Ootthukadu Venkata Kavi Jayanthi at Krishna Gana Sabha

[garudadhwani]

Krishna gana sabha, Chennai celebrated Ootthukkadu Venkata Kavi Jayanthi on 2nd Sept, 2007.
There was a group rendition of the Saptaratnas by several vidwans and vidushis such as Savita Narasimhan, Nisha Rajagopal and many others, led by Chitravina Shri Ravikiran.
The Saptaratnas are a set of compositions, set to Adi talam, that are similar in structure to Tyagaraja’s Pancharatnas. They include the following :

1.Bhajanamruta – Nattai (a composition that pays tributes to several Shaivite and Vaishnavite saints, devotees and composers; thematically similar to ‘Endaro Mahanubhavulu-Shree)
2.Aganitamahimadhbhuta leela – Gowla (a composition addressed to Lord Vishnu directly instead of his incarnations)
3.Madhava hrudi khelini – Kalyani (probably the only composer in Carnatic literature, other than jayadeva, to have composed on Radha)
4.Balasarasa murali – Keeravani (a compostion on Lord Krishna’s flute and his music, that mentions some gamakas names such as ahatam and pratyahatam in one of the charanam-swaras)
5.Jatadhara – Todi (on Lord Shiva and refers to many types of drums such as dindima, dhakka and many others, used by him, names of his five faces like eeshana, vama, aghora)
6.Alavadhennalo – Paras (a masterpiece that pays tributes to the 63 Shaivite saints that are mentioned in the periyapuranam and the only tamil composition in this group)
7.Sundara nandha kumara – Madhyamavathi (a lovely concluding piece that mentions 8 different offerings of daily worship to Lord Krishna, such as asanam, arghyam, doopam among others. The charanam swarams start on samam and end before samam. Here, it is interesting to note that the last pancharatna krti’s charanam swaras start on samam and end after samam.

All the above compositions were presented brilliantly and they were accompanied by Akkarai Subbulakshmi on the violin and lively percussion support from Neyveli Narayanan and B Sivaraman on the mridangam, Guruprasad (Ghatam), B S Purushothaman and K V Gopalakrishnan (kanjira).

This was followed by Shri Ravikiran’s lec-dem on the ‘melodic and rhythmic contributions’ of Ootthukkadu Venkata Kavi.
Ravikiran highlighted many salient features that prove that Venkata Kavi was a composer-par-excellence and also spoke about his brilliant imagination as well as various innovative talas and intricate technical aspects that were handled with ease by the composer. Here are a few excerpts from the informative and eye-opening lec-dem by Ravikiran.

1.Innovative themes for the saptaratnas and reason behind their compilation – Each of the saptaratnas mentioned above are based on innovative themes and in scholarly Sanskrit and Tamil that goes to prove that nobody other than the composer himself could have attempted to create these. An important point cited was that the composer never intented these 7 compositions to be part of one group and that it was only later compiled as a group and that there are other similarly-structured compositions like the above that are not part of this group and belong to other operatic works of Venkata Kavi.
2.Rare and uncommon talas – Many talas such as Khanda Dhruvam (rhythmic cycle of 17 units), Sankeerna Matyam (20 units) and Khanda Triputa (9 units) have been used in the Kamakshi Navavarana compositions, another notable contribution of Venkata Kavi. Shri Ravikiran re-iterated that nobody other than the composer could have intended and handled this. He also talked about the clever splitting of the tala-sections in these compositions and demonstrated the madhyama kala sections from Neela lohita Ramani (Balahamsa – Khanda Dhruvam), where the sahitya hugs the tala split of 5+2+5+5 and Yoga Yogeshwari (where, instead of splitting it as 5+4 he has split it into 4 parts of 2 ¼ each)
3.Raga Mudra – Apart from composing songs that mention the raga’s name in it, Venkata Kavi has also referred to some of his own compositions and their ragas in other compositions. One finds a mention of songs like Taye Yashode and its raga Todi alongwith ‘Paarvai onre and its raga Surati mentioned in another composition.
4.Many deities and kshetras – Ravikiran also mentioned that Venkata Kavi has composed on several deities at various kshetras like Mannargudi, Udupi, Mylapore, Triplicane and many others.
5.Yathis – Venkata Kavi has also used many yatis such as sama yati, gopuccha yati and mridanga yati and alongwith examples.
6.Unique usage of Madhyamakala sections – Venkata kavi has employed madhymakalas in various parts of the composition rather than only as a climactic section. He has also shown further contrast by using them as a middle tier in between two sections of normal speed sahityam. Examples cited by Ravikiran included the 2nd Saptaratna pallavi, vanchasi yadi kushalam (Kalyani), Sarva jeeva dayapari (navavarana pallavi) and 8th Navavarana krti’s pallavi (Madhyamavati).
7.Gathi bhedham – This is a rare feature, not handled often by other composers. Venkata Kavi has conceived and handled these very intricately as demonstrated by Shri Ravikiran.

On the whole, it was an enlightening experience to many where so many unknown aspects of this master composer were brought to light by Shri Ravikiran who has researched extensively on his works and has recently even published a book titled “Oottukkadu Venkata kavi – Life and Contributionsâ€

[sbala]

beautiful music and a great lecdem by Ravikiran. The book is also well written.

[srkris]

5.Yathis – Venkata Kavi has also used many yatis such as sama yati, gopuccha yati and mridanga yati and alongwith examples.

Could someone throw more light on this?

[garudadhwani]

Yatis are rhythmic patterns.

Sama yati refers to an equal meter/pattern. This is seen in the madhyama kala section in the anupallavi of 1st saptaratna Bhajanamruta as demonstrated by Shri Ravikiran. It goes as follows :

vraja sundari jana pada pankaja sama
anukampita hrudi smara sambhava nija

Gopuccha yati are descending patterns - this is seen in Todi saptaratna, Jatadhara's 1st charanam swaram.

MadamayadhArukA vanamuni-manO hara-nipuNa magadhana

To understand this musically, one has to listen to the rendition.

[sbala]

garudadhwani,
Were you one of the performers? I'm wondering how you absorbed the sahitya so quickly.

[garudadhwani]

sbala,

I have quoted the above lines about the yatis from Shri Ravikiran's book on Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi- page 29. You dont require a performer to quote from a book.

[vijay]

Possibly the most famous yatis are the ones employed by Deekshitar in Thyagaraja Yoga Vaibhavam (Ananda Bhairavi). Not sure about the exact phrases but listen to it and the meaning of yatis is immediately clear

[harimau]

Possibly the most famous yatis are the ones employed by Deekshitar in Thyagaraja Yoga Vaibhavam (Ananda Bhairavi). Not sure about the exact phrases but listen to it and the meaning of yatis is immediately clear

Tyagaraja Yoga Vaibhavam
Aga raja Yoga Vaibhavam
Raja Yoga Vaibhavam
Yoga Vaibhavam
Vaibhavam
Bhavam
Vam

and later

Sam
Prakasam
Swarupa Prakasam
Sakala Thathva Swarupa Prakasam
Siva Sakthyadi Sakala Thathva Swarupa Prakasam

[bhaktha]

The first i think is shrotovaha yati and the second gopuccha yati. Corrections welcome.
-bhaktha

[arasi]

gOpuccha is cow's tail. SrOtA is ear. How do these words explain the yatis?

[vasanthakokilam]

Cow's tail tapers down in size and based on that the first one will be the gopuccha yati. If that makes the second one shrotovaha yati ( by elimination ), why the comparision to a ear for a progressively increasing structure? Though one can make a case for it, it will be a stretch. I prefer a Bell as a better metaphor for it.

[ram]

bhaktha,

gOpuchcha yati - a long word/pattern is split into shorter and shorter words/patterns

srOtOvAha yati - words/patterns are added to existing word/pattern to create longer and longer words

In the examples cited by harimau, the first one is gOpuchcha and the second one is srOtOvAha

arasi madam,

I think srOtas refers to river/stream and vAha refers to carrying .... so srOtOvAha must refer to river carrying or river flowing

[ram]

Also ... gOpuchcha yati is like a cow's tail tapering down

[shadjam]

Here is an explanation for the various types of yatis taken from the following website:

http://www.ipnatlanta.net/camaga/vidyar ... /Thala.htm

Yati

Denotes rhythmic patterns used. There are six types of yatis.

Sama yati: When the rhythmic patterns are of equal scale. For example, look at the following swara pattern.

s s r r g g m m p p d d n n s s

The above has groupings of 4 swaras each ad shows the sama yati pattern.

Gopucha Yati (Cow's tail): Denotes rhythmic patterns where it starts with a wide grouping of swaras and it slowly tapers down to the narrow groupings.

Thyaga Raja Yoga Vaibhavam

Aga Raja Yoga Vaibhavam

Raa Yoga Vaibhavam

Yoga Vaibhavam

Vaibhavam

Bhavam

Vam

Srotovaha Yati: Is the diametric opposite of Gopucha Yati. It starts with a narrow rhythmic or swara pattern and slowly widens to the maximum.

Sam

Prakasam

Tattva Swarupa Prakasam

Sakala Tattva Swarupa Prakasam

Siva Saktyadi Sakala Swarupa Prakasam.

The other types of Yatis include: Damaru Yati, Mridanga Yati, and Vishama Yati.

[vasanthakokilam]

From http://www.karnatik.com/Glossary.pdf

Damaru yati - a type of rhythmic pattern of swaras or words resembling a Damaru, a type of drum that is
narrow in the middle and wide at the ends. It is a combination of srotovaaha and gOpucca yati. ex: sndpndp-
dp-p-dp-ndp-sndp, orsrgrsrsrgm (matya taaLa)

mridanga yati - opposite of Damaru yati, this is a rhythmic pattern of swaras or words which is narrow at
the ends and wide in the middle (a combination of srotovaaha and gOpucca yatis). ex: pdn-mpdn-gmpdnmpdn-
pdn

vishama yati - a yati in which the angas can be without definite order, ex: |(4) U |(4) 0 U |(4) 0

[arasi]

Thank you, ram, Shadjam and VK.
Learnt something very interesting today.
Yes, flowing like any river, starting as a trickle from a spring and gaining volume and momentum...

[sangeetarasikan]

sbala,

I have quoted the above lines about the yatis from Shri Ravikiran's book on Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi- page 29. You dont require a performer to quote from a book.

Talk about getting peeved! :rolleyes: