Tarangam

Tarangam - Jaya Jaya Durge Jitha Vairi Varge

The Tarangam is a dance from the Kuchipudi style of Indian classical dance.

In this dance, Kalyani depicts the story of goddess Durga in the form of Mahishasur Mardini who came to the world to vanquish the buffalo demon Mahishasura.

Kalyani dances with a pot of water on her head on a brass plate to symbolize the connection between the purity of thought (the water in the pot) and being grounded on the earth (the brass plate).

Jaya Jaya durge jita vayri varge

viyada niladi vichitra sarge

sundara tara charanaravinde

sukha paripalita lokabrunde

nanda sunandadi yogi vandye

narayana sodari paranande

sarasa mani noopura sangata pade

samadhigata khila sangavede

nara kinnara vara sura bahu geete

nanda nute nikhila nanda bharite

kanaka patavruta ghana tara jaghane

kalyana dayini kamaneeya vadane

inakoti sankasa divya bharanei

shta jana bheeshta dana nipune

anudaya laya satchidananda latike

alola mani maya tatanka dhanike

nana roopadi karya sadhanike

narayana teertha bhavita phalake

Jaya Jaya Durge Jita Viry Vaarge

Raga: Shanmukhapriya

Tala:Adi

Translation:

Oh Mother Durga, the vanquisher of all enemies, victory to you. You create this wonderful universe, the air, the sky and every thing.

Beautiful are your lotus feet. You rule the vast humanity bestowing happiness. Nanda, Sunanda and other yogis bow to you. You are the sister of Sriman Narayana and you are blissful.

Diamond studded dancing bells on your feet echo with melodious notes of samaveda. The celestial musicians, devatas and men sing your praise. Sage Nanda worships you. You are filled with supreme bliss.

Your beautiful body is covered with golden dress. You bestow prosperity and your face is charming. Your divine ornaments radiate like million Suns. You skilfully bestow your favourite devotees their heart's desires.

You are the embodiment of satchidanandam (existence consciousness, bliss) You are richly adorned with gem studded earrings. You are omnipotent, omnifarious. You remain forever in the thoughts of Narayana Teertha.

Mahishasur Mardini

The story of Mahishasur Mardini is one of the power of goodness over evil.

Mahishasura was a buffalo-demon born with superhuman powers of strength and the ability to transform to a buffalo. He was power hungry and wanted unlimited power and immortality. He knew if we pray hard with devotion, he would be able to get boon from the Gods. He performed austerities to Brahma, the creator, and pleased Brahma.

Brahma raised his hand in blessing and told Mahishasura “I want to grant you a boon, ask for anything you desire”

“I would like to continue living for ever. I want to become immortal” Mahishasura had a ready answer.

Brahma smiled and replied “All that is born must die, thats is the universal law. You cannot escape that”

Mahishasura thought for a while and replied “Lord, can you give me a boon that I cannot be killed by a man or a God. If I must die, let it be from the hands of a woman” .

Mahishasura was a gigantic strong demon. He was confident that no woman would be able to kill him. Clearly he underestimated the power of woman !

“It shall be as you ask” Brahma granted him his wish.

The moment Brahma departed, Mahishasura’s arrogance knew no bounds. He gathered a huge army and started attacking the humans on Earth , killing them, and destroying everything. After defeating the humans, he then decided to fight the Gods themselves.

Along with his huge asura army, Mahishasura attacked Amravati, the capital city of Indraloka, the abode of Lord Indra also where the heaven is. Lord Indra, the king of Devas tried to fight Mahishasura with all his might. But that was of no use. Mahishasura was invincible, no God or man could defeat him. The asuras had confiscated Amravati and drove the Gods out of heaven.

Indra ran for help to the Trimurti, Lord Brahma, VishNu and Siva and asked for help from them. Lord Brahma remembered the boon that he had given Mahishasura. And no woman living in three world is strong enough to kill this evil demon. So the Trimurti decided to create a strong powerful woman. They closed their eyes and concentrated their energy and soon a fiery pillar of light appeared in the sky. It was so bright that even the Sun looked dimmer. Not even the Gods could look at it . It was a mass of pure energy.

From this, the Gods created goddess Durga, who would be strong enough to kill Mahishasura.

Shiva created her face. Vishnu gave her arms. Goddess Durga has 10 arms.
Brahma gave her legs. The God of the oceans of milk gave her a red saree and a diamond necklace. Vishwakarma, the architect of the Gods presented her with earrings, bracelets, other jewelry he had made himself.

Once she was beautifully dressed, the Gods armed her with all the weaponries needed to kill the demons.

Lord Vishnu gave her his Sudharshana chakra, Lord Siva handed over his Trisul, and Lord Brahma gifted her his lotus along with his Kamandalam of holy water and wisdom.

Finally she was given a Lion to sit on . With all the blessings from God, she mounted on the Lion and set out to destroy Mahishasura.

As she approached Amravati, she let out a loud roar that shook the mountains and created huge waves in the
seas. Mahishasura got the news that a woman was there to attack him.
He laughed “ha! a silly woman to attack me, not worth my attention, let me just send my army to deal with her”. So the asuras went to fight Durga Devi. One by one every single demon was killed by the Goddess.

Finally Mahishasura himself went to fight Durga Devi. From her breath, Durga devi created an army of soldiers to fight the demons.
Mahishasura meanwhile tried all the tricks he knew to confuse the Goddess.
He became a lion, an elephant, but he was severely wounded no matter what his form was.

The battle lasted for 9 days. Finally Mahishasura took the form of buffalo to fight Durga. On the last day , she beheaded him with the chakra that Vishnu had given her. Thus she freed the world from Mashishasura’s evil doings. Indra and other Gods returned to heaven again.

Since then, Durga is worshipped during Navratri and on the 9th day MahaNavami day , she is worshipped as Mahishasura Mardini, the one who killed Mahishasura. The festival has the essence of victory of good over evil.

Now to reflect the significance of this story in our present lives, the evil or the demons can also be found with in .

The demons within us we all fight, Dasha Hara in Sanskrit, are:

Ahankara (Ego)
Amanavta (Cruelty)
Anyaaya (Injustice)
Kama vasana (Lust)
Krodha (Anger)
Lobha (Greed)
Mada (Over Pride)
Matsara (Jealousy)
Moha (Attachment)
Swartha (Selfishness)

The story of Mahishasur Mardini reminds us that we should strive everyday to be aware of these demons when it arise within us and work hard to overcome this every single day of our life.

Kuchipudi

Kuchipudi is the classical dance of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, home to Kalyani's maternal ancestors. It is very theatrical in nature with movements that are distinguishable from Bharatnatyam.

This style of dance originates from a village named Kuchipudi in Andhra Pradesh. Kuchipudi is a dance-drama performance, with its roots in the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text of Natya Shastra. It developed as a religious art linked to traveling bards, temples and spiritual beliefs, like all major classical dances of India.

There are several features that distinguish Kuchipudi from Bharatanatyam:

• Bharatanatyam is a classical dance form that originated from the state of Tamil Nadu in South India. On the other hand, the dance form Kuchipudi originated in the traditional style from the state of Andhra Pradesh, also in South India.

• Both the dance forms differ when it comes to their poses. In fact, Bharatanatyam has more of sculptured poses, whereas Kuchipudi has more of rounded poses.

• Bharatanatyam represents the inner fire of the human body. Hence, it is often called as fire dance. On the other hand, Kuchipudi represents the metaphysical desire in man to unite with God.

• The poses in Kuchipudi are more brisk when compared to the poses in Bharatanatyam.

• Both the dance forms differ when it comes to the nature of costumes used by its dancers. The costumes used in Bharatanatyam have three fans of varied lengths. One of them is the lengthiest. On the other hand, the costumes used in the Kuchipudi style of dance has only one fan and it is invariably lengthy than the lengthiest one used in the style of Bharatanatyam. This is an interesting difference between the two forms.

• Kuchipudi has vachikabhinayam. That means the dancers lip synch to the song as they perfform. Bharatanatyam dancers do not lip synch while dancing.

A unique piece to the Kuchipudi repertoire where the dancer performs rhythmic sequences while dancing on the rim of a brass plate simultaneously balancing a pot of water on their head.

The word 'Tarangam' translates to 'waves', therefore the movements presented in a tarangam are reflective of the movement of waves of an ocean or river.

Performing this feat has a greater symbolic meaning. As stated by the second president of the Indian Republic, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, in the Indian Express, ‘There is a philosophical significance to the water pot and plate. It is analogy to life itself.’

“While carrying heavy responsibilities (symbolized by the pot filled with water), we are bound to this earth (symbolized by the brass plate under the feet). Similar to how the dancer balances the pot while staying in rhythm, their life should be balancing responsibilities and staying grounded.”

Tarangams are usually presented to songs written by Sri Narayana Theertha from his writings about Krishna,, Rama, Narasimha, Venkateswara, Durga, Varadaraja, and Dakshinamurthy.

Narayana Tirtha

Sri Narayana Tirtha (c. 1650 – 1745 CE) was a great saint, devotee of Lord Sri Krishna, the supreme lord, and composed many songs devoted to him.

Sri Narayana Tirtha was born in South India in the region covered by the present-day Andhra Pradesh. He lived in Kaza, Guntur district near Mangalagiri. and eventually moved to Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.

He mastered music at a very early age and studied Puranas, Srimad Bhagavatam and other Sanskrit works. He renounced worldly goods at a very early age and took on a life of a religious devotion. He went to Varanasi to spread his philosophy.

Tirtha was very well versed in Music and, Natya Shastra, and a great scholar in Sanskrit. He used at least 34 popular ragas. He used Triputa, Adi, Rupaka, Chapu, Jampa, Matya, Vilamba, Eka and Ata taalams. Many of the songs are structurally well set for direct use as nritya or natya padams. He carefully avoided complex usages and utilized easy expressions. His Gadams and Padams are exquisite in beauty. He used 17 different Chandas or meters such as Anushtup, Arya, Indravajra, Bhujangaprayadam, Shardula vikriditam, Vasanta tilaka, Prithvi.

He wrote 15 books and some of them are available in Benares Hindu University and Parijatapaharanam at Saraswathi Mahal in Tanjore. He is also credited with composing two other operas, Parijaa Apaharanam and Haribhakti Sudharnavam.

Sri Narayana Tirtha received divine blessings at Varagur in Thanjavur District. His mukthi sthalam (place of eternity) is at Varagur. Although he lived in Varahur, Sri Narayana Tirtha attained Siddhi in 1745 at a nearby village called Thirupoonthuruthy under a huge mango tree, on the banks of river Kudamurutti, on the Masi Sukla Ashtami, Guruvaram, Krithika Nakshatram day. It is said that he attained 'Jeeva Samadhi' (even while alive). A small shrine has been constructed on this hallowed spot, under the sprawling mango tree.