2025 July 19 GayathriGirish MysoreSrikanth NCBharadwaj BhaglakshmiKrishna

Vocal: Vid. Gayathri Girish 

Niolin: Vid. Mysore Srikanth 

Mridanga: Vid. NC Bharadwaj 

Morsing: Vid. Bhaglakshmi Krishna

Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha 

01 nera nammithinayya VarNa kAnada k Ata pUchi shrInivAsa iyengAr

02 shrI mahAgaNapathiravatumAm gaULa misra cApu m.dIkshitar

03 manavi nAlakicha rAdhaTE naLinakAnthi Adhi tyAgarAja

04 tODi AlApane + Enu dhanyaLO lakumi tODi rUpaka p.dAsa

05 bhajare rE mAnasA abhEri c thripuTa MysUru VAsudhEvAchAr

06 shankarAbharaNa AlApane + akShaya linga vibho shankarAbharaNa m Eka m dhIkShithar + tani

07 pibarE rAma rasam Ahirbhairav Adi sadASiva brahmEndra

08 tamburi mITidava

09 ugabhoga

10 sadA enna hridayadalli bEhAg Adi vijaya dAsa

11 sindhubhairavi tillAna

12 nI nAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adi tyAgarAja

2019 Mar 01 GayathriGirish HMSmitha NCBharadwaj SunaadAnoor @ Ananya

Vocal: Vid. GayathriGirish 
Violin: Vid. HMSmitha 
Mridanga: Vid. NCBharadwaj 
Khanjari: Vid. SunaadAnoor 

Venue: Ananya
Organiser : RK Srikantan Trust


01 gajAnanam gaNapathim bhajEham tODi ctuSra maTya JCW

02 saDashivam upAsmahe sarasAngi Adi JCW

03 amba srI rAjarAjeshwari bhOgavasantha Adi JCW (A)

04 gowrimanOhari pAhi gowrimanOhari miSra jhampe JCW (A)

05 kAmAkshIm varalakshmIm vasantha rUpaka JCW (A)

06 bhajare rE mAnasa pUrNachandrika Adi JCW

07 umAm namAmi haimavathIm bhagavatIm hEmavati misra jhampe JCW (A, N, S, T)

08 shiva shiva shiva bhO nAdanAmakriya misra jhampe JCW

2016 Jul 01 GayathriGirish NalinaMohan BSPrashanth VSRamesh @ Bangalore Lalita Kala Parishat

Vocal: Vid. GayathriGirish 
Violin: Vid. NalinaMohan 
Mridanga: Vid. BSPrashanth 
Morsing: Vid. VSRamesh 

Prog No 878
Bangalore Lalita Kala Parishat / National College Jayanagar

01 Sri mahAgaNapathiravatumAm gaULa misra cApu muttuswAmi Dixitar (S)

02 rA rA mA intiki dhAka asAvEri Adhi thyAgarAja

03 vAnchathOnu nA vagalu dhelpave karNaranjani Adhi muttaiah bhAgavathar (A, CS)

04 sadA shivEna shankarENa sindhuramakriya m.dikshitar 

05 enduku peddalavale buddhi shankarAbharaNam Adi tyAgarAja (A, N, S, T)
nereval @ vEdashAstra purANa

06 RTP dhanyAsi tiSra tripuTa khaNDa naDai edupu 1 akshara after samam
Pallavi Line : dhanyAsi shiva jaTa madhyaye gange tunga tarange
Ragamalika in nATTakuranji, hEmavati

07 sadhA enna hrudhayadhalli bEhAg rUpaka vijayaviTTala dhAsa (O)

08 shrI venkata girIsham AlOkayE surati Adhi mutthuswAmy dhIkshithar

09 shiva panchAksari mantra (nAgEndra hArAya) rAgamAlika Adi Shankara

10 nI nAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adhi thyAgarAja

Having experience of previous concert being washed out, I started off early from office to be at the venue on time. Though the stage was ready and the artists too were raring to go, the audience were still pouring in.

Vid. Gayathri warmed up the evening directly with an invocation through gaULa kriti. Since there was no varNa, i was expecting swara prastara on this, which happened as expected.

The asAvEri piece was a straight forward filler which was presented at apt kAlapramANa 

A short sketch of karNaranjani was good and the kriti was rendered well. There were no further embellishments other than the original chitta swaras.

Vid. Gayathri has presented many lecture demonstrations and her repertoire on rare krithis is well appreciated . Today she took up a sindhu rAmakriya composition of muttuswAmi dIkshitar where she demonstrated the rAga mUrchana before dwelling in a sedate presentation of the krithi. The krithi was beautiful, there were no frills attached to it.

The first long AlApane was nice and done leisurely in shankarAbharaNa. The sedate AlApane was followed with a beautiful rendition of the kriti enduku peddala with neraval and swaras at 'vEdashAstra purANa. The sama kAla neraval part was rendered very well. Percussion duo  who had been hitherto rendering perfect accompaniments, explored their potential in a not so long tani. It was ended with full rendition of second chanraNa. The tani they shared was nice and the last kOrvai was strikingly fitting to the starting of the line in which neraval and swaras were sung.

Without a filler , she announced that she would be presenting a RTP in dhanyAsi. The rAga AlApane traversed the crests and trough of the rAga to bring out the essence. With an eDupu of 1 akshara, the presentation of pallavi went on in quick succession of sAhitya elaboration and rAgamALika in nATTakuranji and hEmavati. An interesting aspect of rAgamAlika was after the violin returns on nATTakuranji, she once again started dhanyAsi, nAttakurani and went on into hEmavati, which was once again returned on violin. All in all it was a soothing presentation at an apt speed.

With a surUTi short sketch, a nice rendition of the kriti sRi venkata gIrisham AlOkaye... was the lead composition amongst the bEhAg, rAgamAlike shloka and mangala.

Vid Gayathri Girish gave a brief and a memorable concert. Her AlApane (though only 3 ) were good and showed essential phrases to show the rAga bhava. It was nice to hear a heavy ragas handled at ease interspersed with simpler renditions. It was also apt choice of m.bhAgavatar's krithi as a mark of respect around his remembrance day (Jun 30). Her kriti renditions were aptly pced and did not show a sign of hurriedness. The sangatis fell in place with the correct gamakas and brigas. Tutled by Vid. TNS, she showed her own singing style which dd not have an evident trace to one school. The neraval and swaras were in right proportions.

Vid Nalina Mohan, was matching to the level of the Vocalist all through. She was a replacement artist to originally billed BK Raghu, did not disappoint to what rasikas expected. 

Percussion duo BSPRashanth and VSRamesh did a good in job in accompanying the concert. Following all the pieces and played sahitya according to the mood of the concert was very evident. They played for all the sangatis enhancing the spirits of the rest of the artists. 

The concert went on without a hitch on the part of the sound system. I had a word of praise to the sound engineer Mr. Keshava Murthy who was too humble to accept his contribution. Though the concert was not that well publicized by the sabha, the audience strength was comparable to the previous concert that I attended here 2 weeks ago.

It was a memorable evening indeed.

206 Apr 03 - LecDem on Papanasham Sivan Compositions by Dr.Radha Bhaskar and Smt.Gayathri.Girish

The key points from their LecDem

Sri. Papanasam Sivan is a post trinity vAggEyakara and is also called as Tamil tyAgayya.

The similarities between both saint TyAgayya and Sivan are

•  Both have their own Ishta dEvata and composed a lot of songs on them. Rama for tyAgayya and kApAlishwara and karpagambAL for Sivan. 

(I would also feel even Thiruchendur muruga should be also sivan's ishta devata if we see the number of compositions on thiruchendur muruga.)

• Both are known for their personalized form of bhakthi as exhibited in their kritis.
• Both composed a lot of medium tempo kritis
• Simple, easy to understand style and language is lucid, conversational type so simple a layman can connect himself with their songs.

But the greatness of sri. Sivan is he followed what trinity composed but improved his own. He didn’t follow tyAgarAjA’s pattern on melody aspect tyAgarAja composed both anu pallavi and charanam in same melodic pattern. repetetion of anu pallavi melody in charanam also Sivan didn’t follow tyAgarAja but he followed MD. He used different melody for his charanam which brought a freshness.

He also composed many kritis, kIrtanAs, varNas and few tillAnas. he also composed two operas.

1.RAMACHARITA GEETHAM

2.KARAIKAL AMMAYAR( A SAIVA NAYANMAR)

The duo presented two songs

1.Ka Va Vaa( varali)

where sivan used different tunes for each charana.

2.Tiruparam kundra vela(hindolam) where the anu pallavi and charana are of same melody , similar to tyAgarAja utsava sampradAya kritis.

As they explained sivan has exhibited more personalized form of bhakthi in his compositions. It is more like a conversation between sivan and god..

Different type of bhakthi expressed by sivan

1.Nayaki Nayaka bhavam: In his varnams (Ex: Nattakurunji pada varnam)

2.Thai Chey bhavam (mother and son affection) (Amba nI irangavidil, pArvati nAyakane charanam)

3.Self pity (Pilla puliyar_Maya malava golwla,Pirava varum :Latangi)

4.Smaranam:remembering god always( Tirupathi Venkata Ramana)

5.Saranagathi( srinivasa thava charanam)

6.Nindha stuthi (GG presented a beautiful suruti song “ pichaiku vandeero) explaining about the bikshadanar kolam of kapali)

Melody aspects:

While following the foot step of trinity, sivan has his own imagination and improvisation with the boundary.

He has brought the rakti raga aspect/identification in the first phrase of the song it self. Rakti ragas are identified by typical phrases.

rItiguLa: padamararinai

kAnada: kAnthimathim annayaye

kEdAragauLa: samiku sari evvaro.

sahAna: chittam irangadenaiya. the key note rishaba is appearing in first phrase itself.

In mainly varali “ ka va va” it dwels on gandharam then lands through rishaba then shandjamam.different from mamava meenakshi of MD and kamakshi varali of shyama shastry where the gandhara lands to shandjamam directly..

In todi keertanai kundra kudi vela he built sangatis step by step.

In Adum deivame the sangatis at adum brings a dancing effect.or oscillating sangatis at adum( dancing)

Sivan compositions in rare ragas.

BImplAs: kannan Madura idazhai

valaji: pAdame thunai paramasiva

Shivaranjani: on lord ganesha :tharunam idahiya

tilAng: sri ganesha charanam

Sivan like tyAgarAja swami has composed 20 keertanais in karaharapriya. Please note MD and shyama sastri never composed any in karaharapriya)

Both artists on stage demonstrated 3 kIrtanAs in karaharapriya bringing the uniqueness of each. Sivan present new approach to karaharapriya, used different tempo, and kalapramanam.

1.senthil andavanan

2.srinivasa thava charanam: he used 2 kalai

3.illai endra sol ondrum mattum vendam: this is in tisra nadai. This song was composed on faith in god, counter to atheist movement which was dominant in 1950 and 1960 in Tamil Nadu.

Sivan also composed songs with swarakshara.

Samagana lolane

Sada

Parvathi nayakane charanam

Ma ramanan

Mahalakshmi jagan matha

Sivan also composed madhyama kala kIrtanAs like muthuswamy dikshitar.

Tharunam idaiyya

Isane (chakravaham)

He also presented enitire charana in madhyama kala, karpagame in madhyamavathi. Like MD’s kanjhadAlayatAkshi.

Sivan also composed swara sahithyam like shyama sastry.

 Example samaja varagamanan in madhyamavathi

Sivan also composed songs in different kalapramanam. He took same raga hindolam and composed songs in

Vilamba : ma ramanan. Here the jArus are more prominent like Hindustani music than gamakas.

Madhyama : samagana lolane,here gamaks are more prominent

Duritha: nambi kettavar evarayya

The different kalapramanams helps to reveal gamakas in different dimensions. The minute details of the raga portrayed differently in different tempo.

Sivan also composed two songs in keravani with entirely different approach.

In karunakarane siva sankarane he dwells more on the stability of shadjamam.

But in devi neeye thunai he never touches adara shadjamam even once,, dwelling more in rishabam then moved to thara stayi..

Sivan composed around 50 songs in Sanskrit. He used very simple words even a common man can understand. He was a upadhyaya in Sanskrit and he has compiled a Sanskrit dictionary.

Artists presented

1.narayana hari nayaka :sama

2.sri madhava vasudeva: behag

Sivan also composed songs with appreciation in grammar aspects.

Annaporneswari : bhairavi, the last words of each line are rhymic

Sri visvanatham baje : the last words of each line is rhymic

In thava charanam mama charanam song the second word of each line is rhymic

Sivan also composed a lot of tamil Sanskrit mani pravalam songs, the both languages seamlessly mixes much like tyAgarAja utsava sampradaya kitis where he seamlessly mixes telugu and Sanskrit.

Sivan like tyAgarAja used edupu as a tool to bring different internal structure or flow. He used different edupus to bring different internal structure or flow.

sama eDupu examples 

Padame thunai paramasiva

Unnai alal( kalyani)

½ edupu

Pirava varam

Ksherasagara sayana

atIta eDupu  (occurs after samam point of tALa)

¾ edupu Sri ganesha saranam

1 ½ edupu : sri madhava vasu deva

2 kalai ½ Edam : saravana bhava guhane

anAgata eDupu  (occurs before samam point of tALa)

Sivakama sundari

His versatility and depth of knowledge in various tALAs was also demonstrated by highlighting a krithi in various tALAs.

Tisranadai rupakam : Venkata Ramana

Kanda chapu : thanikai malai kumara

Misra chapu : mahalakshmi jagan matha

Both Artists presented a tillana in behag together

Sivan also composed songs on natrue, tamil language speciality, in praise of tamil language, freedom movement and patriotic songs.

He has composed pamalaiku enai undo in praise of subramanya bharathi

He has acted in 4 films and composed lot of classical songs as film music

Sivan famous songs

1.krishna mukunda murare : MKT in sivakavi

2.giridara gopala by MSS in meera

Conclusion

The composers like sivan has composed lot of songs which forms pillar of carnatic music. If any rasika wants to appreciate a raga tODi or shankarabharanam he can listen to songs of composer like sivan as they have frozen or codified the raga in those compositions for posterity.

The compositions form the context of music for structure and melody. Artist’s appeal was instead of simply listening to a song please go in deep and analyze the same which will enhance your enjoyment to multitude.

Art is always greater than Artist. The raga exploration is journey towards a mirage as u won’t reach the destination.