Abhayamba Vibhakti

sUryAgnicandramaNDalamadhyavAsinIM
sukhatarapravarttinIM svetaranivAsinIm
AcAryashiSyAnugrahakaraNashaktipradApArakaruNAM
caryAdicatuSTayavitaraNasamarthataracaraNAM aruNAm

caraNam

nandanavanotpAdanapuSpamAlikAM
vandanAlayAdiprasthApanadivya
candanAkarSaNasthalashuddhikaraNa-
vandanastotrAdipaThanabhaktasevAnAm
mandadhIharaNacaryAyutamAnavAnAM dharmamaya
svacchandashivasAlokyadAyakacaturataraharanaTabhairavIM
mandasmitavilasita mukhAravindAM guruguhAmbikAM
mukundasodarIM mahAtripurasundarImAnandalaharIm

Meaning

This k.rti is in dvitIyA vibhakti abhayAmbAM;
The basic anvayam (word order) would be -
re citta ! abhayAmbAM bhaja | re citta! santataM avidyakAryakalanAM tyaja -
Every occurrence of the pronoun "who" below qualifies the accusative case "abhayAmbAM" (ending in the syllable "AM", or "IM")

pallavi

Oh mind! always worship the supreme one, Goddess abhayAmba;
(Oh mind!) forgo everything asociated with ignorance! Worship Her -
who is without beginning, middle, and end, and who is always in the company of Lord shiva.

anupallavi

who dwells in the center of the orbits of the sun, fire and the moon;
who gives eternal bliss;
who resides in herself and everything else (pervades the entire universe);
who has unlimited mercy in giving strength to bring about the grace
of the preceptor and disciples;
who possesses holy feet that are adept in bestowing the four fold perseverance in religious austerities beginning with "carya" and who is the one of reddish hue.

caraNaM

who wears the garland of flowers selected from the heavenly forest nandana;
who is served by the devotees who are always engaged in grinding the sandal paste, purifying the place of worship, prostrating, singing devotional songs and chanting hymns;
who protects the people engaged in virtuous acts for removal of ignorance;
who is dancing bhairavi; the consort of shiva, skilful in bestowing a place in the abode of shiva, which is full of virtues, where one can move about freely;
who has a lotus like face beaming with sweet smile;
who is the mother of guruguha,
who is the sister of Lord viShNu;
who is the great tripurasundari, and
who is the flood of infinite bliss!

NOTES

One observes the winding word conjunctions and constructions in this k.rti. The caraNam line contains some really lengthy words, which makes it difficult to render proper English translation:

vandanAlayAdiprasthApanadivya
candanAkarSaNasthalashuddhikaraNa-
vandanastotrAdipaThanabhaktasevAnAm

is just a single word, which is also a real tongue-twister, one of the many long words used by dIkSitar! The book "Dikshita Krithi Muktavaki" by K. N. Shrinivasan (Srirangam 1996) gives all these four lines as a single word (making it much longer) as

nandanavanotpAdanapuSpamAlikA-
vandanAlayAdiprasthApanadivya
candanAkarSaNasthalashuddhikaraNa-
vandanastotrAdipaThanabhaktasevAnAm

Also, dharmamaya svacchandashivasAlokyadAyakacaturataraharanaTabhairavIM is another word, again a tongue-twister! (We will see more lengthy words in later songs of this series)

These lines describe the various austerities that a true devotee undertakes to obtain full blessings of the goddess. Some of these are (I) gathering fresh flowers from the heavenly forest nandana, and make garlands for Her, (ii) grind sandal paste for decorating her, (iii) clean and purify the place of Her worship, (iv) prostrate before her, (v) chant sacred hymns, (vi ) sing devotional songs in praise of Her, and (vii) engage in virtuous activities.

The dvitIyA vibhakti words ending in "IM", "AM", provide pleasant antya akSara prAsam.

The rAga mudra, bhairavi is present in the phrase naTabhairavIM.

RAGAM bhairavi

A janyam of mELam 20 naTabhairavi.

ArOhaNam: sa ri ga ma pa dha ni Sa (also sa ga ri ga ma pa dha ni sa)
avarOhaNam: Sa ni dha pa ma ga ri sa.

Even though it is a sampUrNa-sampUrNa (7 - 7) rAgam, the difference between bhairavi and its parent mELam naTabhairavi comes from the usage of an "anya" svaram (external note), thus making bhairavi a bhASAN^ga rAgam. Notes taken are catushruti ri, sAdhAraNa ga, shuddha ma, both shuddha and catushruti dha, and kaiSiki ni.. Note that both shuddha dha and catushruti dha are present, the latter appearing in the ArOhanam as an anya svaram. .No doubt, bhairavi gets its beauty by the presence of this extraneous note. Catushruti dha occus in phrases pa dha ni Sa; pa dha ni Sa Ri; pa dha ni dha ni Sa. and so forth. In the phrase pa dha ni dha pa, both dhaivatams are featured, the first dha is catushruti dhaivatam, and the second one is shuddha dhaivatam. The chAya svarams are ri, ga, ma and ni; The nyAsa svarams are ri, pa, ma and ni; The notes ri, ga, ma, and ni occur as kampita svarams. Usage of jaNTa, and dATTU prayogams add beauty to this rAgam. The phrase sa ga ri ga ma; ri ma gA ri sa; pa dha ni dha mA; ma pa gA ri sa, etc brings out the rAgam colorfully. Bhairavi is a rakti rAgam, that gives ample scope for detailed AlApana.

bhairavi is an ancient rAgam that can be traced to the SaDja grama, and the kaishika paNN of the tEvAram hymns. This rAgam is mentioned in saN^gIta ratnAkara, saN^gIta makarandam, and saN^gItasamayasAra. It is the ninth meLam among the ninteen prasiddha meLams mentioned by Venkatamakhin.

bhairavi lends itself to all sorts of compositions due its impressiveness, but I have not seen a tillAna in bhairavi. For pallavi expositions, bhairavi is a prominent candidate.

All the members of the trinity have contributed generously to bhairavi. We have k.rtis of dIkSitar" bAlagOpAla, citaya mAkandamUlakandam, devI jagadIshvari, lalitambikayai, shrIkamalAmbikayaH param", and "trilOcanamOhinIm", in additipon to the abhayAma k.rti we are discussing now. Tyagaraja has his share of bhairavi in the 18 compositions of which the popular ones are: "upacAramu je sevva, upacaramulanu, enATi nOmu phalamu, koluvayunnaDe, tanayuni brova, nIvaNTi daivamu, rakSa beTTare, rAma kodanDarAma, lalite shrIprav.rdde, shrInAradamuni, shrIraghuvara". On the other hand, shyAma sAsrti, who excelled in Anandabhairavi has only three compositions in bhairavi, the ever popular svarajati "kAmAksi anudinamu the gItam "maRavakane,", and the k.rtis "pArvati janani bhavAni", and "sari yevaramma". SvAti tirunAL mahArAaja has composed a large number of songs in bhairavi that include "jananI mAmava" (navarAtri k.rti), "ambhOjanAbha mAm pAlaya", and "vasundharAtanaya". The crowning jewel among bhairavi compositions is indeed the aTa tALa varNam, "viribhoNi", elegantly penned by paccimiriyam Adiyappa, In the endless list of songs in bhairavi, the following are popular - "nI pAdamule" (Patan subrahmanya iyer), "shrI pArthasArathe" (Mysore Sadashiva Rao), "yArukku ponnambalam" (Gopalakrishna Bharathi). There are numerous padams by kSetraj~na and Ghanam Krishna Iyer, and the famous taraN^gam, "jaya jaya gokula bAla" (Narayanatirtha), The rAma nATaka song "yArO ivar yAro" by aruNAcala kavi, set originally to sAvEri, is sung these days in bhairavi.

<< Day 2: abhayAmbA jagadambA (Article; Audio )

Day 4: girijayA ajayA (Article; Audio ) >>

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