EngANum vara vara - kalyANi

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 15 Sep 2007, 08:43

Could I have the lyrics, composer and hopefully the meaning of this beautiful piece which Sri Vijay Siva renders from time to time in concerts? Thanks in advance.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 15 Sep 2007, 09:47

Prashant,
I haven't heard this song in ages! Musically, a beautiful kalyANi!
The words are a bit colloquial, nonetheless charming! Do I remember all the lines? I am not sure.

Lakshman,
Could you help?

When I was a child, I was always amused to hear the opening word: EngANum? you there! (in respectful bahu vacanam, too).

EngANum, vara vara kaNiSangaL illAmal
ippaDi SeiginRIr!

EngANum: You there!
vara vara: of late, as time goes on
kaNiSangaL illAmal: without any dignity
ippaDi SEiginRIr! : you behave like this!

AngANum ten kunRai ARumuga vElarE!

You the six faced beautiful vElA of the southern hill (pazhani? tirupparangunRam?) that we see yonder--

ASai koNDAlum mana rOSam vENDAmO swAmi?

Even when desires reside, shouldn't one be sensitive and dignified?

konjattanamAi avaL minjip pESiDa
adaRkanji bayandu mella kenjip pESurIr, aiyE!

When she gets petty and sassy,
you speak so meekly, shame on you!

One could take it as the jealous utterings of one or the other spouse of murugan or, just a worldly woman's complaining about the ways of her lover in an indirect way.

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 15 Sep 2007, 10:22

Wow, arasi! That was fast

Thank you so much for this. My tamil is embarrassingly bad and you've really helped me understand what's being conveyed in this song.

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 15 Sep 2007, 17:41

engANum vara. rAgA: kalyANi. Adi tALA.

P: engANum vara varak-kaNIsangaL illAmal ippaDi sheidu koNDIr
A: AngANum ten kunrai Arumukha vElavarE Ashai koNDAlumAna rOsam vENDAmE sAmi
C1: naDattaiyoru pOdaiyilarindu koLLa vENDAmA nAltOrum pazhagi ippaDi teruyAmarppOmA
koDuppadum koDuttuk-kollai vazhi pOghalAmA koDiya vancakam innAraDiyil midikkalAmA
kojattanamAi avaL minjip-pEshiDa adarkkanji bhayandu meLLak-kenjip-pEshugirIraiyO
2: uLLa nAL uLLamaTTum umakkidE tozhilAccE uTrOr vacanam muTrum shaTrum ErAmarp-pOccE
teLLit-teLindum siru piLLai mati pOlAccE sirukki marundil talai kirukki mayangalAccE
terukkaL tOrum umai sirikka avaL munnE parakka vizhittuk-koNDirukkirIrE sAmi
3: andamAduradikkum mElAna siraiyA AlaiyillA Urukk-iluppaip-pUccarkkaraiyA
enna manaivigaLoDiruppadil kuraiyA inimElum iduvellAm sariyAnaduraiyA
evarum pugazhndiDak-kavi kunjaram indat-tamizhk-iru nidhi udavu sharavaNabhavarE

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 15 Sep 2007, 18:41

Lakshman wrote:kavi kunjaram

Prashant, annswer to another of your questions:
A padam by kavi kunjara bhAratI, the grandfather of kOTiSwara aiyer...

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 15 Sep 2007, 18:55

Thanks rshankar. Sri Vijay Siva sings charanam #1.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 15 Sep 2007, 21:23

My! I didn't realize it had so much of adult stuff in it, the innocent kid that I was! Then too, it was just the first CaraNam which was sung. Otherwise, I would have remembered a few words at least, and perhaps embarrassed an adult with asking what the words meant!

Lakshman, thanks for the song.

Ravi, kavi kunjara bharathi--and that explains why the rAga bhAvA and structure of the song is capturing...

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 16 Sep 2007, 08:21

Arasi,
And most of his padams are NOT so innocent at all!

vgvindan · Post by **vgvindan** » 16 Sep 2007, 08:46

rs,
And to think of it that children are taught these padams! - kokka Sastra vidulu.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 16 Sep 2007, 09:00

Govindan,
Are children taught such padams?
I have only heard them sung by adults on stage--at least in my days...surely, they are not teaching such padams to children in Chennai, are they? What you say is puzzling.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 16 Sep 2007, 09:00

This was the padam that a 18 year old girl danced recently for her arangetram. The MC, while introducing this piece, went on with this full description of the song which was more graphic than the song itself. The kids who were sitting behind me were all astonished 'Are we supposed to hear all this?'. And since this was in the context of Murugan, that confused them too. They were asking 'How come Murugan was not given a chance to respond to all these accusations?'. I thought it would have been OK if the MC just gave an outline like Arasi did and let the song and dance tell the story. The dance itself was fine and when combined with the music the words don't sound that awkward/adult either. The music adds a ton of sophistication to the lyrics.

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 16 Sep 2007, 20:44

Somehow I would highly doubt that any Guru worth his/her salt would teach kids such (or, for that matter, any) padams. My Gurus never taught me padams until I was well into my undergraduate days. As per their rationale it was related equally to the verbal as well as musical content - both called for a more than intermediate level of maturity.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 16 Sep 2007, 22:17

The 'padams' performed in arangETrams these days appear to vary a lot. Many of the less adaptable teachers just teach their students the same padams they were taught - and padams that are like this one are probably included in that list. Then, there are the more adaptabale, flexible teachers - we saw 2 arangETrams recently - one by a 19 year old, whose forte was clearly abhinaya, and her program had 3 'padams'/kIrtanams - one of which was nETrandi nErattilE. nETrandi nErattilE was portrayed with such dignity and clarity that I was amazed. The other was by a 13 year old, a student of the same teacher - and her mArgam was so entirely different it was amazing - the varNam had fewer sancArIs but was way more technically difficult, nAgEndra hArAya instead of a sabdam, and one kIrtanam - very short and simple. You definitely need to adapt the program to the child's level of maturity.
While singing padams is thought to be the ultimate test of an individual performers ability to stay true to the rAga swarUpam (aren't padams considered to be distillations of the rAga bhAva and swarUpa?), I have heard that Smt. MSS who has sung a few padams in the earlier part of her career, stopped, when the paramAcArya pointed out the inappropriateness of the lyrics in an otherwise bhakti-laden repertoire.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 17 Sep 2007, 00:53

padams with explicit materials were the order of the day in olden times when the marriages lasted four days and usually a 'sathir' by danseuse to such padams. The well known of yore 'provocative' padams of subbaramaiyer which were musical gems belong to that category, the survival of nEtranthi nEratthilE being an exception! The great clean-up of bharatanatyam expunging explicit padams by kalakShEtra was at once a boon as well as a bane!

Perhaps a century and a half later Murugan does deserve a response to the innuendo by the 'jealous wife' through kavi kunjara bharathi! Here is my humble attempt

Raga tODi: tALam Adi:

P: ennaDi nIyum romba minji minji pEshuRAyE
En intha kalakkam unakku...(aDiyE)

A: kanni vaLLi enthan kaathal kizhatthi avaL
Sonna Sollai enRum poRuppathil enna kuRai (pOdI)

C: kaTTikoNDa manaivi nI (naan thaali)..
aanaal kaathal piththukkoNDa peN avaL thaan
eTTukkuDi vElavan enRenakku pEr irunthum (antha)
kuTTikku naan aDimai konjinaalum kOpiththaalum
viTTuviDu intha pEccai kaathalukkum kaN uNDODi

Of course I can render it in my amateur fashion once I recover. Arasi and shankar (who can comment on possible choreography) can also help with meanings if there is interest.
(The songs by OVK 'thaayE yashoda' and yashOda's response form the motivation for this composition!)