On this SarvadhAri Aadi
SravaNam day , when the SarvOnnadha JyOthi of the SravaNa dheepam of Lord
ThiruviNNagrappan lighting adiyEn's path , adiyEn would like to start a series
of special krithis composed by my sister, VidvAmsini
Sriamthy
PadmA VeerarAghavan on SrI BhUmi DEvi SamEtha Sri OppilA Appan ( SrI Oppiliyappan ) .He
is our Kuladhaivam .
These inspired
Krithis in 72 MeLa KarthA (KarthA) Raagams and their deeper meanings will be
presented in the coming days .
The earlier postings on
the lakshanams of
the 72 MeLa Raagams and
the krithis were covered in the June 9 & 10th postings in Oppiliappan List
. In the June 10th posting I mentioned that I will discuss breifly the
Janya Raagams arising from the 72 MeLa Raagams since
VidvAmsini Padma
Veeraraghavn has composed many Krithis in Janya RaagAs about Oppiliappan
besides the 72 MeLa Raaga Krithis . I will follow the classifications of Janya
RaagAs followed by the great VidhvAn/Painter Sriman B.Rajam Iyer of
Mylapore .
Janya Raagams are
grouped under three
categories : SampoorNam
, ShADavam and Oudavam . SampoorNa Janya Raagam has 7 Swarams , ShAdavan has 6
Swarams and Oudavam has Five Swarams .
These daughters of MeLa
Raagams have further subdivisions (8) :
1) SampoorNa,ShAdavam : In Raaga AarOhaNam , there
are 7 svarams and in avarOhaNam giving rise to 6
bhEdhams
Example : Bhairavam ,
Janyam of 17th
Mela KartA, Soorya
Kaantham ( Kruthi:
MariyAdhagA , Saint
ThyagarAja).
2) ShAdava SampoorNam: 6
svarams in AarOhaNam and 7 in avarOhaNam ( Six
bhEdhams/variations)
.
Example: BhUshAvaLi ,
Janyam of 64th MeLa karta, Vaachaspathy
3) SampoorNa Oudavam( 15
BhEdhams) :
ArOhaNam with 7 savarams
and avarOhaNam with 5 svarams.
Example: Garuda Dhvani ,
Janyam of 29th MeLa Raagam , SankarAbharaNam.
4) Oudava SampUrNam( 15
BhEdhams):
ArOhaNam has 5 svarams
&avarOhaNam has 7 svarams.
Example: Raagam SaavEri,
Janyam of MaayAmALava GouLai , 15th MeLam.
5) ShAdava ShAdavam( 36
bhEdhams):
6 svarams each in
arOhaNam & avarOhaNam .
Example: Raagam
SrIranajnai, Janyam of Karahara Priya, 22nd MeLam .
6) ShAdava Oudavam( 90
BhEdhams):Six in ArOhaNam & 5 in AvarOhaNam .
Example: BahudhAri ;
Janyam of 29th MeLam , SankarAbharaNam .
7) Oudava Oudavam ( 90
BhEdhams): 5 in
AarOhaNam & 6 in
avarOhaNam.
Example : BhouLi ,
Janyam of the 15th MeLam , MaayA MaaLava GouLai .
8) Oudava Oudavam:( 225
BhEdhams) Five each in ArOhaNam &
AvarOhaNam
Example: Mohanam ,
The bhEdhams are 483 in
total . When we multiply the 483 by 72 MeLa kartA
RaagAs , we realize
34,776 Janya Raagams .
Alternate classification
of Janya rAgams:
There are 3 types in
this classification:
1) UpAnga (2) BhAshAnga
and (3) vakra
Raagams
.
In UpAnga Raagams , the particular MeLa karthA's
AarOhaNa-AvarOhaNa svarams
will appear in Janya Raagam. Thus all the 34,776 Janya Raagams
are upAnga rAgams.
In BhAshAnga Raagams , Besides the svarams from their MeLa
kartAs appearing in ArOhaNa-avarOhanams , the svarams from other MeLakartAs
would also appear in this Janya Raagam . Example is provided by Bhairavi
.
In Vakra ( Janya) Raagams , the svarams in
ArOhaNam and avarOhaNam will not appear inthe same order as in MeLa rAgam but
will alternate manner back and forth . Example of such a Vakra Raagam is
PoorNa chandrikA . Enormous are the possibilities , when the 34,776 janya
rAgams would use vakra PrayOgams .
Given all these strict grammar of Carnatic sangeetham , one can
not but
marvel at the discipline and scholarship of composers , who
create krtithis in the
72
MeLa KartA Raagams .
We
will consider in the subsequent postings 72 krithis composed in 72 MeLa
Raagams by Kaimakrya SrI
,VidhvAmsini
Srimathy Padma VeerarAghavan . All these krithis are about the
dhivya dampathis of ThiruviNNagar ( SrI BhUmi Devi SamEtha Sri Oppiliappan ).
We will study the meanings of these krithis in Tamil and link them to the
sources in Ubhaya VedAntham , whenever
possible.
NamO SrI VenkatEsAya ,
Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri
Sadagopan