Thyagaraja's Ulsava Sampradaya Krithis

rjayakumar · Post by **rjayakumar** » 19 Jun 2008, 10:58

Dear Rasikas,
Could somebody please let me know about the context and background of Thyagaraja's Ulsava Sampradaya Krithis. I got some info by searching the internet like it is associated with rituals or offerings to God. Is there anything more than this about these set of Krithis.
Also, i am particularly interested to know about the kirthana Jo Jo Rama in Reethigowla which is an Ulsava Sampradaya Krithi. It would be great if somebody can tell me whether there is anything special about this krithi.

Regards,
Jay

vgvindan · Post by **vgvindan** » 19 Jun 2008, 11:13

rj,
You might have heard about 'bhajana', 'akhaNDa bhajana', 'unchavRtti'. Utsava sampradAya kRtis are sung during such occasions. A brief about 'bhajana' is here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampradya_Bhajans

The particular kRti you referred 'jO jO rAma' is sung at the penultimate part of the bhajana - to put to sleep the Lord

To know more about 'unchavRtti', please refer to - http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archi ... /0157.html

Sri Thyagaraja like great Bhagavatas have lived on alms only.
(A token unchavRtti is undertaken by musicians before Thyagaraja Aradhana).

rain_of_nectar · Post by **rain_of_nectar** » 19 Jun 2008, 13:00

Spelling it as Ulsava instead of Utsava is a dead giveaway that you are a mallu

Anyways... try to get hold of Dr. S. Ramanathan's lovely "A Day with Thyagaraja" lectures to appreciate the Utsava Sampradaya kritis better.

sridhar_ranga · Post by **sridhar_ranga** » 19 Jun 2008, 13:05

This is a digression but I have for long been curious as to the transformation of "ts" into "ls" in Malayalam - e.g. ulsavam, malsya, sreevalson - is there a reason for this? Does the Malayalam grammar not allow 'ts' to be together?

rjayakumar · Post by **rjayakumar** » 19 Jun 2008, 14:05

Thanks a lot vgvindan sir for this information...
yes rain_of_nectar, you are right and i dont know why we always pronounce the combination of t and s as 'ls'. Interestingly the letter we use in malayalam for it is a combination of tha and sa. so it should have been ts instead of ls but anyways...

Member_First · Post by **Member_First** » 19 Jun 2008, 14:08

Then the language itself should hv been 'matsayAtsam'...