Cultural Programs in Shilparamam in Amphitheatre – May 27th , 2017
Bharatnatyam Performance by SMT. MAMATHA Karanth from BANGLORE
LIST OF ITEMS
- SURYA KAUTVAM
Surya is one of the 3 chief gods of the Vedas. As one of the spheres the physical sun is the celestial form of fire, Agni, and source of all life. Surya is at the center of the spheres. The other name of Surya is Savitri, which means brilliance. It is said that life begins with light. The artistes will present to you the brilliance of the Sun in the form of SooryaAshtakam interwoven with vibrant rhythmic patterns. This piece “Soorya” is a composition of Karnataka KalashreeVidwan Sri Srivatsa. This piece is in RaagamBrindavani set to Adi Thaalam.
- PADAM
Padam is a musical monologue which resembles a keertana in structure and propagates the sentiment of love for god through innumerable aspects of nayaka nayika bhava .This padam composed by Mahakavisubramanyabharati has a simple diction and colloquial words .
In this padam , gopikas complain about Krishna .
One says Krishna is an everplayful boy and the women in the streets are in endless trouble.
He would give fruits to eat and while have eaten , he snatches it from me and after I request he bites and gives me back
The other continues , that he would bring beautiful flowers and after making me cry , he would say close your eyes and I will set them on your hair .Once I do that ,he gives those flowers to my friend.
One more maiden complains , he would pull my braid from behind and before I turn back , he would hide.
In the new coloured saree that I wear , he would rain dust and spoil it.
All complain that he would bring his flute and play enchanting music .And when we are all enthralled with music , we would close our eyes with gaping mouth. Krishna takes this opportunity to put red ants in our mouths .
All gopikas complains to Yashoda that Has anyone seen this anywhere?
Raga : ragamalika
Thala : tishraekathala
- JAVALI
Javali is a piece which traditionally depicts in simple form the “Shringara Rasa” as portrayed for the layman. Here the depiction is almost exclusively through abhinaya or facial expressions with little or no movements. The simplicity in portrayal of the Jawali extends even to the lyrics which bring out the aspect of “Prema Bhakti”.
This item will be”nee matalemayanura” in Raga Poorvikalyanai and Aditala – a composition of Pattabhiramayya. Here the strong spirited heroin who questions the man in her life who made many promises which he never intended to keep. One day when he arrives to her doorstep she gives him a look of great of deal of sarcasm . She says, what happened to all the words you spoke? The other day you pinched my cheek and promised me a nose ring. Repeatedly came behind me for love and promised a pair of bangales. You even promised me a pair of ear rings. What happened to those promises?
- SHABARI
Of the many metaphors for bhakti or devotion, an unusally inspiring one from the Ramayan is “Shabari”: who represents a patient and devoted wait for the darshan of the Lord
Shabari spent her life in the hermitage of Rishi Matanga serving him as her guru. Before he departed from his body, the Rishi blessed Shabari that she would secure the “darshan” of Lord Rama. Thereafter she incessantly and patiently awaits the arrival of Divinity in the form of Sri Ram. It becomes a practice for her to visualize the Lord and how she would welcome him and seek his blessings.
For Shabari (who is now an old lady), the day she has awaited for long finally dawns and Sri Ram with Sri Lakshman arrive at the ashram where they are offered the sweetest fruit in the hermitage by Shabari.
Shabari violates tradition and tastes each fruit before making an offering – only to ensure that the Lord is offered nothing but the best. When Sri Lakshman points out that the fruits have already been tasted, Ram tells him that this is the best offering he has eaten and asks his brother to experience this too.
The offering is suffused with the exalted devotion of Shabari and she receives in ample measure the blessings of Sri Ram. She is also fortunate to hear from the Lord himself the explanation of Nava-vidha bhakti.
The popular bhajan “Sri Ram ChandrKrupalu…” from the RamcharitaManas of Tulsidas has been interpreted in this piece choreographed by Smt Mamatha from the perspective of Shabari. The verses describe the beauty and the divine qualities of Sri Ram.
In this piece the young dancer Aritri will enact the wait of Shabari as she contemplates the beauty and divinity of Lord Ram as described by GoswamiTulasidas in this popular bhajan.
- SHIVA THANDAVA STOTRA (written by Ravana)
That Shiva, Who have long-garlands of the snake king (cobra) at the neck which is purified by the flow of trickling water-drops in the forest-like twisted hair-locks, Who danced the fierce Tandava-dance to the music of a sounding-drum, — may bless us.
At every moment, may I find pleasure in Shiva, Whose head is situated in between the creeper-like unsteady waves of Nilimpanirjhari (Ganga), in whose head unsteadily fire (energy) is fuming the like twisted hair-locks, Who has crackling and blazing fire at the surface of forehead, and Who has a crescent-moon (young moon) at the forehead .
May my mind seeks happiness in Shiva, Whose mind has the shining universe and all the living-beings inside, Who is the charming sportive-friend of the daughter of the mountain-king of the Earth ( Himalaya’s daughter parvati), Whose uninterrupted series of merciful-glances conceals immense-troubles, and Who has direction as His clothes .
I adore Shiva, Who supports the dark glow of blooming blue lotus series at around the girdle of His neck, Who cuts-off Smara (Kamadeva), Who cuts-off Pura, Who cuts-off the mundane existence, Who cuts-off the sacrifice (of Daksa), Who cuts-off the demon Gaja, Who cuts-off Andhaka, and Who cuts-off Yama (death).
May Shiva, Whose dreadful forehead has oblations of plentiful, turbulent and wandering snake-hisses — first coming out and then sparking, Whose fierce tandava-dance is set in motion by the sound-series of the auspicious and best-drum (damaru) — which is sounding with ‘dhimit-dhimit’ sounds, be victorious.
Raga : Ragamalika
Thala : Tishra eka
Bharatnatyam Performance by Sri Vijay Kumar from CHENNAI
- Pushpanjali —Natai–Adi (4 min)
- Varnam —- Ragam Thodi —- Thalam Adi. (20 min)
The central piece for today’s performance is the varnam, Yeno Innum Varaadha yeno Sakhi.
The varnam is a conversation between the nayika who is longing for lord Muruga , with her Sakhi. She pleads her Sakhi to go and bring him back to her. The sanchari is on the story of Dhandayuthapani. Lord Narada brings a fruit to Lord Shiva and asks him not to cut the fruit but give it to his Children.. Lord shiva sets a contest between Ganesha and Muruga ; the person who goes round the world three times and reaches first gets the fruit.
Lord muruga quickly on his vehicle peacock, flees to cover the space but ganesha smartly says, mother and father you both are my three worlds and goes around them to win the fruit. On seeing this, Muruga gets angry and stands as Dhandayuthapani as Andiappan in protest.
In the second half she describes the beauty of lord Muruga and asks her Sakhi if he would come down to marry her.. Does the Sakhi finally go or still play games around ? Does the heroine finally have an answer to her question? Varnam , ragam thodi,thalam adi.
3. Kanden Seethayai —- Bagesri— Thisra ekam (7 minutes)
Hanuman comes back to Rama from Lanka after managing to see Sita who is under the captive of Ravana. This is an intense description of how he met her and how the message actually gave some relief to Rama. He gives Rama the choodamani given to him by none other than Sita herself as an evidence that she is still waiting for Rama to come and take her back.This is an intense conversation between Hanuman and Rama reflecting on the bond they share and a symbolisation of piousness.
- Aadadhu Asangadhu Vaa Kanna — ragam Madyamavathi— Talam Adi (7minutes)
The poet in this piece asks krishna not to dance by persuading him with various reasons; because of his dance the three worlds are also dancing ,the thillai Nataraja himself left his dance and came down to Gokulam to watch Krishna dance. In the later part of the song, the poet says, the bun tied on your head and the peacock feather gets distorted because of the dance. Lastly, he says ; the people who come down to see your dance would have drishti on you and the fact that he can’t bear the pain makes him plead not to dance. There is a surprise element in the end. Let’s see what Krishna has to say to the poet, does he listen?
5. Thillana — Ragam hIndolam- Talam Adi . (6 minutes)
Kathak Performance by Kum Kavitha Krishna Murthy
Kathak Item Synopsis
1.PRABANDH
The word means ” one that is bound” predominantly technical rendition is kept uncharged and bound to its original composition as composed by the ancient kathakars . The composer highlights the various aspects of dance and music identifying as geeth , dharu, prabandh , drupad , alankar and upaj. The concluding lyric says let ramdas composition of prabandh bring joy to the performer and to the on looker..
- GEETH TRIWAT
In this two part composition the first sees a string of musical nodes set to specific raagas or melody to which the dancer translates into movement across the dance for. The second is of pure dance that the dancer executes complex movements to the rhythmic patterns of the percussion instrument. The syllables of tabala playing is set to melody and here tirkit is used extensively and hence it’s name tiriwat.The item concludes with the friendly duet between two percussion instruments pakhawaz and tabla which the dancers dexterousily manipulates the ankle bells.
- GHAZAL
It is a poetic form with rhyming couplets and a refrain, each line sharing the same meter. Aaj Jaane ki Jid Na Karo is written by Pakistani poet Fayyaz Hashmi. This Ghazal is about a lady who is requesting her lover to stay just for the moment to relive their love. To feel the love that used to be a great love story. And the narrator is giving all the instances of their love story to make the other half realise what they were when they used to be in love.
- RAAG TAAL MAAL
A pure Nritta based item wher we can fine various kinds of CHAAL, TUKDAS and TATKAAR. The dancer executes complex movements to the rhythmic patterns of the percussion instrument.
- TARANA
Kathak originated using drupad the kind of music prevalent at that time .On the Islamic influence on Indian arts,the music changed to khayal. Khayal means imagination . The singer explores the feel of the chosen memory by meandering through the fixed nodes of raaga . Sans any lyrics, the many a time meaningless words are melodiously strung and set to rhythm. Dancers have adopted this genre of music and dance as a signature item of a kathak recital. This number is set to raag MALHAR that executes complex patterns within the time cycle of 16 ending by creating an audio imagery through the movements of the feet while the ankle bells echoes those percussion syllables.