About the last poem/song, "prati remmapai...", and generally about songs in these dramas, I said that when you hear the song in the context of the drama, you do not see the beauty of the lyrics, amidst all the accompanying "noise", that it could only be seen in text form. I also said that once you have an appreciation for the lyrics in that form, then, seeing them in the drama context, with all the accompanying orchestra and visualization would enhance the enjoyment.
"ayyavArEm cEstunnAranTE, cEsina claim-nu modify cEsTunnAru". Looks like this is going to be a familiar refrain for me. Sort of like a theme song.
Well, not all songs fall in that category. The song below is from hara vilaasam again, scene-11, wedding preparations. The song is okay in text; but when you hear it with all the choreography, it improves by orders of magnitude. You leave the theater humming this tune, and wishing you knew the words! I know of several people (adiyan included) who couldn't wait until the lyrics were obtained, from the troupe.
In a recent article this scene was described as:
Like a saanti mantram, the subsequent wedding arrangements return the audience to the social world. The Rshis assure us that all who witness and hear about this wedding will be blessed with health and good fortune. The folk dance, refreshing as a cool spray, readies the house while the audience gets reoriented, and Parvati's bridal preparations, depicting the cosmic complement of this marriage, infuses this social world with divine significance.
There must be a lot of "folk" songs of this type, which people sing to relieve themselves of the burden of the work being performed. Of necessity, the rhythm of the song follows the chore being performed. rokalla pATa, tiragaLLa pATa, cIpuLLa pATa, all of these have their own rhythm. Actually, calling these "folk-songs" may not be right. These can be heard even in middle-class households, either by servants hired to do these chores, or by the family members themselves performing the chores. Of course, when such activities are being done in a large scale, such as for a wedding, then the singing in chorus acquires special melody.
I will also list this next one, even though it is not a "folk" song/tune. It immediately follows the above song.suvvEE, in khamAs
AhU, AhU, AhU, AhU, suvvee, SaSi kaLAbharaNa, suvvee, pArvatI ramaNa, suvvee, naTa SrI caraNa, Subhamu livvee |suvvee|
kundanampu havaNampu kundini gandhapu rokalla mundugA pasapu danci rindu vadanalu |suvvee|
rAjanAlu, bangaru tIgelu, rAjasampu karpUra bhOgulu, rAjillaga dancinAru, rAjIvAkshulu |suvvee|
kapramu, SrIgandha magaru, kasturi kunkuma puvvu, punugu javvAdulu danciri, puvvu bONulu |suvvee|
caturaSram (faster speed)
mungiLLu cimmI, pannITi kaLLApu, lO yammalu callAre, mA yammalu callAre
pannITa mungiLLu, mungiLLa kalayampu, lO yammalu callAre, mA yammalu callAre
mutyAla muggulu, ratanAla muggulu, O yammalu peTTAre, mA yammalu peTTAre
muggula mutyAlu, mutyAla kempulu, O yammalu peTTAre, mA yammalu peTTAre
civuruTaSOkapu, tOraNa mAlalu, O yammalu kaTTAre, mA yammalu kaTTAre
mankena pUvulu, gOranTa pUvulu, O yammalu tEre, mA yammalu tEre
gOranTa, mankena, kunda, kuruvakamu, O yammalu tEre, mA yammalu tEre
rAvamma pArvatI, in punnAgavarALi rAgam
rAvamma pArvatI, ratanAla bommA, taruNEndu SEkharuni taruNi, rAvammA |rAvamma|
penDli kUtuni jEya vELa ayyEnU, pEraTanDrarudEra vEDukayyEnU |rAvamma|
pannITi snAnAlu pacarintu ganI, parimaLapu maipUta vAsintu gAnI |rAvamma|
pasupu pArANulU parigintu gAnI, paTTu puTTammulu, kaTTUduvu gAnI |rAvamma|
nI kOsamai cikke, nIlakanThuDu sagamu, nIlakanThuni koraku nIvu sagamaitivi |rAvamma|
okarokari sagamuluga okkarai mIrU ardha-nArISwarata kardha mayyEnU |rAvamma|
An aside here. Last Sunday, just before the final performance of the tour, ksheera saagara mathanam in Pittsburgh, I was sitting in the auditorium, copying the lyrics from THE book of mAshTaru gAru. After a while, a young lady joined me, reading the stuff, while I was hurriedly writing them down. She was overjoyed, that she had in her hands, the original book of the mAshTaru gAru, which he keeps on a "vyAsa peeTham", while he is doing the naTTuvangam. While reading the last two stanzas of the song, she was overwhelmed with emotion.
A bit of trivia here. The Kuchipudi Art Academy is working on a full length drama, with the tentative title of "ardha nArISwara". On August 5, the day before the first drama of the tour, Ramayanam, there was a short inaugural ceremony at the Pittsburgh Temple, and a short dance programme. During that, a long item, entitled "ardha nArISwara stuti" was presented. I posted a review of that program around that time.
This concludes the "official" part of this posting. Venkateswara Rao garu, 5K (5k-kaadu)-lO pUrti cEsAnu!
Ramakrishna ----------------------------------------------------------------------- anagA anagA okappuDu, an office bearer of a cultural society asked a dance (kUcipUDi) teacher, if she would get her students to do a folk dance item, at a cultural event. The teacher politely declined, saying that she teaches "purely classical kUcipUDi" style, and some of us wondered at the gall of the lady who made such an "inappropriate" request. But seeing the above dance, where the lyrics, the tune, the costumes, the choreography - everything reminded you of a folk-setting, I was promptly disabused of my notion. Remember the bhartRhari poem:
telivi yokinta lEni yeDa tRptuDanai, kari bhangi sarvamun
telisiti nancu garwita matin viharinciti dolli, yippuDuj-
jwalamatulaina panDitula sannidhi nincuka bOdhaSaalinai,
teliyani vaaDanai melagitin, gatamayye nitaanta garwamun.