Anubhavam

AnandatAndavapuram Sri AyyanAr

2010-12-30T10:34:00.000+05:30

Sri sokkAyi udanurai tiruvarasamoorthy ayyanaar - Well the term says about a graama devatha ayyanaar. But this ayyanaar is none other than the dharma sAsthA (Ayyappan). Famous musician Sri G.N.Balasubramanian has sung a song in praise of this lord at anandatandavapuram (small village near mayiladuthurai - place where the composer Sri Gopalakrishna Bharati lived). Yes. That song is mamakulEswaram shAsthAram in the rAga tOdi, set to Eka tAlam.

The song goes like this.

Pallavi
mama kulEshvaram shAstAram santatam cintayEham
Ananda tANDava puravihAram

Anu pallavi
shamita nata jana duritam nIlAmbara shObhitam
amita sukha shrIpradam atulita divya guNAnvitam

Charanam
kamala rucira karadhrta kAshAyudha vibhUSitam
amara munIshvara bhUta vaTuka nAyaka sEvitam
kamanIya nava yauvana sundarAmbA sahitam
sumashara guhAgrajam shrI rAjam harihara sutam

madhyama kAlam
rAkA shashinibha vadanam ravi sOmAnasa nayanam
rayagati turanga gamanam rakSita samasta bhuvanam

In this kriti, GNB declares that sri ayyanar of anandataandavapuram is his family deity.

mamakuleshwaram - mama (my) kula (family) eeswaram (deity)

I always think about my family deity, sAsthA, who resides at anandatandavapuram. The lord, drives away the sins of the bhaktas who pray to him and he looks great in blue coloured garment that he wears. He grants joy to them and he is an embodiment of sevaral virtues.

He holds a weapon made out of grass (kAshAyudha) in his lotus like hands. He is worshipped by the best of devas, rishis and vedic brahmins. He is accompanied by sundarAmbA who attracts all by her beauty and youthfulness. He is the elder brother of manmadha, muruga. He is the mighty king, son of vishnu and shiva. He has a face like full moon. His two eyes are the sun and the moon. He moves swiftly like that of a water current and protects the whole world.

Many thanks to rasikas.org which guided me with the exact lyrics and meaning of this great song.

In tamil, the goddess is called sokkAyi, which means, a lady who attracts every one by means of her beauty. The same word gets translated to sundarAmbA in sanskrit. Normally Ayyanaar is accompanied by poornA and pushkalA. In this place, he is with sundarAmbA, which is very unique.

Vadai or Jhagiri malai to Lord Aanjaneya

2010-11-20T10:45:00.004+05:30

Many of us will be wondering why do devotees offer jhangiri malai (in north india) and vadai malai (in south india) to the lord Aanjaneya.

This doubt was raised before Sri Kanchi Maha Periyava Sri Chandrasekara saraswathi swamigal. This was the explanation given by him.

When aanjaneya was a small kid, he saw the sun in the evening time before sun-set. For him it appeared like a fruit. So Aanjaneya being pavana kumaran (son of pavan or vayu), went so fast near sun and was about to swallow it. Then Lord Surya appeared before him and told that he should not do that and its against nature. Agreeing to that, hanuman came back.

This act of shadowing the sun, was appreciated by Lord Rahu (one of the nava grahas) who use to cause solar eclipse. He granted a boon to aanjaneya that people will worship him with substances made out of urid dal (ulundhu in tamil). So we are worshipping him with vadai and jhangiri made out of urid.

Why do people in north india worship with sweet jhangiri and people in south india worship with salt vadai?

It is because of the availability of sugar and salt. If you see in north India, sugar cane is in abundance. So sweet jhangiri. And in south india, salt is in abundance because of the sea shores. So the salted vada with pepper (found in abundance in kerala) is offered.

SivakatAksham

2010-10-29T11:09:00.001+05:30

Gopalakrishna Bharati, a well known composer of songs on Chidambara NatarAja is the supporting force for me to write this article. We will get the siva kataksham (or the blessings of Lord Shiva) by reading through his lines.

A man (refers to the reader) asks a saint (Gopalakrishna Bharati), "Pranaams to you, respectable Saint. I want to attain mOksham (salvation). I have neither done any poojas nor have observed fastings. I completely surrender to you to show me the path towards the ultimate reality."

Saint answers, "My dear disciple, I am so happy on hearing these words from you. Dont worry. Just listen. I will show you the way to attain your goal."

Saint:

siva lOkha nathanai kandu sEvithiduvOm vAreer

bhava bayangalai pOkki avar parama padhatthai koduppar - andha
siva lOkha nathanai kandu sEvithiduvOm vAreer

arpa sugathai ninaindhOm aran thiruvadi marandhOm

karpidhamAna prapancham idhai kAnal neer pOlE yennin yenni

mAnuda jenmam kodutthAr thannai vaNanga karangaL aLithAr

thEnum pAlum pOlE sendru thEradiyil nindru kondu

siva lOkha nathanai kandu sEvithiduvOm vAreer

"Lets go and pray to the lord of the shiva lOkham. He will grant salvation and will destroy the fear and sorrows. All these days we were thinking of the cheap worldly pleasures and we forget his (shiva's) lotus feet. We were keeping on thinking about the temporal universe which is like a mirage. The lord gave us this human birth, hands to worship Him. Lets all go to the thEr adi (holy car in the chidambaram temple) like freely flowing milk and honey and pray to the Lord".

Saying so the saint sees the face of the disciple.

Disciple asks "I understood that surrendering totally to the Lord will grant us salvation. Could you please elaborate about the chidambaram sthalam that you mentioned in the previous song?"

Saint says, "Here it is."

thillai sthalam endru solla thodanginal

illai piravi piniyum paapamum

solla thagum ithuvE siva lOkham

yeLLathanai aram seyyil amOgam

aagama vEda purAnangaL saathiram

arul thavam purivArkku aruliya paathiram

aalayam aayirathettinil nEthiram

Ananda thAndavam aadiya kshethiram

parama ragasiyam ondru pArkalAm

bala krishnan kavi pAda kEtkalAm

karma vinaigaL anaithayum pOkkalAm

kasadatthu mukthiyum undAgalAm

"If you start to say thillai (chidambaram) then there is no more re birth, disease and sin. One can say that this ksetra is the siva lokham (or abode of shiva). If you do a little amount (like a grain called yeL) of good then it is awesome. Shiva is the one who grants blessings to those who do a sincere meditation on him as mentioned in the ancient works (vEdAs, purAnAs, sAstrAs, AgamAs). This sthalam where shiva has performed aananda thandavam (blissful dance) is vital among thousands of other temples as an eye in our body. You can see a big secret (chidambara rahasyam!), hear songs sung by balakrishnan (the composer), drive away all the deeds (karma) and its consequences (vinaigaL) and at last you can get the salvation."

Disciple's happieness knew no bounds. He asked, "Thats nice to hear about Chidambaram. Could you please tell about the presiding deity over there?".

The saint became so happy on seeing the curiosity of his disciple. He said,

sabhApatikku vERu deivam samAnamAgumA thillai

sabhApatikku vERu deivam samAnamAgumA ?

kripAnidhi ivarai pOla kidaikkumO indha dhArani thannil

oru dharam siva chidambaram yendru sonnal pOdhume

paragathi pera vEru punyam panna vEnuma?

ariya pulaiyar moovar padham adaindhAr yendrE purAnam

arindhu solla kEttOm Gopalakrishnan pAdum thillai

sabhApatikku vERu deivam samAnamAgumA ?

"Will any other deity become equal to sabhapathi (lord of the kanaga sabai - Chidambaram)? One cannot find a more graceful god like him in this world. You need not do any other good deeds to attain salvation. Just if you chant "siva chidambaram" once, thats enough. Three great poets (appar, sundarar, sambandhar) have attained salvation by chanting the name of Shiva as told in the puranam. He is in the thillai sthalam about which Gopalakrishnan (saint) is singing."

Disciple was moved to tears. He then asked, "What is Aanandam?"

There was a quick reply from the saint that if we see the lotus feet of Lord Nataraja in the dancing posture, it is the real bliss (Anandam). It was with the lines "aadiya paadha dharisanam kandal aanandam"

The next question from the disciple was "Who is mightier?"

Saint said, "Mightiest among all is the person who gets the grace of Ponnambalan (Nataraja). By having houses, cows, goats, money in this world can one become the mightiest?" Saying so he sung the following lines.

pArukkul veedugal maadugal aadugal panam irundhal avan periyavanAvanO?

yArukku ponnambalan kripai irukkudho avanE periyavanAm

Disciple said, "Thank you my beloved guru. You have enlightened me on the ultimate reality. I would like you to say when there will be an end to all the sufferings of this kali yuga"

The saint sings,

kanaka sabApathi dharisanam oru nAl kandAl kali theerum

sanaka mahA muni kaithozhudhetthiya dinakara kOti thEjOmayam aagiya

kanaka sabApathi dharisanam oru nAl kandAl kali theerum

parpala yojanai seiyvathum thollai

paragathi adayavum paadhyamum illai

arputhamaagavE aangoru sollai

aniyum gopalakrishnan paniyum thillai

kanaka sabApathi dharisanam oru nAl kandAl kali theerum

"One day if we see the darshan of kanaka sabapathi, all the sufferings would be put to an end. Great sages like sanaka have worshipped the lord, who is as bright as 1000 suns. If we keep on thinking a lot about things other than the lord, it will create a lot of problems. It wont help us to get the path towards salvation. There is one great word "thillai" which will help us in attaining salvation."

"Oh guru! I can understand the greatness of Thillai sthalam and of Nataraja. It would be great if you tell how Nataraja will dance."

The guru sings,

thA thai yendrAduvAr avar thath thith thai yendrAduvAr

thakita thakita thai yendrAduvAr avar jam thakita thai yendrAduvar

dheem tharikita thai yendrAduvAr avar jam tharikita thai yendrAduvar

Adhi parAparam aagiya chith aanandam kondoru kAlai yeduthu

anda charAcharam yengum nadunga

aadhi sEdanAr mudigaL nerunga

pAr pugazhum thillai chidambara nathan

balakrishnan panindhEthiya paagan

"He will dance with the jathis. He will dance with one leg raised and with pure bliss. When he dances, the entire univers will feel the vibration. Lord Vishnu's serpant, Aadhi sEshan's head will also dance. He is the one who is praised by Gopalakrishnan and the whole universe."

Now the disciple could experience the aananda thandavam of Lord Shiva. He wanted to confirm with the guru whether his experiences were right. o he asks his guru to tell about the ananda thandava experience.

Guru says, "I am feeling so happy on seeing the dance of Lord shiva. The sages like Sanaka, Sanandana, SanAthana, SanathkumAra were all singing. Lord Brahmma is putting the taalaas. About 3000 (thillai vAzh moovAyirathOr) people are celebrating the occasion daily. Nandi, Bringi and other Siva gaNangaL came together to witness the occasion. Sage Narada and sage Tumburu were singing. Not only there was a feast for the ears but also for the stomach. All the dEvas are enjoying themselves by having the divine food. Maha vishnu was playing the Maddalam (drum) and Shiva was dancing with all these celebrations happily."

These were captured in the following lines.

kanaka sabhai thirunadanam kandu kaLithu Anandam adaindhEn

sanakasanandana munivarum pAda

chatur muka dEvanum taalangaL pOda

dhinamum moovAyiram pErum kondAda

dhith thOm thOm thaka thOm thOm dhimi thOm thOm thakita thadhimithOm yendru

kanaka sabhai thirunadanam kandu kaLithu Anandam adaindhEn

nandi bringi siva gaNangaLum kooda

nArada thumburu sangeetham pAda

pandhi pandhi yaai amarar koNdAda

gopalakrishnan matthalam pOda aadiya

kanaka sabhai thirunadanam kandu kaLithu Anandam adaindhEn

The disciple saluted the guru and started to meditate upon Nataraja and there by attained salvation.

Hope I was able to provide a picture of the Aananda thandavam and let us all pray to the Kanaga sabapathi to attain the state of Divine Bliss and DivineBlessings (Siva katAksham).

Oothukkadu Venkata Kavi

2010-10-29T11:06:00.001+05:30

"Oothukkadu" - If any one utters this word, then immediately - the divine composer - Venkatasubbier will come to most of our minds. His compositions are young forever. Even in the recent movie - "Alaipayuthe" starred by Madhavan and Shalini, we can listen to his song, Alaipayuthey kanna in the raga kAnadA (S R3 P G3 M1 D2 N2 S - S N2 P M1 G3 M1 R3 S). He is an ardent devotee of Krishna. Krishna has visited him in the form of a small child. The incident is explained below.

One day the singer was singing the song written and tuned by him in the temple of the village oothukkadu. Suddenly he felt a weight on his lap. He felt that a child was sitting on his lap. Out of pain, he pushed the child away from his lap. He then opened his eyes to see what was that and floated on the ocean of joy to see Lord Krishna, decorated with beautiful ornaments, standing before him. From that day onwards, he stopped putting talam on his lap, treating Krishna to be always seated on his lap.

All his kritis will make one to stand up and dance. They were such effective ones. All his compositions were written under the context that Krishna will be dancing on listening to them. In all his kritis, one wil find the jathis that are used in classical dance. He has written several songs on Vinayaka, Rama, and of course on Krishna.

His master piece that I would say is - Kalinga nardhana tillana in the raga Gambhira nattai (S G3 M1 P N3 S - S N3 P M1 G3 S). If any one listens to that song, one can experience the Kalinga nardhana episode in the life history of Krishna. The song will start with jathis rendered in the Gambhira nattai raga with chathusra gathi aadhi taalam. Then some words will come. Then jathis and words inter twined will be rendered with tisra gathis and chathusra gathi alternating with one another. The song will give one a lively experience. The concluding part of the song will be in chathusra gathi. There will be mixed experiences of Joy, sorrow, tension, confusion in the progress of the song. At last one will feel that they are relived out of tension as soon as the song gets over - signifying Krishna has killed the serpant kalinga.

Especially the phrase (thagida thagas thadaaya butha hara mandhas............mithakaravara poojitha padhayugala) will be so realistic. The mandas......... indicates that Krishna is standing on the head of the serpent and it is emitting poison from its mouth. Then the next line will be "hari jaya vijayee bhava nanda kumara..." which states that nanda kumara has won the war that was going on. That is Kalinga was defeated and the Yamuna river's purity has been restored.

Another gem of his songs is the Rajagopala swamy pancharathnam - a set of 5 songs on Mannargudi Rajagopala swamy. The madhyamavathi (S R2 M1 P N2 S - S N2 P M1 R2 S) song - Sundara nanda kumara - will be so nice.

All the songs of Oothukkadu Venkata Kavi will be nice. To analyse each and every song, time wont be sufficient. We need several centuries to analyse all of them. So let me put a logical end to this post

rAgAnubhavam - Arabhi

2010-10-29T11:04:00.002+05:30

Arabhi - one of the most beautiful rAgA in carnatic music. This rAgA will be more appealing than any other rAgA in a carnatic music concert. Most of the songs will start with the swarA (P) pa as the first swarA.

This rAgA is a janya rAgA of the 29th mEla karthA rAgA, dheera sankarAbaraNam. The ArOhaNam - avarOhaNam is S R2 M1 P D2 S - S N3 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S.

The swaras sa (S) and pa (P) does not have variations, while the other swaras like ri(R), ga(G), ma(M), dha(D) and ni(N) has variations.

May be because of its neutral nature, tyAgarAjA has placed the song sAdinchanE in the rAgA Arabhi as the third kriti (middle one among the five kritis) in his pancharatna kritis. If you see the song, it starts with the notes "P P M1 R2 S D S". We can quote many songs like

1. ambA sowramba by Tanjore Ponniyah Pillai where the notes are P P D P M M.

2. Ongi ulagalandha in Tiruppavai, by AndAL. There again the first coming swarA will be P (pa)

3. nAdha sudhA rasam bilanu by Tyagaraja. Here also the swara pa (P) will be the starting swarA.

4. JoodA murArE, again by tyAgarAja also starts with the swarA pa.

And we can quote some more.

Exception that I have observed is the song, oru kAl siva chidambaram yendru sonnAl, by Marimutha Pillai, where the song starts with the swara dha (D2). It will have the form, D2 R2 S D2 P P M1.

In the movies one can quote the songs yEri karaiyin mEle pOravalE peN mayilE from the film arivALi, thendralil Adum koonthalai kandEn from the film Maduraiyai meetta sundara pandiyan...

rAgAnubhavam - nATTai

2010-10-29T11:02:00.001+05:30

nATTai - The rAgA with which most of the carnatic concert use to start with. It is a wonderful rAgA to start with. The beauty of the rAgA lies in the swaras ri and ga. Both the swaras add beauty and majesticity to the rAgA. The concerts if started with this rAgA, will be very appealing.

This rAgA is a derived or janya rAgA of the 36th mElakarthA rAgA, chala nATTai. The arOhanam avarOhanam of the rAgam is given below:

S R3 G3 M1 P N3 S

S N3 P M1 G3 M1 R3 S

Popular krithis in this rAgA are:

JagadAnandakArakA (1st pancha ratna kriti by TyAgarAjA)
swAminAtha paripAlayAsumAm - Muthuswamy Dikshithar
MahA gaNapatim - Muthuswamy Dikshithar
ninnaE bhajana - TyAgarAjA
and lot more

Muthuswamy Dikshitar kritis has no demarcation between nAttai and chala nAttai. According to him nAttai means, chala nAttai and he has defined chala nAttai to be a part of asampUrna (or incomplete) mElakarthA. These rAgAs have all swarAs, but not in proper order.

Cine songs like chennai senthamizh from M.Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi, peygala nambadhe from Mahanadi, First para of the song vendriduvEn in the film Agathiyan are all set to nAtA rAgam.

rAgAnubhavam - LalithA

2010-10-29T11:01:00.001+05:30

This rAgA is a janya rAgA of 15th mELakarthA rAgA - mAyAmALavagowLai. The arOhaNam avarOhaNam is S R1 G3 M1 D1 N2 S - S N2 D1 M1 G3 R1 S. Simply saying, its mAyAmALavagowLai without the swara pa (panchamam).

This rAgA is such a melodious one. This rAgA instills strength in our mind when we hear to it. Though it may appear to be a melancholic rAgA, its not actually. It is a calm rAgA that will relieve tension out of us.

Dikshithar has written a beautiful kriti "Hiranmayeem Lakshmim sadha bhajami" on Goddess Lakshmi. He mentions Lakshmi as the daughter of the milky ocean (thiruppArkadal). The line goes like "ksheerAmbudhi tanayAm". He also mentions the goddess holds a blue lotus in her lotus like hands (kara kamala drutha kuvalayam), she also wears bangles in her hands (maragatha manimaya valayAm). Lakshmi sits on the white lotus (swetha dweepa vasini), worshipped by living beings and gives blessings to them (bhoosura poojitham varaam). He also mentioned that the goddess loves music, from the lines "sangeetha vAdya vinOdinIm". The beauty of her fore head that has cool rays emitting out of them is given in the lines "sheetha kiraNa niba vadanAm". Lakshmi wears a yellow cloth (peetha vachanaam) and she is golden complexioned (the very first line of the song says - hiranmayeem lakshmeem).

Few other songs in this rAgA are - natanala pramayaku naa manasa by Annamacharya, nannu brOvu lalithA by syama sastri and some more.

A popular cine song in this rAgA is "idhazhil kavi yezhuthum nEramithu".

Aruna Sairam Concert at Narada Gana Sabha

2010-01-07T12:42:00.001+05:30

Yesterday (Jan 6, 2010) I had been to Narada Gana Sabha for Aruna Sairam's concert. The concert was organised for GNB's centenary function, by the GNB rasikar mandram. It was a short 1:30 hours concert. Yet I returned back with a sense of complete satisfaction.

She started with Sarva Mangala Mangalye slokam in the raga hindolam, followed by sama gana lole in hindola ragam, rupaka talam. This is a composition of GNB himself. Kalpana swaras were flowing like the river ganges. Embar Kannan on the violin, J.Vaidhyanathan on the mridangam and S.Karthick on the ghatam provided a great support for the day.

The next song was in the raga anandabhairavi which was GNB's one of the favourite raga. Aruna started with another sloka on goddess kamalamba and rendered muthuswami dikshitar's kamalamba samrakshathumam in misra chapu tala. Then she sung harikesanallur muthiah bhagavatar's suddha dhanyasi raga kriti himagiri tanaye which was also popularised by GNB.

The fourth song was in the raga kalyani. I was expecting vasudevayani and aruna didnt falsify my expectation. After an alapana in the raga which was rendered in her own style contrary to the normal style of singing kalyani (beginning with long phrases of swaras instead of developing from smaller phrases) she sung yet another GNB trademark vasudevayani. The niraval was placed in the charanam lines "raga tala" and swaras were also sung in that line. It was like a water flowing down from a hill top, without any obstacles.

The fifth song was in the raga dakka (much similar to vasantha), a tyagaraja composition set to adi tala, raka sasivadana. The sixth song was kaaranam kettu vaadi in the raga poorvi kalyani which portrayed the devotee's anxiety regarding the lord nataraja not turning up to his/her home. This is more like, the devotee is a girl and the lord is her lover and this girl having waited for a long time didn't see her beloved. So she is asking her friend the reason for the lord not coming to see her.

The final item was a sloka vande matharam ambikam bhagavathi in raga malikai. Ragas were saveri, hamir kalyani, ranjani and madhyamavathi.

It was a short and sweet treat for the listeners.

Aruna Sairam - Music Academy Dec 26 2009

2010-01-07T09:31:00.004+05:30

I had been to Aruna's concert at the music academy. This is a very late entry about that concert. I am sorry for that. Got time to ponder something now only. Getting ticket for her concert is as usual difficult. I had been standing in the queue for a long time since morning 7 and got the tickets for dais finally.

She started the concert with bhairavi raga ata tala varnam. It was sung in two speeds. Then she proceeded with tyagaraja's atana raga yela nee daya raadhu after a short alapana. The next song was in the raga kedaragowla of muthuswami dikshitar. This had his mudra guruguha and the raga mudra in the charanam as "kedaragowla raga priyam", describing Lord Shiva.

Then she sung a tamil song in the praise of Lord Nataraja in the raga mukhari, endraikku siva kripai varumo. She started off the song from the anupallavi kandru..

The next song was a quick pasupatipriya raga kriti of harikesanallur muthiah bhagavathar - saravanabhava. It was indeed an interesting kriti well sung by the artiste.

The highlight of the day was todi raga ragam taanam pallavi. Aruna chose taamadam yen swami bala subramanya in 2 kalai adi talam. She told that this was a homage to the veteran musician GNB which was highlighted in the pallavi as "balasubramanya" and sung ragamalika swaras and few lines of kritis popularised by GNB in those ragas. The ragas were kalyani (vasudevayani), hindolam (samaganalole), behag (dikku theriyadha kaattil), misra yaman (radha samedha krishna).

An abhang was sung and following it was her fame vishama kaara kannan of oothukkadu venkata kavi.

It was a great concert for the saturday eve.

Aruna Sairam - Chennaiyil Tiruvaiyaaru

2009-12-24T21:17:00.002+05:30

Dec 23, 2009, Wednesday - Kamarajar Hall.

The hall was like tirupati devasthanam. Full of people standing in the queue eagerly to enter the hall. I was also one among them. People literally thronged into the entrance much like first show of a new movie released. It took nearly 20 mins for the crowd to settle down. Aruna started to sing Kizhvanam vellendru in dhanyasi ragam. She placed a short niraval in the line devadi devanai sendru naam sevithal.

Then was the kalyani raga kriti of Oothukkadu Venkatasubbaier. It was one of the saptha ratna kriti. I heard for the first time. It was a nice kalyani. Then was the natakurunji raga. After a weight alapana, she sung Vazhi maraithirukkudhe malai pola oru maadu paduthurukkudhe. It was Gopalakrishna bharati kriti from nandanar charitham. Aruna sung it so well. The emotions of nandanar, his longing to see the lord inside the sanctum sanctoram, but nandi infront of the lord stood in the middle. I was about to shed tears when she was about to finish the song.

To ease the emotion, she sang subrahmanyena of muthuswami dikshitar in the raga suddha dhanyasi. Swaras were rendered at the line prabravamadhi of anu pallavi.

Then was syama sastri kriti kanakasaila viharini in the raga punnaga varali. It was a divine rendition. After this slow paced song, there was a fast dakka raga song of tyagaraja - the famous raka sashivadana. Then was the majestic kamboji raga alapana. It was an elaborate one. She sung Tiruvadi charanam yet another composition of gopala krishna bharati. Aduthu vandha yennai thalla laagadhu harahara yendru sonnalum podhadho - niraval and swaras were just amazing.

Then was the brindavana nilaye in the raga ritigowlai. Her traditional way of rendering oothukkadu kritis with absolute bhava was observed in the kriti. Then was an abhang in the raga darbari - bhaje mrudanga talavidha. Ganapati paapa moriya mangala moorthi moriya was welcomed by the audience with claps. Then came the request from the audience to sing maadu meikkum kannae. She sang without any hesitation. We were rejunuvated by the song, thinking about the childhood days.

Then was the viruttham om muruga in the raga shanmukapriya. After few lines it was a nice transition to neela mani raga and Aruna sung enna kavi paadinalum. She added words lakumi maamiyum paarkavillai in anu pallavi and alatchiyamo unakku unnai naan viduvadhilai in the charanam.

The concert was concluded with arunagirinathar tiruppugazh muthaithiru in the raga shanmukapriya. It was a wonderful concert.

Unni Krishnan - Chennaiyil Tiruvaiyaaru

2009-12-24T21:07:00.003+05:30

December 20, 2009, Sunday - Kamarajar Hall

It was a pleasant sunday evening. Unni Krishnan started the concert with Narayana Tirta's nata raga kriti Jaya Jaya swamin. After a steady rendering of the sahitya, there was a brief medium paced kalpana swaras. Then was the mayamalavagowla kriti tulasi dhala of tyagaraja. There were swift flowing swaras for the song. Then was the shanmukapriya alapana. Unni chose andavane unnai vendugiraen. Apt niraval at thandavam aadum and swaras were also interesting.

Then was the rarely sung nagaswarali alapana. I got the raga at the first line itself as it resembled sri pathe nee patha of tyagaraja. Unni selected padumanaban maruga muruga. Then was a traditional thodi raga alapana. At the start it was like dhanyasi without rishabam in the aarohana prayogam and later it was pure thodi. Unni sung kaddanuvariki of tyagaraja. It was a longtime since I heard this kriti. Indeed it was a feast.

Then came his famous jagajanani in the raga ratipatipriya. Kavadi chindu (pulli kalaba mayil paahan) followed the song. Then was a fast dhinakarunakarane nataraja of papanasam sivan. He concluded the concert with a hamsanandi raga tillana.

Nithyasree Mahadevan Chennaiyil Tiruvaiyaaru

2009-12-24T20:48:00.003+05:30

December 19, 2009, Saturday at Kamarajar Hall, Teynampet.

There was a decent number of people at the hall to witness the concert of Nithyasree. She started the concert with a charukesi raga varnam by Lalgudi Jayaraman. A humble start. The next song was okapari joodaga in the raga kalavathi, a composition of Tyagaraja. Kalpana swaras were nice and brief. Next was nannu vidachi in the raga ritigowlai, composed by Tyagaraja. The ritigowla alapana, steady rendering of the sahitya, portrayed DKP - DKJ school in her.

Fourth song was saraswathi manohari in the raga saraswathi manohari, DKP fame dikshitar song. Nithyasree chose mohanakara muthukumara in the raga neethimathi (60 th melakartha raga), a song of kotiswara Iyer. The kalpana swaras caught the very essence of the rare raga. This raga resembles simmendra madhyamam except for the dhaivatha swara.

Next was mohana raga alapana. An elaborate one. She chose Mysore Vasudevacharyar's Ra ra rajeeva lochana rama. She placed the niraval in the anupallavi - yela nee garuna kalkani karanamemo gaalara. The swaras were interesting. She changed from chatusra nadai to tisra, khanda, misra and sankeerna nadai in an alternating fashion which was very subtle. The swaras proved the artiste's command over the layam. But the sahityam she rendered seemed she was not much confident at few places. I may be wrong in this observation. The tani played by the percussionists were not up to the mark. It was a normal one.

Now a days we are hearing lot of innovations in tani and it seemed to be a normal one that is heard during practice sessions.

Kavingar Va Ve Su has translated a poem of Rabindranath Tagore in tamil. Nithya sung that song in rakesri raga. I think it was tuned by her. It was very pleasing indeed. Then came the beatiful raga malika of purandaradasar - nanenu maaditheno. Ranjani, Mohanam and kaanada ragas were rendered excellently.

The last song was a viruttham in the raga tilang yenniya mudidhal vendum of subrahmanya bharathi. The penultimate line of the virutham "nanniya ninmun ingu nasuthidal vendum annai" was not completely rendered. "nanniya nin mun ingu" was left out and she rendered only nasuthidal vendum annai. Then was bharatha samudayam vaazhgave. When she started, there were claps from the audience which served as the tempo for the song. The second stanza of the song, 30 kodi janangalin sangam muzhumaikkum podhu udamai, was sung in her own style - like 40 kodi, 60 kodi, 80 kodi, 100 kodi.. and so on.

With few ups and downs the concert was a pleasing one.

Sanjay Subrahmanyan - Kartik Fine Arts

2009-12-15T09:57:00.001+05:30

13-12-2009, Sunday, 6:00 PM - Kamarajar Hall - Sanjay Subrahmanyan sings for Kartik Fine arts. I saw such information in a news paper. I was thinking it would be better if I attend this concert. But getting tickets for the concert is not that much easy now a days, as all are getting sold out very soon. So let me try next time - I thought with in myself. Then I got a phone from one of our family friend that he is having tickets for the concert. Wow!! very dream coming true!!! I was excited and got ready to attend a golden concert.

Reached the venue 15 mins earlier and took the seat allocated for me. The curtains raised sharply at 6 PM. Sanjay was accompanied on the violin by Nagai Muralidharan, on the mridangam by Guruvayoor Durai(yet another veteran) and on the ghatam by T.V.Vasan.

The concert started with todi raga ata tala varnam. Then was Arunachala kavi's hanumane saamikkindha adaiyalam sollaiya in the raga malayamarutham. The swaras for the song were like a strong breeze. Third was andholika raga. Sanjay chose tyagaraja's raga sudha rasa. The kalpana swaras were amazing. Then came the brave bhairavi. After a weight alapana sanjay sung rama lokabhi rama. The niraval and swaras were proudly holding sanjay's trademark. So much of breath control holding on the same swara for a long time, so much of confidence to experiment new styles. It was a power packed rendering.

Then came a soft and scintillating sankarabaranam and sanjay rendered idhu nalla tharunam. It was at a steady pace. The next raga was rishbhapriya. I heard MLV's gananaya desika so I could easily recognize the raga. There were murmurs among the audience as they were not sure of what raga was it. Once the alapana was over and the violinist too has completed his turn, a member among the audience rose up and asked what the raga was and the artiste replied that it was rishabapriya. Yet another feather on my cap! Sanjay sang the same gana naya desika of koteeswara iyer. In the charanam there will be lines saying about the raga. It is as follows - "shadja rishaba priya gaanthaara madhyama panchama dhaivatha nishadha.. saptaswara sangita kavi kunjara dasa". He was repeating the line shadja rishaba priya and stressing on the raga.

The swaras were in such a way that they ended with sa ri ga ma pa dha ni saptha swara.. or sa ni dha pa ma ga ri sa dha saptha swara.. The tani avartanam played by guruvayur durai and T.V.Vasan were superb. Lot of rare sancharas in the laya. They played andhadhi type of tani avartanam. That is, mridangam will stop at a jathi and from that jathi (sol) the ghatam will start. It was quite interesting.

Then was marukelara in the raga jayanthasri. It was a quick rendering. There after due to personal limitation I started from the venue but with a satisfied heart.

T.M.Krishna concert - Asthika Samajam Venus Colony

2009-12-15T09:36:00.000+05:30

That was on Saturday (12-12-2009) I glanced through Mylapore times magazine. There were schedules of different music concert. But one name caught my eyes and it was T.M.Krishna.

I am going to hear a full fledged concert of that artiste for the first time. I was longing to hear him for the past years but unfortunately I could not make it. I had been hearing this artiste through radio or CD or TV. First time I am going to see him and hear his concert live!

With lot of enthusiasm I started for his evening concert 6:30 pm. Being a saturday the normal relaxed mood got imbibed into my mind. It was organised by Sruthi Laya kendra of Guru Karaikudi Mani (veteran mridangam player).

The first song was in the raga kalyani - rama nee vaadu kondo in rupaka talam. It was a composition of Saint Tyagaraja. I had never heard it before. This added more enthusiasm in me, looking forward for the kalpana swaras. The artiste sung niraval and then followed by kalpana swaras. TMK was at his peak in the very first song itself. I couldn't control my hand putting the tala when he sung the niraval and swaras.

Then was kuntala varali. He did a brief alapana of the raga. Many sitting beside me were not sure of the raga. I got it at the first line itself. This made me to be proud about myself (!). Just joking..

He sang unnai thudhikka - the first composition of Tamil Tyagaiah Papanasam sivan. Niraval was made in the first line of charanam "Ponnaattilum sirandha punniya kamalalayam". This was on Tiruvarur Tyagaraja swami. Following the niraval was the avalanche of swaras.

The third song was a quick vinaradana manavi in the raga devaganthari. This is one of the sri ranga pancharatnam that Saint Tyagaraja has composed on Srirangam Ranganathaswami. This is the raa patthu time of vaikunta Ekadesi and it remainded me of my days at trichy.

Fourth was the saveri ragam. Krishna did an innovative alapana for nearly 20 minutes. There is a ragamalika written by kadaloor subramanian "raga thil sirandha ragam yedhu". In that he would have mentioned - "kaveri pol odum saveriya". That was apt for the saveri sung by krishna. Amazing flow of swaras. The way krishna held for a long time in the uchcha sthayi swaras in the alapana was highly commendable. When he was trying the high pitched brihas it made me to think that he is arguing with the raga saveri. "Hey please come... Will you not come? Wait and see.. I will handle you..". Once the high pitched brihas were presented perfectly the next phrases made me to think that he was telling the raga devata, "see how I made you come? Good.. thanks..".

Then was the tanam which was also great. Krishna chose a pallavi set to khanda jaathi triputa taalam (2 kalai).
khanda jaathi - lagu has 5 counts (a beat followed by count using little, ring, middle and index fingers )and triputa talam (has a laghu + 2 dhrithams (dritham - beat + turn). So there are 5 + 2 + 2 = 9 counts and 2 kalai means tapping a count 2 times.

The pallavi he chose was "Sri rama para brahmma kripa paalam rama brahmma sutha sucharita". T.K.V.Ramanujacharyalu on the violin, B.Harikumar on the mridangam and B.S.Purushottaman on the kanjira offered a fantastic support to the singer. Singer was also enthusiastic in appreciating the accompanists wherever apt and encouraging them. This was the fantastic part of the concert. Not many concert will contain this portion where all are on the same page.

Ragamalika swaras were in the raga mohanam, malayamarutham, sindubhairavi. Of these sindubhairavi needs special appreciation.

Next was a bhimplas raga song on lord krishna - gokula... Then was my favourite muralidhara gopala in the raga maand. I heard MLV singing this song in the morning in my music player. Evening TMK sang. The last song was mangalam written by Bhadrachala ramadasa in the raga kurunji - Ramachandraya janaka raja jaa manoharaya..

It was a wonderful treat for the saturday evening by Krishna. Energy level never faded from the start to end.

Softsmith Free Webinars Dec 2009

2009-12-01T14:15:00.002+05:30

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Singing Pallandu

2009-11-26T12:18:00.001+05:30

Pallandu singing is for blessing some one. Normally a younger one will be blessed by an elderly person. Or more learned person will bless less learned person. But if you see periyazhwar has sung pallandu for Maha vishnu. In what way Periyazhwar is elder than Maha Vishnu who has no origin, no birth? Or in what way he is wiser than the omniscient narayana? But his sheer love on god qualified him to sing pallandu. Periyazhwar was given a respectable position by the pandya king. Yet he is a normal down to earth person who is thinking of the lord always. Though he is seated on top of an elephant his thoughts were fixed on namperumal.

When azhwar visualizes lord vishnu with his consort lakshmi, ascended on the garuda, he didnt think that lord should have come down to bless the devotees. But he had a different view. A view of a mother. He thought the lord is so handsome and when he ascends on the garuda, the beauty knew no bounds. He should be protected from the evil eyes. So azhwar sings pallandu thinking that it will protect the lord from the evil. Such an affection periyazhwar had on Vishnu. Even in his other pasurams he use to think him as lord krishna's mother and when he danced on the serpant kalinga, he was very much worried that the poison emitted from the snake should not harm his child lord krishna!

Need for tapas

2009-11-24T10:13:00.000+05:30

Our ultimate goal in life should be to reach god. But there are 3 obstacles that will prevent us from attaining our goal. They are called as 3 malams. They are ego (ahankaram) , illusion (maya) and deeds (karma). One need to get rid of these three inorder to reach god.

The first step for achieving this is to start paraying to god. For that we are going to temple. Many may ask, why should we go to temple for praying to god, when he is present everywhere (omnipresent). Going to temple is like doing tapas or meditation. In this world there are lot of things that will kill our concentration. So we need a place where our attention is not diverted away from god. Temple serve for this purpose. We are not great saints to hold our concentration for a long time without getting deviated. Even the saints in ancient time will go to punya sthalas and theerthas for meditation.

The sages at naimisharanya who were devoid of the three malams mentioned above were unhappy as they were not able to understand the inner meaning of vedas. A new sage comes to naimisharanya and understanding their worries asks them not to feel bad. He also says that they need to do tapas and it should be done at a place where they can interact with god one on one. The sages asks the new saint himself to suggest a place and he suggests them all to go to Madurai and sit infront of the dakshinamurthy who is none other than lord shiva manifested as guru.

The sages then go to madurai and understand that Lord shiva is the essence of vedas. Detailed explanation is given in my other post. Click here to read it.

The Essence of Vedas

2009-10-29T14:20:00.000+05:30

At the place called as Naimisharanya, the sages were learning the vedas. They wanted to know the essence of vedas. So they started to Madurai. There is a Dakshinamoorthi at the temple. He is called as guru or the one who teaches and guides. He will be seated facing the south. He has 4 arms.

His upper right hand holds the rudraksha mala. Rudraksha bead got created from the tears that fell from Shiva's (Rudra's) eyes. His left eye is the moon (soma), right eye is the sun (surya) and the third eye is the fire (Agni). From his left eye 12 drops flowed, from his right eye 10 drops flowed and from his third eye 8 more drops flowed. So together there was 30 drops which formed the 30 beads of the rudraksha japa mala that is held in the upper right hand of guru. Rudra + aksham (from rudra's eye).

His lower right hand shows the chin mudra. In this mudra the index finger will be touching the thumb and the other three will be separated from the index finger. The thumb is paramatma, index finger is jivatma. The other three are Jealousy, Pride and Karma. This symbolises if jivatma leaves behind the three impurities jealousy, pride and karma, it reaches the paramatma.

His upper left hand holds the amrutha kalasa that stores the nectar which grants immortality. This symbolises that the guru will grant immortality to all those who completely surrender to him.

His lower left hand holds the knowledgeable books. Those books contain the essence of vedas. The sivagnana bodham. The ultimate reality is the brahmman alone.

Just by seeing the young guru, the sages were satisfied that Shiva (Paramatma) is the essence of vedas.

Beyond the yugas

2009-10-28T17:42:00.000+05:30

In hinduism (Sanathan Dharma) it is considered that vedas existence is beyond the yugas. There are 4 yugas. Krita yuga which lasted for 17 lakh years, Thretha yuga which lasted for 11 lakh years, dwapara yuga which lasted for 8 lakh years and the present kaliyuga whose span is 4 lakh years. Lord Maha Vishnu is worshipped in all vedas. It was he who took the Matsya avataram in the krita yugam for saving the vedas from the asuras. This incident proves as an evidence that vedas were there in existence even before the krita yuga. So one can say the vedas are approximately 36 lakh years old (summing up the span of all 4 yugas).

We also say that 4 yugas form one maha yuga. Also 1 Maha yuga is Brahmman's day time in his 1 day. Yet another maha yuga is his night time of a day. Like this we dont know how many days were happened before the present maha yuga. So the age of vedas cannot be computed. Its really a great thing that this vedas are in existence still. The 4 yugas keeps on rotating in an order.

Like the vedas existence being beyond yugas, Veda Purusha Narayana's existence and his worship is also beyond yugas. The tirumala that we see today is headed by Srinivasa Perumal. In the before yugas it was Sri Varaha moorthi who was the presiding deity. This varaha moorthi's incarnation dates back to krita yuga.

Peyazhwar in one of his paasuram (divya prabandam) states that Lord Narayana is everyone's antaryamin (inner soul). He alone resides in his heart too.

Boodhathazhwar states that even the monkeys which use to behave so naughty in other places, will be so disciplined and will offer flowers and worship the varaha moorthi there at tirumala.

Such a fantastic place is Tirumala and so is our India. Even in the sankalpa mantra that forms the important part of all hindu rituals, we use to say baaratha varshe, bharatha kande, jambu dvipe (in the indian sub continent). Such an importance is being given to the nation. So the vedas, sri man narayana and of course our nation India has been there for many yugas.

Humour to Relax - 1

2009-10-28T17:03:00.000+05:30

1. Ant and elephant were travelling in their bike and car respectively. Both met with an accident. Ant escaped with minor injuries. Elephant is badly hurt. Ant went to elephant and said something. On hearing that, the elephant collapsed. What could it be?

Ant said, "Dont worry about the blood loss. I shall donate blood to you!!!". :)

2. Four ducks were walking though watery pond. These are all the statements:

Duck 1: I have 3 ducks following me.
Duck 2: I have 2 ducks following me.
Duck 3: I have 1 duck following me.
Duck 4: I have 3 ducks following me.??

How is that possible??

Its possible because the 4th duck has lied!!!

Then in another pond they made the following set of statements. But all the statements are true. How?

Duck 1: I have 3 ducks following me.
Duck 2: I have 3 ducks following me.
Duck 3: I have 3 ducks following me.
Duck 4: I have 3 ducks following me.

Because they are moving around the same place in a circle. :)

3. How will you lift an elephant with one hand?
It is easy. You cant find an elephant with one hand!!!

4. How can you make two elephants to sit in an auto rickshaw??
With much difficulty we can make. (Just for joke)

5. e^x and c (constant) are walking on the road. Suddenly e^x chuckles that in few second you will be destroyed (set to zero) as differentiation is coming.
(as dc/dx = 0 and d(e^x)/dx = x log e i.e. x). Suddenly c started laughing. The differentiation is with respect to y and not with respect to x. So both of us are gone. (dc/dy = 0 and d(e^x)/dy = 0 [partial differentiation].

Softsmith Free Webinars for November 2009

2009-10-28T13:57:00.001+05:30

Here is the list of webinars of Softsmit for November 2009.

1) Programming - Python, C, JSP, Java, Struts,
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Abhirami andhaadhi translation

2009-10-20T09:19:00.002+05:30

Abhirami - the presiding deity of thirukkadavoor. She is the consort of shri AmrithakadEswara. She is known for the grace that she bestows on her devotees. Strong bhakti on her has saved the life of a man - Shri Abhirami bhattar who was about to lose his life as he uttered a lie to the king. To find out more interesting facts about Abhirami and this story, visit Abhirami Andhaadhi translation page. This great work was done by one of my friend Shri Rajagopal who is also a motivating factor for me to write more in this blog.

A glimpse of Mother Abhirami's attention when it falls on us, it will grant wealth, knowledge, courage, good relatives, god hood and all good things. Abhirami is light red complexioned. Light red is usually connected with grace. In the lalitha sahasranama dhyana slOkA there will be a phrase "arunaam karunaantharangithAksheem". Arunan is the charioteer of Surya. He comes before suryOdhayam. The light red that one could see before the dawn - how beautiful it is? So is Abhirami.

I had been following this translation work from the day shri rajagopal contacted me through this blog. Due to official and personal commitments I got very small time to surf through net. So I didn't write on this for these days. It was really a nice work. May goddess Abhirami and Lord Amrithakadeswara grant all good things to rajagopal and his family.

sree mAthA sree mahArAgnee sree madh simhAsanEswari
sree chakrarAjAnilayA sree madh tripurasundari
sree sivA sivasakthi aikya roopini lalithAmbikA

Lord Shiva and the number 5

2009-10-15T16:36:00.003+05:30

The number 5 is very much associated with Lord Shiva.

Five Faces:
Shiva is 5 faced. His faces are Satyojatham, thathpurusham, eesaanam, vaamadevam and aghoram. It was from this five faces the five variable swaras ri, ga, ma, dha and ni of carnatic music evolved. Lord Muruga, the son of Lord Shiva has 6 faces. 5 of his faces are created from shiva's five faces.

Five Syllable Mantra:
Na ma shi vaa ya - popularly called as panchAkshara mantram. This is shiva's mantra. This has five syllables as shown above.

Five bhutas:
Shiva is said to be the embodiment of the five elements or pancha bhuta. Sky(Akash), Wind(Vayu), Fire(Agni), Water(Jhalam), Land(Prithvi) are five in numbers. They are the five indriyas of Shiva. Sky is his ears, Wind is his body or skin, Fire is his eyes, Water is his tongue, Land is his nose. If we closely analyse these elements are associated with the 5 senses.

Akash - Sabda(Hear), Wind - Sparsha(Feel), Fire - Roopa(See), Water - Rasa(Taste) and Land - Gandha(Smell).
The sky is space where only sound is present.
Wind can be felt.
Fire can be seen.
Water can be tasted.
Land can be smelt.

To co-memorate this we have the pancha bhuta sthala.

1. Akash - Chidambaram
2. Wind - Kaalahasti
3. Fire - Tiruvannamalai
4. Water - Tiruvaanaikka
5. Land - Kanchipuram

Five Sabhas:
Sabha is a place where the ruler or the judge is seated and hears to the prayers or petitions. Lord Shiva sits on 5 different sabhas at 5 different places.

1. Kanaka sabhai - golden throne - Chidambaram
2. Velli sabhai - silver throne - Madurai
3. Ratna sabhai - gem throne - Tiruvalangadu
4. Taamira sabhai - copper throne - Tirunelveli
5. Chitra sabhai - Artistic throne - Tirukkuttralam

Monsoon festival by Balaganamrutham - Shyam Prakash and Party Concert

2009-10-05T14:22:00.001+05:30

Amidst the heavy winds on October 4, 2009 (sunday) I went to Ragasudha hall for the monsoon festival concert. Shyam Prakash was the singer. Vijayaraghavan was on the violin and young Bharadwaj played on the mridangam. All the three were a promising combo. Especially the vocalist and the mridangist were highly talented.

The concert started with the brisk alapana in the rAgA nAttai. Shyam sung saraseeruhasanapriye. There were quick kalpana swaras that proved the profieciency of the singer. It was a good start. Aarabhi ragam follwed naatti. Tyagaraja's Nadha sudha rasam added beauty to the concert. The alapana was very soothing. Violinist reproduced it well on his solo. Kalpana swaras were also scintillating. Though few were taken from tyagaraja's pancharatna kritis like pa-pa-ma-ga-ri-- da-da-pa-ma-ga-ri-ma, it was nice.

The third was papanasam sivan's kaanavEndaamo in the raga sri ranjani. The ending of the song was delivered innovatively in high pitch with the words kaana vendaamo repeated few number of times. The next was the first slOka of annapoorna ashtakam of Adi sankara - nityanandahari in the raga sama. This was followed by the steady annapoorne visalakshi of Sri Muthuswami dikshitar.

Then was the evergreen sankarabharanam. Shyam took Mahalakshmi jaganmatha of Papanasam Sivan. I should appreciate the young mridangam star for his perfect support. The niraval, svarams, tani for this song was highly commendable. Then came a quick javali in kamas Ragam. Jagadodharana in the raga kapi was so divine. The artiste captured the exact mood of purandaradasa in this song. It was with so much bhakti. The popular abhang bhaktha jana vatsale in the raga brindavani was a good conclusion for this 1:15 hour concert.

Though this was a short duration concert the outcome was utmost satisfaction that one will get after hearing 3 hour concert.

Softsmith Free Webinars for October 2009

2009-10-01T12:59:00.002+05:30

Softsmith Infotech presents the following webinars for the month of October 2009.
1) Programming - ASP.Net, HTML-XML-CSS, MySQL, Oracle andPLSQL
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Violin concert by A.Kanyakumari

2009-09-15T10:03:00.001+05:30

Today (15-Sep-09) morning in FM Gold, Violin Maestro A.Kanyakumari's concert was broadcasted (7 AM to 8 AM IST). Shri K.V.Prasad was on the mridangam and Shri Govindarajan was on the ghatam. It was a fantastic treat for the morning. The concert steadily begun with karimukha varadha in the rAgA nAttai. There were swift flowing kalpana swaras. The rAgA's majesticity was well shown in the sAhityA and the swArAs.

Then was the song composed by Shri G.N.Balasubramanian in the rAgA yadhukulakAmboji, paramakripasAgari. Since it was a G.N.B's composition it was in a fast tempo when compared to other yadhukulakAmboji rAga songs. It didnt let the listener to sleep. Instead it was like a revolutionary song!

The third was tyAgarAja's aadamOdi galadE in the rAgA chArukEsi. Kalpana swaras were played at the end in a traditional way. The fourth song was Smt Ambujam krishnA's Aum NamO NArAyaNA in the rAgA karNaranjani. The brihAs for the line "kinkini kini Ada.." in the charanam proved the innovative thoughts of the artiste.

Then was Arabhi mAnam vaithaL, a 12 rAgA rAgamALika song. The highlight here is that the artiste played all 12 rAgAs - Arabhi, Anandabhairavi, kalyANi, Hamsadhwani, SArangA, SAmA, MOhanam, Lalitha, darbAr, bhairavi, poorvikalyANi, kamalamanOhari - both in forward and reverse order in the AlApana. The transformation from one rAgA to other using a common swarA is commendable. In the kalpanA swaram also this transition was there. It was a genius work. Tani Avartanam by the percussion artistes needs a special appreciation. Since I am not that much informed about the jathis and korvais I am unfit to write about it. But I enjoyed the rhythm. The concert concluded with a durgA rAga composition by sri dayAnanda saraswathi on Lord RAmA. RAmam bhajE shyAmam manasA was studded with melody.

A good and innovative concert.

Ambujam Krishna Memorial Concert - Bombay Jayashree Ramnath

2009-09-13T15:13:00.002+05:30

I had been to Music Academy to listen Smt Ambujam Krishna's compositions rendered by smt. Bombay Jayashree, this Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 6:30 PM.

The concert was started with an introduction about the artiste, composer by none other than ambujam amma's son and daughter. That was a half an hour talk that carried our memories decades back.

Jayashree started the concert with a swift chakkaravAga rAga kriti, Ranganai thudhi seidhiduvOm, dedicated to Lord RanganAtha of Srirangam. The song's pallavi, adorned the lord with elements like kasturi, parimala which was evident from the singer calling Ranganatha as Kasturi Ranganai, parimala ranganai and so on. River kAveri's greatness was also specified in the anupallavi - "gangai nigar punidha kAvEri naduvilE pongaravadhanil pallikkoNda parimala ranganai thudhi seidhiduvOm". i.e we shall bow parimala ranga who is lying on the serpant on the banks of river kAvEri whose greatness is equal to that of the ganges. The composer has also explained about the way thiruppalliyezhuchi (procedure to wake up the lord in the morning) is done there. The charanam goes like this - "sruthi layam koodi veenai yaazhOdu thiruppalliyezhichi paadi paramanai - narumalar kondu nattral poojiththu - marugina
manadhinil urugi urugi.." - with fine tuned veena and yaazh (stringed instrument) we sing the thiruppalli yezhuchi (set of songs written for waking up the lord) and by offering good flowers we pray to the lotus feet of the lord. There was a quick kalpana swaras that was simply superb.

The second song was nindra thirukkOlam in the rAga kalyAni set to adi tAlam tisra nadai. It was a traditional kalyAni that I heard after a long time. The sangathis sung for the pallavi line was a wonderful experiment that was brought out excellently. And the rendering of the line "neela mEga vannam nenjai aLLidudE.." was really heartful. This song was dedicated to Azhagar kOil sundararaja peerumAL of her home town Madurai. It had descriptions about the chitra pournami festival when the lord descends down into the vaigai river. There was also description about the 5 weapons (conch, discus, mace, sword and bow - gathi saarngi shangi chakri cha nandaki) that Vishnu use to have with him.

The third was the soulful kAnadA. It was a telugu kriti parAmukhamu sAnurA neeku paritApamu lEdA. This was dedicated to lord Rama. The expression of "will you not grant boons to me?" was well captured by the artiste. This was a composition on par with Saint Tyagaraja when it comes for rAmabhakti.

Then came the beatiful nAtakkurinji. Jayashree sang sondham vEruNdO rAmA, set to rUpaka tAlam. The last few lines of the charanam was so nice - aNda brahmmNnda akhilANdam paNi kOdhaNdapANi uNNai nambi vandha pin. The complete saranAgathi thathvam was portrayed well in this kriti. Kalpana swarams were also rendered. Each aavarthi of swara ended with the swarams Ni Sa Ri ga sondham vErundo which was saying like, is there anyother relation apt than you rAmA?

Then was the delightful dharmavathi. Jayashree sang a sanskrit composition of ambujam krishna, Janaki vallabhAya namastE in misra chapu tAlam. In the anuppallavi, there came a line "mama hrudayAmbuja vAsa" that beared the composer's signature. I think this is a rare one. I could not see her name in any of the other songs sung. This too had a good set of kalpana swaras that was very innovative.

The main piece of the concert is surutti rAga kriti written in telugu, "rAmA neevE gathiyani nirathamu namminA nannubrOva thAmasama" set to Adhi tAlam. The song was rendered in a steady way and swarams were flowing like a water fall. There was a tani aavartanam by the mridangam and kanjira artistes which was a good support for the song. The artiste announced that she learnt this kriti from smt. kamala kailasanathan who spent most of her time at thiruvananthapuram. That was a good rememberence by Smt Jayashree.

This was followed by pozhudumiga vAcchudE in the rAga rEvathi. Believe me this was the only composition that I have heard before. All the others were entirely new for me. The way Jayashree expressed the lines yennai vittu pOna kannan innum vara kaanave portrayed the longing feeling that any krishna bhaktai (gopis) will have if krishna was not by their side.

Then was a hindi composition in the rAgA bhAgeshri, mil tEjA iqbar poojese. It was a soothing one.

She concluded the concert with a rAgamaLika that was written as a lullaby(thAlattu). Devaki than kula kozhundhai was the starting. It had rAgAs like Ananda bhairavi, vasantha, Abheri, paras and neelaambari.

The concert was completed with the mangala stOtram sri rAmachandra sritha pArijAtha in the rAga nIlAmbari itself.

That was a wonderful evening treat by Bombay Jayashree.

An Appeal to all magazines

2009-09-10T14:02:00.000+05:30

This article I am writing with uttermost dissatisfaction with most of the magazines. I use to read most of the tamil weeklies or fortnight magazines. Most of the content are good and informative. Of course they are also interesting. But a single part brings me dissatisfaction. I think most of you would have thought about this. Nothing new. There use to be jokes. Jokes are of course fictional and not aimed at hurting any body. But I use to see some jokes related to nurses. Nurse is a divine profession. A profession that takes care of the sick people who really need proper care. Most of the jokes unfortunately portrays that nurses are kept in the hospital only to attract people. Believe me, they had not been portrayed in good sense, but with a filthy thought. Its such a bad part on us to be in this society, criticizing nurses. My sincere appeal to all magazines who have written jokes related to nurses or who plan to do so is to just stop writing such things. Write jokes that doesn't affect any person or any group.

Thanks for your patient reading.

Regards,
Saranya.

EMI Calculation for Home loans

2009-09-08T15:55:00.008+05:30

This is a popular topic where most of us need help nowadays. Though there are bank websites which will give Rs.X is the EMI for the loan amount of Rs.L @ R % per annum for a term of say N months. But it is very important for us to understand the underlying principle of this EMI.

EMI – Equated Monthly Installment

For the loan amount you have got, you need to pay back the principal as well as the interest. But altogether you can’t repay the same. So you are splitting your debt (Principal + interest) to the financial institution in an equal way so that you can set aside a fixed amount every month for repayment.

Assume the loan amount (L) is Rs.1,00,000/- @ rate (R%) 12 for term (N) of 12 months.

Before calculating EMI, you need to convert rate percent per annum as rate per month – i.e., divide R% by (12 x 100)

Divide by 100 to convert to absolute number from percentage and 12 to get monthly rate value.

So let us recalculate as r = R/(12*100)

In our case, r = 12/(12*100) = 0.01

EMI = (P * r) * {[(1+r)^N] / [((1+r)^N) – 1]}

Principal - 100000
Rate per annum - 12 = 0.01
Term (in months) - 12
EMI = 8885

Month No	Outstanding	Int Paid	Principal Paid	EMI	Balance	Rate
1	100000	1000	7885	8885	92115	0.01
2	92115	921	7964	8885	84151	0.01
3	84151	842	8043	8885	76108	0.01
4	76108	761	8124	8885	67984	0.01
5	67984	680	8205	8885	59779	0.01
6	59779	598	8287	8885	51492	0.01
7	51492	515	8370	8885	43122	0.01
8	43122	431	8454	8885	34668	0.01
9	34668	347	8538	8885	26130	0.01
10	26130	261	8624	8885	17507	0.01
11	17507	175	8710	8885	8797	0.01
12	8797	88	8797	8885	0	0.01

How to generate the table?

1. EMI and rate has been fixed now.
2. Now write numbers against the month column equal to the loan term that is already known to us.
3. For month 1, outstanding = loan amount (i.e. Principal)
4. Int Paid = outstanding * r [in this case r = 0.01]
5. Principal Paid = EMI – Int Paid
6. Balance = Outstanding – Principal Paid
7. Outstanding for next month is the balance of the previous month

Thus keep going for the rest of the months. You can also prepare an excel in the same format and copy formulae and generate the EMI and the table.

If you see, EMI = Principal + Interest and thus you are paying both interest and principal every month. If you observe, the interest you pay will keep decreasing with the progress of time and the principal keeps on increasing with the progress of time.

Softsmith Webinar for September 2009

2009-09-03T16:22:00.002+05:30

This september, softsmith offers the following free webinars:

1 Linux, Visual Source Safe (VSS), Adobe Photoshop
2 Programming - Php, VBScript, C, COBOL
3 Insurance Fundamentals, CRM Features
4 Time Management Techniques, Project Scheduling - Microsoft MPP
5 MS Excel, MS Word, Demo creation - Instant Demo, Documentation Techniques
6 QTP, Rational Performance Tester, Quality Center, OpenSTA, Silk Test, Manual Testing
7 Spoken English Level 1 (Tamil Medium)
8 MySQL, Oracle and PLSQL

Visit www.softsmith.com or www.openmentor.net for more details and registration.

Patteeswaram

2009-08-25T16:04:00.000+05:30

The moment I tell this place, one would be remembered about goddess Durga. Patteeswaram is a small town near kumbakonam. There is a famous temple for Lord Shiva. GnAnAmbikai samEdha dhEnupureeswarar temple. It has been told that the celestial cow kAmadhEnu performed pooja for the Shiva at this temple. Hence the name dhEnupureeswara for Lord Shiva here.

In this temple, one could see that the nandi is not exactly opposite to Shiva, but moved away from the straight line. Very special case. There is a story behind this. Thirugnanasambandar, a talented poet, who got the grace of PArvati Devi early in his childhood and started writing beautiful poems came to patteeswaram. That was during the peak summer. He was offered a tent made out of pearl by the temple authorities upon the order of the Lord. To see sambandar walking through the pearl tent, lord asked Nandi to move away a little. So nandi will be slightly deviated from the straight path in this temple.

We enter into the temple. Kodimaratthu vinayakar welcomes all of us by sitting in a sannidhi near the dvijasthambam. We move further and to our left there lies the temple's holy tank. Near the tank, there is a sannidhi of Agya Ganapathi. Praying to the ganapati we proceed further towards the main mandapam or mahA mandapam. There we worship at the sannidhis of Madha vArana ganapati and Subrahmanya and enter into the sanctum sanctorum of Dhenupureeswarar. There also similar to the stone nandi outside, we could observe the metallic nandi, moved away a little from the straight line path. There were sannidhis of Nataraja, Bhairava, Navagriham in the mahA mandapam and we proceed towards the sanctum sanctorum of Vishnu Durga. We move along the covered artha mandapam and find the divine mother, standing on the head of mahishAsuran, with conch and chakra in the upper hands and two lower hands offering boons and protection to the devotees. In this temple alone, goddess Durga will be wearing a 9 yard saree, as opposed to other temples where she will be wearing an ordinary saree or skirt(pAvAdai) like a small girl.

Having the darshan of durga, we move to the sannidhi of GnAnAmbikai. It is built as a separate temple. Mother gnAnAmbikA is in a standing posture with varada abhaya hastham, with her eyes filled with grace. One could lose their ignorance and gain knowledge if her vision falls on us.

After having their darshan we offer namaskArams at the dvijasthambam and move out of the temple with a sense of achieving something.

Foreign nations are clean! India very dirty!!

2009-08-24T17:02:00.001+05:30

This kind of irritating statement most of us would have heard from NRIs and those who had been to foreign nations and have returned back.

Its in our hands. We obey the rules in foreign government. "You should not spit on the roads or you should not throw papers on the foot path" - if this has been written in other country, we obey it. But if it is written in India, we never care about it and sometime put garbage on the sign board itself that will hide the signs with the passage of time.

Say a person X who use to chew pan masala in India, stops it temporarily in other countries or spits it in the dustbin. But the moment he enters Indian airport, he is tempted to spit on the road side. He searches for dust bins to throw torn pieces of paper, but in India he throws them right under his feet and walks carelessly as if he is no longer connected with this world.

The moment Indian government brings a rule, the law breakers are busy in finding loop holes to escape from the rule.

Only if we start following these small practices, others will follow and practice it. Let us all join together to preserve the heritage of our nation.

VEnu gOpAla swAmi - pAlur

2009-08-24T10:41:00.000+05:30

vEnugAna lOlu nigana vai ganulu kAvalanE- so sang saint TyAgaraja in his kEdaragowla rAga kriti, describing lord krishna who in the form of vEnugOpAla (with flute in his hands, surrounded by cows) as the protector (kAvalanE).

I heard this from someone that this song was composed by saint tyAgarajA at the residence of veenai kuppier (another contemprory composer). He should have written this song having pAlur vEnugOpAla swami in his mind.

pAlur is a small, quiet village near kudavasal in kumbakonam district. It is also called as mElapAlaiyur. Not many buses are there to access this village. One need to take a cab or go by walk from the main road that leads to kudavasal.

After moving through the green fields on the road side, we could see a sivan temple that marks the beginning of the agrahAram. There after for few meters one could move on a concrete road. That road takes us to the vEnugOpAla swami temple. Its a small temple dedicated to vishnu on the western side of the agrahAram.

Behind the temple there is a huge tank with some water that belongs to the temple. Surrounding the tank, there are large number of trees offering an awesome treat for our eyes.

The main deity here is Sri Lakshmi Narayana. Venugopala along with rukmini and sathyabama are the procession deities or utsava moorthi. The lord is adorned with expensive ornaments. Krishna by himself will shine brightly with the intensity of thousands of stars. His lusture, after being adorned with diamonds and other gems need no further explanation or description. Even if I try to give one, it will be definitely never upto the mark.

Coming to the tyAgaraja kriti, in the anupallavi, he describes the ornament worn by venugopala. It goes like this - vEnu lella dhrishti chutti vEyuchu brokuchu rAga - says the chutti (ornament worn on forehead) grabs one's attention first when he sees the deity.

He then describes about the lord's lotus like face, graceful eyes - vikasitha pankaja vadanulu vivitha kadulu nAtaka - okari kokaru karamula niti Orakannula jootaka - sukaravamulu kala tharunulu sogasugAnu pAtaka - sakalasurulu tyAgarAju sagunivEdaka vachchuchu.

Once if we see vEnugOpAla, standing in the sanctum sanctorum, welcoming his devotees, we can never get a feeling to move away from that place. During gOkulAshtami times, the village will have celebrations like uriyadi, adding to the fun index of the entertaining function.

NAchchiyAr kOvil

2009-08-20T16:27:00.000+05:30

This is the 14th among the 108 divya dEsams. It is located on the way to KumbakOnam from kudavAsal. This is famous for the kal garudan or garudA made out of stone. There is an interesting fact behind this.

During the temple festival, the lord and is taken on the back of garudA for procession. While starting, 4 people will be lifting the lord along with garuda vAhanam. The weight of the garudA keeps on increasing, demanding extra people at every furlong. 4 increases to 8, 16, 32, 64 and at last to 128. On return the garudA's weight will start diminishing. So 128 gets reduced to 64, 32, 16, 8 and so on. While entering into the garudA's place, there will be just 4 people holding the statue as it was at the start.

Another aspect of this garudA is that he has 10 serpants on his body. Near his eyes (2), ears (2), shoulders (2), throat (1), chest (1), arms (2). Usually there will be 4 or 6 serpants on garudA in other temples.

Vishnu is called by the name Srinivasa and Lakshmi is called as Vanjulavalli thAyAr. It is believed that, garudA spotted the pretty girl vanjula valli near nAchchiyAr koil and persuaded Sri Vishnu to marry her and he indeed performed the rituals. Vishnu became happy and offered GarudA status equal to him.

In this temple there is no separate sannidhi for thAyAr as other vishnu temples have. Both perumAL and thAyAr are in the same place. And Srinivasa is in the form of a human with just two hands as opposed to other temples where he use to have 4 hands.

If you observe, Maha Vishnu will be standing some what in the corner, leaving the center place to vanjula valli thAyAr. This signifies about the importance that one has to give to their wife. Surronding the couple who are standing in the wedding posture, there are 5 people who attended the marriage. BrahmmA, BalarAmA, AniruddhA, PurushOtthamA and PrathyumnA.

The temple has a nice prakAram, rAja gOpuram. Holy tank or pushkarani is located outside the temple and it is definitely a feast for our eyes.

Thirucherai

2009-08-18T14:36:00.000+05:30

This is the 12th divyadEsam among the 108 divyadEsams or vishnu temples.

This sthalam is located on the way from kudavasal to nachiyarkoil. The main deity is sAranAtha perumAL. His consort, thAyAr is given the name sAranAyaki. Thi vimAnam is sAra vimAnam and pushkarani or holy tank is called as sAra pushkaraNi.

When we approach the temple, the majestic tank (there was some water in the tank :)) welcomes us all. Opposite to the tank, there lies the huge gOpuram or main tower of the temple. Crossing that gopuram, we find a dvijasthambam and a large prakAram or corridor, through which we can walk around the temple. We enter into the main mandapam and reach the place where Maha Vishnu resides.

In the sanctum sanctorum, the lord is in a standing posture (nindra thirukkOlam) with 4 hands. Conch and chakra in the upper two hands and the lower right hand offering protection (abhayam) and the lower left hand offering boons (varam). In his chest, lives goddess lakshmi. The utsava moorthi has two consorts - neela devi and bhoomi devi. Sri devi resides in his chest.

Apart from them, to the right side of the lord, sage mArkaNdEyA is seated, seeking salvation. River Kaveri seated to the left of the lord. There is also an idol of Santhana krishna (krishna as a small child) in the sannidhi.

There is a separate sannidhi for Lord Narasimha. Here he is blessing everyone along with goddess Lakshmi and gets name as Lakshmi Nrusimhar.

Coming out of the mandapam, we take a right turn to reach the thAyar sannidhi. sAranAyaki thAyAr, seated on a lotus is welcoming all her visitors with a nice smile. Praying to her, we move around the inner corridor and complete a round at the thAyar sannidhi and come out to the outer corridor. After completing the round in the outer big corridor, we offer our namaskArams to the lord and the goddess at the dvijasthambam seeking their blessings.

Konerirajapuram - Tirunallam

2009-08-17T13:44:00.000+05:30

For those who have read kalki's novel ponniyin selvan this name will sound familiar. This is a small village near kumbakonam.

This village is famous for the Nataraja in the Shiva's temple. Lord Shiva is called as Umamaheswara and his consort devi parvati is called by the name Anga vaLa nAyaki or dehasundari amman. The temple is such a massive structure. Very very attractive with the large mandapams or halls. There is a big tank infront of the temple. Right now there is very little water in the tank.

This temple has been built by kandaradhittha chola and his wife sembian maa devi. Kandaradhithan is the grand father of the famous Raja Raja Chola. He is well known for his service to Lord Shiva, by building huge temples in his empire.

We enter into the temple. Usually to one's right side, in any shiva temple there would be Lord Vinayaka. But here, we could see Shanmuka Subrahmanya. Yes, Lord muruga with 6 faces, 12 hands, surrounded by Valli and Devasena on his both sides. To have darshan of Vinayaka first, we move to our left side portion. There Lord Vinayaka, protected by two bhutha gaNAs (one with banana bunch on his head and the other with a jack fruit on his head) is seated, blessing the devotees.

We then move into the main mandapam with dvijasthambam. If we look up, on the ceiling, there we could be amazed by the awesome paintings. We can see the five faces of Lord Shiva - thathpurusham, eesaanam, vamadevam, satyojatam and agOram, moorthis of 4 vedas, and more. After praying there at the dvijasthambam where it is believed that the power of the deity inside the sanctum sanctoram is concentrated, we enter the temple. There were also paintings of british period - policemen with arms standing at the ritual and so on. But due to poor maintenance, most of the area in the paintings got faded.

We could see lord Uma maheswara. The lingam is quite large in size that one could see the lord from the entrance. We circum ambulate the sannidhi and in the prahaaram we can see lot of other idols. Idols of Bhairava, Surya, some more siva lingas like kasi viswanathar, Shenbagavana nathar and few more are there.

Further proceeding we could see the vaahana mandapam (place where God's vehicles like swan, yaLi (mixture of lion and elephant), ox (rishabham) are kept). All the vaahanam speaks about the antique values. But again time has eaten away the charm of them. On the opposite side we could see the idols of Agastya rishi, vinayaka and some writings, stating about the architects of this temple (sembian madevi and kandaradithan).

We complete the round and come outside to see the navagraha sannidhi and there is another shiva linga that has been worshipped by all the 9 planets.

In the opposite side we see the majestic Nataraja. The tallest / the highest/ the majestic.. Whatever adjective that suits the best, we can use for him. There will be a mole and a hair stuck to the mole on his chest. To his side, stands the graceful SivakAmi. He is the moolavar. He wont be taken out for procession. To his side, there is another sannidhi where lies another nataraja. This is the utsava moorthi who will be taken out for procession. He is also called as kalyanasundara moorthi, also called as Maapillai swami and his consort is Devi kAthyAyani.

We come out of the shiva's sannidhi and go for a bigger round in the outer prakAram. There comes the devi sannidhi. Its like a separate temple. We offer our salutations to the anga vaLa nayaki or deha sundari and request for good health for every one of us. One could observe that there is a separate nandi for ambal which is very uncommon in temples in and around kumbakonam district. In few temples in other places this is very common. There is also a sannidhi of Lord Vaidyanatha in the outer prakAram, after coming out of Ambal sannidhi.

We go around the temple's outer prakaaram, talking about the massive structure and spacious prakaaraas of the temple and finally offer our namaskArams to the lord near the dvijasthambam and come out of the temple.

We then proceed to the agrahAram where people stayed. Now, it is almost deserted. Many of the people got settled in major cites or in other countries. There were houses on both sides of the street. There is also another street having houses in one lane alone. We saw our ancestral house, now belonging to someone else, from outside and proceeded to the perumaL temple, situated in the west side of the agrahAram.

PerumAL is called here as Varadharajan. Bhoomi and Neela Devi are his consorts here. In addition to Varadharaja perumal, we have a separate sannidhi for kodhanda ramar (rama with bow and arrow in his hands). Rama stands along with Sita, Lakshman and hanuman and blesses all his devotees.

There is also another temple near this perumal temple, for goddess Durga. Durga stands on the devil Mahishasuran's (buffalo like deamon) head. There is no roof for her. She is called as Akaasha Durga or Durga who is open to sky.

Praying to all these deities, with a nostalgic feeling, we left the village.

Varalakshmi Vrittham

2009-07-31T12:23:00.001+05:30

Today, July 31, 2009 (Adi 15, 5110 Kali Era, VirOdhi) - Varalakshmi Virutham.

Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar who is known for his variety of kritis has written a song for this occasion too. This kriti, Sri varalakshmi is set to sree raagam roopaka taalam.

The composer starts with the rAgamudrA.

pallavi
shrI varalakshmI namastubhyam vasupradE
shrI sArasapadE rasapadE sapadE padE padE

Salutations to sri varalakshmi, whose feet are like lotus, graceful at every step. She bestows fortune to us. Here if you see, dikshitar has used the words brilliantlly.

sArasapadE
rasapadE
sapadE
padE

anupallavi

bhAvaja janaka prANa
vallabhE suvarNAbhE
bhAnukOTi samAna prabhE
bhakta sulabhE

sEvakajana pAlinyai
shrita pankaja mAlinyai
kEvalaguNa shAlinyai
kEshava hrta khElinyai

She is the life of Mahavishnu who is the creator of bhAvaja (manmadhan). She shines like a gold. Her brightness is equivalent to crores of suns. She can be easily reached by her devotees.

She protects her devotees, wears garland made up of lotus, embodiment good and unique virtues, plays in the heart of kEshavA.

caraNam

shrAvaNa pUrNimA pUrvastha shukravaarE
chArumatI prabhrtibhih poojita kArE
dEvAdi guruguha samarpita maNimayahArE
dInajana samrakshaNanipuNa kanaka dhArE

bhAvanA bhEdachaturE bhAratI sannutavarE
kaivalyavitaraNaparE kAnkshitaphalapradakarE

In the month of ShrAvaNa (Aadi - AavaNi), on the full moon day falling on Friday, she is worshipped by women like chArumati. She wears the garland of gems offered by Devas and guruguha (dikshitar) and she is an expert in protecting the afflicted. She resembles golden showers (kanakadhArA). She knows to differentiate emotions, is worshipped by BhArati (saraswati). She grants salvation and boons.

If you listen to this kriti, you can notice how brilliantly dikshitar has given the day on which this pooja need to be performed. His kritis are definitely an encyclopedia.

Let the goddess Varalakshmi grant all good things to all of us.

Softsmith Webinars for August 2009

2009-07-30T11:43:00.004+05:30

This time Softsmith Infotech, Chennai is offering more courses in different areas as listed below:

Databases
MS SQL DB and TSQL
Oracle DB and PLSQL

Software basics
Software Basics for Home makers
Common computer problems

Design
Subversion
UML Diagrams

Testing
QTP Basics
Quality Center
Load Runner concepts
White Box concepts

Mainframe
Tandem Mainframe Theory
IBM Mainframe Theory

Finance Domain
Tally Concepts
Forex Business Process

Corporate Basics
HR Job Activities

Development
ASP.Net and C# Programming
Jsp, Java, struts

Language
Spoken English (Tamil Medium) Level 2

Arts
Basics theory on Carnatic Music

Visit http://www.softsmith.com or http://www.openmentor.net for more details.

Navaratri - NavAvarNa kritis

2009-07-30T10:21:00.002+05:30

sree mAthA sree mahA rAgnee sree math simhAsanEswari
sree chakrarAja nilayA sree math tripurasundari
sree sivA siva sakthyaikya roopini lalithAmbikA

May goddess Lalita bless all of us.

In this blog, I am going to compare the sree chakram description (description about the 9 stages of the sree chakram) as told in brahmmANda purANam with Sri Muthuswamy Dikshithar's navAvarNa kritis. 1 kriti for each day.

Day 1:
* The first aavarnam of sri chakram is called as Bhoopuram.
* It is a square with three concentric layers.
* In the outermost layer, there are 10 shaktis starting with Anima, Mahima and so on.
* In the middle layer, there are 8 shaktis, starting with BrahmayA.
* In the inner layer, there are 10 shaktis. They are the 10 mudrA shaktis. (Lalita sahasranama quote - dasamudrA samArAdhyA).
* The chakram is called as trilOkyamOhana chakram.
* Property of the chakram - Enchanting the three worlds.

Head of the chakram - TripurA.
Yogini's name - Prakata

Dikshithar's kriti - KamalAmbam samrakshatumAm in the rAga Ananda Bhairavi, holds description of this chakra as:

"tripurAdhi chakrEswari AnimAdhi siddheeswari nitya kAmEswari kshitripura trilOka mOhana chakravarthani prakata yOgini ..."

Day 2:
* The second aavarnam of the sri chakram is sOdashadhalam.
* Its a 16 petaled lotus.
* It has 16 shaktis, starting from kAmakarshini.
* It is headed by TripurEsi.
* Chakra Name - sarvAsa paripUrakam
* Property - Fulfills all expectations
* Yoginis - Gupta Yoginis

Dikshitar's kamalAmbam bajarE in the raga kalyani, describes this chakram as follows:

In the charanam, "sarvaasa paripooraka chakra swaminim paramasiva kaminim durvasarchitha gupta yoginim.."

Day 3:
* The third aavarnam of the sri chakram is ashtadhalam.
* Its a 8 petaled lotus.
* It has 8 shaktis, starting from AnangA, kusumA.
* It is headed by Tripura sundari.
* Chakra Name - sarvasamkshObana
* Property - Agitates all
* Yoginis - Gupta tara Yoginis

Dikshitar's shree kamalAmbikayam katAkshithOham in the raga sankarAbaraNam, describes this chakram as follows:

Charanam has these lines - "Anangakusumaashta sakthyaakaaraaya aruna varna samkshobana chakrakaraya anantakoty anda nayaka sankara nayikaya ashta vargatmaka gupta taraya varaya anangadyupasitaya ashtadhalabja sthithaya.."

Day 4:
* The fourth aavarnam of the sri chakram is called as chathur dasAram.
* It has 14 triangles, with a shakti in each.
* The 14 shaktis starting from samkshObini are headed by Tripura vAsini.
* The chakrA nAme is called as sarva sowbhagyadAyakam.
* This chakra grants excellence.
* The yOginis are called as sampradAya yogini.

Kambodhi rAga kriti - kamalAmbikAyayai describes this aavarnam as:

"sakala saubhagyadayakamboja charanayai, samkshobhinyaadi shakti yuta chathurtha varanaayai, prakata chathurdasa bhuvana bharanaayai, prabala guruguha sampradayaantha kaaranyaayai"

Day 5:
* The fifth aavarnam of the sri chakram is known as bahir dasAram or outer 10 triangles.
* Each triangle has a shakti.
* The ten shaktis starting from sarva siddhi prada are headed by TripurAsri.
* The yOginis are called as kulOtterNa yoginis.
* The name of the chakram is called as sarvArtha sAdhakam.
* Property of this aavarnam or chakram is it helps in accomplishing all activities.

Dikshitar's bhairavi rAga kriti "sree kamalAmbikayaah param nahirE" describes the aavarnam as follows:

Charanam has the lines, "naadamaya sookshmaroopa sarva siddhi pradaadhi dasaasakthya aradhitha murthey, …. Aadhi madhyaantha rahithaprameya guruguha moditha sarvaartha saadhaka...

Day 6:
* The 6th aavarnam is called as Anthar dasAram (inner 10 triangles)
* There are 10 shaktis starting with SarvagyA and are headed by Tripura MAlini.
* The aavarnam is also called as sarva rakshAkaram
* This protects all.
* Yogini - Nigarbha yogini.

Dikshithar's Punnagavarali kriti kamalambikayastava describes this aavarnam as follows:

Charanam has the lines, "dasakalaatmaka vahni swaroopa prakasa antar dasaara sarva rakshaakara chakreswarya tridasaadinutha kacha varga dvya maya sarvagyadi dasa sakthi sameta malini chakreswarya… dasakarana vrutti marichi nigarbha yoginyam"

Day 7:
* The 7th aavarnam is called as ashtakonam that has 8 triangles.
* There are 8 shaktis starting from vashini. They are the 8 vaag devis who were responsible for organising 1000 names of Lalita as sahasranAmam.
* The yoginis are rahasya yoginis.
* The chakram is called sarva rOgahara chakram.
* It evacuvates all diseases.
* Tripura siddha heads this chakram.

SahAnA raga kriti sree kamalambikayam bhaktim karOmi describes:

"…virinchi harisana hari haya vedhita rahasya yoginyam paraadi vaag devathaa roopa vasinyaadhi vibhaaginyaam charaathmaka sarva rOga hara niraamya raja yoginyam…"

Day 8:
* The 8th aavarnam is called as trikOnam (a triangle).
* There are 3 shakthis starting with kameshwari. One shakti at each side of triangle.
* TripurAmba heads this aavarnam.
* It is also called as sarvasiddhi prada chakram.
* This chakram grants all perfection.
* Yogini - Athi rahasya yogini

Dikshithar's Ghanta raga kriti shree kamlambike avaava describes as follows:

Anupallavi has the lines - "lokapalini kapalini soolini loka janani, bhagamaalini chakradalokya maam sarva siddhi pradayike tripurambike balambike".

In the charanam the following lines come - "….santapahara trigonagehe sakameswarisakthi samuhe …. Yanta raga pasa dvesha ankusha dara kare ati rahasya yogini pare"

Day 9:
* The 9th aavarnam is the Bindu Mandalam.
* Here is the Maha shakthi - Maha Tripura Sundari.
* The yogini is called as paraaparaadhi yogini.
* The chakram is called as sarvAnandamaya chakram, that grants divine bliss.

The deity Lalithamba resides here at the bindu in the chintamani griham, on a simhasanam that is made up of 5 brahmmams (Brahmma, Vishnu, Rudran, Easwaran and Sadasivan) who performs the 5 functions (srishti, sthithi, samharam, thirOdhanam and anugraham).
She sits on the lap of Lord Kameshwara and rules the world. Chintamani griham is surrounded by kadamba vanam and is situated on the sumeru mountains.

sivakameshwarangastha siva swadheena vallabha
SumEru madhya srungastha sriman nagara naayika
chintamani grihanthastha pancha brhammasanasthitha
maha padmaata veesamstha kadamba vana vasini

Dikshithar's sree kamalamba jayati in the raga Ahiri describes as follows:

Pallavi has a line "sripura bindu madhyastha chintamani mandirastha".
Anupallavi has lines, "sukarananadyarchita mahatripurasundarim rajarajeswarim, srikara sarvanandamaya chakra vasinim, suvasinim.."

MangalasAsana kriti - srI kamalAmbikE shivE pAhimAm in the rAgam sree is an apt end to the navAvarNa series. The composer describes the real form of dEvi sitAsitE (sitha asitha - meaning fair and dark). He describes her as the auspicious one, worshipped by vishnu and she will always be with Shiva (siva sahitE). Her face is like a full moon and she is the friend of saraswati and lakshmi. She protects all her devotees and grant boons to them.

Let Lalita protects all of us.

Remembering D.K.P - The Lioness of Carnatic Music

2009-07-17T13:29:00.004+05:30

I am writing this blog with deepest sorrow in my heart. The lioness of carnatic music, one of my favourite singer sangeeta kalanidhi - Padma Vibhushan Smt D.K.Pattammal passed away yesterday on July 16, 2009 at 1:30 PM at her residence.

Born on March 28, 1919 at Damal, a village near Kanchipuram to Shri Krishnaswamy and Smt KAnthimathi, DKP was a trend setter. She was the first woman to handle RTPs in the concerts. There was a illusion in the world of Carnatic Music that women cant perform as much as men do. DKP shattered that illusion and created a platform for female artistes. Her demise is definitely an irreplaceable loss to the music world.

She is famous for Bharathi songs, Dikshitar kritis. Her pronunciation of sanskrit words or any language word is definitely a variation factor from others. Every word will be uttered with utmost sincerity and her voice will be majestic as well as mellifluous. Whether she sings SoundararAjam in brindAvana sAranga or sree satyanArayanam in subapantuvarALi of Muthuswami Dikshitar or vetrri yettu dhikkum yetta of subrahmanya bharati or shanti nilava vENdum in tilang, or any other song, I will definitely lose my worldly consiousness and enter into a state of eternal bliss. Such a soothing singer.

D.K.Pattammal(1919-2009) along with M.S.Subbulakshmi (1916-2004) and M.L.Vasanthakumari (1928-1990) formed the female trinity of carnatic music world.

There was a popular saying that DKP is not pattammal but paattammal (paattu - music -> mother of music.) My respectful homage to the legend and deepest condolence to DKP's family, students and fans.

Photo of Smt Pattammal with Smt. Rukmini Soundararajan for a concert at Music Academy.

MLV 80th Birthday Celebration

2009-07-14T15:11:00.003+05:30

MLV - Melody Layam Vidwat has been the expansion given to the legendary musician srimathi M.L.Vasanthakumari by her students and fans. On July 3 and 4, 2009 at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Main hall, a function was launched by Dr.MLV rasikar mandram. I had been there on July 4. The guests of honour were sangeetha kalanidhi sri T.N.Seshagopalan who shared his personal experiences with MLV. He mentioned that it was MLV who introduced him to Mumbai Shanmukhananda sabha in seventies. Its very rare to find an artiste who refer another artiste and that too very junior to them, as quoted by TNS sir.

The other guest was Mr.Seshasayee, MD Ashok Leyland, who was popularly known to many as MD, but very few know about his Musical skills. He has been blessed to be with MLV personally. He shared his experiences with her, that portrayed her humbleness. He was painting in his room and suddenly MLV came inside and asked him whether if he could teach her painting and in turn, she could teach him music. I was just moved to tears on hearing this! Yeah!! She being the lioness of carnatic music circle and how humble and simple was she to ask in such a polite way? Definitely, MLV was simplicity personified!!

The third guest was Ms Kanimozhi, MP. I liked the way she spoke. She felt a lot for not being closely associated with MLV personally. Even I use to feel the same whenever I think about MLV. Though I am connected with her through the songs, I use to feel a lot for not having seen her in person.

After these nostalgic speeches, there came Padmashri Sudha Ragunathan, one of the disciples of MLV. She launched a DVD about MLV which carried the title Melody - Layam - Vidwat. This DVD is to be released on her commemoration day, that falls on October 31, 2009. It was a wonderful DVD that can be kept as a treasure. A preview was played which was very impressive.

Followed by this there was a carnatic music concert, by Sudha. The accompanists were Sri Embar Kannan(Violin), Mannargudi sri Easwaran (Mridangam) and Sri B.S.Purushottaman (Kanjira). Easwaran sir's mridangam needs special appreciation. He was the heart beat for the concert, executing apt layams at appropriate places. Sudha's singing needs no special elaboration. It was as usual superb!

The concert kick started with starry navaragamalika varnam. Then came siddhi vinayakam in the raga chaamaram (aka shanmukhapriya) by dikshithar. There were fast flowing kalpana swaras. I use to feel that MLV use to sing swaras on the fly. I could see that in Sudha on that day.

Then sudha choose, raaka sasi vadana (dakka). Following that she sung raguvara in pantuvarali with elaborate alapana which was enjoyable. Then came MLV fame chalanata kriti of Kotiswara Iyer, Yedaiyya gathi. The artiste portrayed the raga bhavam while singing the phrase "bhoothala chala naattaa".

After the steady chalanatta, there came the scintillating kadhanakuthookalam. She sang, a devi kriti, composed by GeNius Balasubramanian (GNB) [courtesy for the name - Ramanathan N Iyer's blog on carnatica.net]

Then came the queen bhairavi. Sudha's massive imagination is portrayed in her alapana. She never bores here rasika through alapana and makes it more interesting by doing some innovation as her guru MLV does. She chose the kriti balagopala of Muthuswami Dikshithar. Sudha once said in an interview that she practiced a sangathi in anu pallavi of that song (neela niratha sareera dheera) for a whole night. I doubt her on that. She must have practiced the entire song like that :)

Bhairavi flowed like the ganges and so did the feel of that song. Several songs were sung as listener's choice. I just spoke about the main songs that captured my mind very much.

What I felt was, it was not Sudha's concert. It was MLV's concert. In the place of Sudha, her guru MLV was there. In Kannan's place, his guru violin maestro Kanyakumari was seated. Already Easwaran sir was there in mridangam place and instead of Purushottaman, Kanjira exponent Harishankar was there. Concert in memory of MLV would be there in my memory forever.

Smt.Parvathi Gurumurthy, Tamil Teacher at Sivaswami Kalalaya, an ardent fan of MLV has written a book (Vasantha Kumari Pillai thamizh) which has 100 songs about the legend MLV. Its a worthy book to be read by every admirers of MLV.

P.S. - Pillai thamizh is sung in praise of a person, thinking him/her as a child. From a child's third month to its 21st month, the time span is divided into 10 stages and each stage will have 10 songs.

Sri Adhi kEsava perumAL

2009-06-29T10:59:00.001+05:30

Sri Mayooravalli thAyAr samEdha sri Adhi kEsava perumaL, thirumayilai is a scintillating sthalam. Hundreds of years ago, sri pEyAzhwAr had performed thiruppani for this temple. The majestic dvijasthambam is the one that we see first on entering the temple. Under the shades of the dvijasthambam, we have garudAzhwAr standing with his arms bowed to the lord. It also appears as though garudA is welcoming his master's devotees to the temple. Moving on, we enter the sanctum sanctorum of the lord who is in nindra thirukkOlam, with shangachakra - varadha abhaya hastham. His majesticity knew no bounds to us. That much gambheeram. On the doors, the dasAvathAram - From Matsya to kalki has been carved. pEyAzhwAr who is the amsam of perumAL's sword, has found a place inside the sanctum sanctorum itself. After having his dharshan we come out of the sanctum sanctorum to perform a circambulation around the temple.

Sri KulasEkara Azhwar sannidhi is seen first. After offering our salutations to the AzhwAr, we enter into the sannidhi of sri mayoora valli thAyAr. She is the embodiment of grace. As told by sri subrahmanya bharathi, "nambinOr keduvathillai ithu naangu marai theerppu - ambikaiyai saranadaindhAl, adhika varam nAm peralAm" (one who have got faith in God, they will be never ruined. That too if we surrender at the lotus feet of ambikai we can get more boons), thAyAr is the manifestation of grace.

After seeing her, we move to the sannidhi of sri chakrathAzhwAr. He is also called as sri sudharsanAzhwAr. On his back, stays sri nrusimha moorthi. To enable devotees to have a look of sri nrusimhan, a mirror has been placed on the side of chakrathAzhwar. We bow to chakrathAzhwAr and sri nrusimhar and then move to the right. We reach the AndAL sannidhi. AndAL was decorated with a silk saree tied as madisAr (saree style of brahmins) and she was standing with a sense of proud for she being the better half of sri mahA vishNu. The mAngalyam was studded with shining stones and whether it glorifies AndAL or AndAL glorifies the stones is a topic that cannot be debated upon.

Moving further, we come to the other end, which is obviously the front right end of the temple. We bow to the veera AnjanEyar and come near the dvijasthambam and offer our namaskArams to the lord.

One important thing, Oops! I forgot to mention. On the way to the sannidhi of Adhi kEsava, we have a room where great saints and Acharyas like Sri Ramanujar, Sri MudhaliAndAn, sri maNavALamAmunigaL, sri kooraththAzhwan, sri vEdantha dEsikan and many more were seated. It appeared as though these great people were involved in deep discussion about the grace, fame of namperumAL. Let the blessings of namperumAL be showered on us.

aum namO nArAyanAya!

Softsmith webinars for July 2009

2009-06-26T15:30:00.002+05:30

Softsmith Infotech presents 17 new webinars for July 2009.

Here is the list:

1) Microsoft Word
2) HTML, XML, CSS
3) Linux OS Basics
4) Save your eyes - IT and BPO people
5) Bharath Natyam Theory Fundamentals
6) Microsoft Excel
7) SAP Purchasing
8) MySQL Stored Procedures
9) Selenium Test Automation Tool
10) ASP.Net Programming
11) Microsoft Powerpoint
12) Basic Networking and Exchange Server
13) Software Users – Myths and realities
14) Spoken English (Teaching in Hindi)
15) SAP Quality Management
16) COBOL Programming
17) Vaasthu principles - what is it all about?

Visit Open Mentor website for registration.

Svanubhava 2009

2009-06-25T14:46:00.004+05:30

The music fest is back this year with more interesting events. Yes! Svanubhava is back. The dates are from August 4, 2009 to August 9, 2009. This is conducted by Matrka and YACM. For more details, visit http://www.svanubhava.com.

Register yourself for the feast and be ready to grab the pearls of knowledge from the ocean of music! Registration link is on the home page itself!

எட்டுத்தொகை நூல்கள்

2009-06-24T15:01:00.002+05:30

நற்றினை நல்ல குறுந்தொகை ஐங்குறுநூறு ஒத்த
பதிற்றுப்பத்து ஓங்கு பரிபாடல்
கற்றறிந்தார் ஏற்றும் கலியோடு அகம் புறம்
என்றித்திறத்த எட்டுத்தொகை

இந்த பழம் பெரும் பாடல், எட்டுத்தொகை நூல்கள் யாவை என்று நாம் எளிதில் ஞாபகம் வைத்துக்கொள்ள உதவுகிறது.

இப்பாடலுக்கு விளக்கம் பின் வருமாறு:

நற்றினை, குறுந்தொகை (இன் நூலிற்கு "நல்ல" என்ற அடை மொழி கொடுத்திருக்கிறார்கள்), ஐங்குறுநூறு, அதனை ஒத்த பதிற்றுப்பத்து, ஓங்கிய புகழ்க்கொண்ட பரி பாடல், நன்கு கற்றவர்கள் உயர்வாய் பேசும் கலித்தொகை, இவற்றோடு அகநானூறு, புறநானூறு என்று மொத்தம் எட்டு நூல்களை நாம் எட்டுத்தொகை என்று கூறுவோம்.

என் முதல் தமிழ் பதிப்பு

2009-06-24T14:57:00.001+05:30

பல நாட்கள் முயற்சி செய்து இன்று எனது முதல் தமிழ் பதிப்பினை வெளியிடுகிறேன். இன்னும் தொடர்ந்து பல அறிய பதிப்புகளை நீங்கள் எதிர்பார்க்கலாம்.

இப்படிக்கு,
சரண்யா

Tanjore Brihadeeswara Temple

2009-06-23T09:33:00.002+05:30

I had been to ThanjAvoor for a marriage this week end.

I visited the Brihadeeswarar temple also called as The Big Temple. What a massive structure! The gOpurams, prakArams were all studded with impressive paintings, sculptures, inscriptions.

There is a Ganapathi sannidhi in the outer prakAram. On the steps, there were inscriptions in sanskrit instead of the traditional dEvanAgari (grantham). The temple is well maintained by archeological department. Earlier, the gOpuram will not be that much bright and all. But now, they had cleaned the entire stretch and its very bright and shiny.

I visited the temple on a Saturday which happened to be a pradOsham day. The priests were preparing the massive nandi for pradOsha kAla abhishEkam. But I went there at around 11 AM in the morning and the sun was at its peak. Though the prakAram was very hot, I managed to walk through it and saw other sannidhis like vArAhi amman, brihannAyaki, dakshinAmoorthy who was seated at reasonable a height from the ground (we need to climb some 15 to 20 steps to see him), rAhu bhagawAn, Bhairava, Sanaischara so on. There was also a siddhar sannidhi (karuvoorar) which was also very pious.

I went to that temple for the second time. My first visit to that temple was when I was 10 or 11 years old. At that time I didnt observe this much.

And one good thing that made me happy was, a small boy, aged about 7 or 8 years, chanted the vEdA. He was chanting sri rudram in front of the lord brihadeeswara under the supervision of the head sivAchAryA. I was amazed by the tone with which the boy rendered the rudram.

Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana

2009-06-17T11:21:00.001+05:30

Every body will be familiar with the phrase mentioned in this blog title. I am not going to write reviews of how singers and other artistes performed. Instead, I am going to share my thoughts about this.

These Aradhanas Cleveland or Tiruvaiyaru Tyagaraja Aradhana, Tirupponthuruthi Narayana theertha Jayanti, Syama Sastri Jayanthi or Dikshithar Music Fest or Gopalakrishna Bharathi Music Festival and many more festivals on great composers are being conducted to offer our thanks and respect to them. This is a known fact.

During this functions, the artistes sing the compositions of corresponding composers and refrain from singing other composer's songs. I could remember an incident at a aradhana at Trichy, where an artiste was asked by the audience at to sing abhangs at the end of a concert, organised for the composer who installed Rama Bhakti and Nadopasana by means of his kritis. The artiste asked another senior artiste for permission to satisfy rasika's wish. The senior artiste denied permission and announced that this function is for so and so and it is correct only if we sing his kritis which is very true. Thats the way and it is the best offering that anyone could do for upkeeping the respect he or she has for the composer.

The thing is, in Cleveland Tyagaraja aradhana, I could see in the telecasts, that the artistes (inclusive of the two artistes that I referred in the previous incident) reciting kritis other than that of Tyagaraja. Is that to satisfy the NRIs there? Or have the committee has broken to rule of singing Tyagaraja kriti alone at Tyagaraja aaradhana?

Whatever may be the case, either of the two things should be done. Either the festival has to be renamed as Cleveland Music Festival or to retain the same name, only Tyagaraja kritis need to be sung.

Knockout 2009

2009-06-15T11:29:00.002+05:30

People would have been watching T20 World cup. This T20 has brought lot of surprises. Budding teams like Ireland went into Super 8. World Champions Australia has been sent out of the tournament even before entering Super 8. The group formation was partial. It was just a matter of lucky draw. Aussies, Windies and Srilanka were in one group. India, Ireland, Bangaladesh were in another. Pakistan, England and The Netherlands formed a group and Newzealand, South Africa, Scotland formed the fourth group.

If you see in the group AUS-WI-SL, there existed a tight competition between the three. In the other groups there was atleast one new team. So It was easy for two teams in the other three to go to super 8 directly. This is not at all fair. The Aussies fell as a victim to this fixture.

Indians tried their level best to cross the super 8, but fell as the prey to WI, England. They need to still play with South Africa in Super 8. But there is very negligible chance for India to enter semi finals. Again strong teams in this group and we have Ireland, Newzealand, Pakistan and Srilanka in the other group.

So the World Cup Champions - Australia, T20 Champions India were knocked out during this T20 World Cup. Cricket is a game of luck. Anything may happen at any time. Cricket - Uncertainity Personified!

Softsmith Webinars - June 2009

2009-06-02T15:48:00.004+05:30

For the month of May 2009, Softsmith has launched the following courses:

1) MSSQL DBA Operations
2) JSP, Java programming
3) Quality Center Basics
4) Recession - Let us equip ourselves
5) PHP programming
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7) Spoken English (Teaching in Tamil)
8) Silk Test - Operations
9) Manual Testing
10) Mutual Funds
11) Rational Functional Tester
12) SAP - PP module

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Valuable Play by the Golden Player Gilchrist

2009-05-26T14:32:00.001+05:30

Adam Gilchrist of Deccan Chargers has been named as the Golden Player of IPL 2009. Really, the play he exhibited in
the IPL Semi Final 1 against the Delhi Daredevils need a good amount of appreciation. Delhi's prime bowler,
Dirk Nannes was almost washed out by Gilly. Gibbs faced the first ball and hit that on the leg side and ran his first run.
But that was declared as a leg bye. The remaining 5 balls of the first over, that was the start of Gilchrist show. He
smashed all 5 balls to the fence, scoring 20 runs off 5 balls. That gave a comfortable start to the chargers.

That was Ashish Nehra, who broke this partnership in his over, by bowling Gibbs out for a duck. Anyway that didn't affect
Gichrist's spirit. He continued to rock. He scored the quickest IPL 50 in just 17 balls. Every ball that he faced went straight
to the boundary. He scored 70 runs (5 sixes and 10 fours altogether) out of boundaries. He faced 35 balls but scored 85 runs.

This was the match that I enjoyed the most. I was expecting to see such an innings from a batsman for a long time. Nothing
could have stopped Gilchrist if there was not a strategic timeout that cut down his flow. Anyhow he almost
finished the match with in 10 overs.

Matthew Hayden of Chennai Super Kings got the orange cap (highest run scorer) and RP Singh of Deccan Chargers got the
purple cap (highest wicket taker). Rohit Sharma (Deccan Chargers) has been named as the best under 23 player of the League.
Anil Kumble (Royal Challengers Bangalore) was declared the man of the match of IPL 2 final for his wonderful figures 4-0-16-4
(Read as Overs - Maidens - Runs - Wicket). Kings XI Punjab got the fair play award.

That was a wonderful experience in watching IPL 2. Expecting more interesting games in the upcoming T20 World Cup that is to be
held at England.

Mother's Day

2009-05-09T14:23:00.003+05:30

This year (2009) Mother's day is on May 10. Usually 2nd sunday in the month of May is celebrated as Mother's day. Staunch Indian People may comment that this kind of celebrations is an impact of westernization. According to me there is nothing like that. Mother has given birth to us. She has been our teacher in our initial stages. She has taught us to walk, to run, to speak and what not! So when there is an occasion to thank her, do it. Do not miss it.

Again don't mistake me that I am restraining the love to a single day. We can and we must thank her for ever. For people who have failed to do that, let this be a start.

Our spiritual books have mentioned, that an Indian child encounters 5 mothers in its lifetime.

1. DEha mAthA - One who has given birth to us
2. bhoo mAthA - The mother Earth who sustains us
3. gO mAthA - The mother cow who has been nourishing us all these days
4. vEda mAthA - The mother of all vEdAs which has picked us an identity among rest of the world.
5. dEsa mAthA - Our motherland where we have been living so far.

So every one should take care of these mAthAs and they will in turn take care of us.

There is a shlOkA in our ancient texts:

gAyatrI tulasI gangAm kAmadhEnum arundhatheem |
pancha mAthu smarEn nityam mahA pAtaka nAsanam ||

This means, remembering the 5 mAthAs - gAyatri, tulasi, gangA, kAmadhenu, arundhathee daily will slay all our sins.

Thus is the greatness of a mother.

A trip to Tiruvallur

2009-05-04T12:01:00.003+05:30

It was on May 1 2009. We were sitting at our home. Time was around 9 AM in the morning. That day being "May day", we were planning for some outing. The discussion was started with a suggestion, "shall we go for a movie tomorrow?". I had been fed up with now a days movies. I said, "Movie.. Movie... Movie.... Always Movie?? Try for something different!". Immediate response was "Where?". I said "a temple". Another member of our family said, "I had never been to Madhuranthakam. Shall we go to the yEri Kaatha Raamar temple?". At the same time I added, "Any where.. either to Madhuranthakam or to Tiruvallur.. Any place Ok for me.". After taking into considerations the distance etc.., we came to a final conclusion that we shall go to Tiruvallur. We arranged a taxi and started to that place by 4:15 PM.

It was nearly a one and half hour journey. We went via Guindy - Porur - Thirumizhisai and reached our destination Tiruvallur. It was a nice town. We entered "Kanakavalli sametha Vaidya Veeraraghava perumal" temple. Sri Aanjaneyar was welcoming the crowd from his sannidhi located at the very entrance of the temple. In front of aanjaneyar sannidhi was the mantapam, holding the gopuram. On that day there was some procession I guess. I could see the hanumantha vaahanam near the main entrance. The priests were preparing for another procession on the anna pakshi (swan) vahanam and of course there was the garudan (vahanam of Vishnu).

To the left of the temple was the big holy tank - "Hruth thaaba pushkarani" that cures all illness and anxiety. It was a majestic tank. Very huge in size of course. But the water content was very very less. Of the large area, only at the center near the neer aazhi mandapam (hall in the middle of the pond), there was water. Remaining portions were full of sand and the corners were converted into a park with beautiful flowers and small benches made out of stone to sit.

Surrounding the temple, there were large number of shops selling flowers, betel leaves, photos of the deity, salt etc. People have the practice of offering salt to the deity to cure their illness and grant happiness. An area near the dwijastambam has been allocated for the same. I have also heard of people dissolving jaggery in the pond in earlier days as an offering. But now I could seldom see that.

We entered the temple. We were directed to the sanctum sanctorum of Sree Vaidya Veeraraghava Perumal. Perumal here lies on his serpent bed - Sri Aadhi Sesha. Sri Devi sits by the side of his feet and Saint Markandeya sits near his head. Veeraraghava Perumal's right hand is touching the saint's head. Veeraraghava was so large in size, that one cannot have his full darshan at one shot. While entering we need to have a look on his upper half (from his face) and while leaving we need to see the remaining half (from his feet).

We moved out of his sannidhi and circumnavigated the temple in clock wise direction. There came the Kanakavalli thaayar sannidhi. Had a good darshan of thaayar and the priest offered us the kunkuma prasadham.

On the way we saw Sri Ramar sannidhi. Here Rama was accompanied by Sita and Lakshman alone. Hanuman was missing. Perhaps he must have went out and sat at the entrance, welcoming the devotees.Then came the sannidhi of Sri Venugopala, flanked on both sides by Rukmini and Sathyabama. After having the darshan of Sri Venugopala, we had darshan of great poets, saints - Sri Ramanujar, Sri Vedanta Desikar and few more.

Went out of the temple with a sense of satisfaction and got into our car. On the way the driver said, "In the morning also I had been to a Perumal temple." I asked where he had been in the morning. The answer was "Madhuranthakam yEri Kattha Ramar temple!". I smiled silently and we reached our home.

Softsmith Webinars for May 2009

2009-04-29T09:22:00.004+05:30

For the month of May 2009, Softsmith has launched the following courses:

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2) Load Runner Basics
3) Report Writing - Crystal Reports
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8) Biztalk Server Basics
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Softsmith Free Webinars - Apr 2009

2009-04-18T16:40:00.002+05:30

Chennai based Softsmith Infotech has been offering service to the society by means of webinars. So far they have conducted webinars on C, C++, Java, .NET (C# as well as VB), Manual Testing, WinRunner, LoadRunner, QTP, QC, Silk Test, CMMi, ISO, Finance, Shares, Insurance, Logistics and more. Visit their website www.softsmith.com for more details.

For the month of April they have scheduled the following courses.
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Upendran's Upanayanam

2009-04-17T09:39:00.002+05:30

Upendran - Younger brother of Indran. He is none other than Vaamanan. Yes. One of the 10 avatars of Sri Maha vishnu. Why do I say him as the younger brother of Indran? Because, Vaamanan was born as the second son to Kashyapa Muni - Athithi couple.

Of the 10 popular avatars of Sri Maha Vishnu, it is in the Vaamana avatar, Vishnu manifests him as a brahmin boy and Upanayanam has been conducted for him. The upanayana brahmmopadesam of Sri Vaamana moorthi is well said in Sri Madh Bhagawatham.

The great ascetics and others who saw Vaamana moorthi in his upanayana ceremony, floated in the ocean of joy. Prajaapati was the head priest for the function. Surya, the sun god, performed the MantrOpadesam (chanting the Gayatri Mantra in the ears of Vaamana moorthi). Deva guru Brihaspathi gave the Brahmma Soothiram. His father Kashyapar gave the hip belt - Mekhala. Bhooma Devi, the goddess of the Earth offered the Deer skin which is considered to be a symbol of purity. Soma deva gave the Palaasa Dhandam, a stick to be held in the hand. Vaamana's mother Athithi gave the kowbeena vastram (cloth to wear). The lord of the Universe, Sri Parameswara offered an umbrella and Brahmma gifted the kamandalam or a stick that is used to support hands while doing Japam.

The seven rishis (Gritsamada, Vishvamitra, Vamadeva, Atri, Angirasa, Bharadvaja, Vasishta) gave the dharbai (a grass that is used for sacrifices or ceremonies) and Goddess Saraswathi gave the Japa mala (Garland used to keep track the number of times a mantra has been chanted). Kuberan, the lord of wealth presented a vessel (Biksha Paathiram) in which the great mother Uma devi offered rice.

So every person to who this Upanayana Brahmmopadesam is performed, acquires the status of Vaamana moorthi and the people involved in the above activities during the ceremony is transformed to the roles mentioned above. Such a sanctity is embedded in such functions. Hence let us not degrade ourselves by talking unnecessary things or passing mundane comments about the rituals and vain our lives. Do every thing with uttermost sincerity.

Lalgudi - Thiru Thava Thurai

2009-04-15T14:39:00.002+05:30

Lalgudi - the place well known for the great violin maestro Shri G.Jayaraman is also a popular shiva kshetra. The name for this kshetra is thirutthavatthurai.

The presiding deity is Lord Shiva - known by the name saptharhisheeshwarar or the lord of the seven saints. In Tamil, the deity is given the name Thiruththavanathar. The ambal of the temple is called by name "Srimathi" or Thirupperumpiraatti. The pushkarani or holy tank is Shiva Gangai.

This tank is said to have cured the illness (leprosy) of the group of people affected by a curse. The people of the Mazhava nadu along with their king were affected by the disease and upon the instruction from their guru, they took a dip in the sivagangai and got cured of their illness.

Lalgudi is on the state highway (Trichy - Chennai). We can also reach Lalgudi by train (Pallavan, Vaigai, Rockfort and many trains starting from Chennai Egmore and reaching Trichy).

A very pleasant and enjoyable place with lot of green fields, Lalgudi need to be visited once in our life time.

Humanity and Divinity

2009-03-02T17:03:00.002+05:30

The advaitaa philosophy stresses a lot on the fact that both ParamAtmA and JeevAtmA are one and the same. Though the two remain physically separated, at a particular point of time, JeevAtmA will merge with the paramAtmA. This was said by the divine Adhi Shankara BhagavathpAdhAL.

Even the vEdAs say the same. Rig vEdA says - "PragyAnam Brahmma" (Pure knowledge is God) and its the pure knowledge that resides in the AtmA. Yajur vEdA says - "Aham BrahmmAsmi" (I am the God and God is me). SAma vEdA says - "tat tvam asi" (Thou art that) and the Atharva vEda says - "AyamAtmA Brahmmam" (My soul is God). If one starts to think this way, he will never be tempted to do blunders or even a mean mistake. He will follow the straight path. His mind will be set broad.

Lord KrishnA says in GitA, "He who sees all things in me and me in all things, will never be separated from me nor do I get separated from him".

So make a note that God resides in yourself and you are God's form or incarnation. Love All, Serve All. Help Ever and Hurt Never. This is one of the philosophy of Saint Vallalar too. His mission was to spread Jeeva kaarunyam and Divinity comes in the place where there is abundance of Love.

Love is God and God is Love.

Leave aside the mediocre desires. You will become God. The equations to be kept in mind is:

God = Human - Desires
God = Human + Love

EGO or ahankAram

2009-02-07T10:34:00.002+05:30

Ego is the worst foe for a human. A man fails in his life if he has even the slightest tint of ego in him.

There may be several reasons for a man to be affected by the disease called EGO. His scholastic nature, money, power and many more. But one day or the other the stimulus for his ego will be deprived from him.

A man thinks that these things (money, power, knowledge) will be with him forever. The truth is that, these elements will be with him as long as he is free from ego. The moment he starts thinking "I have lot of money. I am powerful. I am a wise man.." and so on, those things will start moving away from him and will gradually fade with the passage of time.

He will no longer be rich, wise and powerful.

So what one need to do is, shed off the feeling "I", "Mine". Submit all the happenings whether good or bad at the lotus feet of lord. He will take care of us.

Bhagawan Sri Krishna, says in Bhagavad Gita - "Kadamaiyai Sei! Palanai Yedhir Paaraathey!!"

Sir Aadhi Sankara Bhagawad PadA says in his Bhaja Govindam - "
Maa guru dhana gana yauvana garvam
harathi nimEshAth kAla sarvam
Maayaam mayam itham akhilam hitwaa
Brahmma padam thwam pravisha vidhithvA
", which means - the pride and ego one gets as a result of his affluence in wealth, knowledge, power will be vanishing. They are temporal things. Time will wash away them and make the place clean without any traces of these elements. Only the feet of Brahmman is permanent.

-- Compiled from speeches of various Mahatmas.

Aruna Sairam's concert at Mylapore Fine Arts

2008-12-31T16:46:00.000+05:30

I started from my office by 5:30 PM on December 30, 2008 and took an auto to my relative's home, who had promised me to give me a ticket for Aruna Sairam's concert at Mylapore Fine Arts Club. I should thank my relative for being so generous to offer me a ticket for the carnatic music Rajni Kant's (?!) concert. Wondering why do I make such a comparison? Well there is a story behind this.

It was on December 27, morning at 8:45 AM. I went to The Music Academy for getting ticket for the evening concert which was none other than our super star Aruna Sairam. The ticket selling was started by 8:30 AM and with in 15 minutes all were sold out. Not even a balcony or LCD hall ticket was spared. I inquired an officer there why did it all happened? The answer was, today is like a Rajni Kant's movie release. Getting a ticket is not so easy.

Agreed? Can you understand why I did this comparison? Well. We shall continue our musical journey.

After getting a ticket from my relative, I went to the sabha, by walk, crossing all the traffic jams of the alwarpet junction. I crossed St.Isabels' hospital and the venue of the evening concert came. After getting my ticket punched, I entered the hall. Of course this place was not like the new sabhas with air conditioning etc. It was an age old building with false ceilings newly laid. I was sweating even in a margazhi eve. But these and all are secondary. I am going to experience a divine music in few minutes.

Well the curtains were unveiled. The star of the day, Smt Aruna greeted the audience with a traditional "NamaskAram". Sri B.V.Raghavendra Rao was on the violin, Sri Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan was on the mridangam and Dr.S.Karthick was on the ghatam.

A short alapana in the raga bhairavi followed by the ever green ata taala varnam viribhoni welcomed the divine evening. The varnam was singed in both first and second speed. While singing in the second speed, one could very well notice Aruna's style (biting and opening words or the swaras). Its her own style as that of Rajnikant's.

Tamil date for 30-12-2008 is 15-Margazhi-5109 Kali Era. 15th song in the Tiruppavai is Elle ilan kiliye. The song was rendered in the raga begada. The natural majesticity of the raga was very well maintained.

The third was the soulful kalyani. A worthy alapana and then GNB fame Vasudevayeni. Kalpana swarams for the song cant be described. So much of depth and dhuritham (fast notes). There is a phrase in Tamil - Anal parakkum - the swaras literally sparkled like diwali crackers(matthappu).

Then came the beautiful Saveri. The artiste started with a viruttham NaaL yen seiiyum and proceeded towards Muruga Muruga of Periyasamy Thooran. Misra chapu tala added beauty to the song. I dont know why, whenever I listen or sing a song set to misra chapu tala, I feel like swaying, sitting on a jhoola.
The tala contains the aksharams - Tha ki ta tha ka dhi mi (7 aksharams). Of these the first 3 (tha ki ta) is the effort spent by us for getting the speed. i.e placing our foot on the ground and rubbing. The next four (tha ka dhi mi) is the swing that we get after releasing our feet from the ground. This cycle continues and so does the song.

The next in the list was a refreshing hindolam. Aruna sang, Nambi kettavar, a composition of Papanasam sivan. The song was apt for the place as its Mylapore Fine arts and the song was on Thirumayilaiyin Iraivan - Kapaleeswaran.

Aruna has sung an ashta ragamalika (song with 8 ragas) in few of her concerts. In that, the raga keeravani was described as "suddha mei gnanam tharum keervani thaye" (keeravani will refresh one's mind and grant pure knowledge). The keeravani that she sang in the concert was no exception to this statement. The raga was so pure and orthodox. Aruna chose Kaligiyunte of Tyagaraja for the day. Niraval was placed at Baaguga sree ragu in the charanam. The swaras were as usual, rocking!

It will be a blunder, if I fail to mention about the tani avartanam. The tani by Karthick and Vaidyanathan was "THE BEST" that I had heard so far during this season. The same vaidyanathan, when I heard him playing for Unni Krishnan, the previous day in Margazhi Maha Utsavam, was not so appealing. But all of a sudden, in Aruna's concert, he was at his best. Both the percussionists played with their instruments. They tried to bring out impossible jathis, from low decibel to high decibel, but since Isabel hospital was nearer, the silence was broken by the ambulances. Minor disturbances arised due to problems in car parking. Despite of those disturbances, I could experience the divinity of the music.

Then came the majestic Kambodhi raga. The alapana lasted for 15 minutes. Predominant swaras were Ma Ga Pa Da Sa, Da Sa Ri, Pa Da Sa... That was followed by a rhythmic taanam. Along with the percussion instruments, the singer beautifully rendered the taanam. Not many will give a rhythmic taanam and Aruna is an adept in it.

The pallavi was - kaana kan kodi vendum vinnuyar gopuram thillayil. This was a mix of Papanasam Sivan's kambodhi raga song kana kankodi vendum kapaliyin bavani and Gopalakrishna Bharathi's kaanavendamo iru kann irukkum podhey vinnuyar gopuram.

The RTP was based on Nandanar Charitham.

The swaras in the ragam kambodhi needs a special appreciation. The singer sung the swaras in tisra nadai (three swaras per beat) and chatusra nadai (four swaras per beat) in an alternating fashion. The tala was adi tala (4 + 4 aksharams). First 4 were in tisram and the next 4 were in chatusram and it kept on alternating. The violinist too responded very nicely and in addition to the two nadais, he completed with a khanda nadai (5 swaras per beat).

Then came the ragamalika swaras. The first was mayamalavagowlai and Aruna hinted that by rendering Sivaloka nadhanai kandu song. The second raga was sriranjani and aruna sung, kaan vendamo. The third was nattakurinji and the song she sung was maraithirukkudhe maadu. The fourth raga was poorvikalyani and the song was sattre vilagi irum pillaai. Next was a short pallavi line in the raga subhapantuvarali and then she sang the full song - varugalamo in the raga maanji, quickly. Once the slow maanji was over, than came the swift kambhoji raga swaras and she returned back to the pallavi. There was a mini tani avartanam for 2 minutes.

Nandanar wanted to see the deity Nataraja in chidambaram temple and he went there. But the Nandi was obstructing his view of the deity. So he complained to the lord about this. The graceful lord, asked his Nandi to move slightly so that Nandanar could see easily. The Nandi obliged it's master's order and once Nandanar saw the deity he asks for attaining salvation, by singing Varugalamo.This theme was explained by the artiste at the end of the lengthy RTP.

That was a very wonderful, thought provoking and divine concert that I heard during this margazhi. Expecting to hear more and more concerts like this from the artiste in the coming years too.

Bombay Jayashree's concert at Music Academy

2008-12-29T12:58:00.000+05:30

Followed by Nithyasree's concert, I went to Bombay Jayashree's concert on 26-December-2008 at The Music Academy, Madras. The concert was at 4:15 PM.

Even for this concert, getting a ticket is a marathon job. When I went to get the ticket at around 9 AM in the morning, all were sold out and the seats at LCD hall (Mini hall) started filling. Luckily there were some 5 tickets for Dais and I got one.

I was waiting in the queue near the dais entrance with lot of eagerness. I was sided by two old ladies who never stopped talking about the jewellery worn by artistes and the crowd for the concert and many more worldly affairs.I was praying to God that I should get a place in the stage without any hinderance from these kind of people. God answered my prayers. I got a place in the second row, from where I could see all the performing artistes.

The concert started with a calm nattai raaga alapana that was followed by Saraseeruhasana priye. The song was so serene and calm. Kalpana swaras were also highly commendable.

Then was the attractive nayaki. The raga, by nature, will be smooth. And when heard in her voice, it was smoother even. Jayashree's rendition of Nee bhajana gaana needs special appreciation.

Then was the master piece of that concert - Sree Balasubramanya in the raga Bilahari of Muthuswami Dikshithar. I had heard, Bilahari as a roaring lion. But Jayashree gave a new face to it. It was like a motherly lion with grace and majesticity. She placed the niraval at the charanam - kanaka valli devaseno. I was expecting kalpana swarams there. But she didnt. I thought there wont be kalpana swarams for this song today. No sooner did I thought than came the garland of swaras based on the pallavi sree balasubramanya.

This song was on the swamimalai (near Kumbakonam - my place of birth) swaminatha swamy I guess. The charanam had the lines swami shaila.. Also this kriti had mine and my sister's name. In the anupallavi, there were phrases Dheena sharanya and Prakasa Lavanya. One more kriti of Dikshithar Sree Subramanyaya Namasthe in the raagaa kaambodhi will also have such phrases.

Then was the gana ragA GaanaMoorthi and the song was of course Tyagaraja's gem - Gaanamoorthe. When Jayashree was about to finish the song, she rendered the words Gaanamoorthe which appeared to me like Gaanam oorudhe (Tamil words - Meaning - The music is getting soaked in oneself).

Then was the kharaharapriya raga alapana. It was handled traditionally but at the same time innovatively. The sahitya was the sweet - Raama Nee samaanam yevaru. The neraval at the charanam - Paluku paluku laku thEnE was so sweet like the honey (thEn!)

Ranjani is absolutely a challenging raga. But when handled properly it will melt the listener's heart. The result of the melting would be nectar. That happened during Jayashree's rendition of Ranjani raga ragam taanam pallavi.

Raagam was in pure ranjani. Tanam had a 3 storeyed structure comprising of Ranjani, Begada and Hindolam. Then came the pallavi on lord Muruga. It was set to Khanda jaathi triputa taalam in chatusra nadai. The ragamalika swaramin 7 ragas was a real garland. Ranjani, Begada, Hindolam, Hamsanadham, Janasammodhini, Charukesi, Kapi were wonderful and showed how strong was Jayashree in Ragam and Taalam. The kalpana swarams were really a feast for the listeners.

Then was the viruttham in the raga behag followed by Velane sivabalane. It was rendered with utmost bhakthi.

Then came a Jayadevar's ashtapathi in the raga karnaranjani. The composer has written with a sincerity and so did the singer sung that song.

The penultimate item was a tillana, written by Lalgudi Sri Jayaraman, in the raaga vaasanthi. I am happy that I was able to find that raga in the very start itself. Many were asking what that raga was.

The concert was concluded with the traditional nee naama rupamulanu nithya jaya mangalam in the raga sourashtram.

The concert was superb on the whole. But Jayashree could have announced the rare ragas once it was over as it could have avoided the unnecessary murmurings every now and then a rare raga was sung. Hope the artiste will do that from her next concert onwards.

Nithyasree's concert at Music Academy

2008-12-29T10:49:00.001+05:30

I had been to Nithyasree's concert at The Music Academy, Madras, on December 25,2008. It was a holiday for me as the day was XMas day.

After having a fine evening tiffen, I went to the academy nearly at 3:45 PM, half an hour before the start of the concert. There was a huge crowd and it was well organised as a long line.

Before describing about the concert, let me tell you the story how I got the ticket. It was about 8 AM in the morning. After completing my music class, I took an auto to the academy. There was again a big crowd for getting ticket. I approached the counter. They asked me to get a token first for getting the ticket. So I went to the token issuing person and got a token, specifying the ticket rate (balcony) and number of tickets needed. He wrote the same in a paper and gave a number for me. It was 83!

Then I was waiting in a chair, similar to the one that will be at hospitals for visiting a doctor or at the collector office for meeting a collector. I was waiting for my number to be called. 56, 57... 75..79.. 81,82..... 83. Yeah! It was my turn to get the ticket. I got the ticket.

With a sense of satisfaction of having achieved something, I went to home.

Now the time is 4:00 PM. I am waiting to enter the hall in the steps that proceed towards the main hall balcony. This reminded me of waiting in the queue at Tirupathi for getting the darshan of swami venkateswara. Finally after a long 30 mins waiting, I entered the hall and got myself seated at a comfortable place.

The time is 4:15 PM. I am eagerly waiting for the curtain to be raised. Two bells rang. Wow, the curtain raised and the artiste greeted the gathering and signed on for a wonderful start of the divine concert. Darbar raga adi tala varnam, kick started the concert. It was a good starter (like a hot vegetable soup). Then followed Tyagaraja's Nee daya radha in the raaga vasantha bhairavi. It made the environment lively. The fast kalpana swaras were superb. It was like popping up cheese balls during a dinner.

Then started the sunadhavinodhini raga alapana. I was a bit proud that I was able to identify the raga on hearing the very first line, when others were struggling for it. It took of very well and Nithyasree handled the raga very efficiently. Why because is the raga's structure is like S G M D N S - S N D M G S. If by mistake R (Rishabam) comes, it will turn to hamsanandhi. Such a delicate ragam is sunadha vinodhini. The song she sung was Mysore Vasudevacharyar's composition Devadi Deva. The kalpana swaras can be compared to an avalanche of electrons that will come from a laser beam.

Then was the Nattakurinji raga song Karunai Purindhu. This time, the raga was so soft, in contrast to Muruga that she sang in Jaya TV Margazhi Maha utsavam. May be since this song started with the word Karunai (grace) it was so soft, and the song Muruga, since it was Bharathi's song, It was majestic. In the song Karunai Purindhu, the words and the beats went hand by hand.

Then came the famous, Tyagaraja yoga vaibhavam in the raga Ananda bhairavi. No body can beat her grand mother smt DKP in Dkshithar kritis. And here too the same. Each and every syllable was perfect. One need to note the science embedded in the kriti. The concept of differentiation (Big to Small) and integration (Small to big) can be observed in this kriti.

Differentiation in the pallavi - Tyagaraja yoga vaibhavam - agaraja yoga vaibhavam - raja yoga vaibhavam - yoga vaibhavam - vaibhavam - bhavam - vam.

Integration in the charanam - Prakasam - Thathva swaroopa Prakasam - sakala thathva svaroopa prakasam - siva sakthyathi sakala thathva svaroopa prakasam.

The raga mudra and the sahitya kara mudra is given in such a nice way by dikshithar. He describes, Tyagaraja as Sri Guruguha gurum sachidhanandhabhairaveesam. A nice kriti.

Then came the majestic Kambodhi ragam. Nithyasree sang, Sri Raguvara. The rendition of swaras for each and every line of charanams was quite innovative. Aalapana was studded with phrases - P D S - P D S R - P D S R G and so on. The violinist Sri M.A.Krishnaswamy replied for those phrases with GNB Style of swaras - P D S - D S R - S R G - R G P and it was "sabaash sariyana pOtti". For this song, Nithyasree gave tani avartanam. It was a real laya sancharam.

Then was the beautiful Karnaranjani. Nithyasree sang an RTP (Ragam Tanam Pallavi) in this raga. It was a wonderful RTP. Pallavi was about sri Maha vishnu. It was set to the talam Thisra jaathi Jampha taalam in sankeerna nadai. This pallavi educated me about the combinations of taalas and nadais. Here every beat should contain 9 sub beats and there should be 6 beats per aavartanam. That is 123 1 12 is the form of the taalam. Each and every aksharam was crystal clear and I could see that sitting from the last row of balcony.

The pallavai was followed by ragamalika swaras consisting of 16 ragas excluding Karna ranjani. Bhoopalam, Kaanadaa, Jaganmohini, Ataanaa, Amruthavarshini, Nalinakaanthi, Neelaambari, Kalyanavasantham, suddha saranga, Janasammodhini, madhuvanthi, naattai, Gowlai, aarabhi, varaali, sree and then back to karna ranjani. It was a 16 storeyed building built out of 16 ragas.

Then was the sidhubhairavi raga viruttham followed by a song - Adi deva paramathma, about Lord Venkateswara of Tirupathi.

Then was her fame - Kandha nee oru malaivasi in the raga - Ahirbhairavi. It was simply superb.

Then came the swift, valaji raga tillana. Nithyasree stressed twice on the raga mudra "valarseela migu pazhani...". I dont know how many would have noted it.

The whole concert was maintained in the same pace. The open throated singing of Nithyasree added beauty to the concert. Every swara was clear and so the words too.

Ranjani & Gayathri concert in Jaya TV

2008-12-24T13:50:00.000+05:30

Sisters will always make anything in this world enjoyable. I do have a sister. When I am with her, I will enjoy my life to the core.

This is applicable to Carnatic Music too. Bombay Sisters, Priya Sisters, Chinmaya Sisters, Hyderabad Sisters and the list goes.

The vocal concert of Ranjani and Gayathri is no where exception to the fact. It was a lovely concert.

This was telecasted on 17-12-2008. The theme of the concert is Hari smaranam.

The first song was well settled Nayaki raga kriti of Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar, Ranganayakam bhaavaye. Each and every phrase of the kriti was rendered with utmost sincerity. Both their voices were in unison. Absolute tonal perfection can be observed.

The next song was Pankaja lochana in the raga kalyani. This was elaborated nicely. Gayathri's alapana needs a big appreciation. The raga bhaavaa was completely delivered and it reached the listeners in its full form.

Then came a Tamil virutham that was set to ragamalika, comprising of Shanmukapriya, Mohanam and Hamsanandhi
On that very day, in the morning, I read a review of a concert by a critic. In that he mentioned about few people pronuncing sa in Tamil as sha and Tamil language has no sha kind of thing. I could observe that in the sister's rendition.

Srinivasa thiruvenkata followed the viruttham.

Then was the song depicting the theme. Hari smarane mado in the raga yaman kalyani was highly commendable.

Then came their trade mark, Bholo vittal - Abhang based on chakravagam ragam. That song added divinity to the concert. Especially the rendition of Vittal vittal in a swift manner by Ranjani and Vittalaa like a raga alaapana by Gayathri was a good mix indeed.

To sum up, the concert was a nice treat to music lovers.

Kadri Gopalnath's concert in Jaya TV

2008-12-24T13:49:00.000+05:30

I heard the first concert of Margazhi Maha utsavam concert series in Jaya TV that started on 16-12-2008. That was Kadri Gopalnath's concert. Violinist was Kanyakumari. She followed each and every movement of Kadri like a shadow.

The concert started with the Brisk Bahudari raga kriti of Tulasi vanam, Bhaja Maanasa vigneshwaram anisam. The mood was set perfectly. This served as a starter for the deep bhairavi raga swarajati of sri shyama sastri. Kamakshi Amba was rendered with more attention to the raga bhavam.

Amruthavarshini was the main item. The joyous nature of the raga was very well portrayed.

The final one was the soft kapi raga song by Papanasam Sivan, Yennathavam seidhane.

All together the concert was a good start for the festive season - Isai vizha.

Mahakavi - Thematic Concert by Nithyasree

2008-12-24T12:33:00.000+05:30

I watched Nithyasree's concert in Jaya TV for Margazhi Maha Utsavam, on 22-12-2008.

It was simply superb. The theme Maha Kavi was interesting.

The first song, pozhudu pularndadhu, rendered in the form of varnam in malayamarutham ragam was very innovative. The rendition of Sa and Pa in the Chitta swaram with brihas were fantastic.

The second song vettri yettu in Mohanam is another feather on your cap, that proudly proclaims the DKP tradition.
Every single swara was crystal clear. Sa Ri | Da Sa | Paa Da Pa Gaa Ri| Sa Ri Ga Ga Paa (Vettri | Yettu | Dhikkum yetta | kottu murasE) amazing.

Then was the nattakurunji raga viruttham followed by Muruga song. It was very swift and I am sure it would have enthralled the audience. The akaarams that were used here were excellent. The different ways that you took the pallavi line Muruga (arai yedam, kaal yedam) was a real taala sanchaaram.

Then came the beautiful Kanada, my all time favourite. The song Vande Mataram Yenbom was rendered with melody and majesticity. The kalpana swaras were really soul stirring. I enjoyed a lot. The swara prayOgams Ga Ma Ri Sa in higher octaves were really excellent.

Chinnanjiru kiliye song was nice. But I felt that it could have been even more soft and could have been a little slower. I was listening to it, but suddenly the song ended.

The next song Dhikkukkal yettum about Rain in Hamsanadham was wonderful. My observation is that, only in this song, The percussion instruments took off. This doesn't mean that for the other songs they were waste, but it was nice for that song.

When compared to other concerts of Nithyasree, this concert, the strength of accompaniments was very low. Only strength was her singing. This concert turned out to be a one woman army.

The madhyamavathy song was a nice ending for the thematic concert.

Frank Speaking

2008-11-17T09:38:00.002+05:30

Frank speaking - Is it possible?

Many will say Yes. But I say its not possible. Even if we speak, we are highly prone to get more bad opinions like - he/she will not speak softly or he or she doesnot know how to speak.

Consider this case - There is a relative who use to come to your home regularly. He/she will always torture us by saying something foolish and expecting us to say he/she is a genius. If you are a frank speaking person, if you say to him/her that he/she is talking ridiculously, imagine what will happen. If the relative is an easy going person, no problem. On the other hand, if that relative is a sort of person who cant accept bad facts about him/her, you will be getting a bad name in his perspective.

The same case is with your boss or even with your friend or spouse.Frank speaking is not always 100% possible. It has its own limitations.

You can speak up openly. But the next time, you cant see the person to whom you spoke frankly, with the same comfort level that the person had with you, before you spoke.

The whole world can learn for free!

2008-10-16T13:57:00.007+05:30

Chennai based Softsmith Infotech have started an initiative to teach netizens lot of things about IT, through Webinars. The Webinar is absolutely free.

Many more courses are added.

For more details about the courses and for registering, click here

Once registered you will receive an email confirming your registration with information you need to join the Webinar.

All we need is a PC, internet connection and a headset.

In future, there will be more webinars too. dont miss this golden opportunity. Please do tell your friends.

They are offering this as a service to the society. Just wanted to share with you the benefits that I got out of these webinars.

Svanubhava

2008-07-24T14:24:00.000+05:30

To all young students of Carnatic music:

Popular vocalists Sri.T.M.Krishna and Smt.Bombay Jayashree Ramnath in association with YACM (Youth Association of Carnatic Music), Tamil Nadu Government Music College - Adyar, Kalakshetra and Music Academy - Madras are organising a 6 day workshop on carnatic music. Many popular artistes are giving concerts, lecture demonstrations, talks on Carnatic Music.

This event from Matrka (Founded by Jayashree and Krishna) will be a platform to learn more for many youths interested in music.

For more details, visit their blog -
Svanubhava

88888 Campaign

2008-07-23T16:44:00.000+05:30

This is an initiative of EXNORA, as a movement to save our Earth. The idea behind this initiative is to save electric power and there by reduce the heat generated by glowing lights.

We are contributing towards global warming in many ways. When electrical appliances are running, it generates heat. The air conditioner, computer, television, refrigerator etc., emits lot of heat while functioning. Many of us will just lock our computers in office instead of turning it off. These heat will affect the atmospheric stability and will in turn lead to global warming.

An article related to we not turning off our computers says:

More than 30 billion kilowatt-hours of energy is wasted because many of us simply forget to shut down our computers when we’re not using them. Even with a screen saver on, when you’re not using it, it’s STILL using up to 280 watts/hour of completely wasted power this power pumps out 1.5lbs of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere for every KWh. For very 24 hours that’s 9lbs of CO2 every day and 3,285lbs per year. That’s more than 1.6 tons of CO2 thrown up into the atmosphere just to keep one single PC working.

This CO2 is one of the cause for global warming. Consequence of global warming is known to us. The antarctic and arctic ocean, ices will start melting, there by affecting the lives there. This will also affect our eco system, by allowing more UV rays to enter Earth's surface which will lead to skin ailments and other health hazards.

Its our duty to save our Mother Earth. Lets join our hands together for this mission.

All we need to do is, to switch off the power to your home or office on August 8, 2008, for exactly eight minutes starting 8 p.m.

Lets all co-operate and save Earth from global warming.

For more info, visit:
88888 Campaign Website

Class room humours

2008-07-23T16:35:00.000+05:30

Humour #1

Teacher - Ramu, if you add 10,24,45,67,89,76 what will come?
Ramu - Total will come teacher.
Teacher - ??!!

Humour #2

Teacher - What is 5 + 6?
Student - 10
Teacher - How is that possible?
Student - If I add it wrongly!
Teacher - **??!!??**

Humour #3

A teacher asks a student to copy a poem of Wordsworth on the black board. The student finishes it and sits in his place. Now she asks a student who wrote it? The naughty student replies - "Anita wrote it".

Humour #4

Lecturer - What do you call a person who keeps on speaking irrespective of others listening?
Student - A Lecturer!

Humour #5

Teacher - How old is your father?
Student - As old as I am.
Teacher - How is that possible?
Student - He became father only after I was born.

The same teacher while handling class for another group of students asked the same question.

Teacher - How old is your father? Dont tell me as old as you are.
Student - No teacher. He is as old as my elder sister is.
Teacher - ??!!

More to come....

Laws for Software Engineer

2008-07-23T09:11:00.000+05:30

First Law:
Every Software Engineer continues his state of chatting or forwarding mails until and unless he is assigned work by manager.

Second Law:
The rate of change in the software quality is directly proportional to the payment received from client and the deadline time, and it takes place at the quick rate as and when deadline force is applied.

Third Law:
For every bug a software engineer fixes, there arises another bug.

Law of Conservation of Energy:
Bugs can neither be created nor be removed from software by a developer. It can only be converted from one form to another. The total number of bugs in the software always remains constant.

Speak out only good things

2008-07-23T08:59:00.000+05:30

See good things alone
Say good things alone
Hear to good things alone

Sounds to be heard some where. Well, the idol or picture of the popular 3 monkeys will depict the above sayings.

If we see good things, we will be happy. If we hear good things, then also we will be happy. But does saying good things, will make us happy? Whay not? It will.

Why to say good things alone? Here is the explanation for this.

"Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed. It can be changed from one form to another form, but the total energy of the system remains the same".

This is the popular law of conservation of energy.

Similarly, the words we utter is the sound. Sound is a form of energy. So if we say good words, the goodness will come to us in another form. If we say bad things, only bad results will come to us, not in the form of words, but as some other event. What ever we say is a sound. Going close with the law,
sound can neither be created, nor be destroyed. It can be changed from one form to another form, but the total result remains the same.

Type of Deposits

2008-07-17T10:24:00.000+05:30

There are two major type of term deposits that are normally used by people, in banks.
1. Fixed Deposit (FD)
2. Recurring Deposit (RD)

In FD, we deposit a fixed amount, for a fixed period of time, earning some interest, based on the rate declared by the bank. The amount we put is called the principal. We can either get the interest amount at the end of every month or quarter as declared by the bank or accumulate it till the end and add it with the principal and get. The latter type is called cumulative fixed deposit scheme. Once the period is over, we can take the entire amount or renew it again. i.e. put the earned amount in the same bank for some more time.

In RD, we deposit some amount (which may be fixed or variable) every month and it will keep on adding till the tenure gets over. It will also fetch some interest for the amount deposited. If the amount paid is variable, it is called Variable RD (VRD), which was started very recently by banks.

Some more saving scheme popular in India is NSC (National Saving Certificate). Here we put some amount while we start the scheme and we can close the scheme and get money only at the end of deposit period. But if we need in the middle, we can pledge the certificate and get loan from financial institutions namely banks.

Investment in Mutual funds

2008-07-15T15:57:00.000+05:30

Mutual funds are another type of investment where we can gain money. If we apply our minds and analyse and then invest, we can get maximum profits. There are two types of mutual funds, namely open ended and close ended.

Open ended funds can be closed any time we need. Close ended funds can be closed only after the stipulated time is over.

There is another type of classifying funds - sector specific, diversified.

Sector specific funds are raised to invest only in a particular sector. i.e if there is a mutual fund for the power sector, started by a company say X, the fund invested by us in that power sector mutual fund of X, will in turn be invested by X in the shares of the power sector companies like NTPC etc.

Diversified funds section of the company X will invest the funds got from its investors like us, in several segments. It is not bounded to one particular sector.

Diversified mutual funds are better than sector specific funds. The reason being, if the sector say, power is performing low, then the value of the sector specific fund will become low and it wont yield much results for us. But the diversified fund will invest in other good performing sector and will keep on earning money and there wont be much danger for our money, as optimum value will be maintained by the diversified mutual fund.

The value of a mutual fund on a particular date is called as Net Asset value (NAV). It is similar to the share price. It will be calculated based on the transaction that the company X has performed on the other companys' shares. If the shares of the company in which our company X has invested performs well, the NAVs will also be higher. Else NAVs will be lower.

Once we invest some amount in a mutual fund company X, in a particular scheme (sector specific or diversified), we will be alloted some units (similar to shares) based on the NAV at that time. For example NAV of a scheme is Rs.10, and we have invested Rs.5000, we will get 500 units. Again here also the brokerage comes. Here we call it as load (entry load - amount paid while buying and exit load - amount paid while selling). So we will get 5 or 10 units less while purchasing.

If the NAV increases, say to Rs.20, we will get profit. If it decreases, we will incur loss. This is obvious.

This mutual fund investment can be made in two ways:
1. One time investment
2. Systematic Investment Plan (SIP)

One time investment is same as share investment. SIP is like this. Every month or every quarter, we will invest some amount. Based on the NAV at that time, we will be getting permissible units. And we can close the investment any time we need if it is an open ended fund. As a result we can get some profit or loss based on the NAVs.

Investment in mutual fund is subject to risk like the share market trading.

Investment in shares

2008-07-15T15:09:00.000+05:30

In my previous post on banking, I mentioned that by depositing in bank or in shares or mutual funds, we can multiply our money. This is possible in banks, as we acquire interest for the money we deposit. But what about, shares?

Shares - This is belonging of a public limited company that we can buy by paying some amount. To be more clear, we have the money earned by us. Let us assume there is a company, whose worth is Rs.10000. The company needs Rs.5000 urgently. It can either get by borrowing from bank (called as debt financing) or from the public, by offering shares (called as equity financing). The company wishes to sell half of it to the public. So it announces 500 shares, each costing Rs.10. This is called the face value of the share. This first offering by the company is called as Initial Public Offering or IPO.

So I wish to invest my money in this IPO. I wish to invest Rs.200 in the company's shares. So I will get 20 shares. This 20 shares is 4% of the company's share. So I am one of the owner of the public limited company. My ownership percentage is 4%.

The price range of the company's share is controlled by SEBI (Security and Exchange Board of India) in India. The key index is the SENSEX that is operational at the Bombay Stock Exchange. Depending upon the buy or sell call initiated by investors on the company's share, the price will rise or fall. If the price of the share increases to Rs.15 on some other day and then, if I wish to sell my 20 shares, I can do it. There by I will get Rs.300. That is a profit of Rs.100. Thats great right?

But now a days these transactions are taken care by intermediate parties called brokers, who will buy or sell shares for us. So for every transaction we need to pay them some amount. So taking the brokerage into consideration, we need to decide on selling the share.

For example, if a broker charges 10% (10% of 300), we will get only Rs.70 as profit from the above example. Also we may need to pay the broker, some amount for buying a share. In the above case, we need to pay Rs.20 for Rs.200 to be invested in a company.

So actual profit will be Rs.50.

Cost of share - 200
Borkerage - 20
Total (from our hand) - 220

Sold for - 300
Brokerage - 30
Total (received by us)- 270

Net profit = 270 - 220 = 50

If I had sold the share when its price has been Rs.20, I would have got an amount of Rs.400. Subtracting brokerage of Rs.40, There would be a profit of (360 - 220 = 140).

Also we will get some amount as dividend from the company. Suppose the company records a profit of Rs. 1000, this amount is divided based on the proportion of shares held by the investors and given to them. The company will declare that it will give some amount for each share held by the investor. For example, if it says that it will give Rs.1 for each share held, I will get Rs.20 as dividend in this case.

Thus we can earn in share market.

The difference between share market and bank is the steady return. We can get fixed amount as interest from bank. If a bank says 8% per annum as interest, I will get Rs.8 as interest if I had deposited Rs.100, at the end of one year. So I will have Rs.108/-. This will be steady.

But in share market, I may get profit if the company performs well. If it under performs, I have the risk of losing the money that I had invested. In the same example, if the price of the company's share falls to Rs.8, The value that I may get on selling is (20 x 8 = 160). Brokerage will be Rs.16. So Net amount that I will get is Rs.148. But I have invested Rs.220 (including brokerage). So I am reporting a loss of (220 - 148 = 72).

This is a speculation. We need to take risk and multiplying money needs lot of analysis.

Banking Fundamentals

2008-07-15T14:22:00.000+05:30

What to do with the money earned? How to invest it? Why should I invest my money?

These are the questions that will come up in our mind when we start to earn money. We can spend the money that we earn or we can save it. But for saving it, do we need to keep it in a secure box? "Secure" means, to what extent? So goes the question. If we keep the money in a box, what happens if any thing happens to the box, like box catching fire or attacked by rats or stolen by thieves? So to avoid these situations we need to invest our money in some financial organisations like Banks, Mutual funds.

The advantage behind investing our money is that, it will multiply. We will acquire interest for the money invested. Sounds good right? Yes. But how are the banks managing to give interest or extra money for our money? Do they have any tree that will yield money?

The banks will circulate the money invested by depositors to other people, called as borrowers who need money in the form of loan. For this loan, they will charge interest. That is, if they give Rs.100 as loan to the borrower, they will collect Rs.110 from them. This means that the bank has charged 10% interest. So for the investor, they will give 7% interest, i.e 7 rupees for every 100 rupees they deposit. The remaining 3% is the profit they earn. These will amount to huge figures when transaction happens at levels of thousands or lakhs or crores.

The banks are controlled by government agency. So they cant escape away with our money. It is the safest place to keep our money.

Also we can take our money any time we need, from the bank.

So, all those who have started to earn, dont keep your money idle. Deposit them in bank or do some investment in shares or mutual funds or bonds. This will strengthen our economy.

Need for declaring public offers or shares by a company

2008-07-11T16:59:00.000+05:30

"Share" - This has been a buzz word with many people for the past 15 years or so. What is this share? Why do companies offer share?

Share or stock as called popularly is a share in the ownership of a company (its assets). This means, "one who holds stock of a company is one among the others owners who are owning shares or stocks of the company".

Obviously, the owners should also get proportionately, the profits that the company makes. Yes, this is given in the form of dividends. This can be compared to the interest that a depositor gets when he invests some amount in a financial organisation.

Why do the companies offer shares?

Well, the company requires money to run its operation. There are many ways a company will get money. Either through its earnings by the sale of its products or service or by getting loan from bank or by getting money from the public.

Getting loan from banks is called as debt financing.

Getting money from public is called as equity financing.

But will the public give money without getting or expecting anything in return? The answer is a clear NO. So as a reward, the company offers ownership to all who had come forward to offer money. The degree of ownership offered to a person or even another company is directly proportional to the amount invested by the investor.

It is important that the distinction between a company financing through debt and financing through equity is well understood.
When we buy a debt investment such as a bond, we are guaranteed the return of our money (the principal) along with promised interest payments.

This isn't the case with an equity investment.
By becoming an owner, we also need to accept the risk of the company not being successful.
Shareholders earn a lot if a company is successful, but they also stand to lose their entire investment if the company isn't successful.

Three important ratios in share market

2008-07-11T16:35:00.000+05:30

There are three important ratios for assessing a company's share, whether we can buy or not. They are:

1. Earnings per share (EPS)
2. Price to Earning ratio (P/E)
3. Price to future growth ratio (PEG)

1. Earnings per share (EPS)

EPS = (Net income of the company - dividend declared) / No of shares
where
Dividend declared = Amount declared as dividend by the company
No of shares = Average outstanding shares.. i.e if the company has 10 billion shares in first half of the year and if it has 15 billion shares in the second half of the year, we need to take average number of shares as 12.5 billion.

Three types of EPS -
Trailing EPS - Company's last year's number.
Current EPS - Company's this year's number. But are still projections.
Forward EPS - Future projections of the company's number.

2. Price to Earning ratio (P/E)

P/E = Stock Price / EPS

If P/E is high, that stock is called an over priced stock.
If P/E is low, then that stock loses the confidence among the investors.

P/E tells us, what the market thinks of a stock.

3. Price to future growth ratio (PEG)

PEG = (P/E) / (projected growth in earnings)

A stock with low projected growth in earnings has a high PEG ratio. So its not a good stock. But a stock with higher projected growth will have lower PEG. So we are in favour of low PEG numbers. This ratio helps us in deciding our stand for a public issue.

All these ratios are theoritical one. These can serve its purpose to some extent. But share market is subject to people's mind set. Its all completely in the hands of the investors to bring the share prices up or to pull it down. For example if all investors start selling a share as it has reached a price level where they can get a good amount of profit, eventually the price will come down. On the other hand, if the investors start buying a company's shares as it got quoted very low, but future projections has been very good, then the price of the shares will increase.

These ratios can be used to take the initial decision.

Why Rama seeked the help of monkeys during his search for Sita?

2008-04-24T15:57:00.001+05:30

King Ambareesh was the ruler of Sripuram. He had a beautiful daughter, Srimathi. He wished to get her married to anyone of her wish. Srimathi prayed to Lord Vishnu to marry her.

The king announced the date for swayamvara ceremony (ceremony that allows a bride to choose her groom).

Saint Narada and one other saint (name not sure) were also tempted by the announcement. Both went in person to Maha Vishnu and seeked his blessings. But both were unaware of the other's visit to Vaikuntam (the holy abode of vishnu). They prayed to Vishnu for his blessings and also asked the other person's face to get changed to a monkey's face at the time of swayamvara. Vishnu granted the boons to them.

The swayamvara started. Both Narada and the other person's face transformed to a monkey face. Srimathi saw Lord Vishnu at the swayamvara and selected Him as her husband. The marriage ceremony was over. Vishnu granted salvation to the devotee Srimathi. Both the saints were having grudge on Vishnu as he failed their attempts. They went to Vaikuntam and cursed Vishnu that one day or the other, He will suffer from the separation from His wife and will need to seek the help of monkeys.

Vishnu told them why he did like that. He said to them that being a saint, they should not get desires like marrying. He transformed their face to make them realise its wrong on their part to get married.

The saints realised their mistakes and told Vishnu that they had cursed him and it is impossible to get that curse back. Vishnu said, "Let it be one of the reason for the rAmA avatAr".

Srirangam

2008-04-11T14:05:00.000+05:30

This is the first among the 108 divya dEsams or sacred temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The shrines here are Sri RanganAtha, Ranga nAchiyAr or AranganAyaki thaayaar and Andal nAchiyAr. The history of srirangam was given by me in my earlier blog dedicated to Uchi pillayar temple

Out of the 12 AzhwArs (poigaiAzhwAr, boodhathAzhwAr, pEyAzhwAr, periyAzhwAr, tondaradipodiAzhwar, nammAzhwAr, AndAL, kulasEkarAzhwAr, thirumangaiAzhwAr, madhurakavi AzhwAr, thiruppanAzhwAr, thirumazhisaiAzhwAr), 11 (except madhurakavi AzhwAr) have sung pAsurams on this temple. Saint TyAgaraja has sung the sriranga pacharatna (collection of 5 songs) and Muthuswamy dikshithar has song another 5 songs on various deities over here.

This ksetrA is described as bhoolokha vaikundam. Saint tyagaraja has mentioned this in his kamboji raga composition O ranga Sayee. In his todi composition raju vedala juda murare, he has mentioned about the purity and divinity of the river kAvEri.

Dikshithar has mentioned the structure of the vimanam in the song RanganAyakam in the rAga nAyaki as "pranavAkAra divya vimAnam". He has also sung on the mEla pattAbhirama present in the west side of the temple in his brindAvana sArangA song - sri rangapura vihArA.

Tanjore Ponnaiyah pillai has also composed a song - RanganathudE in the rAga sourashtram.

There are 7 prakArAs in the temple. The name of the seven prakArAs are given below:
1. Garbagriha
2. Trivikrama chozhan suttru
3. Kili chozhan suttru
4. Thirumangai aazhwar suttru
5. Kulasekara aazhwar suttru
6. Rajamahendra chozhan suttru
7. Dharmavarma chozhan suttru

But these have another name also. The other names in the same order as above -
1. Bhoolokham
2. Buvarlokham
3. Suvarlokham
4. Maharlokham
5. Janoolokham
6. Thapolokham
7. Sathyalokham

The vimanam of the temple is called - pranavaakaara vimanam. (It will be in the shape of Omkaaram)

Aren't these 7 names identical to one of the mantra - Om bhoohu, Om buvaha, oohum suvaha, om mahaha, om janaha, om thapaha and oohum sathyam that will come during sandya vandanam?

So the 7 prakaaraas are the form of these 7 mantras with Omkaaram (main vimanam) at the centre.

AgrahAram

2008-04-11T10:36:00.000+05:30

Heard of this term? This word may be used in many places. But my article focusses on the south indian village where Brahmins use to live. The entire street is called by this name - agrahAram.

I have not visited many villages, but of course a few in the places in and around kumbakOnam or mayilAduthurai. All the agrahAram in these places will be having an identical structure.

There will be houses on both the sides of the street. Usually the houses will be facing north and south directions. In some villages like AnandatAndavapuram there are east and west facing houses in addition to south facing houses.

There will be a Vinayaka temple in the east. This is optional. But mandatory is a PerumAl (vishnu) temple in the west and a temple for Lord Shiva in the north west (also called as sani moolai or the corner for saturn). Presence of Shiva temple in the north west direction gives prosperity.

I have spent most of the vacation times during my school days at a place called "tEdiyUr" which is my mother's native. It is situated at 22km to the east of Kumbakonam. There are direct buses as well as route buses (from kumbakOnam to mayilAduthurai via a place called poonthOttam). It is a beautiful village. One can feel relived if they just have a look over the agrahAram roads.

A distributory of the river kAvEri, by the name Arasal aaru (history of this river is explained in my blog about "Sri Abheeshta varadaraja Perumal" at the following link - here flows in the northern side of the village. Around this river there are gardens flourishing with mango trees and coconut trees.

Near this river there is a shiva temple - popularly called "aathaangarai kovil". This is in the north western corner of the village. Closer to the temple there is a samAdhi of two saints who have lived in the village before several years. Between the river and the agrahAram runs the national highway through which buses to this village runs. Now a days one can find several shops on either sides of the road.

Coming to the agrahAram, there are three streets - east street (keezha theru), middle street (nadu theru) and west street (mEla theru). In the eastern side there is a varasiddhi vinayakar temple. It is a small temple. Poojaas are performed to the lord twice a day by a priest who resides in the agrahAram. In the north western end of the east street there is meenAkshi sundarEswarar temple dedicated to lord shivA. There is a tank associated with this temple, situated on the other side of the main road.

Houses in the East and middle street are north south facing. Coming to the west street, where the houses are east west facing, there is a vishnu temple (sri bhoomi neelA dEvi sametha Varadaraja PerumAl) at the centre. Further to the right side of the temple in the south western direction there is another vishnu temple called "karugamAnicka perumAl" temple.

There is a middle school in the east street of the agrahAram. It was built by a noble man, kanchi paramAchArya bhaktha Vanchi Iyer prior to Indian independence and now its a government aided school - sri sankara middle school. The school is offering education to all for a nominal fee. Indeed a service.

Moving a little apart from the agrahAram there comes the lands where paddy is grown. One can reach that place by moving along the path adjacent to the school mentioned above. There is another shiva temple - "prathyaksha parameswarar" temple, also called as the big temple in the village. This temple also has a tank associated with it in its proximity.

There are other temples - AyyanAr temple (at the outer limits of the village. That place is called "manavAlanallur"), mAriyamman temple, selliamman temple (near the agricultural lands, who is none other than chAmundi, a form of goddess Durga who killed chanda mundAsuras and is belived to protect the farms). These deities who are placed at the outer limits are believed to guard the village. They are also called as kAval deivam or the protecting God.

If summer vacation starts, the school will be closed. But our grand pa who is the correspondent of the school has the key and we will use the school ground to do all sort of activities. Some use to play cricket, some use to learn cycling and some others will play some domestic games like pallAnkuzhi or sOzhi or kallAngAi(play comprising of catching 4 stones in a particular order) etc. We will forget food, sleep and only if our mothers or other elders in our home comes to school to drag us to home, we will descend down to Earth. Till then we will be separated from this materialistic world and will be ruling our own world.

Those are the times that can never be forgotten and will be ever in our minds without fading. Wish to go back to that stage. But.......

War against Bandasuran

2008-04-03T10:34:00.001+05:30

Bandasuran, a devil who use to give lot of troubles to the good people was killed by dEvi upon the requests that came from the dEvAs, saints and others. This episode has been well described by the following slokas.

Devi came to the rescue of her bhakthAs when they are troubled by bandasuran. She killed him with the help of her 6 shakthis -
1. Sampathkaree headed the elephant army
2. Ashwarooda headed the crores of horses
3. Manthrini - Lalitha's minister
4. Dhandini or vaaraahi - Lalitha's army chief
5. Jwaalaamaalini - One who created fire fortress to protect Lalitha's army.
6. Bala - A nine year old, ever young girl who is very dear to Lalitha.

Sampathkaree and Ashwarooda headed the elephants and horses army respectively. All the weapons that are needed are placed in a chariot called chakra raja ratham that has 9 plates.

Manthrini came on the chariot - geyachakra ratham that has 7 plates and Dhandinee came on the kirichakra ratham that has 5 plates.

To protect Lalitha's army from the enemies, Jwaalaamaalini created a fire fortress.

Manthrini killed vishangan, Bandasuran's minister while Dhandinee killed visukran, Bandasuran's army chief. Baalaa killed the 30 sons of Bandasuran and got the appreciation from Lalitha. All these people made Bandasuran to run away from the war field due to the fear of getting killed by Lalitha's weapons. Suddenly, Bandasuran placed an yantra called "vigna yantra" that gave a state of sleep to all by the side of Lalitha. To overcome that, Lalitha gave a smile by seeing lord Kameshwara's face and created, Maha Ganapati who neutralised the effect of vigna yantra. So Lalitha's army proceeded towards the victory.

This victory against Bandasuran was praised by Brahmma, Vishnu (upendra) and Indran and others under them. They all worshipped devi sri Lalitha.

This is narrated in the following slokas.

dEvarshikana sangAtptha sthUyamAnAthma vaibhavA
bandasura vadhOthyuktha sakthi sEnA samanvitha
sampathkaree samArooda sindhoora vraja sEvitha
ashwAroodAthishtithA ashwakOti kOti birAvrutha

chakrarAja rathArooda sarvAyutha parishkruthA
gEyachakra rathArooda manthrini parisEvithA
kirichakra rathArooda dhandanAtha puraskruthA
jwAlAmAlini kAkshiptha vahnni prAkAramadhyakA

bandasainya vadhOthyuktha sakthi vikramaharshithA
nithyA parAkramAtopa nireekshana samudhsukhA
banda puthra vadhOthyuktha bAlA vikramananditA
manthrinyambA virachitha vishanga vadha thoshithA

vishukra prAna haraNa vArAhee veerya nandithA
kAmEshwara mukhAlokhA kalpithasree ganEshwarA
mahA ganEsha nirbinna vignayantra praharshithA
bandAsurEndra nirmuktha sashtraprathyasthra varshini

karAngulinakothpanna nArAyana dasAkruthi
mahApAsupathAsthrAgni nirdakthasura sainikA
kAmeshwarAsthra nirdaktha sabandAsura soonyaka
brahmmOpendra mahEndrAdi dEvasamsthutha vaibhava

Let us all pray Lalitha to kill all our enemies and grant us a peaceful life.

Most memorable concert

2008-04-02T14:30:00.001+05:30

I love carnatic music a lot. I have heard many concerts - some at the sabhas, some in TV, some in radio and a lot in CDs and cassettes. There are many concerts that had left a divine experience within me. I am going to write about one concert that I relished a lot and cant be moved to a lower rank in future.

It gives me immense pleasure in writing this blog regarding Sudha Ragunathan's concert at Narada Gana Sabha, on Feb 3,2008. It was a shraddhaanjali to the divine saint, Sri Tyagaraja swami. I enjoyed each and every song that was sung. The tempo of the concert was uniform throughout. Written below are the songs that were sung in the concert and my comments for them.

1. Shobillu saptha swara in jaganmohini was a good start. The kalpana swaras that were sung for the word, saptha swara, was awesome. While finishing, the swaras depicting the aarohana and avarohana of the raga jagan mohini (S G M P N S - S N P M G R S) was very educative.

2. Andariki vandanamu - Endaro Mahanu bhavulu - in Sri ragam was very smooth and it was embedded with her pure imagination in the sangathis. Hats off. I loved this song very much.

3. Mokshamu galada in saramathi was simply superb. "saakshaath kaarani sath bhakthi yani" - still ringing in my ears.

4. Yela nee daya rathu - Bala kanaka maya in ataana was very sweet. And that too in the charanam - "Ra Ra devathi deva" - What a timing when she sung the words "Ra Ra" and stopped for a while and Aruna Sairam entered the hall. A perfect timing!! :)

Also the lines - "Parivara Jalathi Gambhira" was recited with a "gambhiram".

5. She again proved that she is an adept in handling the raga "Subapantuvarali". The true bhaavam of that raga moved me a lot. The song that was sung was Ennaadu by Tyagaraja.

6. Nagumo mu ganle in Abheri was a change after the slow and steady subhapantuvarali. It rekindled the spirits of the audience and made them ready to listen to another majestic raga - Mohanam.

7. Mohanam - Nannu palimpa : I love this song. I have heard that kriti sung by her guru MLV in a radio concert. When she started the mohana alapana, I thought it would be good if she sings "Nannu palimpa". And oh god!! she sung the same song. My happieness knew no bounds on listening that song. Mohanam - my favourite raga!

The tisra nadai kalpana swaras was a rare attempt. Not many will do that.

8. Karuna jalathe - nadanamakriya was soul stirring. A good atmaanubhavam.

9. Gandhamu puyyaruga - punnagavarali : superb! Swift rendering of that song made the audiences to clap for that song while she was singing. This shows how effectively she can take the audience along with her.

10. Namo Namo raghavaya - Desiya thodi . I heard the song for the first time. This was Tyagaraja's first kriti!!

11. Mangalam in saurashtram, but the transformation to surutti at the end was a good end for the concert.

In short the concert was a shraddhanjali to saint tyagaraja and to Sudha's guru MLV.

Sri Abheeshta Varadharaja perumal

2008-04-02T14:17:00.000+05:30

Sri Abheeshta Varadharaja perumal temple is located at Vishnupuram in Tiruvarur district.

This temple has its reference in the puranas. The Lord in this temple is holding the "Chakra" which is some what special when compared to the other temples. The history goes as follows:

Maha Vishnu after killing asuras, found that his chakra has lost its power. So to reinstantiate the lost power in his chakra, He went to Kalish, the abode of Lord Shiva and prayed to Him. Shiva asked Vishnu to go to Bhoolokha (the Earth) and offer pooja to shiva at a place called "Thiruveezhimizhalai" (located very near to Vishnupuram mentioned above). So Vishnu went there. He called the river Kaveri to help him in pooja, by giving water. Since kaveri came on the request of Vishnu (Hari) the river running on the side of thiruveezhimizhalai and other near by places is called by the name "Hari sol aaru" or the river that heeded to the words of Hari. It is now known as Arasal aaru after several transformations to the name by People.

Vishnu made the kaveri water to flow to the temple tank and he performed abhishekams to the deity (shiva) using that water and the 1008 lotus flowers that use to bloom on the temple tank daily. One day, Vishnu when he was about to complete his offerings, found that there was a shortage of 1 lotus flower. But he want to complete his pooja at any cost. So he plucked one of his eye from his face and offered it as a compensation to the flower that was found to be missing. Shiva became very happy with Vishnu. In no time he appeared before Vishnu and gave the sudharsana chakra back to him, now with more power and tejas than it was before.

The shiva at thiruveezhimizhalai who was offered the lotus eye of Vishnu came to be known as Nethrarpaneswarar or veezhinatha swami in Tamil. The place where Vishnu stayed and worshipped Shiva came to be known as Vishnupuram.

The Varadharaja perumal at Vishnupuram is known to cure eye related disorders and grant a happy and peaceful life to all the devotees who surrender themselves to his lotus feet. Also one will get all good things that they wish for from the Perumal as he is holding the powerful chakra that he got after praying.

Thiruvaanaikkoil - Sthala puraanam

2008-04-01T11:11:00.002+05:30

Thiruvaanaikka, also referred as Jambukeswaram or Gajaaranya kshetram is located in Trichy, near the banks of the sacred river Kaveri.

Its a famous Shiva temple. Few info about the kshetra:
Presiding deities - Jambukeswara and Akilandeswari
Sthala vriksham - Jambu tree or naaval (in Tamil)

There lived an elephant and a spider in a forest, without knowing each other. Both were born there as a result of some cursings that they got from an ascetic in their previous birth. To overcome the curse, they came to the forest on the banks of the river kaveri. They found a lingam (form of shiva on the earth) under a naaval tree.
Each started worshipping the lord in their own way without noticing each other.

The spider use to build a web to protect the lingam from dust. After completing it, the spider use to fly away somewhere and the elephant use to come to that place. Everyday the elephant use to take water from the river kaveri, fill it in its trunk and it will perform abhishekam (pour water on the lingam) and offer flowers. As a result of this the spider web will be destroyed.

This was happening every day. One day both the spider and the elephant met each other. On seeing the spider building the web over the lingam, the elephant became angry. Also on seeing the elephant spraying water on the lingam, the spider became angry. So the spider advanced itself towards the elephant and intruded inside the elephant's trunk. Elephant was unable to breathe and eventually died. The spider was also unable to come out from the deceased elephant's trunk and it also breathed its last.

Suddenly Lord Shiva, appeared and granted salvation to the Elephant. The spider was given another birth and it was commanded to be born as a Chola king, "senkot chozhan". It was this chola king, who built the present day thiruvaanaikka temple.

Appu sthalam

2008-04-01T11:11:00.001+05:30

Thiruvaanaikka is one of the five sthalam that fall under the category - pancha bhootha sthalam. This temple is the "Appu sthalam". Appu means water.

It was belived that the Jambukeswarar in the temple was built by Akilandeswari using the water from the kaveri river.

Parvati meditated strongly on Shiva to marry him. Shiva, satisfied by her prayers, appeared before parvati and asked her to go to a place on the Earth, near the kaveri river and worship him from there. Parvati arrived at the place which is famous for the royal elephants which are referred to as "Maha Padmam". Due to the abundance of the royal elephants, the place was known as "Gajaaranyam" (Gaja - Elephant, aaranyam - forest) or forest full of royal elephants.

Parvati took handful of water from the river and left them on the ground, thinking about Shiva. The water stood in the place where she left them on the ground in the form of a shiva lingam. She then performed pooja for the same. Shiva became happy and he made parvati to stay in the kshetra as Akilandeswari and bless the devotees who come to worship them.

Since she created the lingam using water, the temple is designated as appu sthalam among the panch bhootha sthalaas.

Even today to comemorate the event of Akilandeswari worshipping Jambukeswara, everyday, one of the temple priest use to decorate himself in a saree (signifying Parvati) and offer pooja to Jambukeswara during the uchi kaala (afternoon time). The garba griha (sanctum) of Jambukeswara use to be wet always. It is belived that the water from the river kaveri use to be there always.

Thaadangam on the ears of Akilandeswari

2008-04-01T11:10:00.001+05:30

The goddess Akilandeswari is considered to be rowdra swaroopini (one with lots of anger) in the past. So everyone use to worship her from outside. No one dare to go inside her sanctum sanctorum (sannidhi).

Adhi shankara was unhappy with it. He felt so sad on people fearing to go inside the sannidhi of the great mother (sree mAthA). So he designed a "Sri chakram" and "Siva Chakram" and pleaded the mother to let her anger to be flown inside the chakraas as a shakthi and let it be used for the welfare of the living beings. The gracious mother heeded to the words of shankara and shed all her angers and became Shaantha swaroopini (peace and grace showering). Akilandeswari wears the chakras as thadangam on her ears.

Also Adhi shankara, constructed a sannidhi of Lord Ganesha, opposite to Akilandeswari sannidhi. He firmly belived that on seeing her son infront of her, she will forget her old short temperment and will continue to be filled with grace forever. The Ganesha is known as "Prasanna Vinayaka" or Vinayaka who gives smile on everyone's face.

People use to say, while having a darshan of Akilandeswari, if we imagine her face without the thaadangam, we can see the rowdra swaroopam. If we see her face with the thaadangam, we can see the shantha swaroopam.

Kavi Kaalamegam

2008-04-01T11:09:00.000+05:30

Kaalamegam was a dull person without any knowledge. But he was an ardent devotee of the goddess Akilandeswari. People use to make fun of him. Dejected by the behaviour of the people around him, Kaalamegam went to the temple and prayed to Akilandeswari to grant him knowledge.

Understanding the difficulty of her son, Akilandeswari disguised herself as an ordinary woman, wearing a white coloured saree. The woman appeared before Kaalamegam. She was chewing betel leaves. She asked Kaalamegam to open his mouth and transferred the betel leaves in her mouth to his mouth. Immediately the woman disappeared. Kaalamegam felt asleep on the sannidhi of Akilandeswari. The temple authorities didnt notice him and they locked the temple and went to their home.

On the next day, when kaalamegam woke up, he was frightened to see the temple authorites in front of him. They started beating him, suspecting he has come inside with an intention to steal the jewels of Akilandeswari.

Then came the surprise. No sooner did the authorities started beating him, than he came up with awesome songs in the praise of the goddess Akilandeswari. All were stunned up with this incident. Kaalamegam, beleived to be a dull person is now surprising all with beautiful songs. They patiently inquired what happened. He narrated the incident. All came to a conclusion that the goddess has granted him the knowledge. Kaalamegam was then called "Kavi Kaalamegam", "Kaalamega Pulavar". He is famous for a type of poem called - "slEdai" - A word will imply two meanings. This type of poem is used to compare two objects with a single word.

Since she gave vidya (knowledge) to Kaalamega kavi during the evening time, Akilandeswari is worshipped as Saraswathi in the evening time. Akilandeswari is the collection of three shakthis (Iccha, Kriya, Gnana). She is worshipped as Lakshmi (Iccha shakthi) in the morning, Parvati (Kriya shakthi) in the noon and as Saraswathi (Gnana shakthi) in the evening.

Uchi Pillayar Temple

2008-04-01T11:07:00.001+05:30

Rockfort - My native place.

Located in Trichy, the central district of Tamil Nadu, has reference to several historical events.
River Kaveri flows through the city and makes agriculture one of the key sector here.

The rockfort temple is a famous temple. It is built out of rocks by the chola kings. The pallava kings (Mahendra varman especially) added new sculptures to the areas in and around the temple. There will be a rock cut cave near the temple, that was created by the pallavas. There are two temples - Uchi pillayar temple and Thaayumaanava swami temple.

Origin of Uchi pillayar temple dates back to the Ramayana period. Vibheeshana, the younger brother of Ravana, who won the favour of Lord Rama, after surrendering to Him, was returning from Ayodhya, after the enthronement ceremony of Rama, as the king. He was carrying an idol of Lord Vishnu who was lying on the serpant - Aadhi sesha to Lanka. This idol was given to him by Rama as a gift. Rama warned Vibheeshana that if he place the idol down some where then he would not be in a position to take it out and asked him to be careful about that. Vibheeshana agreed and he was on the way to Lanka with the idol in his hand and he was crossing Trichy (also known as Tiruchirapalli).

The river Kaveri attracted him by its beautiful course. He was tempted to take a bath in the river. But alas! He dont have anyone near by to hold the idol in their hand. Then came a boy by his side. Vibheeshana requested the boy to hold the idol in his hand so that he can have a bath in the river. The boy agreed, but with a condition that Vibheeshana should return before he counts 10, otherwise the idol will be kept down. Just 10 seconds was given for Vibheeshana to have a bath. Vibheeshana agreed. He went down the river and took a dip. The boy was almost to count 10. Still Vibheeshana didnt reach the boy. He was completely lost in the comfort that the river water provided. The boy counted 10 and placed the idol down with it's face facing the direction of Lanka, i.e, south.

Vibheeshana, struck by the memory of idol, realised that it was late and hurriedly advanced towards the boy. But all in vain. He had kept the idol down. It got fixed in that place. Vibheeshana tried to move it. But he couldnt. Vibheeshana became very angry and he chased the boy who had kept the idol down. The boy ran and climbed up the rock that was at a distance and settled on a small stone. Vibheeshana after reaching the hill top, hit the boy hard on his forehead.

Then came the surprise. The boy before him turned into Lord Vinayaka. It was a divine plan that was made to retain the idol in India itself and not to let it go outside India. Vibheeshana offered his prayers, got the blessings of Vinayaka and left for Lanka. He ruled Lanka with fairness.

The rocky place got converted to Uchi pillayar temple. The vinayakar was known by the name "Uchi vinayakar" (Vinayaka who sat on the top). The place near river Kaveri where the idol was kept is known by the name "Srirangam", with the idol - known by the name - Sri Ranganatha swamy as the presiding deity.

Since Vibheeshana hit the boy on his forehead, one could see the cavity on the right side of the forehead of Uchi vinayakar, even today.

One need to climb more than 700 steps to reach the Uchi Pillayar temple.

Thaayumanava swamy temple

2008-04-01T11:04:00.000+05:30

This temple was built by the chola kings. This is a famous siva temple and the lord has been praised by Appar, Sundarar, Manickavasagar and Thirugnanasambandar in their poem collections - Devaram, Thiruvachagam. Lord shiva is known by the name - Thaayumaanava swamy or Maathrubhootheswarar (in sanskrit). His consort, Parvati devi is known by the name Mattuvaar kuzhalammai or Suganthi kondalambal (in sanskrit). Devi got this name as her hair will be having a pleasant smell.

Initially, the lord was facing East, the direction where Woraiyur (the then capital of cholas). Once a chola king, punished a shiva devotee in his reign though the devotee was innocent, because of wrong investigation. Shiva became angry and he turned his face to the opposite direction, west. As a result of this, Vekkaliamman, the protecting deity of Woraiyur who was staying patient till then, despite of the wrong doings committed by the king, as shiva was looking woraiyur, now lost her temper and destroyed woraiyur by pouring sands over that place. It was after this incident, the chola capital was shifted to Pazhayaarai and then to Tanjore.

Why the lord was called "Thaayumaanava swamy"?

Thaayumaanavar - Like a mother.

There was a family living by the side of the temple. Every member of that family was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. Once every one, except for the two, left for a distant place. The two members were a grand mother and her grandson's wife, Rathnaavathi. Since the latter was pregnant and is expecting a child soon, she didnt go and to look after her, the grand mother also stayed back.

It was raining heavily outside. River Kaveri was about to overflow. The grandma went outside to get some medicines for Rathnaavathi. Rathnaavathi was alone in the house. No sooner did the grandma went outside, than it rained more. The grandma was compelled to stay at the medicine shop itself as there was huge amount of water on the streets.

Rathnavathi was suffering from labour pain and it kept on increasing. She didnt know what to do, than to pray Lord shiva at Rockfort, her favourite deity. Then came Lord shiva, disguised as the grandma and helped Rathnaavathi to deliver a boy child. The rain stopped and grandma suddenly disappeared.

The original grandma, came hurried from the medicine shop and was surprised to see Rathnavathi who had given birth to a boy child. Rathnavathi thanked grandma for helping her. Grandma was confused and said to Rathnaavathi, "How can I help you by being here when I was there at the shop?". This surprised Rathnaavathi and even the grandma. Their surprises and questions were answered by the "Rishabaarooda darshan" (Shiva, seated on the bull (rishabam) along with Parvati). After this incident, shiva at the rockfort temple was known by the name "Thaayumaanava swamy".

To mark this incident, every year during the month of April or May, a function called "Chettippen maruthuvam" - Medical attention paid to a girl of chettiyar class is conducted. This function is organised before the thiru kalyana utsavam (Sacred marriage ceremony between shiva and parvati) during the chithirai festival. Chithirai festival concludes with the car festival.

Every year, float festival (theppotsavam) use to happen during the month of March [Panguni uthira vizha]. Other festivals include the car festival during April or May (chithirai thiruvizha), vaikasi visakham, thiruvadhirai during december (maargazhi), thai poosam etc.

Since the lord eased the girl's delivery strain, it is belived that if we perform pooja to the Lord Mathrubhootheswarar and distribute bananas to the devotees who are coming to the temple, complications that may arise during delivery will be annulled.

Dakshinaamoorthy at the Thaayumaanavar temple

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Dakshinaamoorthy (meaning,South facing god) is an important deity in any Shiva temple. He will be in a sitting posture, meditating with a mudra (Making a circle with the help of the index finger and the thumb and leaving the other three fingers straight). Usually 4 disciples will be seated around the guru - DakshinAmoorthy. They are sanakar,sanandanar,sanAthanar,sanath kumArar.

At the Maathrubhootheswara temple, 4 more disciples along with the above 4 will be present. They are Patanjali,VyAgrapAdhar, Siva Yoga muni and Tirumoolar. This is the only temple where there are 8 disciples to the guru - mEdhA dakshinAmoorthy.

Kundalini sakthi

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Kundalini is dEvi's sookshma sareeram (non physical form). It is present in the moolaadhara chakram in a coiled fashion. The coil or the concentric circle has three and half rounds.

The sakthi when induced properly by yOga, starts to flow from the moolAdhAra chakram into the swAdhishtAna chakram through a gap called Brahmmagranthi. From there to the manipoorachakram. From manipooram it flows through the vishnugranthi into the anAhata chakram and then to the vishuddhi chakram, Aagya chakram. From Agya chakram to the sahasraara chakram through the rudragranthi. Siva resides on the sahasraara chakram. Siva is immovable. So sakthi who is movable, in the form of kundalini flows from moolaadhaaram to sahasraaram and makes siva to bathe in the ocean of happiness (sudha saarabhi varshini).

This is given in the following lines of the lalita sahasranama.

moolAdhAraika nilayA brahmmagranthi vibEdini
manipoorAbja nilayA vishnugranthi vibEdini
aagyAchakrAntharAlastha rudragranthi vibEdini
sahasrArAmbujAroodA sudhA sArAbhivarshini
thatillatha samaruchi shatchakrO parisamsthitha
mahAsakthihi kundalini bisathanthu dhaneeyasi

7 yoginis

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There are 7 chakraas in our body. They are moolAdharam (end of the vertebral column), swAdhishtAnam (Above the moolaadhaaram), manipooram (At the back of the stomach in the navel region), vishuddhi (At the back of the throat), anAhatham (in the heart), aagyA (between eye brows), sahasrAram (on the central part of the head).

Lalitha sahasranamam says in each of these chakram, a yogini is sitting and governing the functioning of the parts associated with it. The detailed description is given below.

1. TAkini

vishuddhi chakra nilayA ArakthavarnA thrilOchana
katvAngAthi praharanA vadhanaikka samanvidha
pAyasAnna priyA thwakshtha pashu lOkha bayankari
amruthAdhi mahAsakthi samvruthA tAkineeswari

TAkini resides on the vishuddhi chakram. She is red coloured (Arakthavarna). She has three eyes. She holds weapons starting from katvaangam. She is one headed (vadhanaikka). Payasam (sweetened milk) is her favourite. She destroys the fear of samsaara sagaram (or re births). She is surrounded by sakthis with Amrutha as the first one.

2. RAkini

anAhatAbja nilayA shyAmAba vadhanadwayA
dhamshtrojwala akshamAlA ditharA rudira samsthitha
kAlarAdryAdhi sakthyowga vrudhA snikdhowdhanapriya
mahA veerendra varadhA rAkinyamba swaroopini

RAkini resides in the anaahatha chakram. She is black coloured with two heads. She holds an akshamaala (garland). Kaalaraadhri leads the shakthis pertaining to her. She likes ghee rice. She is worshipped by great warriors.

3. LAkini

manipoorAbja nilayA vadhanathryaya samyutha
vajrAdhikAyudhopedha dAmaryAdhi birAvradha
rakthavarna mAmsanishta kutAnna preetha mAnasa
samastha bhaktha sukhatha lAkinyambA swaroopini

LAkini resides in the manipoora chakram. She has 3 heads. She holds weapons like vajraayudham. Her shakthis include daamari and others. She likes flesh and other fatty items (kutaanna preetha maanasa). She gives comfort to the devotees.

4. KAkini

swAdhishtAnAmbjakatha chatur vakthra manOharA
shoolAdhyAyutha sampannA peethavarnA athigarvitha
mEdhonishta madhupreetha bandhinyAdhi samanvidha
dhadhyanna saktha hrudaya kAkini roopadhArini

KAkini resides in the swadhishtaana chakram. She is 4 headed. She holds weapons like the trishoolam. She is yellow complexioned (peetha varna). She is very much proud about herself (athi garvitha). She likes honey. Curd rice is her favourite. She has sakthis starting from bandhini.

5. SAkini

moolAdhArAmbujarooda panchavakthrAdhi samsthitha
angushAdhipraharana varadhAdhi nishEvithA
muthgowdhanA sakthachitthA sAkinyambA swaroopini

SAkini lives at the moolaadhaara chakram with 5 heads. She holds angusham and some more weapons. Her sakthis start from varadha. She likes rice prepared out of grams and dal.

6. HAkini

AagyA chakrAbjanilayA shuklavarnA shadAnana
majja samstha hamsavathee mukhya sakthi samanvidha
haridrAnnaika rasika hAkini roopadhArini

HAkini lives at the AgyA chakram. She is white complexioned and has 6 heads. She resides in the tissues. Her shakthis are hamsavathi and kshamaavathi. She likes turmeric rice.

7. YAkini

sahasradhala padmasthA sarvavarnOpa shObhitha
sarvAyudhadarA shukla samsthitha sarvathOmukhi
sarvowdhanA preetha chittha yAkinyambA swaroopini

YAkini resides at the sahasrAra chakram. She is multi coloured and has all the weapons. She has many faces. She likes all food items.

Sree Vidya Ramayanam

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Introduction

Sree Vidya Ramayanam is a version of Ramayana (the story of Lord Rama) that is based out of Devi Sree Lalitha. This says, Lalitha rules the world and all the happenings in Ramayana are also by the orders of Lalitha.

Overview

The story of Ramayana as per Srividya ramayanam is as follows.

This starts with the conversation between Agastya and Hayagreeva. Agastya asks Hayagreeva to explain him the Guhya thathvam (secret philosophy) of Brahmmanda purana. Hayagreeva explains it to Agastya as follows.

Once Indra wanted to test the lovely couple (Agalya - Gauthama). So Indra disguised himself as a cock and went to Gauthama's ashram before the day dawned. By making sound like a cock, Indra tricked Gauthama and the latter went out to the river bank for having bath thinking that the day had dawned. At the ashram Agalya was left alone. Indra appeared as Gauthama and tried to misbehave with Agalya. Agalya being a pathi vrathai (one who never thinks of a man other than her husband) and a Devi bhakthai (devotee), found out the intention that Indra was having in his mind and prayed to Devi to save her and make Indra realise his mistake.

Initially before starting for execution of this task, Indra (also a devi devotee) prayed to Devi to protect him in case of any trouble. So after listening to Agalya's plea to save her, Devi turned Agalya into a stone. Now neither Indra nor Agalya would get a bad name.

Indra realised his mistake on seeing Agalya turning into a stone. Gauthama on seeing Indra at his ashram and agalya turned into a stone, judged what could have happened with the prowess of his tapas (meditation).

Origin of Sree vidya ramayanam

To kill the asuras Lalitha originated from the "chith agni kundam" and after killing asuras she married Lord Kameshwara (form of Lord shiva, adorned with jewels). Every body was happy. but Gauthama was still thinking of Agalya. On seeing this, Lalitha announced that everyone including herself will suffer for not helping Agalya at the time of her difficulty in the Ramayana time.

So she said "My form Narayanee will be born as Rama and Narayanan will be born as Lakshman. Form of Parameswara and Brahmma will be born as Bharatha and Chatruguna.

Indra who troubled Agalya is similar to monkey. So he was borne as Sugreeva, the monkey king.

Like Gowthama who suffered a lot from being separated from his wife, Rama, Sugreeva will also need to pay their debt. (Rama and sita wil part and similarly sugreeva and Tara)

Relation to Ramayana

Kausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra, wives of King Dasaratha of Ayodhya were ardent devotees of Sree Lalitha, Parameswara and Brahmma,Vishnu respectively. They prayed to their favourite deities and got child(ren) of their choice. Kausalya gave birth to Rama (Devi's form), Kaikeyi to Bharatha (Parameswara's form) and sumitra gave birth to Lakshmana (Vishnu's form) and Chathruguna (Brahmma's form).

The rest are similar to Ramayana by Valmiki. But all happenings are centered at Devi's command.

End Notes

Many versions of Ramayana exists. We cant say this is the right one or so. All are aimed at increasing one's faith towards God. If we take the situation where all including Devi herself are suffering the punishment for not helping Agalya, we can conclude that even God need to repay his debts. This is the wonderful principle of equality.

This Sree vidya ramayana, enforces optimism. If one thinks positively

1. All that happened will seem to be good

2. All that is happening will be good.

3. All that will happen will also be good.

Sri chakram - description

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Sri chakram has 9 levels. The description of each level from external to internal is given below.

1. Bhoopuram
This is also called TrilokyamOhana chakram. This chakram enchants the three worlds. The type of yogini in this stage is Prakata yogini. There are totally 28 sakthis - 10 starting with AnimA, 8 starting with Brahmya and 10 mudra sakthis. Tripura is the head for this stage.

2. Shodasa Dalam
The second stage, called as sarvAsa paripUraka chakram fulfills all expectations. Yogini at this stage is Gupta yogini. Tripuresi heads this chakra. There are 16 sakthis starting from kAmAkarshini.

3. Ashta Dalam
This stage is known by the name sarva samkshObana chakram. This agitates all. The gupta tara yoginis are headed by Tripurasundari. There are 8 sakthis starting from ananga, kusuma.

4. Chaturdasaram
The 14 sakthis starting from samkshobini is headed by tripuravAsini. They are the sampradAya yoginis who grants excellence. This stage is also called sarva saubhAgyadAyaka chakram.

5. Bahirdasaram - 10 outer sakthis
The sarvArtha sAdhaka chakram that has 10 sakthis starting from sarva siddhi prada allows one to accomplish all tasks. This stage is headed by tripurasri. They are kulOtheerna yoginis.

6. Antardasaram - 10 inner sakthis
The sarva rakshAkara chakram that has 10 sakthis starting from sarvagyA protects all. This stage is headed by Tripura Malini. They are Nigarba yoginis.

7. Ashtakonam
The 8 sakthis starting from vasini is headed by tripurasiddhA. They are the rahasya yoginis who cures all ailments. This stage is also called sarva rOgahara chakram.

8. Trikonam
The eighth stage, called as sarva siddhiprada chakram grants all perfection. Yogini at this stage is athi rahasya yogini. Tripuramba heads this chakra. There are 3 sakthis starting from kAmeswari.

9. Bindu
The ninth stage, called as sarvAnandamaya chakram grants bliss. Yogini at this stage is parA parAthi yogini. Maha Tripura Sundari is the sakthi in this chakra.

One of the greatest composer sri Muthuswamy dikshithar has written a set of nine kritis - one for each level of the sri chakram under the name - kamalAmba navA varna kritis.

Lalitha Sahasranamam

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Origin of LalithA SahasranAmam

LalithA sahasranAmam is a powerful mantra pertaining to Devi worship. It is a hymn that is belived to be originated by the divine order from sree lalithAmbika. This hymn is a collection of thousand names of lalithA. They had been arranged in such a way, describing devi from her head to foot (also called as 'kesAdhi pAdham'). Following this description, comes the description of the sri puram which is located at the centre of the sumEru mountains - the place where lalithAmba resides. Then comes the description of her throne, war against bandAsuran, sookshma swaroopam (or to be imagined) as the kundalini sakthi and some more.

At the 7th level, Ashtagonam or sarva rOgahara chakram of the 9 level sri chakram, the 8 vAg dEvathAs or speech influencing powers reside. They are vasini,kAmeswari,arunA,vimalA,jayinee,modhinee,sarvEswari,kowlini. These 8 saktis compiled this sahasranAmam.

How the sahasranAmam was made available to humans?

Saint AgastyA, who accepted lord Hayagreeva (form of vishnu with a horse face) who is very brilliant as his guru. One day when Hayagreeva came to Agastya's house, the latter asked the former to enlighten him on the divine lalithA sahasranAmA. HayagreevA became happy and taught AgastyA the sahasranAmA. Thus it was made accessible to humans.

Power of LalithA sahasranAmA

LalithA sahasranAmA grants good health and prosperity to all who recites it. The slOkA prevents early death due to ailments and grants long life.