Thodaya mangalam

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 10 Nov 2008, 21:52

What is the meaning of the word "Thodaya" and how did the practice of singing thodaya mangalam start?

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 10 Nov 2008, 23:10

VKR,

tODayam in tamizh is a 'song' sung at the beginning of a play/nATak invoking the blessings of the Gods, and is a rather ancient practice - tODaya mangaLam is therefore a song/composition that invokes an auspicious beginning. I am not sure if bhAgavata mELam, or yakSagAna of today begin with some form of this, but a tODayamangaLam is one of the invocatory items in a bharatanATyam performance, usually presented after the pushpAnjalI/mallAri. I have seen it mostly in dancers from the vazhuvUr schools - Umesh/Parimal/Avnipriya/Kala/Ambika or other dancer members can chime in and correct me here.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 Nov 2008, 01:29

I am not familiar with the word 'tODayam' in Tamil. It may be a word that is not used much in normal speech anymore. Is this somehow related to other words that are phonetically similar that denote 'beginning' or 'start' like 'toDangal' etc.? Just curious.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 11 Nov 2008, 01:34

kalakshetra schools also do this

Arun

Rasikaas · Post by **Rasikaas** » 11 Nov 2008, 03:05

Thodaya mangalam is definitely a reference to the invocatory ritual at the beginning of the dance program.
This topic has been earlier been touched upon while discussing mallaris at http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2583/mallari-dance-item/

Thodaya Mangalam seems to be a part of Bhajana sampradaya of the South too... with Bhadrachala Ramadas and Annamacharya being the credited composers of popular thodaya mangalams. http://www.naamasankeerthanam.com/ThodyaMangalam.htm

Serfoji II was the Maratha ruler of Tanjavur from 1798 to 1832. He was a great patron of Bharatanatyam and himself wrote many Nirupanams for dance in the Marathi language but in Karnatic ragas. In his time there were eighteen items in a Bharatanatyam performance and these were
1)Jayastuti

2) Sharanu Sharanu

3) Alaru (This was perhaps Alarippu)

4) Sollu

5) Shabdam

6) Varnam

7) Padam

8) Swarajati

9) Abhinaya Padam

10) Tillana

11) Abhinaya Padam

12) Jakkini Padam

13) Geetham

14) Prabandham

15) Triputa

16) Shloka Varnam

17) Kavuthuvam

18) Mangale

Though the term thodaya Mangalam itself isnt mentioned here, it may correspond to Jayastuti or Sharanu Sharanu

Mr. Shankar was right in saying that mellatur Bhagavatha mela sampradaya also includes the Thodaya Mangalam
There is also this thodayam in the Kerala region and is incidentally the part of the invocation practice in Kathakali too. Not sure if it is theone and the same ( S. Bhageya lakshmi in her book emphatically says it is different.. but doesnt explain the difference - probably in the stylistic presentation)

Ms. Padma Subrahmanyam in her Tamil book "Bharatha Kalai Kotpaadu" while talking about Thodaya mangalam says that these are composed on the presiding deities of the particular region and arent necessarily danced to..implying that the Thodaya Mangalam itself maybe only sang by the accompanists. On this regard one may compare to what has been said in the Purvaranga(preparatory) rites as prescribed in BNS. Bharata says that these rites "causes the destruction of obstacles. The pataya(passages), Natya and Geya (song) and Vaditra(instrumental music) will be on par with the exposition of vedic mantras." He goes on to say that Lord sankara says that sacred song and instrumental music are more conducive to the welfare than 1000's of holy ablutions and japas. He also mentions a term "Nandi" in regard to this purvaranga performance. Nandi is translated as a Verse of benediction.

Sangeetha

kmrasika · Post by **kmrasika** » 11 Nov 2008, 11:45

Thodaya mangalam is definitely a reference to the invocatory ritual at the beginning of the dance program.
This topic has been earlier been touched upon while discussing mallaris at http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2583/mallari-dance-item/

Yes, just wondered whether it pertained to a particular meter (like tOTaka's stuti on bhagavadpAda) as it seems most of them adhere to a certain mathematical formula. aruNAcalakkavi, nIlakaNTha Shivan, sahAja mahArAja, ceyyUr cengalvarAya ShAstri, nArAyaNa tIrtha, ShrI rAmakavi, purandaradAsa and gOpAlakr.shNa bhArati are some composers of this form of composition.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 11 Nov 2008, 22:23

This piece also looks like a tODayamangaLam to me - (kalAkSEtra style) - and if the tagging is to be believed, a contemporary composition of the Dhananjayans. The vocal track is not too clear, but it is evident that many gods are invoked, concluding with the guru vandana. As an added measure, this piece shows the trademark kalAkSEtra-style taTTimeTTu at several points.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkwlHlV-CnE

Rasikaas · Post by **Rasikaas** » 12 Nov 2008, 04:20

rshankar wrote:This piece also looks like a tODayamangaLam to me - (kalAkSEtra style) - and if the tagging is to be believed, a contemporary composition of the Dhananjayans. The vocal track is not too clear, but it is evidents that many gods are invoked, concluding with the guru vandana. As an added measure, this piece shows the trademark kalAkSEtra-style taTTimeTTu at several points.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkwlHlV-CnE

That is right.. it is in the Kalakshetra paani or closer to VPD style. The composition has various slokas woven into the 5 jaatis, ragamalika invocatory piece. The Talamalika and Ragamalika structure give it the look of a ThodayaMagalam. But I am not sure it is. Mr. VPD calls it Naatyaanjali I think.
If this is indeed a Natyanjali their website describes it as follows "Composed out of various Mandalas, Padachari, Padabhedas etc., and woven into the straits of the five tala (Jaathi) variations, exploiting the anga-pratyanga-upangas, it culminated in the invocation to various deities, thus introducing simple hastas and mudras. A student who is adept in this should be able to know all these theoretical aspects as realized in actual practice. The title was novel, so was the item, combining the ingredients of alarippu, jatiswaram and sabdam put together. Creative, but without deviating from the traditional format, this proved to be very appealing to the public."

Rasikaas · Post by **Rasikaas** » 12 Nov 2008, 04:27

kmrasika wrote:Yes, just wondered whether it pertained to a particular meter (like tOTaka's stuti on bhagavadpAda) as it seems most of them adhere to a certain mathematical formula. aruNAcalakkavi, nIlakaNTha Shivan, sahAja mahArAja, ceyyUr cengalvarAya ShAstri, nArAyaNa tIrtha, ShrI rAmakavi, purandaradAsa and gOpAlakr.shNa bhArati are some composers of this form of composition.

A thought provoking insight ... I have been looking into this angle and there have been quite a few takes, the Bhajana sampardaya and the dancers obviously having different takes on it..

"The Totakashtaka has been composed in the Totaka meter, in which each paada (quarter) has four sa-gana's. Here a sa-gana is made up of two short syllables followed by a long one. The hymn naturally lends itself to be set to music.( http://www.sankeertanam.com/)

This famous hymn composed by Giri in praise of Sri Sankaracharya is called Totakashtakam. This is a beautiful poem in the Totaka metre ( Totaka Vritham has twelve syllables in each line). Even great composers could not easily comprehend Totaka metre!
( http://www.kanchiforum.org/forum/viewto ... &start=50)

Marudaanallur Sadguru, popularly known as Sadguru Swaamigal, traveled the length and breadth of Bhaarata Desam within the short life span of 40 years (1777-1817), and compiled the current tradition which has been kept intact for over 200 years. He brought about true national integration through Sankeertanam by including compositions of eminent Saint Composers from all over India and structured it as a five-part classical tradition. The invocation section (first part) is known as Totaka Mangalam. Traditional dancers have used this section with abandon and there is a misnomer that it is known as Todaya Mangalam, as if the songs are set to Todaya meter. As the five principal songs of this section are set to different meters, the Todaya name does not augur well. The traditional belief is that the first song ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‹Å“Jaya Jaanaki RamanaÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ was from Thotakaacharya, the leading disciple of Adi Sankara. The two that follow are from Annamaacharya, and the last two are from Sri Bodendra Satguru and Sridhara Venkatesa Satguru. (http://www.sankeertanam.com/BhagavanNaa ... rtanam.htm)

I am not qualified enough to decide one way or the other.. would love to hear some musings on this line.
But Thodaya mangalam are in talamalika and do not stick to one metre throughout ... do they?

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 12 Nov 2008, 08:15

rasikaas wrote:But I am not sure it is. Mr. VPD calls it Naatyaanjali I think.
If this is indeed a Natyanjali their website describes it as follows "Composed out of various Mandalas, Padachari, Padabhedas etc., and woven into the straits of the five tala (Jaathi) variations, exploiting the anga-pratyanga-upangas, it culminated in the invocation to various deities, thus introducing simple hastas and mudras. A student who is adept in this should be able to know all these theoretical aspects as realized in actual practice. The title was novel, so was the item, combining the ingredients of alarippu, jatiswaram and sabdam put together. Creative, but without deviating from the traditional format, this proved to be very appealing to the public."

I do not think that this is a nATyAnjali, in the sense that it does not start with a clearly demarcated nrittA section that then leads to the SlOkas. This one seems to be more of a set of SlOkas separated by swaras and jatis.

Rasikaas · Post by **Rasikaas** » 12 Nov 2008, 10:29

I agree with you Mr. Shankar.. It doesn't fit exactly into the description of natyanjali .

Your saying that "This one seems to be more of a set of SlOkas separated by swaras and jatis." comes across as perfect to me.

But I looked around for some Thodaya Mangalam too.

Well while searching the You Tube I saw this Gnana sabesa thodaya mangalam of the Vazhuvoor schools. Is it Smt. radha on the cymbals there? But following the conevention that the Thodayamangalam may not be danced to, the dance itself involves only the entry and the thattikumudu. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rygJlYTzFo

The video of the moe common Thodaya mangalam "Jaya Janaki Ramana" can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHCyeJ7j ... re=related after the first 30 secs.. by Apporva Jayaraman

The words "Jaya Jaya" and Mangalam feature in both the thodaya mangalams

Incidentally I also saw one version of VPD's Natyanjali, a compositon of Guru Ellapa Pillai that he choreographed and christened "Natyanjali" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHDWETtYIqw

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 12 Nov 2008, 10:43

I have posted dakshin sampradaya thodaya mangalam in Bhajan discussion just in case some one likes to listen to those.

Rasikaas · Post by **Rasikaas** » 12 Nov 2008, 19:57

Thanks for the divine music VK Ramanji.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 12 Nov 2008, 21:00

rasikaas wrote:Well while searching the You Tube I saw this Gnana sabesa thodaya mangalam of the Vazhuvoor schools. Is it Smt. radha on the cymbals there? But following the conevention that the Thodayamangalam may not be danced to, the dance itself involves only the entry and the thattikumudu. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rygJlYTzFo

Rasikaas,

That is the gyAna sabhESar kauttuvam/tODaya mangaLam (we discussed it here: http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6977/need-this ... m-lyrics/) that is VERY special to the vazhuvUr school - it is on gyAna sabhESar of vazhuvUr. And yes, the naTTuvanAr is Guru Rhadha.

Rasikaas · Post by **Rasikaas** » 13 Nov 2008, 06:00

Thanks Shankarji.

meenasugi · Post by **meenasugi** » 16 Nov 2008, 17:50

VK RAMAN wrote:I have posted dakshin sampradaya thodaya mangalam in Bhajan discussion just in case some one likes to listen to those.

Dear Mr.Raman
can you please send me a link once again .. sorry I am not able to trace it.. Again can you pot me some audio links of some of the common traditional Sampradaya Bhajans
thanks
meena

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 16 Nov 2008, 20:44

Meena: Here is the link I posted in Bhakti section.
http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=96000/#p96000

Also you can access several bhajans in:
http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?so ... 018&T=8355

ramya135 · Post by **ramya135** » 20 Mar 2019, 16:52

Can someone please help me with lyrics and translation of those lyrics of panchamurthi kavuthuvams... Thank you

Thodaya mangalam

Re: Thodaya mangalam