Chitravina Ravikiran @ Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai

Date of concert: 10th Sep 2006

Venue: Sri Krishna Gana Sabha Auditorium, Chennai

Chitravina: N. Ravikiran

Violin: Akkarai Subhalakshmi

Mridangam: Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman

Ghatam: T.V. Vasan

Khanjira: B. Shree Sundar Kumar

The concert started with a varnam which I missed as I landed late after shifting in from Bangalore to Chennai. The (partial) list of songs played by Sri Ravikiran is:

• kadalE vADu – nArAyanagOwla – Adi – thyAgarAja
  
• varanArada – vijayasrI – Adi – thyAgarAja
• marivErE – Anandabhairavi – misra chApu – syAma sAstri
• tatva meruga – garudadhwani – rUpakam – thyAgarAja
• rAgam tAnam pallavi – sapta swara rAgamAlika pallavi in the 7 rAgAs pUrnashadjam, rishabapriyA, dEvagAndhAri, simhEndramadyamam, lalitapanchamam, dhaivatAngi and nishAdA (nItimati), chosen to have the names of the 7 notes viz shadjam, rishabam, gAndhAram, madyamam, panchamam, dhaivatam and nishAdam in their names. Talam chosen – Adi (2 kalai)

The concert was advertised with the sapta swara rAgamAlikA pallavi as the differentiator. The rAga AlApana was done in the rAgAs pUrnashadjam, rishabapriya, dEvagAndhAri and simhEndramadyamam. The tAnam was done in the rAgAs simhEndramadyamam, lalitapanchamam, dhaivatAngi and nishAdA. The pallavi lines were as follows (the ending word indicating the rAga in which the line was performed):

• sapta swaramulu upAsimpavE manasA shadjAdi (rAgA pUrnashadjam)
• sapta swaramulu upAsimpavE manasA rishabAdi (rAgA rishabapriyA)
• sapta swaramulu upAsimpavE manasA gAndhArAdi (rAgA dEvagAndhAri)
• sapta swaramulu upAsimpavE manasA madyamAdi (rAgA simhEndramadyamam)
• sapta swaramulu upAsimpavE manasA panchamAdi (rAgA lalitapanchamam)
• sapta swaramulu upAsimpavE manasA dhaivatAdi (rAgA dhaivatAngi)
• sapta swaramulu upAsimpavE manasA nishAdAdi (rAgA nishAda)

The rAgam tAnam pallavi was followed by a sapta gati taniAvartanam played primarily by Sri Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman on the mridangam with Sri T.V. Vasan and Sri Sundar Kumar joining in the end when the kuraippu was done. As there are only 5 gatis (chatusram – 4, tisram – 3, kandam – 5, misram – 7 and sankIrnam – 9), Sri Sivaraman added two more using a combination of tisram + chatusram (3+4) and tisram + kandam (3+5) and termed it “gati dwayam” to match the 7 rAgAs being played by Sri Ravikiran. The tisram + chatusram combination was played as follows: for the first half of Adi tAlam, tisram was played and for the second half chatusram. The tisram + kandam combination was also played similarly.

The structure of the pallavi line was as follows (A=aksharAs): The pallavi started at samam. saptaswara was for 3.5A, mulu was for 1.5A, upAsimpavE was for 3A. The first half was thus completed. manasA started with a gap of 3A afterwards and was for 2A followed by one of the words shadjAdi, rishAbAdi, gAndhArAdi, madhyamAdi, panchamAdi, dhaivatAdi or nishAdAdi for 3A. Total = 3.5 A + 1.5A + 3A + 3A + 2A + 3A = 16A = akshara count of Adi tAlam (2 kalai).