jalajakshi ninnedabasi Varnam, Hamsadhwani Raga

[kzivraj]

Hello everyone,

I know that some varnams are more suited for Bharatanatyam while the others are best suited for vocals or instruments alone. My colleague who is a Veena player forwarded me the lyrics and the notation for the Varnam Jalajakshi Ninnedabasi in Hamswadhwani.

I looked up online to see if anyone has worked on this varnam for dance purposes but could not find any information. All I could manage to get were some links of musicians performing this Varnam either on vocals or the violin.

The fact that it is not a popular varnam for dance (at least based on the information available online) makes me wonder what could be the specific reason for this. Would all the experts in this forum be willing to share their knowledge on this and explain why this might be the case? The lyrics are beautiful so not sure why not many people dance to it despite of the fact that it commonly learnt by Carnatic music students.

Look forward to hearing about this.

Best wishes,
Krishna

[Lakshman]

For those who want to try your expertise, here are the lyrics.

jalajAkSa ninneDabAsi (tv). rAgA: hamsadhvani. Adi tALA. Composer: Patnam Subramania Iyer/Manambuchavadi Venkatasubbier.

P: jalajAkSa ninneDabAsi cAla marulu konnadirA
A: celiyanEla rAvadEmirA celuvuDaina shrI venkaTEsha
C: nI sATi dora nEgAna

[Umesh]

This is a taana varnam, so it offers very little scope for dance (at least as a main piece). More appropriate would be a padavarnam or daruvarnam, which contain multiple sahitya passages. There are many padavarnams with themes similar to this taana varnam.

[kzivraj]

Thank you Umesh for your explanation. Makes sense to me now. If you don't mind could you please give me a few examples of padavarnams that have similar themes?

Thank you once again.
Best wishes,

Krishna

[Umesh]

Many sringara varnams (which form the majority of the padavarnam corpus) will fit the bill. Sami ninne kori naanura is one such famous varnam. Other Thanjavur Quartet varnams are similar.

[kzivraj]

Dear Umesh,

Many thanks for your suggestion on the pada varnam. Its surely a useful guide for me.

Best wishes,

Krishna