Natakuranji Varnam

[Mariu Carlton]

Oneof the more popular ones is the one by Palghat Parameshwara Bhagavatar beginnig with

the words Sarasijanabha (Adi Talam). It is a beautiful, robust varnam.The words are:P. Sarasijanabha mam pahi sakala bhuvana vandya charanaA. Varasyanandura puraadheesha Vyasadi muni vara vandita charitaC. MaanitagunasheelaI can send the notation given the mailing address or one can listen to it in some of

KVN's concerts.There are some other Varnams though not as popular. There was one more I had learnt

beginning with the words Samininne (composer unknown) which I forgot almost as fast as I

imbibed! I have not gone back to it as I didn't find it too impressive as a five year

old.(So I've taken the easy way out and composed another one beginning with the same words!)

Chitravina N.Ravikiran

Now, a kalpanaswara excerpt by the late M.D. Ramanathan, one of my very very favorite musicians . In this sample, he is using the word budham (the planet Mercury), which is the very first word of the opening line of the composition (of which this is a small excerpt of) as the refrain. I find his usage of that here to be quite playful, and is a big reason why I love this particular rendition.

I do not know if other South Indian language films employ nATakurinji more (please let me know!), but at least in Tamil Nadu, this gem remains pretty much inside the Carnatic world. Not that it is somehow confining as it shines quite brightly within that world. It is widely recognized as a rakthi raga and thus with high emotive appeal. The term rakthi raga is sort of an enigma with different interpretations. I take it to mean a raga whose melodic character is more established by specific special phrases in which some swaras take different gamakas in different contexts. In any case, rakthi ragas are of high stature in the carnatic music arena.

Compositions/Renditions of nATakurinji I love

You know the best part of having to write and express my love for nATakurinji? That I got to listen to a lot of it! So much so that I was drawn into listening to it more and more instead of coming up with what to write! I listened to many compositions, and I find that I really like all of them. It is hard to pick some diamonds from a bag when each one strikes to you as brilliant. So this list is going to be long:

pAhi janani santatam: This is another composition by Swati Thirunal. I had never heard this composition until very recently, when I came across a rendition by KVN, and I absolutely love it! It is somewhat unique in the sense that among all compositions mentioned here, this is the only that starts in the upper octave and that too on the rishabam, which although not unimportant, but not the most prominent swara in the raga. It provides a unique look at the raga.

swAmi nAn undan aDimai: This is a beautiful composition by Papanasam Sivan for dance (as a pada varnam). There is a version on musicindiaonline.com but it is too fast. I have listened to it set in slower speed as a main item in dance, and it is truly magnificent.

Here is a sample, that shows three compositions jagaDisa (sung by Sanjay Subrahmanyan), sivakAmi patim (sung by D.K. Pattammal) and calamEla varnam (sung by T.M. Krishna) start with this. The swaras are from the jagadISa rendition and sung by Sanjay.

da-ma: slide down from da to ma

While descending from da to ma, it is not uncommon the ma to be done as a caressing slide down from da. This is another characteristic stamp of the melodic flavor nATakurinji. Here is a sample that shows it in kalpanaswaras (T.M. Krishna), in manasu vishaya (SSI), and JagadISa (MDR).

I wonder if the melodic nature of ni da ma sort of works in tandem with the above mentioned ma ga sa. If you look at them closer, they are symmetrical in terms of basic pitch spacing. You have the flat ni da ma and flat ma ga sa, and you have the ni da ma with slide down from da to ma, and you have ma ga sa with slide down from ga to sa.

pa ga ri sa

The above representation is a simplied one as each swara has built-in pitch movement. This seems like a prayoga which instantly gives me the naTakurinji feel. Also, it is common for this to be part of ga ma pa ga ri sa.

Constituent Swaras and their importance

sa, ga, ma, da, and ni: It seems to be that almost all swaras play important roles in nAtakurinji, although sa itself and ma seem to be the life blood swaras. It is said that da is very important in the higher part of octave, but I find ni to be equally important. The ga also can be emphasized.

ri: The ri supposedly cannot be used as a jIva swara (e.g. hovered on long, used as an anchor). However, I think it is not a rare (alpa) swara, and in many contexts it is lengthened (dhIrga) and thus emphasized. So it does have an important role. As I mentioned earlier, the composition pAhi janani satatam, I think begins with ri (upper octave) as shown in this sample (sung by KVN):

This composition demonstrates nATakurinji in the upper octave quite effectively as most of the song revolves there. I found it to be very unique that way (besides the start with ri, which I think is quite unusual?). What a composition!

pa: The role of pa is subdued compared to the swaras, but it certainly is indispensable. Its usage is also quite unique. Basically the rule seems to be that you cannot go from ma to da with pa in-between, and vice versa. So ma-pa-da and da-pa-ma are disallowed. So you have pa-ga-ri-sa, pa-ma-ga-sa, ni-pa-da-ni-sa, da-pa-da-ni-sa etc. Now try representing that in standard arohana/avarohana structure!

Note that he not only uses ma ni da but also ma da. He also uses the slide down from da to ma we discussed above in ni da ma. Also, note the sparing use of pa, and it occurs here as the ga ma pa ga ri sa mentioned above.

The structure

nATakurinji is another one of those ragas for whom assigning a structure is sort of pointless as it always ends up giving an incomplete and misleading picture. It is indeed a phrase oriented rakthi raga, and those kind are always like this. Some of the idiosyncrasies in the structure that prevents a straightforward representation are:

Perhaps, this points to the importance of pa in nATakurinji, and why it is indispensable as without it, it may be quite close to ravichandrika. There are some interesting points made regarding these two ragas in the discussion thread associated with the sawf.org article on nATakurinji (click on the View and post comments on this article link at the bottom of the page).

Here is a kalpanaswara sample of ravichandrika by the late Tanjore S. Kalyanaraman for the Thyagaraja composition niravati sukhada. Can you spot similarities and differences to naTakurinji?

_kalpana_swaras_SKR.mp3(Download by clicking here)

@Pathe: Thanks! MDR is an experience. Some people find him a bit harder to get into because of his unique delivery and idiosyncrasies. But you get past that and you can see that he is indeed the king in raga alapanas.

Awesome post buddy- found myself humming out all the swaras as I read them. While I must admit it is not my favourite ragam, mainly because of hearing too many maamis sing it at Dasara Kolu, this post gives it a wonderful dimension that will definitely make me view it in a new light.

Offtopic question Arunk, asking you after I have scanned virtually every place (and person) I know. Do you have Vatapi Ganapati Bhajeham redention by MS? There is a crude one on Youtube, but do you have better?

P: svAmi nAn unran aDimai enru ulagamellAm ariyumE

tAmadam sheyyAdhu vandaruL mAdOr pangA bhUtEshA

A: nAmAmrta pAnamE en jIvanamE enru nambinEnE

naTanamADum sEvaDi darishanam enru kiDaikkum enavE EnginEnE

(muktAyi svara sAhityam)

senjaDADaviyil iLam pirai deiva gangaiyum Oraravum Ada

iLa naghai tavazhum shevvidazhudan tadhIm ena ciTrambalam tanil ADum

C: naTarAjA dEvA sacchidAnandA

(caraNa svara sAhityas)

1: ADum nin azhagil kAdal koNDa ivaLaip-pAr

3: punnagai tavazh idazhin azhagaiyum kaDaikkaN azhagaiyum kaNDAL mazhup- paDaiyai shen shaDaiyai tOluDaiyai madagaja naDaiyai ninainndurugum ivaLai ANDaruL

4: nI varam tara uDan viraindu vA meyyanbu koNDu ninaindu nAL muzhudum tan ninaivilAL kaN urangilaL uNavaruNDilaL tirup-peyarai sholli sholli pulambuvaL tanimai tanilE kala kalavena naghaitthiDum ivaLin viraham taNiya aruL nI puriyAviDilE mOsham varum pAshamuDan vanNdaruL

Can you pls send me some theory regarding this dance,as i wanted to use it for a dance programme.I mean the meaning and story behind the composition.

(its a long time since i stopped perfoming and the truth is that i forgot half o it,would like to compose it again:)

I request u to to give the exact tamil translation of the padhavarnam in the raga nattakuruinji. Incidentally My daughter is a stage performer in Bharathanatyam and it could be better performed if she understands the language. If u can recollect, I am an international cricket Umpire and it was through Mr Arving that I got introduced to u. I would be much obliged if u can give me the literal translation in tamil.

Musical forms are compositions which occupy a major chunk of repertoire of art music practitioners in South India. We have different types of musical forms pertaining to sacred dance, opera and art music. These are nothing but expressions which define different facets of a raga. Musical forms are thus musical expressions bound by time (i.e. tAlam) and meaningless or meaningful text.

The emergence of raga concept and the desi musical forms can be traced to the period of Matanga. Treatises like Brhaddesi, Sangeetha Makaranda, Sangeetha Samaya Sara, Sangeetha Ratnakara and Sangeetha Sudhakara describe the lakSana of musical forms that existed in their respective periods. The evolution of musical forms can be classified into the following stages:

2. The second stage could be the emergence of the kriti and kIrtanAs. This can be compared to the north Indian Hindustani music where the dhrupads are longer and metrical in structure unlike the very popular khayAls which are smaller and are in the vernacular language. The dhrupads and prabandhAs were mostly composed in Sanskrit and it was not easy for the common man to follow them. After vernacular languages became very popular, the prabandhAs went out of use/vogue and kritis started coming to the forefront.

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