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Mayuram Viswanatha Sastry
Why is He reluctant to carry out His promise?
| Composition: |
sonnadaic ceydiDa… |
| Composer: |
mAyUram viswanAta sAstry |
| mudrA: |
viswam or vEdapuri |
| (signature): |
|
| rAgam: |
rAgamAlikA (vandanadhAriNi, hindOLam, dEvamanOhari, &
mANDu) |
| ArOhaNam: |
Different for each ragam |
| AvarOhaNam: |
Different for each ragam |
|
tALam:
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Adi |
| Pallavi: |
sonnadaic ceydiDa sAhasamA kiLiyE
kaNNan eninumuRai kaDa^ndiDalAmA
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(sonnadaic)
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| Anupallavi: |
maNNum ponnum i^nda mAyalokhamellAm
mAdavan mayamAgi madiyai mayakkudaDi
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(sonnadaic)
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| CaraNam1: |
tannilai taDumARit tavikkiREnaDi
kaNNan kaNNan enRu kadaRugiREnaDi
veNNilavu vIsum veTTaveLi tannil
mannavan enakkoru Asai tandAraDi
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(sonnadaic)
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| CaraNam2: |
kannimADam tanil kAvalgaLai mIRi
enna tuNiccaluDan enniDam vandAraDi
kaNmaNiyE unnaik kANavE vandEningu
minnoLiyE undan mEni enRAraDi
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(sonnadaic)
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| CaraNam3: |
ennennavO solli ennai mayakkiviTTu
annam pAlum veRukka alaiya vaittAraDi
mannavan dEvaki maindan gOpAlan
kannam vaittu endan karuttil pugundAraDi
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(sonnadaic)
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Source for lyrics:
Lakshman Ragde of Toronto, Canada, kindly provided the lyrics.
Meaning:
Pallavi: Why is he reluctant to do according to what he said, oh, parrot? Even if he is kaNNan can he circumvent the norms?
Anupallavi: This earth, gold and this mysterious world - all of them look like mAdavan to me and enchant me.
Caranam1: I have lost my composure and don’t know what to do. I am just crying out the name of kaNNan. On a moonlit night in an open field he revealed his love to me.
Caranam2: He broke all security in the gynoecium and with great determination came to my quarters. He told me, “Oh, darling I came here just to see you. You have the complexion of a lightning”
Caranam3: He spoke so many things to enchant me with the result I hate food and milk thinking only about him all the time. He is my lord, the son of dEvaki. He entered my thoughts stealthily and occupies my mind constantly.
General comments:
 This song is classified as a padam. A padam is a devotional song, intellectual in content, sung in a slow tempo, and has meaningful words set to one or more ragam(s). It is usually a love lyric (madura gItam), imagined by a young maiden. She is in love with one of the gods, usually krishNan, murugan, or sivan. She pines for him day in and day out and sends her dear friend as a messenger to her Lord to fetch him or get messages from him. In general it is a love story expressing her regret over the absence of her lover-god.
In ancient Thamizh literature (ahanAnUru, for example) it is very common to describe the agony of separation of the young maiden from her lover who has gone in search of wealth or to fight for his country. The maiden thinks about all the sweet nothings that her lover uttered to her and lives quite a bit in reminiscence of the past. In the padam songs which came into vogue around the 16th century, however, the emphasis is on sringAra bhakti viz., the theme that is portrayed is devotional love.
In this song we see our heroine pining for her Lord Kannan, She is in unremitting love with him and imagines that he promised to love her and be with her. Since he didn’t show up she is in turmoil. She thinks about him all the time and shuns food and milk. Wherever she turns there appears the image of her Lord. That makes it all the more painful for her. He is too near and yet too far. She cannot be herself. She tells her companion, a parrot, all her misery about how her Lord came into her quarters, admired her beauty and occupied her mind totally.
As padams go, this song conforms to the textual details and meanings of each line and each word. Some of the great padam composers in Thamizh were: Muttu Tandavar, Ghanam Krishna Iyer, Kavi Kunjara Bharathi, Thanjavur Vasudeva Kavi, Vaitheeswarankoil Subbarama Iyer and Mazhavarayanendal Cidambara Bharathi.
Composer’s bio:
Mayuram Viswanatha Sastry (1893-1958) was born in Terezhundur, near Mayuram, the same place where the great Thamizh poet Kamban was also born. He was drawn to music through his mother. From a young age he had a flare for composing music.
He studied the vEdAs and Sanskrit while young. He was initiated into music by Fiddle Subbaiyer. Later he learned music from teachers in Chettinadu. He became a professional musician and gradually turned into a composer. He published several books of which, ‘VaLLi PariNaya MaNipravALa Satakam’, ‘Murugan PugazhmAlai’, and ‘Murugan Keertanai’ are noteworthy. He was also the first person to set TirukkuRaL verses to music.
Other songs of Mayuram Viswanatha Sastry (MVS) that are recognised for their literal beauty are:
kaiviDalAgadaiyyA (shankarAbharaNam), srImahAgaNapatE (nATTai), jayati jayati bhAratamAtA (khamAs),
samarasa bhAvana (AbhEri), aDakkmuLLor miga aRivilAr enReNNI (kAmbhoji),
AdaravAi amba anudinamum (mOhanam), kaNda kumara (tODi), shaNmugam pAdam cilamboli nAdam (shaNmugapriyA), and
kArttikEyanai (kApi).
The late musicians G N Balasubramanian (GNB) and
Madurai Mani Iyer (MMI) popularised many of MVS’ songs. The khamAs piece ‘jayati jayati bhArata matA’, rendered by the late
Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer on August 15, 1947, in honour of Indian Independence was especially well-liked by listeners as it kindled nationalistic feelings.
References:
1. http://carnatica.net/composer/viswanathasastri.htm
2. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5180/tnmusic1.html
Sethuraman Subramanian
subramaniansethu@hotmail.com
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