Maharaja Swati Tirunal of Travancore (1813-1846) was a multi-faceted personality, who pursued South Indian classical music, North Indian classical music, dance, poetry, science, astronomy and languages with equal ease. Because of his love for dance, many of his compositions are extremely visual and evocative in nature, as opposed to being vehicles for abstract ideas.
Portrait of Composer-rule Swati Tirunal.
Though he composed in Braj Bhasha, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Manipravalam (being an amalgam of Malayalam and Sanskrit) Swati Tirunal’s compositions are predominantly in Sanskrit. Just like the variations in the English language used by say Ernest Hemingway and Oscar Wilde and P.G. Wodehouse, we can find clear differences in the Sanskrit used by Jayadeva, Muthuswamy Dikshitar, Kalidasa, Adi Sankara and Maharaja Swati Tirunal. Though I don’t pretend to be a linguistic expert, I have noticed that Maharaja himself uses four different kinds of Sanskrit in his compositions:
First is the simple, lilting, easily accessible Sanskrit that he uses in songs like ‘Kripaya Palaya Shaure,’ ‘Pankaja Lochana,’ ‘Sarasaksha Paripalaya’ and so on, which is one reason for their immense popularity.
Second, the extraordinary linguistic gymnastics that he employs in the lyric or sahityam for the notes or swarams of his Pada Varnams to come up with swaraksharams where the syllable in the lyric is the same as the note in the music. The lyrics for ‘Sa Ni Dha Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa’ in his brilliant Khamas Pada Varnam (‘Saa Vaa Maa Rusha’) for example, being ‘Sa Nidhipathi Girisa!’
Third, the Sanskrit that he uses in his Upakhyanams like Kuchelopakhyanam and Ajamilopakhyanam.
And the fourth is, the ornate language and imagery that he uses for the nine songs on the Divine Mother for the nine nights of Navaratri.
The Maharaja’s esteemed contemporary Muthuswamy Dikshitar had the good fortune of travelling all over our vast country and visiting many great temples, which he would encapsulate in his brilliant compositions. Maharaja, being a ruling king, who was struggling under the tyranny of the British rule, had no such luxury. But his elevated mind travelled all the way to Varanasi, and he wrote the beautiful Hindustani composition, ‘Vishveshwar darsan kar, chal man tum Kasi,’ that captured the magnificence of the Divine Mother in the Navaratri kritis.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM 10/9/2008---Musicians perform at this venue at the Navaratri Mandapam during the nine-day Navaratri Festival. An idol of the Devi is brought from Padamanabhapuram Palace and is worshipped here for nine days. .............Photo:C_Ratheesh kumar
If one carefully goes through the lyrics of these amazing songs, one could easily visualise Devi, even if one is not fortunate to visit the Navaratri Mandapam.
Three types of flowers
Devi, whom the Maharaja worshipped and his predecessors before him did and his descendants continue to do, is the exquisite idol of Saraswathy — the Goddess of learning and expression that the Sage and Great Poet Mahakavi Kambar had worshipped.
The puja done during the nine days of Navaratri treat Her as Saraswathy during the first three days, as Lakshmi during the next three days and as Goddess Durga during the last three days. When I was young, the flowers used during the first three days would be white, the next three days pink and the last three days, red! These days this doesn’t seem to be as obvious although the decorations are extremely beautiful even now.
The Maharaja’s compositions though are on Goddess Saraswathy the first six days and on Goddess Durga during the last three days. The nine songs are ‘Devi Jagath Janani’ in Sankarabharanam; ‘Pahimam Sri Vageeshwari’ in Kalyani; ‘Devi Pavane’ in Saveri; ‘Bharati Mamava’ in Thodi; ‘Janani Mamava’ in Bhairavi; ‘Saroruhasana Jaaye’ in Kamavardhini; ‘Janani Pahi’ in Shuddha Saveri; ‘Pahi Janani’ in Nattakurinji and ‘Pahi Parvata Nandini’ in Arabhi.
Most of these songs are quite rich, heavy and slow, except the last song in Arabhi which is lighter in structure and faster in tempo… and consequently much more popular than the other eight! During the first half of the twentieth century, when Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavatar and later Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and others collected and documented the Maharaja’s compositions, which were scattered (with the Mullamoodu Bhagavatars of the Travancore court, with the Nagaswaram vidwans of the Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple and with other royal families) they did not leave behind a record as to which of the songs had the original tunes by the Maharaja, which were slightly modified and which were given new tunes and who gave them. I have heard from my esteemed veena guru Prof. K.S. Narayanaswamy (who would have been 104 years old, had he been alive now) that the second song in Kalyani, the seventh song in Suddha Saveri and the eighth song in Nattakurinji, were tuned by the legendary Musiri Subramania Iyer.
In this day and age of the internet, a simple Google search would bring up the lyrics and meanings of all the nine songs, thoughtfully posted by kind souls. While I can assure you that such a search would be totally worth your time and effort, let me point out a few mistakes that we vidwans make, while singing these beautiful songs, so that they can be avoided in the future.
There are many occasions where the simple placement of a syllable would drastically change the meaning. For example: In the first song ‘Devi Jagath Janani,’ it would be much more aesthetic if one were to sing “Thaavaka Charana Bhaktim” (Devotion to your feet) rather than “Thaavaka Chaarana Bhaktim” which in Malayalam, would mean “Devotion to your dandruff!”
In the second song ‘Pahimam Sree Vaageeshwari,’ many people sing ‘Pahi Maam’ (Protect me!) as ‘Paahi – Imam’ which, though a sign of Hindu-Muslim brotherhood, isn’t exactly what the Maharaja had in mind. The beautiful charanam of this song has each line, ending with the first word of the next line. So it would make sense to sing all the lines once and repeat the whole stanza rather than sing one line and repeat it again for second sangathi , which would make no sense at all.
The third song ‘Devi Paavane’ has a line ‘Bheema Anantha Ajnaana Thimira Bhedana Mihiraayithe,’ which means ‘She who is so brilliant that she destroys the darkness of huge ignorance!’ Sadly, many people sing this as ‘Bheemaanandaa Jnaana Thimira Bhedana Mihiraayithe’ which would mean ‘She who is so brilliant that she destroys the Bliss of the Darkness of Knowledge!’
The fifth song ‘Janani Maamava’ in Bhairavi has the phrase ‘Varada Abheethi Mudre’ which portrays the Goddess as standing with her two hands offering Boon and Asylum. Maharaja uses the word ‘Abheethi’ to mean ‘Abhayam.’ Perhaps veteran musician, the late M.D. Ramanathan, might have been the only person whom I have heard sing ‘Abheethi’ correctly, since almost everybody else sings ‘Bheethi Mudre’ which would be a terrifying prospect indeed.
Thata Nivasini
The last song, ‘Pahi Parvatha Nandini’ is in praise of Maharaja’s family deity, the Goddess of Attingal. Attingal literally means ‘By the side of the river.’ Maharaja describes Her as ‘Vaahini Thata Nivasini, Kesari Vaahane’, which means ‘One who resides by the riverside and one who rides a lion.’ Thanks to vidwan Palghat K.V. Narayanaswamy. who has popularised this song, many people sing the lyrics correctly. But quite a few musicians still render it as ‘Vaahini Thata Nivaasini Kesari’, which means ‘The Lion who lives on the riverside!’
I hope these few points would be taken up seriously by students, teachers and practitioners of music.
May the beautiful spirit of the Maharaja and the Divine Mother shower all of us generously with their blessings and divine grace during Navarathri and always.
