V V Srivatsa, Lec-Dem for Shanmukhapriya

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 29 Oct 2007, 23:32

V V Srivatsa - V Sanjeev - K R Ganesh

Lec-Dem on Trinity's Concept of Ragams - bEgaDa
Shanmukhapriya, Swamy's Hall
27th October 2007 6:30 pm

Sri Srivatsa began the programme with a slOkam in bEgaDa. I entered a few minutes late. As i was entering, he was giving an example of a PD dEvarnAma in bEgaDa, hariyE sarvottama, with a phrase directly from shankarAbaraNam, thus telling the janya - janaka relationship.

The ragam can be sung anytime, anywhere. It is a sarvakAlaika rAgam. However, Sri Srivatsa made a observation that he feels that late afternoon-early evening is the best time for the rAgam to be sung. He quoted the telugu saying 'Adi nATTa, antham suruTTi, bEgaDa mEkeDa' which can be interpreted in two ways. One way is that, bEgaDa is like the cream on the milk and the other way is that, bEgaDa can be sung anywhere. It is a vicitra rAgam and has a lot of special (visEsha) prayOgams. The rAgam has a 'golden yellow' colour.

The 's g m' usage is found in 'srI mAtah' of MD, 'yAla padarE' of kshEtragna, intachalamu varNam and maraciyuNTe varNam. 's r g m' and 'p d n s' are found in 'indu chandra mukhi' varNam composed by Thiruvarur Ayyaswami Nattuvanaar. The special 'ri' oscilatting prayogam in the jAvaLi 'iti nIku mariyada' was also mentioned.

The two monumental compositions in bEgaDa are 'nAdOpAsana' and 'tyAgarAjAya namastE'. Both of them have lots of visEsha prayOgams.

nishAdam and madhyamam are both mysterious svarams for bEgaDa. the nishAdham is an inbetween note. Sri Srivatsa refered to it as 'bEgaDa nishAdam' or 'trishanku nishAdam'. The madhyam is 'sudda madhayamam' at some places, it is 'dhIrga kampitam' and 'mrudu' at some other places. gAndhAram and dhaivadham are the graha svarams. The 'dhIrga gAndhAram' is emphasised in 'nI pada pankajamula' of tyAgarAja.

The rAgam bangALa has Lord Ganesha as its 'ati dEvatai'. It is for this reason that Thyagaraja composed 'girirAja sutA tanayA' in bangALa. bangALa and bEgaDa are closely related and we find 'vallabha nAyakasya' of MD in bEgada. Sri Srivatsa sang 'vallabha nAyakasya'. The beauty of the line 'kALi kalAmAlini kamalAkshi sannutasya' was explained as to how, the idea of him being worship by durgA lakshmi and saraswathi was brought out with words starting with the sylable 'ka'.

bEgaDa rAgam can be used to produced to portray all the rasams. Thyagaraja kriti 'bhaktuni cAritramu' was presented as an example for the usage of bEgaDa to portray 'shAnta rasam'. The kriti is like announcing to the public 'oh people come and listen to the story of a bhakta'. The tiruvottiyur pancharatnam, 'sundari nannintarilO' was presented to show 'adbutha rasam'. This kriti also has a lot of special prayOgams and some amazingly structured 'prAsam'.

There are 10 varNam in bEgaDa. 2 AnnamAcharya kritis are said to have the marking as bEgaDa in the copper plates. There are Purandara Dasa kritis. 17 compositions of the trinity are known. 10 by Thyagaraja, 4 by Dikshitar and 3 by Shyama Sastri. All the three of them have handled bEgaDa in a very similar fashion. Thyagaraja was the ultimate bhakta, Dikshitar was the jnAni and Shyama Sastri was a karma yogi.

The Shyama Sastri varNam 'dayAnidhE' was sung till the muktAyi svarams, to show the nice prayOgams that are composed. especially the 'm m g r s/n n d d p/m m g r s' prayOgam was highlighted.

Muttuswami Dikshitar's 'srI mAtAh sivavAmAngE' was sung to show the usage of a lot of tArasthAyi prayOgams and also to highlight the lyrical beauty. Composed on the Goddess Akhilandeswari of thiruvanaikkaval, MD addresses 'Lord JambukEsvarA' as the son-in-law of 'himavAn' and not as the husband of the Goddess. This is because, she is a tapasvini at the particular kshEtram.

Thyagaraja kriti, 'nIvErA kuladanamu' was presented highlighting the bhakti rasam. Thyagaraja says that Lord Rama is his ultimate wealth and he is kept safe in the heart of thyagaraja. The usage of 'dharaNi shashAnka lOcana' where 'dharaNi' refers to the sun god, and it is names of one of the 12 suriyans, was highlighted.

Sri Srivatsa also presented a own composition, 'aiyyanE ainkaranE' set to Adi tALam.

The next was the magum opus, 'nAdOpAsana'. It was mentioned that this kriti is a very heavy piece and has a lot of rare special prayOgams. The word 'svathantrulu' is supposed to be interpreted as 'somebody who practices by himself' and not as 'somebody who doesnt budge to others'.

The only composition of Shyama sastri on Lord Muruga (muttukumAra svAmi of vaiteeswaran kovil) is set in bEgaDa. The more popular 'kAmAkshi nAtO' was presented as an example of a madhyama kAla composition. The rare 'madurAmbikAyAh tavadAsOham' of MD was also rendered. The thiruppAvai ' ellE iLangiLiyE' was next in line.

Sri Srivatsa mentioned the presence of all forms of compositions in bEgaDa, from gItams to tillAnAs. The presence of a beautiful gItam 'caturanga pankaja' was mentioned.

The svAti tirunal piece, karuNAkara mAmava, was mentioned for its 'gA r s/nI d p/mA g r' and 'gA r s/nI d p/gA r s' prayOgams. Presence of 2 svati tirunal pieces was mentioned. Also mentioned were the tamil padam 'padari varugudu', Kshetragna padam 'yAla padarE' and the jAvaLi 'iti nIku mariyada' was sung.

Bottomline: bEgaDa rAgam is the treasure of carnatic music.

PS: some parts of this write up is in first person, while others are in third person. All that is written is from what i took down during the lec-dem. Lack of grammar is severely regretted.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 30 Oct 2007, 03:20

Bharath,
Thank you. I have been to one of Srivatsa's lecture on Shyama Shastri and Carnatica Bros gave a concert. I thoroughly enjoyed his presentation. His erudition and his capacity to educate in a very pleasing manner endeared him to the audience...

ramakriya · Post by **ramakriya** » 30 Oct 2007, 03:30

Bharart

Very nice post.

Is this (and any other lec-dems of VVS) recorded? If you have access to any recordings, could you share with other rasikas?
Ramakriya

knandago2001 · Post by **knandago2001** » 30 Oct 2007, 08:22

Bharat: Thanks for the really informative coverage on Dr. Srivatsa's lec-dem. I wasn't aware that there is a version of "padari varugudu" in begada. We sing it in kamboji! ... satre nillaDi manam kallODi aDi... Is this the one that was referred to in the lec-dem?

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 30 Oct 2007, 10:23

ramakriya, this is the 5th lec-dem in a series which has seen tODi, shankarAbaraNam, kalyANi and dhanyAsi before. I dont know if they are being recorded. (i hope the organisers are recording them!) I will try to find out if they have recordings and will it be available either commercially or otherwise.

knandago2001, i know that 'padari varugudurugudu' is rendered in kAmbhOji by the Brinda Muktha school. have heard Smt Rama Ravi sing it live as well. However, Sri VV Srivatsa did say 'padari varugudu' tamizh padam. now, is there two different version? or is there a different padam altogether? is it a slip of my hearing or his telling? i dont know. he did mention 'yAla padarE' as the kshetragna padam along with it. so, i dont know!

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 30 Oct 2007, 11:06

I badly wanted to go but I did not dare thanks to the rains that lashed the city throughout the weekend. Anyway, thanks to Bharath for filling us in...

thanjavooran · Post by **thanjavooran** » 31 Oct 2007, 11:53

shri srivatsa cld hv mentioned the beauty of subbaraya shasri's ' sankari nevae ' also

sbala · Post by **sbala** » 31 Oct 2007, 12:47

Just a few more points that I'm quoting from memory.

1. I think what he meant by "Begada mekeda" was singing Begada is in your hands (as in the artiste) .

2. He also mentioned it had no equivalent in Hindustani or other systems of music.

3. He said the Trinity have conceptualised or interpreted the raga in a very similar fashion. That proves the greatness of the raga.

s_hari · Post by **s_hari** » 31 Oct 2007, 22:25

That's a great writeup by bharat! Awsome. Just wondering how can anyone take such a detailed notes and reproduce it...

vs_manjunath · Post by **vs_manjunath** » 01 Nov 2007, 21:41

rbharath-thanks for this write up. I was very keen to know more abt this composer. kArthikEya kamalEkshana in Valachi is a lovely piece by this composer.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 01 Nov 2007, 22:37

vs_manjunath wrote:rbharath-thanks for this write up. I was very keen to know more abt this composer. kArthikEya kamalEkshana in Valachi is a lovely piece by this composer.

which composer?

s_hari · Post by **s_hari** » 02 Nov 2007, 10:26

kArthikEya kamalEkshana is song composed by V.V.Srivatsva. Manjunath was mentioning about this

-hari

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 03 Nov 2007, 10:22

Hi bharath,

What is the only song of SS on lord muruga (vaitheesvaran kovil) that is also set is begada?

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 03 Nov 2007, 10:59

http://www.medieval.org/music/world/car ... ninne.html

sAmi ninne nammitirArA

ANU · Post by **ANU** » 12 Nov 2007, 11:43

V.V.Srivatsa is a lliving encyclopedia. His lec-dems are not just samples of musical expertise but take the spiritually inclined listener to heights of Vedanta and esoterism.