Demo - Simhanandana Tala Pallavi by Smt.Suguna Purushottaman

saveri · Post by **saveri** » 24 Dec 2007, 14:14

This post is to report a musical happening this morning at the Music Academy, by a versatile arist on a very complicated facet of Carnatic Music.

The versatile artist - Suguna Purushottaman
The event - Demonstration on Simhanandana Tala Pallavi

The accompanists - Charaluta Ramanujam (Violin), Thanjavur Kumar (Mridangam)

Smt.Suguna Purushottaman, rendered a pallavi in Simhanandana Tala at the mini hall at Music Academy,in the raga Todi.

This listener is not going to even attempt to explain the tala or the pallavi structure as is normally followed by many in several posts.

What i'm attempting here is to tell all those rasikas , who may have missed this mornings session, is that , here is an invaluable treasure in CM and that there are still vidwans and vidushis, who cherish it and slog to keep it alive with all their might.

It suffices to say that , Simhanandana tala is the longest tala with 128 aksharas, with angas such as Guru, Laghu, Plutam,Dhrutam and Kaakapaadham.

The Spectrum goes thus as understood by this (lay listener):

G G L P L G D D G G L P L P G L L K
_____________________________ (for those who may be interested in the structure) .

Suguna mami, chose Todi as her raga and had coined the pallavi line on Lord Narasimha. This was itself very creative as the word Simhanandana came in the pallavi line .

What was very interesting and awesome was that she presented the entire pallavi, with so much ease and dexterity, as though she breathes it every day. ( Some of us even have difficulty with that and do it wrongly !!!)

Not once was the beat missed, or not once did she feel the strain of having to keep up.

The melody of the raga was kept up with apt swaras at different words of the pallavi, thereby accentuating the meaning of the words.

The only genius of yesteryears to have performed a pallavi in this Tala, has been Sangita Kalanidhi.Sri.Mudicondan Venkatarama Iyer, whose demonstration of the same in the Academy is till date being remembered with great awe and wonder.

Though I do not wish to rake up a gender issue here, it however seems inevitable in this context, as Pallavis in general, has been and is still to some extent, being thought about as a male preserve. ( This stems from the Maths issue - men are better in maths than women).

Smt.Suguna Purushottaman, proved singularly that maths is not a male preserve and that it is the preserve of an intelligent mind and that mind has no gender. It only needs spark and polish.

As Sri.B.Krishnamoorthy summed up the session, he said that she has disproved the gender theory and also praised her on her "anaayasam" and good cheer on stage.

Charulatha Ramanujam (one more woman), more than matched expectations, again showing people that a "female violinist" is more than a match on stage. Sri Thanjavur Kumar, a veteran added a lot of flavour to the session.

Today's session was dedicated to Smt. Veena Dhannammal, a music connoisseur, a matchless woman herself, ironically though, a musician who did not believe in presenting pallavis or even swaras for her songs.!

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 24 Dec 2007, 14:33

Wow - must have been excellent. Suguna Mami is also a composer of compelling merit, with some excellent compositions set very artfully in rare talas.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 25 Dec 2007, 00:48

Thanks Saveri.

Where did the arudhi fall in the sequence G G L P L G D D G G L P L P G L L K ? Somewhere in the neighborhood of the 65th beat?

Was the gathi chathusram?

saveri · Post by **saveri** » 25 Dec 2007, 11:45

If i remember right (?), after the D D

saveri · Post by **saveri** » 25 Dec 2007, 11:45

If i remember right (?), after the D D

Gathis was chaturasram

kmrasika · Post by **kmrasika** » 26 Dec 2007, 11:20

saveri: Could you explain the motion for plutam, kAkApadham and laghu? I know guru refers to a hit on the thigh followed by holding the hand in the thumbs-up motion and circling clockwise in 8 counts (as if paying obeisance to the 8 directions).

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 26 Dec 2007, 15:41

plitam is one beat and 2 veechu
kAkapAdam is one beat and 3 veech

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 26 Dec 2007, 20:14

Actually, a hit on the thigh is not corrrect theoretically; it should be a hit on the palm of the up-turned hand.

Kakapadam is not one beat and 3 waves --- I think it is one clap followed by three finger counts, followed by three sets of four finger counts. These are given down, up, right and left (not sure about the order), and the name comes from the "crow's foot" appearance of the downward finger counts.

This is my one single piece of obscure carnatic knowledge!