The story of the Ramayana through Carnatic Krithis - Part 1
It is during the months of April
and May that classical music concerts (Hindustani and Carnatic) happen in
various parts of Bengaluru every year to celebrate Ramanavami. This year (2020), because
of the Corona virus situation, all these concerts had to be cancelled. I, like
many others, ended up listening to whatever was available online or in my
personal collection.
I have always been a big fan of
Carnatic music although I have not had any training, and I used the lockdown
period to develop that interest into a project. Which I am now pleased to
present to you - “The story of the Ramayana through Carnatic krithis”.
There are many versions of the
Ramayana – the most famous of them being the Valmiki Ramayana, the Kamban Ramavataram,
the Tulsidas Ramacharitmanas, Eknath’s Bhavarth Ramayan and Ezhuthachan’s
Adhyathmaramayanam. Different composers have used one or the other of these as
the basis for their compositions. For example, Thygaraja Swamy used the Valmiki
Ramayanam and Arunachala Kavi based his work on the Kamban Ramavataram.
In fact, the entire story is beautifully
told in krithis by Arunachala Kavi in his magnum opus – Rama Natakam, in Tamil,
which was first performed at the Srirangam temple in Trichy. There is an
interesting story of how the priests refused him permission to premiere the
Rama Natakam there, until he sang “En palli kondeer ayya”, a krithi that will probably pop up in Part II. Ranganathaswamy is said to have been
pleased and appeared in the dreams of the priests and Arunachala Kavi, asking
them to go ahead with arrangements for the premiere of Ramanatakam there. I
could have based this entire project on that one work alone, but wanted to
bring in variety in composers, languages, different time periods, etc.
All of these recordings were sourced either from sangeethapriya.org or from Youtube. I do not own any of the recordings nor am aware of any copyright violation in the sharing of these. If any such violation is brought to my notice, I shall gladly delete the recording and remove the link.
Of course, most of you are familiar
with the story of the Ramayana – so I’ll not get into it too much except to
introduce the krithis. In fact, the stories are likely to be more about the
krithis than Rama himself.
Let’s open with this Arunachala
Kavi krithi in Gowlipantu, which records the details of Rama’s birth. It says
Rama was born in Chittirai or Chaitra month, ninth day of the moon (Shukla
Paksha) and the Punarpusam or Punarvasu star. Along with Rama, Lakshmana and
Shatrugana were born to Sumitra and Bharatha to Kaikeyi.
That was in the voice of Sangeeta
Kalanidhi T N Seshagopalan.
In this next krithi, Thygaraja
swamy asks why did you take this Avatar ? Is it to wage war ? Or rule over
Ayodhya ?
That was in raga Mukhari, sung by
the legendary N C Vasanthakokilam.
Rama grows up and the events of
this stage of his life are recorded by Thyagaraja swamy in his krithi in
Yadukula Kambodhi where he asks what penance did Kausalya do to be able to
kiss his shining cheeks or Dasharatha to be able to call him “Rama, come here”.
Then, goes on to talk about Vishwamitra asking for Rama to come away with him
to his ashram to stand guard at his yajna.
Please listen to this lovely
rendering in the voice of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Nedunuri Krishnamurthy.
The radiance of Rama as he
appeared to the sages is described beautifully in this Thygaraja swamy
composition – Muddumomu in Suryakantam.
That was the voice of Sangeeta
Kalanidhi D K Jayaraman, a musician who loved to sing rare krithis and ragas in
concerts.
We move onto another composer –
Sadashiva Brahmendra, who composed mainly in Sanskrit. We get a description of
Rama in this one – his complexion and his features.
That was sung by the Dr. Palakkad
Ramprasad in raga Shuddh Sarang, which is a Hindustani raga sometimes used in
Carnatic concerts.
When living with Vishwamitra, Rama
and Lakshmana come across Ahalya, who had been turned into a rock by a curse.
Rama lifts the curse by brushing the rock with his foot and restores her form,
which Thyagaraja swamy relates in this next krithi, which is in the
unmistakable voice of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr. M Balamuralikrishna. There is a
story behind the recording of this krithi – it seems that Dr. Balamurali was
invited by HMV to record an album and they asked him to sing this krithi, which
he did not know. He asked his violinist – Annavarupu Ramaswamy, if he knew this
composition. Ramaswamy said yes. Then, BMK got the notations and lyrics of the
kriti from Ramaswamy. He studied it for couple of moments. He thought of
singing the rāga as well. Then he rendered rāga, kīrtana and swarams. And, it was done.
That was in the raga
Amritavahini, Thygaraja swamy’s only composition in that raga.
Time to move onto a different
composer for the next part of the story. Rama's slaying of the demoness Tataka in
the forest, his vanquishing of the demon Subahu and
his hordes who defile the yajnas of Vishwamitra,
his deliverance of Ahalya are
all narrated by Annamacharya in this krithi.
That was the one and only MSS
accompanied by her daughter, rendering that in the raga – Naatai. The krithi
continues to another part of the story but we have not encountered Sita yet –
so maybe we will look at the other charanams later.
Back to Arunachala Kavi, as Rama
and Lakshmana along with Vishwamitra reach Mithila, where the swayamvara of
Sita, the princess of Mithila has been announced. Here is Vishwamitra
introducing Rama to King Janaka, a quick summary of everything that has
happened since Rama’s birth. Most singers do not sing Charanams 1 & 2 (which
deal with the yaaga of Dasharatha, division of the paayasa and then the killing
of Tataka, etc.) and move to Charanam 3, which is also the case here.
Vishwamitra then goes onto say that he wants to check for himself if King
Janaka’s bow is appropriate for the valorous arms of Rama.
That was in Shankarabharanam
rendered by Sangeetha Kalanidhi Trichur Ramachandran.
Meanwhile, Rama catches a glimpse
of Sita and wonders who is this vision with a moon-like face ? Listen to
Ramakrishnan Murthy sing this popular krithi in Bhairavi :
And Thygaraja swamy explains what
is going through Sita’s mind - questioning whether Rama would come to the swayamvara,
whether his slender frame would be able to lift the bow, etc., in a krithi which
was composed as Prahlada seeking blessings :
Rama is successful in lifting and
stringing the bow and the wedding takes place. Along with him, his three
brothers also get married to the sister / cousins of Sita.
With that, we come to the end of Bala Kaanda.
Rama & Sita along with his
brothers and their wives return to Ayodhya. The image of a resplendent Rama
with Sita looking at him adoringly and shyly is painted vividly in this
Pancharatna krithi by Thyagaraja swamy in Varali ragam, rendered by the
Hyderabad Brothers (Seshachari & Raghavachari) :
Back in Ayodhya, the aging King
Dasharatha is all set to make Rama the crown prince. Kaikeyi, mother of
Bharatha, thinks he most deserves to be crowned, in this krithi by Arunachala
Kavi.
I chose this rendition by Sangeetha Kalanidhi – S Sowmya. She sings it in Anandabhairavi, although
normally it is sung in Hindolam.
But then, the very purpose of Rama’s
avatar on earth wouldn’t have been served if he had stayed back in Ayodhya. So,
through the manipulations of the Gods, Mantharaa is sent to poison Kaikeyi’s
mind and Kaikeyi uses the boons granted to her by Dasharatha to banish Rama to
the forest. Rama gracefully agrees to go to the forest for 14 years as per his
father’s wish, and Sita, in anguish, pleads with him to take her along. In the
lovely Huseni raga, here is that Sita plea in an Arunachala Kavi krithi, rendered
by Vidushi Savita Narasimhan.
Rama relents and along with
Lakshmana and Sita, prepares to leave for the forest.
They move from place to place
until they reach Chitrakoota, where they build an ashram.
In the forest, they encounter
many challenges including a demon called Kakasura whom Rama subjugates with a
blade of grass.
That was a composition of Thygaraja swamy, Shrikaanta, sung
by Sangeeta Kalanidhi R K Srikantan in the raga Bhavapriya.
Meanwhile, King Dasharatha dies a very sad man and Bharata comes in search
of Rama to invite him back to Ayodhya to the throne. Rama refuses to go back on
the word that he had given his father, but sends his sandals back with
Bharatha, mentioned in this next krithi. Bharatha agrees to be a regent, ruling
in place of Rama until his return, with Rama’s sandals installed on the throne.
This one is very appropriately in the raga – Ramapriya, composed by Thyagaraja
swamy. The voice is unmistakably K J Yesudas.
Ayodhya Kaandam ends
here.
Sita, born a princess, unused to living in the forest,
remains a strong source of support & happiness for Rama, which is
highlighted by Thygaraja swamy in this next krithi.
That was in Sriranjani raga and sung by another great –
Sangeetha Kalanidhi D K Pattamal.
In Dandakaranya forest, Rama, Lakshmana and Sita build an
ashram at Panchavati to settle down.
They encounter Surpanakha, Khara, Dhooshana and Mareecha.
Mareecha, in the form of a golden deer manages to entice Rama deeper into the
forest, away from the ashram. In his dying moments, he manages to lure
Lakshmana away from the ashram too, leaving Sita alone. Ravana, who has heard
of the beauty of Sita, kidnaps her, fights with Jataayu, and flies away to
Lanka with her.
Going in search of Sita, Rama and Lakshmana meet the dying
Jataayu who tells them that it was Ravana who has taken Sita away. Based on
Jatayu’s directions, they proceed South towards the Pampa river and meet Sabari,
who is waiting for Rama’s arrival. It is Sabari who directs Rama to take the
help of Sugriva. There is a beautiful composition by Thygaraja swamy devoted to
Sabari :
That was Sangeeta Kalanidhi Musiri Subramania Iyer.
Then, all of the above is neatly summarised in the Swati Thirunal composition : Bhavayami
Raghuramam. Originally to be fully rendered in Saveri, this krithi was
converted into a ragamalika by Sangeetha Kalanidhi Semmangudi Srinivas Iyer.
Please listen to the first part of this krithi in the voice of Sangeetha
Kalanidhi M L Vasanthakumari.
So, we have covered the Ramayana story until Aranya kaandam. We have heard 21 ragas in about the same number of voices in the process and in Part II, I hope to bring you the rest of the Ramayana
with some more krithis, ragas, composers and voices.
Its a treasure trove Arun! Stands out for the variety in voices as well as singing styles. The choice of Kritis and Ragas is amazing. Great experience! Thrilled and humbled, listening to the legends. Looking forward to part 2.
ReplyDeleteThank you !
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