Prema RangarAjan@NGS(Mini) on May 21st,2007

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 22 May 2007, 16:58

Accompanied by padmA shankar - violin , kallidarakurichi sivakumAr - mrudangam

pApanAsam Sivan trust conducts a recurrent thematic concert with pApanAsam sivan's composition . The trust is championed by Smt rukmuni ramani, daughter of pApanAsam sivan and NGS secy Shri Krishnaswamy. There was a brief lecdem for about 20 minutes by Shri krishnaswamy,the theme of the concert was saivam(one of the 6 shanmathams where lord shiva is worshipped) . Sivan on Saivam concert started with a number on Lord VinayAka and two krithis on Goddess ambAl , who is always inseperable from Lord ShivA.Interestingly the lecdem covered briefly the succinct message of each of the krithi. Shri krishnaswamy also covered few krithis(other than what was sung) where he explained how pApanAsam sivan has also handled philosophies and vedantas , and made an interesting conclusion that this vaggayekara is many a times associated more for his light krithis.

My first concert experience of Smt PremA rangarAjan was very impressive.

1. aruLpuri ainkaranE (S)- saraswati?
2.umaiyOr baahanE thiruvaruL puri ulaha naadhanE (S)- nAttai
3.SundharEsvaraa neeyE (R)- manirangu
The first was an invocatory krithi , took a long time for me to connect the rAgam saraswati? (still not sure).Excellent swara patterns in saraswati? was followed by a very good nAttai.Vaguely recollect having only heard once thru Shri sethalapathi,the nAttai was very good with a crisp round of swarams. manirangu alApanai was quite good only in the alApanai but the krithi rendition was not that great.

4. ambaa manaNG kanindhunadhu(R N S) -pantuvarAli
neraval in "painthamizh malarp paamaalai soodi "
5. shivAya namavEndren - kuntalavarAli
6. gowri manOHara karunAkarA - gowrimanOhari
The immortal MK thiagarAja bhagavathar sang this ambA manaNG in pantuvarAli , for many many years I have just listened that without even knowing it was sivan's krithi. Oflate heard this wonderful krithi in a carnatic scene when vidwan suryaprakAsh sang it as a submain. In essence for me there is just one reference in carnatic concert.Smt prema sang it very well , the neraval pattern was in a different line "painthamizh malarp paamAlai soodi unpaadha malar paNindhu paadavum vENdum " then the line "indha varam tharuvAy", her manodharmam in both the neraval and swaram was excellent.The kuntalavarAli was a good filler, the gowrimanOhari krthi was impeccable certainly no confusion with kharaharapriyA. The gowrimanOhari krithi has a reference where the vagayekkara connects madurai,thamizh and lord shiva as "madurai valartha sivan"

7. dEvi Sri meenNalOchanNi amba(R N S T) -kalyAni
neraval in "ninnaiyE charaNam ena nambinEnE nithyakalyaaNi yaanunadhadimai"
krithi rendition for 35 minutes
8. uLLamiranguva dhun kadanE - kAnadA
kalyAni a sedate rAgam takes me to a slumbering mood too easily. The rAga alApanai and the violin return was very drowsy almost felt like I had 4 teaspoons of benadryl cough syrup. Thank god,the krithi was excellent ,the anupallavi gave me a good jolt to wake up .The neraval and swarams were sung quite well , with a nice round up of manOdharmam in the second half of kalyAni swaram. Incidentally in this kalyAni krithi the vagayekkara connects Goddess meenAkshi as the one who got the mazhalai thamizh. The best number was the apoorva kAnaDA krithi,the thamizh appeared very very difficult,with smt prema handling it very well with an extraordinary ease.Her kAnadA had amazingly rich musical kAnadA sowkhyam ,the krithi was more like hearing the popular sukhi evarO

9A. viruththam "oru marundhAgi ullAi umburOdu ullagukkellam" - behAg + dhanyAsi? + sahanA + shuruTTi
9B. shivaperumAn kripai vendum - shuruTTi
The same line was taken for the viruththam in all the four rAgas ,particularly liked the dhanyAsi? and sahanA the most.THe last popular number in shuruTTi was sung very well. The violinst Smt padma shankar was very good in return and her alApanais in pantuvarAli and kalyAni was just good .The mrudangist played very aptly for all the songs and had lot of strokes. I had to attend a call so could not hear his tani fully.

Overall Smt premA appeared to handle a lot of unfamiliar krithis with remarkable ease with her diction. Certainly the difficulty of thamizh language did not take the carnatic musical experience, perhaps the credit should be shared by Smt Prema and the immortal pApanAsam sivan.

Interestingly Smt rukmani ramani (youngest daughter of sivan)has helped her dad to bring about 400 of 2000 compositions by notating them. She made a passing comment , that before I took up at the age of 16 , lot of compositions only her dad ,her sister (smt neelA ramamurthy) ,she and her brothers just knew how to sing them , but those 1600 are all gone now.

mahakavi/arasi/cmlover,
There was a mention in the viruththam and in few krithis as "aalavAiyiL appanE". How is lord shiva called as aalavAiyiL appanE? Can one of you throw some light?

108talas · Post by **108talas** » 22 May 2007, 17:27

Lord Shiva's coiled snake plucked its tail with mouth and showed the city's direction, hence, it is called "Aalavai" in Tamil (source : google)

mahakavi · Post by **mahakavi** » 22 May 2007, 20:26

There are several interpretations as to the name AlavAy being associated with Madurai.
In tEvAram it is mentioned (sambandar's tirumuRai--tirunIRRup padigam) as tiru AlavAy.

hAla (Skt) means poison which gets modified as Ala in Thamizh. vAy is definitely Thamizh meaning mouth. Thus AlavAy means "poison in the mouth" thus referring to the serpent. One reference indicates that Madurai got its boundaries indicated by a coiled snake with its tail in its mouth. But the connection with AlavAy (poison in mouth) with the serpent eating its own tail to indicate the city----hmmmmmmm, I can't fathom that.

The name derivation can also be thought of as Al(am) + vAy = AlavAy. Al (or Alam) means the banyan tree (Ala maram in Thamizh;vaTa vruksham in Skt). vAy is just the location. (cf. alaivAy = the mouth of the waves or shore; tiruccIralaivAy = tiruccendUr). So AlavAy can be taken to mean "the banyan tree location". One reference says that at one time there was a central place with a banyan tree in Madurai when the city was a small place. It also says that dakshiNAmUrti is located at the banyan tree place .

If the above explanation is "as clear as mud" I tend to agree!

Lord Shiva has been variously called as AlavAy azhagan or AlavAy appan in addition to Sundareswarar.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 22 May 2007, 22:28

There is a temple close to Madras (appropriately, close to the shore) where the episode of the halAhalam is supposed to have taken place, after which, a tired Siva reportedly rested with his head on pArvatI's lap - details are fuzzy, but I remember that the amman sannidhi is on higher ground than the swAmi sannidhi (very distinctive, as it is usually the opposite in most temples), and ambAl is called sarva mangaLA (very appropraite, considering that she 'saved' her mAngalyam by preventing the poison from spreading further and harming Siva)...I don't think madurai and AlavAy refers to this episode - too far from the shore for one (after all it was sAgar manthan that threw up the halAhalam). The explanation of the snake coiling around the city to mark it's boundaries is what I have heard for many, many years....

thanjavur · Post by **thanjavur** » 22 May 2007, 22:43

rshankar wrote:after all it was sAgar manthan that threw up the halAhalam

Was it not Vasuki the serpent that threw up the halAhalam ?

mahakavi · Post by **mahakavi** » 22 May 2007, 22:49

I am not sure if I know my mythology right. To the extent I know, vAsuki did not throw up the poison. It only breathed poisonous vapors which were inhaled by the asurAs who held the head portion. As for the hAlAhalam it came out first like a cream from the milky ocean--a bad thing came out first before all the good things. My info may not be the right one either.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 23 May 2007, 22:49

mahakavi wrote:ThAla (Skt) means poison which gets modified as Ala in Thamizh.

The kAncI mahA swAmi in his kAmAkshi suprabbhAtam addresses the dEvi as - tvam hAlAsya nAthasyanu mIna nEtra, ekAmra nAthasyanu kAma nEtra...
From that, I deduce that hAlAsya nAtha is sundarESwara, and hAlAsya is therefore, madurai...

hAlAsya according to the Cologne Sanskrit Lexicon means a place sacred to Siva - no clue how hAlAsya became synonymous with madurai.

So, AlavAy may be derived from hAlAsya as well....

halAhalam appeared from the sea and not from vAsuki....

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 24 May 2007, 11:27

rshankar wrote:There is a temple close to Madras (appropriately, close to the shore) where the episode of the halAhalam is supposed to have taken place,..

There is a similar episode about Alangudi temple (gurursthalam).

Ragjay · Post by **Ragjay** » 24 May 2007, 16:13

Mrs Prema Rangarajan is a former Bank officer who sought Voluntary retirement from the Bank to pursue a career in music, She has learnt a large number of rare krithis from various Gurus and can effortlessly sing for any thematic concert One of the very dedicated and deserving artist who has not got the due recognition ragjay

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 24 May 2007, 18:53

http://www.sendspace.com/file/a4gfdx

06 Maha Thripurasundari-Valaji.mp3

Let me know if more from this artist needs to be uploaded.
I can do it on a separate thread.

thanjavur · Post by **thanjavur** » 24 May 2007, 19:18

Sangeethapriya - TVG concert link
01 MELUKO VAIYYA RAMA - BOWLI
02 NALINALOCHANA NEEVU - MADHYAMAAVATHI
03 MADHURAMBIKAYAM SADHA -DESI SIMHAARAVAM (HEMAVATHI)
04 APAHARA (THIRUPPUGAZH)- CHAKARAVAGAM

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 24 May 2007, 20:02

Rajesh,
A great review.
Viruththam singing is increasing on the concert stage which pleases me no end. I like the way you have labeled them as A and the following kriti as B. Makes it easy to see the connection and also doesn't add to the number of items. Your format of highlighting the kritis and writing about them individually makes it interesting and easy to read. Carry on with your critiques!