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His k.rtis
A true devotee, and a composer
par excellance, he did not fail to sing in praise of the various
upa dEvatas (minor deities) in the same shrine, namely, ambADi k.rSNa,
yOga narasimha, and A~njanEya . While a bulk of his compositions is on Lord
padmanAbha , we also find k.rti s dedicated to Anadavalli of padmanAbhapuram,
kumAranallUr bhagavati, shrIkaNTEshvara shiva, harippADu subrahmaNya ,
gaNapati and A~njaneya. The gaNesha gItam , “paripAhi gaNAdhipa” in
sAvEri, “A~njaneya” in sAvEri, on HanumAn, “n.rtyati n.rtyati
sAmbashivo d.rk” in sha”nkarAbharaNam, “narasiMha mAmava” in Arabhi,
are some examples. He has also to his credit, a set of eight
ghana rAga k.rtis
in nATTa, gauLa, varALi, Arabhi, shrI, kEdAram, rItigauLa, and sAra”nganATa.
Also, there are nine compositions on “j~nAna vairAgya” theme (advaita
philosophy).
A total of 391 compositions of svAti tirunAl have been printed
with notation and meaning (with lyrics in sanskrit, diacritical English, and
some in Malayalam), in the very recent, mammoth work by Sa”ngIta kalAnidhi T.
K. Govinda Rao. (slightly smaller number, without notation, but in Malayalam,
along with his all poetical works, appears in Dr V. S. Sharma’s detailed work
on svAti tirunAL).
The k.tis/kIrttanams
can be grouped (according to the deities, and themes) as follows:
Lord padmanAbha/viSNu
86
k.rSNa
26
narasiMha
3
rAma
22
shiva
14
dEvi
6
hanUmAn
1
gaNapati
1
subrahmaNya (harippADu)
1
shrIkaNTeshvaram
1
dashAvatAram
1
tiruvArATTu
1
Anandavalli 1
kumaranallUr bhagavati
1
j~nAna vairAgya k.rti
8
ghanarAga k.rts
8
navarAtri k.,rtis
9
navarahamALika
10
In
addition, the collection, according to various musical styles of composition
can be classified as
k.rtis/kIrttanams (above
list) 200
svarajati
7
stava varNam
8
sh.r”ngAra padam
16
sanskrirt padams
6
maNiparvALA padam
50
kannada jAvali
1
telugu padam/jAvali
10
tillAnA
6
kucElOpAkhyanam
10
ajAmiLOpAkhyanam
9
utsava prabandham
12
hindusthAni
compositions 37
rAgamalika
5
ma”ngaLam
3
miscellaneous 11
Carnatica’s COMPOSITION BANK contains lyrics of some of these k.rtis:
His masterpieces
(i) the navarAtri k.rti
series --- meant specially to sung in the pUjA maNDapam of the Palace
during the dasara festivel (navarAtri) , one for each day. This
practice is maintained even today.
The series is
-
dEvI jajjanani ---
sha”nkarAbharaNam (Adi)
-
pAhimAM shrI vAgIshvari ---
kalyANi (Adi)
-
dEvI pAvanE --- sAveri (Adi)
-
bhArati mAmava --- tODi (Adi)
-
jananI mAmavAmEyE ---
bhairavi (tripuTa)
-
sarOruhAsana jAyE ---
pantuvarALi (Adi)
-
jananI pAhi --- shuddha
sAveri (tripuTa)
-
pAhi jananI ---
nATTakura~nji (tripuTa)
-
pAhi parvatanandini ---
Arabhi (Adi)
LYRICS IN SANSKRIT/DIACRITICAL ENGLISH with
AUDIO FILES
(ii) the navaratna mAlikA
, a series of nine kIrtanams, is on the nine forms of bhakti,
namely, shravanam, kItanam, smaraNam,
arccanam, padasEvanam, vandanam, dAsyam, sakhyam,
AtmanivEdanam. These k.rtis are specially composed to be sung in the
shrine of Goddess sarasvati, at the Big palace, during the navarAtri festivel
days. These are:
-
bhavadIya kathA --- bhairavi
(Adi)
-
tAvaka nAmAni ---
kEdAragauLa (jhaMpa)
-
satatam saMsmarAmi ---
nIlambari (tripuTa)
-
pa”nkajAkSa tava --- tODi (rUpakam)
-
ArAdhayAmi --- bilahari (tripuTa)
-
vande dEva dEva --- bEgaDa (rUpakam)
-
parama puruSa --- Ahiri (tripuTa)
-
bhavati vishvAsO --- mukhAri
(tripuTa)
-
dEva dEva kalpayAmi ---
nAdanAmakriyA (rUpakam)
(iii) a third group of 10
compositions go under the name utsava prabhandam . All these are in
maNipravALam (Malayalam and Sanskrit). Commencing with a set of 6 shlokams,
as a benediction (called avatArika) , the first k.rti is in mOhanam,
followed by 5 shlokams. Then one k.rti for each day of the utsavam,
with a prefix of one or more shlokams, till the10th day, then a
samApana shlokam (concluding hymn), ending with the ma”ngaLa k.rti
. Some of these k.rtis are long, and the caraNam runs to several stanzas.
The entire piece is poetically very appealing. There is a total of 42
shlokams. The k.rti list is given below:-
-
Invocation ---
pa”nkajanAbhotsavam --- mOhanam
-
First day ---
pa~ncasAyakajanakan --- nIlambari
-
Second Day ---
pa”nkajAkSanAm --- tODi
-
Third Day --- kanakamaya ---
husEni
-
Fourth Day ---
AndoLikAvAhanE --- Anandabhairavi
-
Fifth Day --- syAnandUreshan---
kura~nji
-
Sixth Day --- indirApati ---
navarOj
-
Seventh Day --- shibikayil
--- ma”ngaLakaishika
-
Eighth Day --- nIlappuri ---
yadukulakAmbhOji
-
Ninth Day --- sharadindu ---
kAmbhOji
-
Tenth day --- nAgashayananAm
--- pantuvarALi
-
Conclusion ---
sarasijanAbhanin --- saurASd tram
rAgamAlikAs
A rAgamAlikA composition which
is almost synonym with svAti tirunAL is the rAmAyaNa rAgamAlikA “bhAvayAmi
raghurAmam”, originally set by him to rAgam sAvEri, and later carved into
a beautiful rAgamAlikA by Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. The featured rAgams are:
sAvEri, nATTakura~nji, dhanyAshi, mOhanam, mukhAri, pUrvikalyANi and
madhyamAvati. It epitomizes the Adi kAvyam of sage vAlmIki, and his
24000 shlokams are turned into 24 pAdams in six sections, each presenting a
kANDam of this mammoth Epic purANam.
A WRITE-UP, SAHITYAM with
NOTATION, and word for word MEANING of “bhAvayAmi raghurAmam” (last
rAmanavami upload).
Another rAgamAlikA, “pannagEndra shayana”,
in eight stanzas and set in light rAgams, portrays the emotional changes which
comes over the nAyika , as she keeps a vigil for her lord over the eight
watches of the night. The rAgams are also carefully chosen. Beginning with
sha”nkarAbharaNaM, the rAgam of the evening, and continuing with kAmbhOji,
nIlAmbari, bhairavi, tODi, suraTi, nAdanAmakriya, it ends with the rAgam of
the dawn, bhUpALam.
The dashAvatAra rAgamAlikA
“kamalajAsya” is another brilliant composition, which reminds us of
the first canto of Jayadeva's aStapadi, “praLaya payOdhi jalE” . It
has a garland of rAgams consisting of mOhanam, bilahari, dhanyAshi, sAra”nga,
madhyamAvati, athANa, nATTakura~nji, darbAr, Anandabhairavi, and saurASTram.
Lyrics
of dashAvatAra rAgamALika
There are a few rAgamAlikA
shlokams, known as catur rAgamAlikA shlokaM (padyam),
attributed to svAti tirunAL. Here, each line is set to a different rAgam.
There are at least three such pieces. All of them are packed with beautiful
lyric, and each one features the rAga mudra in each line. Rudrapatnam
Brothers, in their 1991 tour, rendered on such rAgamAlikA shlokam, (in
bilahari, varALi, pUrvikalyANi and dhanyAsi) at the CMANA concert (New
Jersey). It runs as follows:
balahari
pada padmAn dEva
chUdAgrajAgran
makuTavara varALI
vrAta dEdIpyamAnAn |
kulisha saphara kumbhI
pUrvikalyANi rekhAn
khalabudha nidhanAsir
ddAnalolAn nathOsmi ||
Two more rAgamAlikA shlOkams
of the mahArAjA are: “kalyANI khalu” (featuring kalyANi, mOhanam,
sAra”nga and sha”nkarAbharaNam), and “sAnandam kamalAmanoharI”,
(employing kamalAmanOhari, haMsadhwani, rEvagupti and tara~ngiNi).
The rAga mudras have been incorporated very appropriately in each line. Even
in his lengthy poetical work, “bhakti ma~njari” he has introduced a
catur-rAgamAlikA shlOkam, “kalyANI vishvaramyA” (in kalyANi, nIlAmbari,
sAra”nga, kApi).
Hindustani Music
A feature that
distinguished svAti tirunAL from other contemporary composers is the facility
with which he composed Hindusthani pieces, employing Hindusthani rAgams. He
has tried a variety of forms like tappa, dhrupad, khyal of the Hindusthani
system, and the forms such as abha”nga, dinDi, auvi, saki of the Marathi
tradition. This led him naturally to adopt several North Indian rAgams like
sindu bhairavi, bEhAg, kApi, hindoLa, kamAs. dhanAshrI, hamIr kalyANi, pUrvi
and bibhas. Who has not heard his tillAna in dhanashrI? Some of his popular
Hindusthani compositions are: “caliyE ku~njana mo” (b.rndAvana sAra”nga),
“dEvan kE pati” (darabAri kAnadDa, “rAmacandra prabhu” (bhairavi),
"sIsa ga”nga bhasma a”nga” (dhanAshrI), and “vishvEshvar darshan
karo” (sindhu bhairavi). A list of 36 Hindusthani k.rtis were set to
notation by S. N. Ratanjankar, and published by the SvAti TirunAL Sangeetha
Sabha in Trivandrum.
Other poetical and scholarly
works
Among the poetical work of
svAti tirunAL, the most important ones are:
(i)
padmanAbha shatakam , a work embodying the theme of bhakti, on the
devotion to Lord, and his ten incarnations; It has 100 shlOkams, arranged in
ten dashakams..
(ii) bhakti ma~njari
, a long and philosophical kAvya , bringing out the nine forms of devotion to
Lord, namely, shravanam, kIrtanam, smaraNam, pAdasEvanam, arccanam,
vandanam, dAsyam, sakhyam and AtmanivEdanam; There are more
than 1000 shlOkams in this great work, arranged in ten shatakams.
(iii)
syAnandUrapuravarNanA prabhandam , a campu (prose, mixed with
poetry), a treatise on the usage of rhythm, and dealing with the glorification
of various temples and the festivals in
Trivandrum.
(iv)
muhana prAsantya prAsAdya vyavasta , a work on figures of speech (shabda
ala”nkAraM) in musical works, based on the compositions of mArgadarshi sheSa
IyengAr,.
(v) kucelOpAkhyAnam
– harikatha
(vi) ajAmiLOpAkhyAnam
- harikatha
(vii) utsava prabhandam,
elaborately describing the festival for each day at the padmanAbha svAmi
temple.
It is interesting that during
a short span of merely 34 years, he accomplished such a mammoth task. It is to
be noted that each of the musical trinity had a larger life span, but they
have not attempted at the numerous forms of composition, in numerous
languages, which svAti tirunAL accomplished, in addition to composing poetical
work not related to music, and his additional royal duties. This indeed is a
remarkable achievement.
Court Musicians
No account of the mahArAjA
will be complete without a mention of the court poets and musicians. There was
Irayimman tampi, the illustrious composer of kathakaLi works, and
several musical compositions. The long list includes tanjAvUr cintAmaNi,
cOlapuram raghunAtha rAyar, pAlghAt paramEswara bhAgavatar, ra”nga iyengAr,
sulaimAn sETh, vidvAn kOiltampurAn, SaTkAla gOvinda mArAr (who was adept in
singing in six kAla - speeds), karIndran (who headed the music group),
mErusvAmy (a harikatha exponent, who became mahArAjA's spiritual precepter),
and shankanAtha (a famous astrologer brought from rANA ra”njit singh's court).
When the Maratha ruler, King sarabhOji of Tanjore, himself a patron of art
and music, passed away, his courtiers moved to Trivandrum, and sought svAti
tirunAL's patronage. Among those who migrated in the manner were four
illustrious brothers, the Tanjore Quartet, ponnaiah, cinnaya, vaDivElu,
shivAnandam. Also there was kaNNayya, a direct disciple of tyAgarAja. Among
the court dancers were one sugandhavalli and ma”nkammAl, both of whom came
from Tanjore.
Association with mArgadarshi
shESayya”ngAr
There is an interesting
relationship between mArgadarshi shESayya”ngAr and svAti tirunAL. Attracted by
the style of the compositions of mArgadarshi shESayya”ngAr, svAti tirunAL
wrote the treatise in Malayalam, known as “muhana rAsanAntya prAsa vyavasta,”
dealing with the principles of proper usage of shabdAlaNkAra, muhana, prAsa,
antyaprAsa in musical compositions in Sanskrit. SvAti tirunAL points out
at the commencement of this work that he gathered the material for this work
from the compositions of shESa rAmAnuja and shESayya”ngAr. There are two
manuscripts of this work, both in Malayalam, in the Palace library in
Trivandrum. In the Kerala
University
manuscript collection, there is a Sanskrit version of the same work. Some of
the quotations of this work can be traced in the manuscript, “shESayya”ngAr
kIrtanaM”, mentioned earlier. While the Malayalam version of muhana
clearly reveals that SvAti tirunAL was the author, there is some doubt as to
whether the Sanskrit version was his work. There is no mention of him
anywhere in this version. The fact that several musicians from Tanjore lived
in his court might explain the existence of such a manuscript.
svAti tirunAL followed the
compositions of mArgadarshi shESayya”ngAr as a model for composing, and or
introducing embelishments like muhana, prAsa, antyaprAsa and
antarukti. Muhana is a shabdAlaNkAra by which the same
letter in the beginning of an Avarta, (or any of its substitutes in
according to some definite rules) occurs in the beginning of the next
Avarta. prAsa is the repetition of the second letter (or a group
of letters) in the first Avarta in the same position in the subsequent
Avartas. antyaprAsa is a prAsa that occurs at the end of
the Avartas. Antarokti is the usage of one or more syllables
between two words which are in muhana or prAsa for the sake of tALa.
svAti tirunAL's compositions abound in these verbal embelishments (Most of
DIkSitar compositions have these features). The similarity of the compositions
of these two personalities is so striking that a few compositions of
mArgadarshi shESayya”ngAr have crept into some of the editions of svATi
tirunAL. As examples of this, the kIrtanam “jayasuguNAlaya” in
bilahari
appears in the “svAti tirunAL sa”ngIta kIrtanaikaL”, compiled by K.
cidambara vAdhyAr (1916). But svAti tirunAL himself cites this as a work of
mArgadarshi shESayya”ngAr, in his muhana, Another example is the
kalyANi k.rti “yojaya padanalinena” found in the k.rti “kOslEndra
mAmava” in madhyamAvati is found in the SarasvAti Mahal Library
Publication. By a strange coincidence, the same k.rti appears in the
collection of svAti tirunAL compositions, complied by Semmangudi Srinivasayyar.
I am unable to decipher the correct authorship. It has the mudra “kOsalaM”,
and not padmanAbha! (This k.rti is featured in the recent
Malayalam Film, “SvAti tirunAL”, and was rendered by Neyyatinkara Vasudevan.
It is available in one of the Tara”ngini
Cassettes.)
Perhaps, the mArgadarshi
shESayya”ngAr k.rti “shrIra”ngashAyinam sakalashubhadAyakam” was
an inspiration for svAti tirunAL to compose his “bhOgendrashAyinam kuru
kushalshAyinam” in kuntALavarALi. Again, shESayya”ngAr has a lengthy
rAmAyaNa k.rti, “pAhi mAM shrIrAmacandra” in punnAgavarALi.
May be svAti tirunAL followed this idea, and composed his famous rAmAyaNa
k.rti, “bhAvayAmi raghurAmam” in sAvEri
The association of svAti
tirunAL with the works of mArgadarshi shESayya”ngAr was through SaTkalA
gOvinda mArAr, a great name associated with the maharAja’s patronage of
music. He was adept in such percussion instruments like ceNDa, maddalam,
eDakka, timila, but above all, he had the remarkable ability in singing a
pallavi in six degrees of speed, which earned him the title SaTkalA. It
was mArAr who brought to the court, a vast number of Tanjore compositions,
that also included mArgadarshi shESayya”ngAr's. The structure, language and
theme associated with these kIrtanams attracted svAti tirunAL and he
adopted them as models for his own compositions.
It is unfortunate that only a
small number of his compositions were gaining popularity. The reasons are
many. Being born in a royal lineage, chances of coming in contact with outside
world was somewhat limited. Nor could he have a galaxy of disciples, who will
popularize his k.rtis. Secondly, a vast majority of his work was in Sanskrit,
not easily appreciated by a common man. Further, the time he lived in was the
golden age of South Indian Music, an age dominated by the Trinity. However,
some of the prominent members in his court had traveled outside and
popularized his compositions. Based on his rAgamAlika “pannagendra shayana”,
there is a parallel Telugu rAgamAlika “pannagAdrishayana”, in the same
sequence of rAgams. Also, inspired by his nIlAmbari k.rti, “Anandavalli”,
Mysore Li”ngarAj Urs composed a kannaDa composition, “shr”ngAra
lahari”.
But recently, the situation
has changed, and svAti tirunAL k.rtis find their legitimate place in most of
the modern day concerts. There are even full-length concerts, entirely
featuring compositions of svAti tirunAL. Many commercially produced recordings
now contain several of his compositions, some, exclusively devoted to his
songs. The film “svAti tirunAL'' features some of the pieces of this great
composer, and leading vocalists have lent their voice as playback singers.
Selected Bibliography of his
compositions
Several of his compositions
has been published with notation. I like to mention the following popular
books.
1. “mahArAjA svAti tirunAL
k.ritimAla”, Semmangudi R. Srinivasa Iyer (1947), SvAti TirunAL Sangeetha
Vidyalayam, Trivandrum (a total collection of 101 pieces, 94 in Sanskrit, 1 in
Hindusthani, 3 MaNipravALam, 1 Telugu Padam, 1 Telugu jAvaLi, one rAgamAlikA (pannagendra
shayana) and a ma”ngaLam (text in Sanskrit, Malayalam as well as Tamil) .
2. “mahArAjA shrI svAti
tirunAL k.rtis Vol I ”, Published by Sree Swati Tirunal Kritis Publishing
Committee, Trivandrum (1972) (a collection of 57 pieces, which include the
dashAvatAra rAgamAlika (kamalajAsya), rAmAyaNa rAgamAlikA (bhAvayAmi
raghurAmam), 2 catur rAgamalikA shlOkam, 5 Hindusthani k.rtis, 9 Navaratna
mAlikA k.rtis, utsava prabhandam (10 k.rtis, one for each day, embellished
with 42 shlokams), and 26 k.rtis (several of which are maNipravALams), (text
in Sanskrit, Tamil, Malayalam, with meaning in Malayalam and Tamil).
3. “svAti tirunAL k.rtis
Vol II “, Published by Sree Swati Tirunal Kritis Publishing Committee,
Trivandrum (1972) (a collection of 52 pieces, which include 9 maNipravALa
padams, 1 Telugu padam, 3 pada varNaMs (all in Sanskrit), 1 maNipravALa tAna
varNam, 1 jAvaLi, 1 Hindusthani tAna varNam, 12 pada varNams (for dance) and
24 kIrtanams, text in Sanskrit, Tamil, and Malayalam, with meaning in Tamil
and Malayalam).
4. “shri svAti tirunAL
- His Life and, “ (in Malayalam), Dr V. S. Sharma, The national Book
Stakll, Kottayam (1985) – 1128 pages - contains lyrics of 355 k.rtis, and text
of all sanskrit works of svAti tirunAL (with meaning).
5. “Compositions
of mahArAja shrI svAti tirunAL”, in Devanagari, and Diacritical Roman
Scripts, T. K. Govinda Rao, Ganamandir Publications Music Series VI (2002) –
contains 303 compositions with notations, text in sanskrit, diacritical
English, and some in Malayalam.
6. “mahArAjA svAti tirunAL
kIrttana”n”naL”, (in Malayalam) K. Cidambara Vadhyar (1916), second
reprint (2000), CBH Publications, Trivandrum) contains 313 compositions.
7. “svAti tirunAL
kIrtanamAla “, Dr. S. Venkatasubramanya Iyer, (26 items, including
navarAtri kIrtanams, ghana rAga kIrtanams), text in Sanskrit, with notations
as well as meaning, in English, College Book House, Trivandrum (1984)
8. “mahArAjA shrI svati
tirunaL's Hindustani Music Compositions (with svara Notations), S. N.
Ratanjankar, Published by Sree Swati Tirunal Sangeetha Sabha, Trivandrum
(1972) (a collection of 36 compositions in Hindusthani style, with notations)
Audio Recordings
Some Audio Tapes/CDs
exclusively devoted to of svAti tirunAL k.rtis
1. “shrI svAti tirunAL
Compositions” , K. V. Narayanaswami, Tharangini (Classical Music Vol. III)
VI 8320
2. “svAti tirunAL
mahArAja's dashAvatAram, and Other k.rtis” , Bombay Sisters, Sangeetha
4MSC 4092
3. “svAti tirunAL's
dEvi k.rtis “, Bombay Sisters, Keerthana 6CA 534
4. “padmanAbha shatakam of
svAti tirunAL” , Bombay Sisters, Sangeetha 6ECDB 457
5. “svAti tirunAL's
navarAtri k.rtis “, V. Ramachandran, Sangeetha 6ECDB 424
6. “svAti tirunAL k.rtis”
, Neyyatinkara Vasudevan, AVM MEI-LR 2013
7. “shrI padmanabha: k.rtis
of svAti tirunAL” , M. Balamuralikrishna, Sangeetha
8. “svAti tirunAL” ,
Film Songs, Various Artists, Tharangini VIII 87140
9. “Compositions of
svAti tirunAL “, Sankaran Namboodiri, EMI India.
CD Recordings
1. “Shining Pearls of svAti
tirunAL”, R. Suryaprakash (Carnatica CAR CD 1007)
2. “SWATHI” (six CDs)
Dr. K. Omanakkutty and Disciples (Rajalakshmi Audio, Coimbatore)
A Web site
dedicated to svAti tirunAL:
It is a treasure house on
svAti tirunAL. It contains numerous articles on svATi tirunaL, other kEraLa
composers, and also some rare audio MP3 clippings.
We close, with
the following dedication to svAti tirunAL, composed by Dr V. V. Srivatsa
(which appears at the
back of the CD jacket cover of Carnatica’s CD.)
nIti j~nAna audarya kalA
rasanAdi gunabaritaH
khyAtiH sushObhitam maNidharaH
phaNIndrashayana caraNa |
prItiH k.rpA”nga bhUSitam
kulashEkharam syAnandUrapura
svAtiH sudinanarEsham satatam
aham smarAmi ||
Concluded |