sarasa sAma dAna bhEda daNDa catura
(Ragam: Kapi Narayani; compilation video featuring Madurai Mani Iyer, G.N. Balasubramaniam, Maharajapuram Santhanam, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer)
This is a compilation video of 4 renditions of "sarasa sAma dAna bhEda danDa catura" in the ragam Kapi Narayani, composed by Thyagaraja
VIDEO LINK
Composer: Thyagaraja
Raagam: Kapi Narayani
Taalam: Adi
Featured in the video are:
0:06 Madurai Mani Iyer
6:55 G.N. Balasubramaniam
20:16 Maharajapuram Santhanam
25:15 Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer
Lyrics
Pallavi
sarasa sAma dAna bhEda daNDa catura
sATi daivam(e)varE brOvavE
Anupallavi
parama SAmbhav(A)grEsaruND(a)gucu
palku rAvaNuDu teliya lEka pOye (sarasa)
Charanam
hitavu mATal(e)ntO bAga palkitivi
satamugAn(a)yOdhyan(i)ttun(a)NTivi
nata sahOdaruni rAju cEsi rAka
hatamu jEsitivi tyAgarAja nuta (sarasa)
Information on the ragam (Karnatik.com)
https://karnatik.com/c1083.shtml
Arohanam: S R2 M1 P D2 N2 S
Avarohanam: S N2 D2 P M1 G3 R2 G3 R2 S
Information on the composition (Thyagaraja Vaibhavam, EXCELLENT resource)
http://thyagaraja-vaibhavam.blogspot.co ... daana.html
Discussion on Kapi Narayani on Rasikas.org
viewtopic.php?t=9940
Quora thread on Venkatamakhin and Govindacharayas influence on Trinity
https://www.quora.com/Were-the-carnatic ... mpositions
EXCELLENT article on the influence of Venkatamakhin and Govindacharya on the current day raga system
https://sreenivasaraos.com/tag/govindacharya/
Wikipedia on history of the Melakarta system and Govindacharya's contributions towards its development
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melakarta
Concept of Raja Dharma in the Mahabharata
http://www.ghvisweswara.com/wp-content/ ... ration.pdf
Concepts of Danda, Dandaneethi, Dharma and Raja-Dharma
https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/poli ... arma/40148
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Our take on this composition:
Let's start with a bit of historical context into the ragam, and then we can dive a little deeper into the significance of the lyrics and meaning of this famous kriti by Thyagaraja.
Kapi Narayani was relatively obscure before Thyagaraja composed this kriti. It was well known that Thyagaraja was heavily influenced by Govindacharya, a scholar from the late 17th century who improved upon the works of Venkatamakhin and introduced a rules-based, formalized 72 Mēḷakarta system in his text
Sangraha Chudamani
A classic distinction between Govindacharya and Venkatamakhin's Mēḷa classification systems was that Govindacharya's system produced the modern 72 Mēḷakarta system lending itself to the easy creation and proliferation of sampoorna ragams (ragams utilizing all 7 notes). To perhaps add an exclamation point to the significance of his work, Govindacharya himself composed hundreds of Geethams in newly created Janya ragams, no doubt an offspring of his Mēḷakarta classification system. Muttuswamy Dikshitar, Thyagaraja's contemporary, followed a different set of scales as the 72 Mēḷakarta ragas, and followed the original system taught by Venkatamakhin. Many of these scales were asampurna (not sampurna ragas) because Dikshitar chose to follow the earlier established structure to mitigate ill-effects of usage of direct vivadi swaras in the scales.
Which brings us to Kapi Narayani - if you can guess where we are going with this, yes, Govindacharya indeed seems to have invented the ragam. While V Sriram has attributed Thyagaraja as the inventor of Kapi Narayani
here, Govindacharya has actually composed a Geetham in the ragam,
ArErE jayajaya parashurAma, so we can assume that Thyagaraja must have come across the composition.
Kapi Narayani, as you can guess, is an offspring of Narayani, with the clever addition of G3.
Narayani's Arohanam/Avarohanam
Arohanam: S R2 M1 P D2 S
Avarohanam: S N2 D2 P M1 R2 S
And now, we get to the beautiful meaning and lyrics of the composition!
"That king alone can govern, who taketh counsel of experienced men, and is helped by honest, intelligent and learned ministers; but a king who is addicted to vices, meeteth with defeat. ...therefore, it is necessary to ascertain through spies the nature of the hostile country, its fortified places and the allied force of the enemy...spies are among the important auxiliaries of the king; and tact, diplomacy, prowess, chastisement, favour and cleverness lead to success. And success is to be attained through these, either in separation, or combined—namely, conciliation, gift, sowing dissensions, chastisement and slight”
(Hanuman to Bhima, Mahabharata Vana Parva, Tirtha-yatra Parva, Chapter 150)
Exact line:
sAmnA dAnena bhedena daNDenopekShaNena cha.
sAdhanIyAni kAryANi samAsavyAsayogataH
Reference in Sanskrit
Thyagaraja no doubt largely referenced the stories of Rama when composing his thousands of kritis over his lifetime. However, this simple scene between Hanuman and Bhima shows that the politics of Rama’s age carried forward to the Pandavas’ age, and therefore could carry forward to today’s age as well. The wars fought may be different, but the principles and difficult questions related to dharma, remain intact.
What are those principles? A leader is intrinsically allowed what rights? A king is to assume which “Raja Dharma” principles?
The concept of Raja-Dharma is thoroughly covered in the Mahabharata. Here is an
excellent overview of many instances where the topic is covered the Great Epic.
Hanuman clearly tells Bhima that although he must follow his Dharma as a Kshatriya, a King is also to carry out Raja-Dharma duties, which even gives him the permission to spy on the enemy, as needed. Hanuman, of course, is also referencing his own masterful spywork conducted in Lanka on behalf of Rama and even narrates the 007 style spywork he expertly carried out!
Hanuman, then, directly gets to the point: after laying out the explicit duties of each of society's "classes", he proceeds to mention that a King has four tools at his disposal:
- Saama - the process of pacifying or conciliation
- Dhaana - the process of giving money (in charity), or even bribing
- Bheda - the process of dividing and sowing seeds of dissension
- Danda - as a last resort, breaking the will of the enemy using a figurative stick; punishing the enemy
These four tools are referenced in
Srimad Bhagavatham 7.5.19. It is also ushered by Brahma in
Devi Bhagavatham 1.7.26
In the composition, Thyagaraja is nothing less than a
masterful storyteller.
In the Pallavi, he starts by singing the praises of Rama's elegant usage of these four tools. In the Anupallavi, he reminds us that despite having benefited from Shiva's boons, Ravana didn't understand where Rama was coming from.
Finally, in the Charanam, he walks us through exactly how Rama used Saama, then Dhaana, then Bheda, and finally Danda to claim Sita back. First, he tried to convince Ravana through soft words. Then, he offered Ayodhya, but Ravana wouldn't budge. Division cracked Ravana's camp when Vibhishana, Ravana's brother, sided with Rama. Finally, Rama ended the war by directly killing Ravana.
Another incredible aspect of the song is the rhyming Thyagaraja employs. Within the Pallavi, the first line has the four aforementioned tools, rhyming, and then has 'evarE' and 'daivamevarE' and 'brOvavE' rhyming. The Anupallavi has "agucu" and "rAvaNuDu" rhyming. In the Charnam, we have 'palkitivi' rhyming with 'satamugAnayOdhyAnittunaNTivi'. Finally, he ends it with 'nata' rhyming with 'nuta'.
Here is a full word-by-word meaning. Needless to say, we bow down to Thyagaraja's greatness!
Word-by-word meaning
Referenced from Thyagaraja Vaibhavam
Pallavi Elegant Lord (sarasa) who is adept (catura) in the four-fold actions (of rAja dharma) - conciliation (sAma), gift or bribe (dAna), creation of dissension (bhEda) and punishment (daNDa)!
which (evarE) God (daivamu) (daivamevarE) is equal (sATi) to You? deign to protect (brOvavE) me.
Anupallavi But, rAvaNa (rAvaNuDu) being (agucu) the eminent (agrEsaruNDu) devotee of the great (parama) (literally supreme) Lord Siva (SAmbhava) (literally related or belonging to Sambhu) (SAmbhavAgrEsaruNDagucu), failed to understand (teliya lEka pOye) Your words (palku)!
O Elegant Lord who is adept in the four-fold actions (of rAja dharma) - conciliation, gift or bribe, creation of dissension and punishment! which God is equal to You? deign to protect me.
Charanam You conveyed (palkitivi) (literally uttered) well (bAga) a lot of (entO) beneficial (hitavu) words (mATalu) (mATalentO);
You said (aNTivi) that ‘I shall offer (ittunu) even ayOdhyA (ayOdhyanu) for ever’ (satamugAnu) (satamugAnayOdhyAnittunaNTivi);
when he (rAvaNa) did not mend his ways (rAka) (literally come) even after anointing (cEsi) (literally make) vibhIshaNa – his brother (sahOdara) (sahOdaruni) who supplicated (nata) before You – as King (rAju) of lankA, You ultimately slayed (hatamu jEsitivi) him;
O Lord praised (nuta) by this tyAgarAja!
O Elegant Lord who is adept in the four-fold actions (of rAja dharma) – conciliation, gift or bribe, creation of dissension and punishment! which God is equal to You? deign to protect me.