Pancharathna MahAthmyam

Dear Friends, srI: I concluded my previous post by stressing the greatness of the pancharathna krithis as the quickest and the easiest way to enjoy rAmabhakthi along with sathguru thyagabrahmam and his blessings. Only if one yearns for such a rare gift, the pancharathnams are always available to a person skilled/unskilled,vocally trained/untrained and to even the greatest of the sinners because the pancharathnams were specifically created by sathguru for the sake of his disciples with full mercy. His discilples are not only his direct disciples belonging to the 3 schools(umayAlpuram, thillaisthAnam and wAlllajAhpet) but also the whole sishya parampara(familiy of discliples) and in fact to everyone who doesn't know the sanmArgam (righteous path). PancharathnAs - Five gems that glorify the Seven sWarAs. Usually it takes years of vocal training to become a great carnatic music vidwAn/vidushi. The great vidwAns/vidushis of the past were able to achieve mastery over the sapthaswarAs by doing sAdhakAm (practise) at least 8-10 hrs everyday and even with such practise only after many decades they were able to become maestros. By soaking us with krithis in su-swara sangeetham they allow us to enjoy good music. They have gained wide recognition and they were all given titles like sangeetha kalAnidhi,padmasri et al. That is the greatest influence they have had upon the society. The great musicians of the lore (during thyaGayyaS period) have been forgotton but we still remember thyagayyA and pay homage to him at least on every bahula panchami day. This is because he was a mahAnubAvar. He enlightened us on what could be achiveable through naadhOpasanA with sathbakthi. Our sathguru composed the pancharathnams for 2 reasons. 1. His contemporaries were doubting his musical skills. In fact , some of his contemporaries who were experts manodharmists(skilled in rAGa alApana) , who were not able to see the greatness of Sathgurus krithis considered his krithis as "light poetry". 2. Some of his dicliples requested our sathguru to compose a set of krithis to advance their musical skills. Thus , with both the above mentioned thoughts in mind, our sathguru decided to compose the five pancharathnams rich in musical,philospohical and lyrical depth and beauty so that he could change the perception of his contemporaries by showing them what is true sangeetham and at the same time bless his disciples with krithis that would not only enhance their musical skills but also educate them the righteous and royal path leading to rAma bhakthi sAmrAjyam. Prof P SAmbamoorthy has described the greatness of such pancharathnams as given below --quote-- "The pancharathnam,(five gems) in the ghana rAgAs,nAta,Gaula, Arabhi,VarAli and Sri rAgA- is the ThyAgarAjA's most scholarly contribution to SOuth Indian music. There is nothing to surpass them from the point of view od richness of musical composition or the flowing character of the SAhityA. His talent for conceiving melodies of variefated beauty, interwoven with phrases of sparkling designs is seen clearly in these pieces. Even ragas of admittedly limited scope like Gaula become major rAGAs in his hands. The pancharathnam has earned for him universal admiration Lofty heights have been reached in the sphere of Sangita Kavitham in these compositions. The sAhithyAs herein are noted for their fine poetic imagery.These five compositions serve to reveal the depth of his learning and his gifts in Sanskrit and Telugu. To the student of RAga and rasa, these compositions are monumental examples to show how such feeligns as rapture, self-introspection,prudence, admiration , sustained joy and humility resulting from the recognition of greatness in others could effectively portrayed by particular rAgAs and special phrases in them. The pancharathnams has powerful appeal.A high degree of technical skill is required to render them. They constitute fine examples of musical architectures. They are noted for their peerlessness." --unquote-- Thus for obtaining greatness in carnatic music, the practise of the pancharthanams is the best and the easiest way. It is my belief that the practise of pancharathnams each and every prAthah kAlam (early morning) before sunrise after taking shower will help the CM aspirant advance quickly in carnatic music. That's not it.The icing on the cake is yet to come. The greatness of TAnavArna paddhathi Our sathguru chose the thAnavarna padhathi(style) for his pancharathnams. The thAnavarna padhathi is the recommended style for musical pracitce and are typically set in madhyama (middle) or duritha(fast) kAlA/tempo. There are 2 reasons for him to choose the thAnavarna padhathi. 1. He is a skilled vainika. This fact is not known to many people. He used to play the poojArka veena in the thAna style. After knowing his Veena skills, his popular discliple, sri veena kuppaiyer, did not even say to his guru that he also knew to play veena for several years. There are 2 important skills a good vainika should have. 1. The usage of gamaka 2. The skill in thAna style. So, what is this thAna/thAnam style? The name "thaanam" comes from a false splitting of anantham repeated.The thAnam is a form of improvisation originally developed for the veena and consists of repeating the word anantham ("endless") in an improvised tune.The laws of sandhi dictate that the consonant at the end of the first word be dropped, hence "ananthaanantham". When the rule is applied to a long string of ananthams, you get "ananthaananthaananthaananthaa..." which got falsely split as "thaananthaananthaanan...", or "thaanamthaanamthaanam...". This thAna is a sangeetha sampradAya that is used to glorify the universal form of god as "Endless thou art"(Anantham tvam).Both the Veda SamhithAs and the sageetha sampradAyam are 2 ways to worship God. That is why, sangeetham is called as "upa-vEdam". Both the vEdAs and the sangEethA represent the forms of God (nAdha and thAna roopams). By knowing ,understanding the secrets behind the vEda samhithAs and for imprinting those tathvAs the AChAryAs (refered as GhanapAdis) use Ghanam and they show this way to their disciples. Just like that the great NAdhOpAsakAs like sathguru thyAgabrahmam use/recommend the ThAna varnAs for imprinting the meaning behind the krithis and the musical subtleties. For having accelerated success in vEda SamhithA and Sangeetha jNAnA, both Ghana pAtam and ThAna varnam are higly important.The similarities between the above mentioned abhyAsAs(practises) are skillfuly identified by John Barlow and VeeNai Nageswara Rao: --quote-- The endlessness (anantham tvam ) reflects that manner of reciting a chant , which involves the breaking up of a text into syllables and the subsequent reordering of them in all combinations , both as a means of obtaining mastery over the sound (aural ) system of the chant and of acquring insight into the truths behind the text . This technique is known as Ganam. This technique of ganam and the resulting rhythm through the singing of taana varNams represent an instrumentalization of the voice , that is , an emphasizing of the articulative possibilities of the vocal apparatus( the consonants of the language) at the expense of the tonal capabilities (vowels and diphthongs ).The hierarchical rhythymic structure known as taanam (based on gana gaanam of vedic tradition ) consists of melodic lines built up over a constant pulse from short phrases of 2 or 3 beats in length ...... from these building blocks , larger architectonic units (melodic lines , sections ) are shaped. The(musical ) phrases , when properly ordered , acquire a vector-like quality , which points towards silence. This silence is a positive rhythymic entity ,somewhat akin to a cadence , but with its temporal force removed . This silence is both the end of the preceding line or section and the beginning of the following , just as the ultimate in musical control is the mastery of silence , so silence is the resolution of the endlessness(anantham ) of taanam " This is the central goal of naadhOpaasanaa and nirvikalpa samaadhi , where Raama chaitanyaas like Saint Thyagaraaja are deeply immersed and have bhagavadh saakshaathkaaram and experience samslesham and vislesham (union and separation from the Lord ) and experience rapture during the sambhogam and despair during the occasions of the loss of that experience . --unquote-- Thus by practising the pancharathna krithis with the above mentioned tathvams , one would not only progress in nAdhOpAsanA but more importantly it will bring all kinds of ShREyas with the blessing of Sathguru and that is exaclty why our sathguru has blessed us with the pancharathnAs not just to pay homage to him on bahula panchamIs. If one practises the pancharathnAs with bhakthi and shradhA , there is absolutely no doubt that SAtghuru ThyAgabrahmam will be along with us always and shower his blessings. A Quick note about the RAga selection Our sathguru chose the ghAna rAgAs (nAtai,gaulai,Arabhi,varAli and sri) for his pancharathnAs. The ghana rAgAs are known to be conducive to the ThaAnA style of music as discussed above. VainikAs always practise ghana RagA thAnams to gain mastery over the instrument.More imporatntly , the rAgAs very perfectly suit the bhakti ,sangeetha and sAhitha bhAvAs of each of the pancharathnams The majestic nAtai pancharathnam, "jagadhAnandhakArakA " ,is a nAmAvali of 108 verses composed and set to tune by our sathguru to invoke the blessings of sreerAmachandran by performing sangeethOrchana and abhishEka. The pancharathnam "Dudukugala" is set to tune in the self-remonstrative "Gaulai" raGA. The next one , "SAdhinchanE" is set to tune in one of sAthgurUs favorite RAgAs, i.e Arabhi expressing how the leelAs of God have to be enjoyed and pleading and teasing him to show mercy upon us. The fourth pancharathnam set to tune in the varAli rAGam clearly brings to life the kind of intense love a bhaktha should have for "RAma darshanam". And finally, the sri rAga pancharathnam performs nAdhObhishEkam to all the mAhAnubAvars, bhAgawathAs and AchaRyAS. I will be writing more and more on the pancharathnams in the upcoming posts. There is so much to learn and enjoy as one goes deeper and and deeper into pancharathna territory, the territory ruled by rAma and sathguru bhakthi. I once again take pleasure to invite you all to be part of it and experience it with me only with the blessing of my ishtanAthan and mAnasikA guru, sathguru thyAgabrahmam. Primary credit goes to his katAksham for he has made me not only to experience the greatness of pancharathnams but also to share them with you. SEcondly, I would like to thank Sri Oppiliappan Koil varAdAchAri Sri V.sadagOpan for happily granting me permission to use content from his Tamil book featuring 350+ pages on the pancharathnams. with sathguru dhivya kamala pAdha smaranams, adiyEn, thyAgayya and rAmAnuja dAsan