V V Srivatsa, Lec-dem for Shanmukhapriya

V V Srivatsa - V Sanjeev - K R Ganesh

Lec-Dem on rAgam shankarAbaraNam with reference to Trinity Compositions.

Shanmukhapriya. Swami Hall. R A Puram
27 March 2007. 6:30 pm

The compositions that were rendered:

svara rAga sudhA rasa
buddhi rAdu
Emi nEramu
bhakti bikshamiyyavE
sadAsivam upAsmahE
sundarEsvarAya namastE
dEvi mIna nEtri

parts of dakshinAmurtE, akshaya linga vibhO, sri kamalAmbhikA

It was a very informative programme.

Dr Srivatsa began with a slokam by Adi shankara on Rama. He explained the philosophical meanings involved in the name of the ragam. He highlighted that Tyagaraja has used shankarAbaraNam a tri-sthAyi rAgam while Dikshitar and Shyama Sastri have used it only as a dvi-sthAyi rAgam and Dikshitar has used the tArasthAyi more while Shyama Sastri has used more of the mandara sthAyi.

Existance of 45 trinity compositions was placed on record (2 shyama sastri, 10 dikshitar and 33 tyagaraja kritis). Also, the pre-trinity compositions were all listed. Dr Srivatsa quoted sAranga dEva in telling that the rAgam is indeed very very old and has been with the music world since a long time. He also said, that this is one of the few rAgams which has been quite similarly handled by all the three of the trinity. Dr Srivatsa also listed the percentage of usage of each of the svarams amongst the trinity.

Dr Srivatsa also sang a kriti by krishnasvAmi ayyA, which starts as shankarAbaraNa, and a pallavi gOpAla iyer kriti, which he said was a musiri favourite. He also sang parts of quite a few dEvarnAmAs and said there are atleast 30 hari dAsA pieces which have come down with shankarAbaraNa tunes in the oral traditions.

Dr Srivatsa also presented one of his own compositions, parAtpara, in shankarAbaraNam set to kaNDa rUpakam.

bharath

PS: Points mentioned here out of memory. E & O E