Kamalamba Navavaranam of MD by Dr.Sitha Rajan

[CRama]

Dr.Sitha Rajan and six of her disciples presented a lecture cum demonstration of Kamalamba Navavarana Kritis of Muthuswamy Dikshitar in Krishna Gana Sabha on 25 Feb. There was a power point presentation of the Sree Chakra for each of the day and Dr.Sitha Rajan explained the characterists of the chakram, athidevata, yoginis etc, relevance of the particular talam chosen etc. Herself and her students sang all the avaranas in impeccasble sruti and unison. The rendering and the sangathis were very neat and well rehearsed. The students also sang admirably. The noteworthy aspect of the programme was that the entire group rendered the songs without referring to any note book. It is highly commendable as the songs are difficult in the sahithyam aspect and also in the talam.
There was one particular set of Navavarana kritis rendered by students of Semmangudi I think that included Smt Seetha also besides Smts S.Prema, S.Jaya, Radha Varrier etc. That was the first rendering of Navavarana Kritis which came to the public notice in the seventees. Afterwards many people have rendered. But I felt their rendition most authentic and appealing.

[mahavishnu]

CRama: thanks for your report. No doubt the SSI schcol's authentic stamp would have been seen in this presentation. Smt Seetha Rajan is a great teacher.

Have you the DKP/DKJ version of the navavarnams? I think is the TL Venkatrama Iyer patantaram. Not sure which one came first chronologically though. Nevertheless, I find that style of rendition equally appealing also.

[CRama]

Mahavishnu, I am having DKJ rendering of Navavaranams. DKJ version is also almost similar one. Not much of a difference. I have heard only a couple of songs from DKP. Mani Krishnaswamy is another great artist who has rendered the Navavaranams. I had observed slight variation in patantharam in some of the songs. The best one I like is of Semmangudi students
In the seventees, I was in TVM. TVM Radio used to broadcast that day's song during the Navarathri at 6 AM. in Udayageetham. We were not having alarm time piece in our house. I used to arrange for wake up calls through telephone to get up at 6 AM and record the Navavarana kriti. Thus I made the collection which have been widely circulated since then. I had great fascination for them.
Then all these songs were taught in TVM Radio in Sangeetha padam by Vidwan Sri.R.Krishnaswamy from whom myself and my mother learnt many songs.

[vs_manjunath]

The navAvarna krithi in " ghanta" is always a teaser to learners !

[makham]

Smt Seeta Rajan had released a 2-casette pack containing the Navavarna kritis. This is perhaps one of a very few (or probably the only one!) casettes the artist had chosen to record. I am not sure if it is available in CD form.

[mahavishnu]

Makham: Seetha Rajan has a few other recordings. Most recently, she released two tutorials through Charsur.
http://www.charsur.com/charsur/index.ph ... s_id='1126'

However, these are not concert performances/manodharma sangeetham.
She (along with V Subrahmaniam and others) also released a recording of Shyama Sastry's swarajatis sung in SSI style; perhaps through Swati solutions.