Swathi Sangeetotsavam 2014

[makham]

The penultimate day of Swathi Sangeetotsavam 2014 featured a unique thematic concert on Swathi Thirunal’s versatility by Seeta Rajan and her group Balabrundham. This was claimed to be a non- concert (not in the TMK sense) because one could not expect raga alapana, neraval, swaram, violin replies, tani avartanam etc.. It could not be called a lec-dem because the “lec “part was very short. A brief introduction about the song, and the context was given by Dr Achutsankar who has done extensive research on the subject.

Musically it was a wonderful demonstration of intense sadhana , the multiple voices synchronizing to the microsecond and sounding as one. Embar Kannan and Arjun Ganesh had worked with the team in presenting the program and this showed in their flawless execution. Every participant knew exactly what to do and when including when to keep quiet. This was supposed to be an educative event and hence not much of manodharmam aspect was presented except for one bout of sarvalaghu swaras in Hamsanandhi. The song list along with some notes that I have managed to recall from memory are given below. Anyone else who was present is free to add further details.

1. Sarasija naabha nin – Saurashtram – Utsava sampradaya kriti describing the return of the deity after the Arat. Arat is a half yearly festival in which the deities of Padmanabha, Krishna and Narasimha are taken to the Sankumukham beach for a bath and brought back. The members of the royal family in their traditional costume and other devotees accompany the procession on foot.On these two days in the year when Arat is celebrated, the flights in the afternoon are rescheduled because the Arat path cuts across the runway. The opening piece indicates that Lord Padmanabaha takes precedence over the sthalam or the composer.
2. Seve Sree Padmanabham anisam – Mohanam - depicts the history of Trivandrum , a sthala puranam giving the topographical features including the Padma teertham tank.
3. Parama purusha nanu – Aahiri – the kriti from Navaratnamala enunciating the dasya bhava, one of the navavidha bhakthi paths.
4. Slokam in Begada from Bhakthi manjari , a work that seems to have been inspired by Naaraayaneeyam.
5. Madhava loka nam – Jonepuri – from the work Kuchelopakyanam depicting the surprise that awaited Kuchela when he returned after visiting Krishna; while going to meet Krishna the only concern for Kuchela was whether Krishna would remember him and once the recognition happened Kuchela did not feel like asking for any favours.
6. Pannagendra – Ragamalika in 8 ragas – this item represents Madhura bhakthi bhava probably inspired by Jayadeva’s Ashtapadhi – a Telugu version of this song was recorded in 1907. Embar Kannan’s initiation of each raga was very competently done. When Swathi Thirunal was witnessing a dance performance of this item in the Kuthiramalika palace, it seems that the last stanza in Bhoopalam was sung so well around midnight that the King was really misled to think that it was dawn already!
7. Paahimaam Sree Vaageeswari – Kalyani – this is the second of the Navaratri kritis. While there exist other references to the Navaratri festival as the oldest music festival in South India, this is one of the two Swati Thirunal compositions that makes explicit reference to the festival itself.
8. Parama purusham – Lalithapanchamam
9. Narasimha mamava – Aarabhi – Papanasam Sivam in his autobiography makes a reference to the kriti which celebrates the idol of Narasimha being taken in procession during the Arat festival. It may be remembered that Papanasam Sivan studied Sanskrit at a school in Trivandrum before he moved to Madras and started teaching to Veena Balachander.
10. Sree Kumara nagaralaye – Atana – This kriti is in praise of the bhagavathy at Kumaranalloor near Kottayam; the name of the place probably indicates Kumaran alla oor (alla means “not”) to warn listeners not to confuse it with Kumaran Koil near Padmanabhapuram palace.
11. Sankara Srigiri – Hamsanandhi – though Swathi Thirunal had not travelled physically beyond Kottayam/Alleppey, he could undertake mental journey to different pilgrimage centres and describe the deities – the chitra sabha referred here denotes the temple at Courtalam famous for its waterfalls - originally tuned in Raga Gowri but is generally sung in Hamsanandhi for many years now. The oral sollukattus (konnakkol) by Arjun Ganesh added to the exuberance of the singers.
12. Padhasaanathi munijana – Khamboji – good specimen of the usage of swaraksharam by Swathi Thirunal – Chinnaswamy Mudaliar of Chennai in 1893 had created Western notation for about 600 kritis of Thyagaraja; he had also chosen 6 of Swathi’s kritis for being cast in European notation and this song was one of the six.
13. Dhani saamajendra gaamini – Todi – meant as a dance song - appeared in Sangeeta sampradaya pradarsini published in 1904 – indicates the influence of the presence of Ponniah and Vadivelu in Swati’s court.
14. Poondhen nermozhi– Anandabhairavi – Manipravala padham – appears in a publication of 1853 printed at a press adjacent to the Kuthiramalika
15. Valayunniha gnan anisam – another Manipravala padham in Varali
16. Dhanasri thillana – the original tune seems to have been lost and the current tuning in Dhanasri was done by Lalgudi Jayaraman, himself the author of many thillanas.
17. Sohani swaroopa – a raagamala in Dhrupad style wherein the names of 15 ragas are strung together with hardly any space available to dwell on one raga and then make the transition. Seeta Rajan sung this piece twice, the second time after pronouncing the names of the ragas for better clarity. No wonder Rama Varma in his introduction kept referring to her as “Professor”.
18. Khyal in Kamaj
19. Baajatha Murali - Bhajan in Sindhubhairavi
20. Bhujaga sayino – mangalam in Yadukulakhamboji

Indeed a concert with a difference !

[rshankar]

Thank you for the report. I hope the concert was recorded, and will be made available for the rest of us, with no interference from entities that 'own' the Maharaja's works!
By the way, I thought Sankara SrIgiri nAth prabhu kE was tuned in sOhni, the HM equivalent of hamnsAnandi.

[rajeshnat]

Thank you makham for your report , very informative . Smt Seetha Rajan is very erudite musician and has really taken you all in that journey. I wish there is arat once every 3 months so that traffic pollution comes down

[Rasikapriya2013]

Nice review and song list on Seetha Rajan's Swathi concert. There are a hand few of such musicians right now who take the pain to prepare and present a concert and it is sad that such scholars are rarely heard in Chennai. Personally I am not a great fan of group singing but yes I have seen the disciples of Seetha Rajan perform beautifully, and totally in sync including their body language.