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shrI abhayAmbA vibhakti kIrtanAni Day 1: sadAshraye abhayAmbikE rAgam: cAmaraM (mELaM 56), tALam: rUpakaM |
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here for a recording of this k.rti ArOhaNaM: S R2 G2 M2 P D1 N2 S pallavi sadAshraye abhayAmbike sannidhehi anupallavi cidAshraye cidambaracandrike ehi caraNam gaurI mAyUranAthamohanakarashakte Meaning This k.rti is set in "sambodhanA
vibhakti" - (hE) abhayAmbikE! - and every occurrence of the pronoun
"You" addresses and greets Goddess abhayAmbA. The basic anvayam
(word order) is - (hE) abhayAmbikE! (ahaM) tvam AshrayAmi, ehi bhadram
dehi, dInam mAm pAhi, namaH te (and all other phrases terminating in the
syllable "E" qualify abhayAmbikE in the sambodhana format). Oh! Goddess abhayAmbikA! I always seek shelter in You. Please appear before me (grant me your presence. I (again) seek shelter in You. Oh ambika! Please bless me with auspiciousness. anupallavi Oh Goddess! You are the abode of "cit" (pure consciousness), and the moon to the sky of "cit", Please come (and bless me). You dwell in cit. You are seated on the couch (cushion) of the form of Lord shiva, and you are worshiped by vArAhi. You are the abode of bliss! Please impart me the knowledge and the understanding so as to enable me to attain happiness here, and salvation hereafter. Oh the abode of Happiness! Please protect me, who is a dejected one, and who is ever under the captivity of mAya (illusion) caraNaM Oh gauri! You are capable of mesmerizing Lord mayUranAtha through your unsurpassed beauty. You are the supreme power (parAshakti) worshipped by viShNu, brahma, indra and others. You are in the "nadabindu" (the seed sound, the primordial OM), and you are worshipped by the jewel (noblest) among women. You are established in the divine knowledge, and theory of "shArIraka" and other forms of knowledge specified in the vedAnta. You are delighted in the playing the celestial music, emanating from the instruments bhEri, maddaLa, and viNa. You possess lotus -like feet that is always worshipped by the dEvas. You are attended by sarasvati and lakShmi, holding the sacred fan (cAmara) in their hands. You are fond of vedas and shAstras that drive away the afflictions of your devotees. You are dear to guruguha, who is revered by varuNa (the Lord of oceans) and dikpAlakas (the ten regents of the cardinal directions). You are the destroyer of poverty and sorrows, and you are inseparable from shiva; You are worshiped by shuka, sanaka, and other celestials. You are the supreme goddess. You have a face resembling a lotus, and your hands are held in the posture of granting boons and protection. I prostrate before you again, and again. NOTES The fact that both sarasvati and lakSmi offer the fanning of the cAmaram to Goddess pArvati ismentioned in numerous scriptures. In the yAmaLa tantram, we find the lines: vAmAt pArshvAt
mahalakSmIr- dakSinAt shrI sarasvatI | In the lalitA sahasranAmam, we find the description: sacAmara ramA vANI savyadakSiNa sevitA Also, in the lalitA trishati, we have the same idea expressed in the line: lagnacAmarahastashrI shAradA parivIjitA DikSitar refers to this in many of his compositions, for example:
In the 72 melaragamAlika, mahA vaidyanAtha ayyar gives the caraNam line 34 in vAgadIshvari as follows: vAgadIshvarI shiyau yad aN^gasambhavE bhOgamOkSada jagadamba || 34 || For a detailed description of vArahI,
see: nAdabindu: There is an upaniSad by the name nAdabindu placed under .rg vEdam. This k.rti is inundated with plenty of
"AdyAkSara prAsam" (alliteration of commencing phrases) and
"antyAkSara prAsam" (end-word alliteration). The pallavi and
anupallavi have every line ending in the syllable "hi" (ehi,
dehi, vArAhi, brUhi, pAhi). The first ten lines of the caraNam features
the ending syllable "kte" in each line (shakte, yukte, rakte,
sakte, bhakte). We observe that each of these ten lines just consists of
one lengthy word each. The last two lines have the prAsam "te" (sevite,
devate, haste, namaste). Also, the pallavi and anupallavi feature "Adya
akSara prAsam - sadAshrayE, cidAshrayE, mudAshrayE - each appearing twice!
It is amazing that the composer carves out different meanings of the
phrase "Ashraye" in the pallavi and anupallavi segments. The
phrase "cAmaram " in the caraNam line "vANImAkaradh.rtacAmarasevAsakte"
is also the rAga mudra of this kr.ti. According to the asampUrNa scheme, rAgAN^ga rAgam 56 is cAmaram, which is the same as SaNmukhapriya of the sampUrNa school. This is the second meLam in the dishi cakram (dishi - shrI) assuming the notes catushruti ri, sAdhAraNa ga, prati ma, shuddha dha, and kaiSiki ni. Hence the mnemonic name ri gi mi dha ni. The jIva svarams are ri, ga, ma ni; nyAsa svarams, ri, ma and pa; graha svarams sa and pa. This meLam has plenty of scope for elaborate AlApana, and is a favorite of nAdasvaram players. A lengthy Alapana of SaNmukhapriya by prominent nAdasvaram exponents can make one spell-bound. This meLam evokes bhakti rasam. Because of the intense bhava that can be portrayed by this meLam, it is never confused with the next melam, siMhendramadhyamam (57) that differs only in the single note ni. A mUrchanakAraka melam, yielding meLams shUlini (35), dhEnuka (9) and citrAmbari (66) through graha bhedam performed on the notes ga, pa, dha respectively. S. rAjam states (SRUTI magazine) that SaNmukhapriya used to be sung with catushruti dha in the ArOhaNam and shuddha dha in the avarOhaNam, but nowadays the usage of catushruti dha is entirely avoided. dIkSitar has composed four k.rtis in cAmaram (EkAm.rEsha nAyakIm, mahAsuram kEtumaham, siddhivinAyakam, sadAshraye) and the rAgamudra "cAmaram" is featured in all except the first one. tyAgarAja has just one composition (vaddane vAru), and shyAma sAstri none. Strangely, sangIta sampradAya pradarshini does not list any of dIkSitar's compositions in cAmaram. It lists only one kIrtanam by ponnaiah. paTTaNam subrahmaNya ayyar's "marivEre dikkevarayya" is a very popular composition. There are plenty of songs on Lord subrahmanya (muruga) in SaNmukhapriya in tamil (e.g., AnDavane, sharavaNa bhava guhane, vaLLI nAyakane). Some popular janyams of this meLam are:
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