Interesting Pallavi lyrics
mu...@cip.physik.uni-dortmund.de
Some time ago, a posting from M. V. Ramana prompted a discussion on
Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi. As far as I remember, the discussion was
limted to the choice of Ragas, Talas, duration etc of RTP in a concert.
In this post, I want to discuss another aspect of Pallavis, viz., the
lyrics of the Pallavi itself. My posting will be limited to Tamil
Pallavis alone since I understand them well. This discussion will be
limited to the lyrics alone. The choice of words vis a vis the rhythmic
structure and related aspects are beyond the scope of this posting.
Pallavi lyrics can be broadly classified as follows:
(1) Lyrics that just have a few assorted names of Gods/Godesses thrown
in. These, in my opinion can hardly be classified as lyrics. e.g.,
"Guha, Kumara, Gurupara, Vadivela! Sivashanmukha (Guha)"
Another famous one: "Kanchatalayathakshi! Kamakshi (Kancha..)"
Since I personally find these lyrics "uninteresting", I'll go on to the
next category.
(2) Lyrics that are adapted/borrowed from Kritis. Here is a good
example. I heard Neyveli Santhanagopalan sing this a few years ago.
Ragam - Begada
Talam - Adi 2 kaLai Eduppu at 1/4
Pallavi is adapted from the lines of Gopalakrishna Bharathi's
"Sabapathikku.."
(Henceforth I will follow the following notation. A "--" indicates the
"Aruthi" signifying the end of the first half of the Pallavi. A "+.."
indicates the "KArvai" (in MatrAs) or the pause before the second half of the
Pallavi.)
"Oru tharam Sivachidambaram enRu -- +7
uraithAl pOthumE" (Oru)
Another Pallavi whose words are possibly inspired by the same
"Sabapathikku" is the following. I have heard Shri DKJ sing this many
times.
Ragam - ShankarAbharaNam
Talam - Tisra Jampai Keezhkala Tisra Nadai. Can also be sung as 3 KaLai.
Eduppu at Samam.
"SamAnamA SabhapathE SadAsivA -- +6
Sakala ulagamE unakku sari" (SamAnamA)
Though the Pallavi structure itself is simple, the words have a simple
beauty of their own owing to the MOnai in the first line. Also note the way
the last words of the second line are joined to the first line
completing the meaning of the lyric. This is a very effective tool
handled by several good composers. In Tamil grammar this goes under the
name of "Pootu Vil PoruLkOL".
(3) Lyrics formed by putting together a couple of phrases that make for
a meaningful theme. e.g.,
Ragam - Todi
Talam - Tisra Jampai 2 KaLai
Eduppu at Samam
"VElavanE unathu PadamE -- +4
TaravENdum Mayilnatana" (VElavanE)
or the one immortalized by GNB
Ragam - Kambodhi
Talam - Tisra Tripudai 2 KaLai
Eduppu at Samam
"Tillai Isanaik kANa enna -- +7
Punniyam seythEnO" (Tillai)
This particular Pallavi is a bit unique in the sense the word "enna"
(what) falls on the Aruthi making the first half of the allavi
incomplete by itself.
Some Pallavis can be called "more secular than others" such as
the famous Nattaikurinji Pallavi "SiRantha engalathu Nattaikurinji
enbAr".
Should the lyrics of a Pallavi always involve the well trodden path of
"O Lord! save me" or "Blessed am I"? Though I am yet to hear off beat
(in the lyrical sense) Pallavis, they apparently do exist. I remember
having seen the following Pallavi in one of Prof Sambamoorthy's books.
"AtRankarai Orathil VaNdu GirrenRu suthuthe" (A bee flies on the banks of
a river making the noise "Girr"). The Tamil scholar U.Ve.Sa. writing about
the great musician Thanjavur Periya Vaithi has the following to say:
(See "NalluraikkOvai Vol2. pp 70-71)
"..He (Peria Vaithi) was an adept at Pallavi singing...While his
knowledge of music was unquestionable, he had no lyrical sense. He
neither knew Tamil or Sanskrit and he did not want to learn them. He
could transmit his musical ability without using the vehicle of Sahitya
and therefore he felt Sahityas served no useful purpose. Consequently,
when he sang Pallavis, the lyrics could be anything that strikes him at
that moment. Some of his Pallavis were:
' TAvAra patthiyil nAlu thOON irukkuthu' (There are 4 pillars in the
middle of the courtyard)
'Kolla! Kuradiruga pidi Kolla' (Oh! Blacksmith! hold the kuradu [I do
not know the english word for this--m] tight)
'Idi idikkuthu, mazhai kumuruthu eppadi nAn poi varuvEn?' (How can I
travel when it is raining hard)
... When somebody pointed out the inadequacies in his Sahityas or his
mistakes in enunciating them, he used to say 'You have come here to
listen to music. Why do you care how the rest are?' He could get away
with this attitude owing to his musical ability and the respect it
earned for him."
I would like to hear from Rasikas on the net about interesting Pallavi
lyrics they have heard.
--
muthu
Nur der BVB!
M V Ramana
>
>Some time ago, a posting from M. V. Ramana prompted a discussion on
>Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi.
Thanks for the reference! Now I have to respond!! :-)
>(2) Lyrics that are adapted/borrowed from Kritis.
One hypothesis I have heard is that many kritis were constructed using a
famous pallavi as the pallavi line of the kriti. The proponents claim
that this explains the origin of the word pallavi to
refer to both. Some of the examples quoted in this context are
"gAna lOla karuNala vAla" in tOdi and "mahimai teliya tarama" in
SankarAbharaNam. This is also supported by the tradition of singing
pallavis in fixed rAgAs. (Aside : according to vidwAn K S Krishnamurthy,
it was GNB who changed this format - for eg: he sang (immortalized, IMO)
gAna lOla karuNa in shaNmughapriya, tisra nadai Adi tALam.)
Another example of such a kriti-composition was by gOpAlakrishNa
bhArati. The story goes that he went to meet tyAgarAja, whose disciples
sang a song in Abhogi (aside : there is some controversy about which
song this was!). After that tyAgarAja asked him if he had composed any
songs in Abhogi. bhArati replied that he had not, but went on to sing an
impromptu pallavi "sabhApatikku vERu deivam samAnamAkumA, tillai". Then
later that night he completed the famous kriti starting with those words
and sang it in front of tyAgarAja, who was very appreciative.
The point of all this is that pallavi lines borrowed from kritis is only
(the latter) part of the story.
>(3) Lyrics formed by putting together a couple of phrases that make for
>a meaningful theme. e.g.,
>
>Ragam - Todi
>Talam - Tisra Jampai 2 KaLai
>Eduppu at Samam
>"VElavanE unathu PadamE -- +4
>TaravENdum Mayilnatana" (VElavanE)
>
A comment here - the DKP/DKJ school, as well as the Alathur brothers (to
the extent I can make out from their tapes) sing this in Adi tALam, 3
kaLai. The eduppu is 2/3 after the beat (where the whole cycle takes 8
beats).
>Some Pallavis can be called "more secular than others" such as
>the famous Nattaikurinji Pallavi "SiRantha engalathu Nattaikurinji
>enbAr".
>
>Should the lyrics of a Pallavi always involve the well trodden path of
>"O Lord! save me" or "Blessed am I"? Though I am yet to hear off beat
>(in the lyrical sense) Pallavis, they apparently do exist.
Ofcourse not. For a previous post of mine about the same topic, see
http://medb.physics.utoronto.ca/Web/ramana/archive/zamorin.html
The emphasis on pallavis having some religous content may be a
phenomenon of this century. Another example of an old-timer who sang
such pallavis was Tiger Varadachariar. He would apparently sing pallavis
like "katharikai kUdai kondAdi" sung to the same tune as niranjanamE
nitya paripUraNamE and uppuma kindadi peNNE, nanRAka (from memory!).
T.K.Sethuraman also narrates an incident when Tiger performed in
sIrkAzhi village and was asked to sing a new pallavi after he had sung
rAgam and tAnam in kAmbOji. Apparently at that time a street-vendor
came around shouting katharikkai, katharikkai and Tiger sang
"katharikkai vAnga vAyENdi tOzhi".
Among the recent singers, Sanjay Subramaniam seems to sing nice
secular pallavis. Some examples :
vaNdAdum sOlai tanile, malayamArutam vIsuthE in malayamArutam,
pArukkuLLE nalla nAdu, engaL bhArata nAdu in shaNmukhapriya and
apakAra nindai..... in chakravAkam.
M V Ramana
A continuation of my earlier posting - which somehow got posted only
partially. !@$#%^%*^ this Netscape 2.0!
Some more thoughts on pallavi lyrics :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
First here is a message from a friend.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
About unusual lyrics, here are a couple of innovations of Flute
Venkatarama
Iyer.
1.
sri narasimhachariyaar (A)
pallavi simmam
(Sri Narasimhachari was a pallavi expert in Madras...if I remember
correctly, the concert was organized by him... V Iyer decided to play a
pallavi in his honour)
2.
The following is not a Tamil lyric, but it certainly scores high on the
`unusual lyric' scale, as you will admit:
poojyaaya raaghavEndraaya satya dharma rathaayacha (A)
bajathaam kalpavrukshaaya namataam kaamadEnavE
This is of course a sloka! I may have mangled the words, but this is the
best extent to which I can recall them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Another interesting feature in some pallavis is the introduction of the
rAga
name in some clever fashion. Some examples have already been quoted
earlier.
The pallavi in nAtakurinji (siRanda engaLadu....) is a classic in that
respect. Seshagopalan comes up with nice ones often. One that I remember
is
again in Tamil - "ambikai jagadambikai varAL idhO srutiyodu layamum
tarAL
idhO" - needless to say this is in varALi.
Ramana
Sundar
>
[...]
> Another interesting feature in some pallavis is the introduction of the
> rAga name in some clever fashion. Some examples have already been quoted
> earlier. The pallavi in nAtakurinji (siRanda engaLadu....) is a classic in
> that respect. Seshagopalan comes up with nice ones often. One that I remember
> is again in Tamil - "ambikai jagadambikai varAL idhO srutiyodu layamum
> tarAL idhO" - needless to say this is in varALi.
>
A rather unattractive pallavi line. The raga_name-in-song feature might have
been a novelty in Dikshitar's time. Any attempts at doing it now only seem
contrived. In this case, imagine the consequences of trying to indiacte
this raga_name-in-pallavi feature in a concert (varALi..dO...). This reminds me
of an incident where a famous male vocalist took up for neraval:"paTTattukku
ERRavaNTi" ([He] is fit for the throne). Now, the only problem was that he sang
it mostly as: "paTTattukku ERRa vaNTi" (vechicle fit for the throne)!
There is also a lack of variety in the theme of pallavis. The majority
have a religious flavour, which is o.k if it does not lead to dull lines like
TNS's pallavi above. Romantic or other themes ? We will be told that there is
always Padams/javalis. Why not take it up as a pallavi theme ? If it is just a
question of coming up with nice lines, why not use the kAnal vari of cilappatikAram
(as suggested by a friend of mine) ? In one of u.VE.Sa's essay collections, he
narrates the incident where a beggar repeatedly sings the Tamil pallavi line (in
Shankarabaranam, if I remember right): "Uraic cuTumO ulakam tanaic cuTumO, Araic
cuTumO aRiyEnE". It truns out to be part of a nice veNpA:
[The maiden in love (whose lover is away) wonders if the moon feels as hot to
the rest of the world as it feels to her.]
"Uraic cuTumO ulakam tanaic cuTumO
Araic cuTumO aRiyEnE --- nErE
poruppu vattamAna nakiR pUnkoTiyeer inda
neruppu vaTTamAna n~ilA"
Has anybody heard pallavis with a similar theme ?
> Ramana
--sundar
Srini Pichumani
M V Ramana <ram...@medb.physics.utoronto.ca> wrote:
>
>One hypothesis I have heard is that many kritis
>were constructed using a famous pallavi as the
>pallavi line of the kriti.
>>The point of all this is that pallavi lines
>>borrowed from kritis is only (the latter) part
>>of the story.
TRS mentions exactly this about old pallavis
whose lines match the pallavis of kritis... i.e.
that the kritis are older than the pallavis...
the same examples
>"gAna lOla karuNala vAla" in tOdi and
>"mahimai teliya tarama" in SankarAbharaNam.
are quoted by him ... according to him, even the
famous pallavi "parimaLa rangapatE" is based on
an earlier kriti...
In recent times, MDR seems to have followed this
practice... adapting the pallavis of T/D kritis
such as "lOkAvana catura", "s'rI subrahmaNyAya
namaste", for RTPs in the same ragas.
------------------
mu...@cip.physik.uni-dortmund.de () wrote:
"AtRankarai Orathil VaNdu GirrenRu suthuthe"
Muthu, I think in the same volume Prof.Sambamurti
mentions a pallavi contest where the vocalist
upstaged the accompanist by singing this mocking
pallavi in Telugu
girrani palukunA - nandi mrdangamaina
The translation is something like
can nandi's mrdangam "speak" like girrr...
He also mentions a pallavi which is a prayer
to the Lord pANDu ranga for benediction on
Mahatma Gandhi...
gAndhi mahAtmuni pAlintsara pANDurangA - mohandAs karamchanda
---------------------------
-Srini.
Ashok Subramanian
to how it has been rendered by the artist. Seshu, is one of the few
muscians who can render a tamil kriti or pallavi line without making it
sound something like "sukkumi laguthip pili". Regardless of whether it is
fashionable now or not, pl. look at the creativity of the artists who try
to present something new to their listeners. Agreed that musicians can use,
verses from kAnal vari, thEvAram, thiruvAsagam and divyapprabhandam etc.
Do you thing common music loving people can understand the meaning and
enjoy the music more because of it? You have to explain word by word what
these lines mean. How about this pallavi line?
"vikasitha mukaham - subha phalapradham - harihara sutham - sadhA bhajEham"
in thodi? This is a nice one sung by TNS in 1993 academy concert.
One of his pallavis', not really good interms of poetic content, was this:
"Vennai thinna chinna thanamA" (sindhu bhairavi) which he sang in the music
academy concert in 1994.
I happened to write a thillana for one of the local dance group in thamiz
which presented a thematic dance presentation on "River Ganges". I am not
giving the entire thillana here. But only the sahithyam (maadhu)
portion of it.
"kOdi anbar nidham thEdi nAdi (adaindhu) - nee
rAdi inpugazh pala pAdi parava -thilla
yAdi thirumudiyai nAdi ayyan -aruL
koodi akilam koNdAdidum gangai"
Let me know what the "thamizh kooRum + isai pAdum nallulagam thinks
of this".
-ashoks
Ashok Subramaniam
Informix Software, Inc.
Bugxorsist
4700 Bohannon Drive
Menlo Park, California 94025
Sundar
> IMHO, you have just been judgemental about the pallavi
> with out listening to how it has been rendered by the
> artist.
>
is not about the way TNS sings it.
> Agreed that musicians can use, verses from kAnal vari,
> thEvAram, thiruvAsagam and divyapprabhandam etc. Do
> you thing common music loving people can understand
> the meaning and enjoy the music more because of it?
> You have to explain word by word what these lines
> mean.
Actually, for most people who have learnt Tamil, many
of these are not that hard to follow. Moreover, nobody
gives a `word by word` explanation of pallavi lines
drawn from Tyagaraja/Dikshithar krithis (or, for that
matter, the meaning of the krithis themselves). Does
the common Madras rasika understand them so well?
I mentioned cilambu only as an example. We don't need
to run to the Tamil classics for lyrics. The lyrics
don't even have to conform to rigid grammar rules. All
I would like to see is an effort to avoid the banality
that creeps into pallavi lyrics. Naturally, this is
best attempted in a language familiar to the singer.
--sundar