posted in Rasikas an article on JCW by S. Krishnamurthi (grandson of Vasudevachar) that gives an insight into JCW compositions.

CRama
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by CRama »

The compositions of Jayachamaraja Wodeyar has got a unique place in the spectrum of Carnatic music. He had composed in many rare ragams- many his own creations. The Mysore Maharaja clan are big Devi upasakas and almost all of his krits are on Devi- addressing Devi in her multifold manifestations. His Mudra is Sree Vidya. The kritis have the structure of a Deekshitar kriti with heavy sahithyam, madhyamakalam etc. He has composed chittawaram for most of the compositions which will give us a clue about the grammer of the ragam and its sancharamas. He has composed kritis in many complex talams also. The kriti which is very popular is Sree Jalandaram ashrayamham which is the staple fare of DKP/DKJ for giving Tani Avartanam. Sporadically I have heard many other kritis from R.K. Srikantan, M.S.Sheela, T.S.Sathyavathy etc. There is an all pervasive devotional element in his kritis.

The concert of Shastry maintained a high standard and the audience sat hooked to their seats amazed at his versatility and repertoire of rare ragams and kritis. The start of the concert with a kriti on Ganesa in the ragam Todi in Mishra Jhampa talam brought weight to the concert which never had a moment of sagging. The imaginative kalpana swaras in Todi were enriching. The kriti Kamalambike in Nata has multiple charanams in swara sahithya pattern. For the kriti Vandeham sada Saradam in Hamsanatani, he rendered swaras in Tisra nadai. The kriti Samodam Chintayami in Sarasangi is an unpublished kriti which his family has unearthed lately- he said. This kriti is on Indrakshi and it contains many phrases from the Indrakshi Stothram. (On a side note, in Kerala there is a practice of chanting Indrakshi and Sivakavacham stotrams along with Vishnu Sahasranamam daily in the houses which I still follow). The kalpana swarams had much laya complexities which the violinist could not follow. For all the rare ragams, Shastry gave the arohanam avarohanam and melakarta. The kriti in the ragam Nadabrahmam is also a recent revelation.

rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

O gosh i forgot the very popular sri jalandhara, Tx Crama especially nice of you to mention unpublished information. Goddess Indrakshi i did not know the name I googled to find that she is goddess lakshmi.

I just searched our rasikas site with my name filter .i heard the following 4 krithis of JCW that i have reviewed

1. sankari sadA naNda lahari - mAlavi - JC wodeyar . This was sung by Bangalore Shankar
2. paripAhimAm sadA paraDevatE(R) - suddhadhanyAsi - JC wodeyar. This was sung by RK Shrikantan
6 mins alapanai and 3 mins violin return .

3. mAnayatha maNjula vilAsa(R)- KOkilapriyA - Jayachamaraja Wodeyar. This was sung by Pattabhirama Pandit
7 mins alApanai and 4 mins violin return
4. shiva shiva shiva bhO- nAdanAmakriya -jayachamarAja wodeyAr. This was sung by Bangalore Shankar

saiganesh
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by saiganesh »

* Chiramapi vardhatAm yadukula santAna Shree: - yadukula santAna refers to Mysore kings.

Thanks for the detailed review. I think academy had asked Shastry Sir to cover rare compositions and requested to model the concert around this idea. SamOdam and Gitapriya yoginEem were included in this context.

Note on KAyou Sri gowri :

This was originally written by Sri Basavappa Shastry in the mid of 19th century. Basavappa Shastry was a prolific Sanskrit scholar and poet who tranalated all major works of Kalidasa to Kannada. His Shakuntala translation won him the title *Abhinava kalidasa* by none other than Mummadi Krishna rAja wodeyar.

The original composition was more suited for palace band , Dr Shastry refined and retuned it and popularized the current tune. Mysore palace too has received this whole heartedly.

Regards,
Saiganesh

CRama
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by CRama »

rajeshnat wrote: 18 May 2019, 14:09 1. sankari sadA naNda lahari - mAlavi - JC wodeyar . This was sung by Bangalore Shankar
2. paripAhimAm sadA paraDevatE(R) - suddhadhanyAsi - JC wodeyar. This was sung by RK Shrikantan
6 mins alapanai and 3 mins violin return .

3. mAnayatha maNjula vilAsa(R)- KOkilapriyA - Jayachamaraja Wodeyar. This was sung by Pattabhirama Pandit
7 mins alApanai and 4 mins violin return
4. shiva shiva shiva bhO- nAdanAmakriya -jayachamarAja wodeyAr. This was sung by Bangalore Shankar
There are a few more kritis which are popular in the concert circuit. For, eg, Saraswatim bhagavatim in Hamsavinodini. Chintayami Jagadmbam- Hindolam

In the above list, Manayatha in Kokilapriya was popularised by KVN. He has sung it elaborately in his inimitable style.
Siva siva siva bho in Nadanamakriya was populaised by M.S.Subbalakshmi.

CRama
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by CRama »

Rajesh, Google would have given Indrakshi as Goddess Lakshmi. But I think it is not correct. Indrakshi is Siva's consort- Parvathy for the description in the Stotram relate to Parvathy and her various manifestations. We always recite Indrakshi and Sivakavacham Stotram together.

rajeshnat
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

saiganesh
Is that you ganesh where i you and,coolkarni talked. cool told me you as ganesh. If yes,welcome to the forum. On ur reply on song selection tx for the last explanation . For me may be,i just heard that todi in some recording before which i cannot recollect now. The combo of lathangi sarasangi as main submain is an avoidable combo.

saiganesh
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by saiganesh »

@rajeshnat
Yes. I m the one whom Coolkarni introduced.

Have been a mute member/visitor of forum for a decade now I guess.😁

bhasi
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by bhasi »

Thank you @rajeshnat for your delightfully written review of the concert laced with your gentle humour and @CRama for the mini-treatise on Shri Wodeyar! I've never heard of any of these ragas before, and I certainly hadn't heard of Shri Wodeyar until now. Methinks some of the information in this thread can be cross-posted to the Composers sub-forum and included in a thread for Shri Wodeyar.

Ranganayaki
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by Ranganayaki »

I was intrigued and looked up Nādhabrahma raga and found this old video of the Toronto Brothers singing the Meesu Krishnayyar song Rajesh has referred to.

This raga may be a janya of Vachaspati or Ramapriya (as it is without a R). The scale seems to be:

S P M2 P D2 N2 S - S N2 D2 P M2 G3 S

Sreeni Rajarao
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by Sreeni Rajarao »

I do not mean to digress from the topic of this thread, but I think it's relevant to give a link here.

So, please refer to
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6503&p=351687#p351687

HarishankarK
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by HarishankarK »

I also heard somewhere that JCW is big in Tala also - with many compositions built around complex talas other than Adi, Rupaka and Chapu.
His Brahmandavalaye in Maandu is very nice
I have heard in Kokilapriya krithi in youtube once and that is very classical/beautiful too

CRama
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by CRama »

Yes. JCV has ciomposed many kritis in complex talas. Some of the popular kritis I am giving below.

Chintayami jagadambam-Hindolam- Mishra jhampa
Ksheerasagara sayana - Mayamalavagowla- chatusra dhruvam
Saraswatim bhagavatim-Hamsavinodini- Mishra jhampa
Manonmani mamavatu- Udayaravichandrika- chatusra dhruvam

rshankar
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by rshankar »

CRama wrote: 18 May 2019, 14:40 Rajesh, Google would have given Indrakshi as Goddess Lakshmi. But I think it is not correct. Indrakshi is Siva's consort- Parvathy for the description in the Stotram relate to Parvathy and her various manifestations. We always recite Indrakshi and Sivakavacham Stotram together.
CRama - indrAkshi is a descriptor - As far as I can tell, it means one with eyes like the nIlOtpalam (i.e., blue lotus/lily), and it could apply to both lakshmI and pArvati.

To make matters worse, Sri Wodeyar, as a true SrI vidyA upAsaka views lakshmi, sarasvati, and pArvati as the same, and interchangeably. For example, in his mAyAmALavagauLa kRti, he starts with salutations (praNamAmi) to the lady who resides in the chest of the one who reclines on the milky ocean (kshIra sAgara Sayana vakshasthala vihAriNIm), the mother of manmatha (smara jananIm), i.e., lakshmI, in the pallavi, but quickly moves to Siva's beloved (Siva mOdinIm), daughter of matanga (mAtangI), the dark-hued (mEcakAngI) daughter of the mountain (Saila nandinIm), i.e., pArvati.

Sachi_R
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by Sachi_R »

Ravi,
I think CRama is right. (He is mostly right 😀)

My research shows that इन्द्राणी refers to 1. Indra's wife 2. One of the Saptamaatrikaas who are manifestations of Devi=Durga. Amarakosha says this:
शक्तिदेवता. shakti (5) - ब्राह्मी (स्त्री), ब्रह्माणी (स्त्री), माहेश्वरी (स्त्री), कौमारी (स्त्री), वैष्णवी (स्त्री)
ब्राह्मी माहेश्वरी चैव कौमारी वैष्णवी तथा।
1.1.35.3
शक्तिदेवता. shakti (3) - वाराही (स्त्री), इन्द्राणी (स्त्री), चामुण्डा (स्त्री)
वारीही च तथेन्द्राणी चामुण्डा सप्तमातरः॥
1.1.35.4

Website link: http://amara.aupasana.com

CRama
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Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by CRama »

This I got from google.
"Indrakshi Stotram is a powerful mantra dedicated to Indrakshi Durga form of Goddess Parvati. Indrakshi Stotram was taught by Lord Narayana to Sage Narada when the sage asked about the prayer which helps to lead a disease free life. Sage Narada taught this mantra to Indra who later taught it to Sage Purandara. Purandara Muni popularized it among humans. Those who chant the mantra repeatedly will be cured from all diseases and avoid any untimely death and live a healthy life. "

See the following link.
http://www.hindudevotionalblog.com/2014 ... yrics.html

Sachi_R
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Joined: 31 Jan 2017, 20:20

Re: Srikantham Nagendra Sastri@MA Mini (JC Wadiyar Day) on May 17th,2019

Post by Sachi_R »

CRama, in all such discussions, Amarakosha is a very authentic reference 😀

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