Note: Readers who are not familiar with carnatic music – please excuse me while I indulge in one of my passions yet again. I invite you however to see if you can expand your musical horizons by at least listening to the audio samples. The ones that are marked “kalpanaswaras” may be easy to get into from a pure aural experience – others are admittedly more serious carnatic stuff. Also for non-tamil readers “kuLirchi” in the title is a tamil word which means thrill in this context – as in “what a thrill” (this raga gives me).

On to another one of my favorite ragas – nATakurinji (Sanskrit: नाटकुरिञ्जि) or nATTaikkuRinji (நாட்டைக்குறிஞ்சி) in Tamil.

When I decided to post on this raga, I was wondering if I really should do so given that there are excellent articles already available on the web here (www.sawf.org) and here (www.carnatica.net). So I was thinking What are you, just a rasika, going to say anything that would be worth anything? But, this is my blog, my space, and I have decided to blog on my favorite ragas. And this is one raga that I adore! So I am going to blabber on it – end of discussion. Carnatic aficionados – please accept my apologies in advance for mistakes and misrepresentations. Please let me know of any and I will make the necessary corrections.

Before, I begin the verbal diarrhea, let us just jump ahead an listen to some nATakurinji. Here is an excerpt from an alapana by the late K.V. Narayanaswamy:

(Download by clicking here)

Now, a kalpanaswara excerpt by the late M.D. Ramanathan, one of my very very favorite musicians . In this sample, he is using the word budham (the planet Mercury), which is the very first word of the opening line of the composition (of which this is a small excerpt of) as the refrain. I find his usage of that here to be quite playful, and is a big reason why I love this particular rendition.

(Download by clicking here)

By the way, did you hear the birds in the background? This is from a private, chamber concert – in Chennai probably, I imagine in a house with big trees, birds chirping and cawing – Ah! Takes me to India instantly!

nATakurinji in the Tamil Film Word
nATAkurinji raga is also like kAnaDa in the sense that its basic melodic structure has a lot of innate beauty that makes very attractive to most listeners. However, unlike kAnaDa, it unfortunately does not figure as often outside the Carnatic world – at least in Tamil Nadu. In the Tamil film world, I can think of two examples:

  • The song kavalaiyai tIrppadu nATTiyakkalaiyE from the very old movie Sivakavi. This is a very classical representation of raga as you would find in a carnatic composition. In fact, the composer (and I would wager the tune smith too) is Papanasam Sivan, a prominent 20th century Carnatic composer. So even though this figures in a movie, it is pretty much a regular carnatic song.
  • The other is the song kaNNAmUcci EnaDA from the movie kaNDukoNDEn kaNDUkoNDEn with A.R. Rahman as the music director. This one is on the other end – a way too diluted, watered down version of the raga. It is still very attractive, and the song was a big hit. However, I sort of cringe to call this nATakurinji. The raga nATakurinji‘s melodic flavor is very highly dependent of specific phrases, and specific gamakas and slides (more on this below) – most of them seem absent or at least not very apparent here.
    • In the movie, after the song, an inebriated Mammooty, whom the heroine Aishwarya Rai does not think highly off to begin with, makes a dialog that the song was beautiful, especially how it changed ragas from nATakurinji to sahAna (another exquisite Carnatic raga). The import of course is that he knows more than what his uncouth behavior and rough exterior shows. The dialog is quite effective for the scene and story, but given that specific dialog, in my opinion, ARR could have made a more honest attempt at two very classical ragas! And believe me that the song would still have turned out to be beautiful as those two ragas are true gems in carnatic music which have instant appeal. So I am disappointed that ARR did not take more advantage of the ragas here. There was lot of potential but he chose a different path. Of course, he still succeeded as the song was a huge hit.

I do not know if other South Indian language films employ nATakurinji more (please let me know!), but at least in Tamil Nadu, this gem remains pretty much inside the Carnatic world. Not that it is somehow confining as it shines quite brightly within that world. It is widely recognized as a rakthi raga and thus with high emotive appeal. The term rakthi raga is sort of an enigma with different interpretations. I take it to mean a raga whose melodic character is more established by specific special phrases in which some swaras take different gamakas in different contexts. In any case, rakthi ragas are of high stature in the carnatic music arena.

Compositions/Renditions of nATakurinji I love
You know the best part of having to write and express my love for nATakurinji? That I got to listen to a lot of it! So much so that I was drawn into listening to it more and more instead of coming up with what to write! I listened to many compositions, and I find that I really like all of them. It is hard to pick some diamonds from a bag when each one strikes to you as brilliant. So this list is going to be long:

chalamEla: This is a varnam in the raga, as in the “text book” song, and it is a very popular varnam, which I believe is largely due to the melodic beauty of the raga. I love this varnam and hope to learn it soon!

ekkAlattilum nAn maravEnE: This is a fantastic composition by Ramaswamy Sivan and I like the D.K. Pattammal (DKP) / D.K. Jayaraman (DKJ) version with beautiful, elaborate sangatis (variations) particularly in the pallavi (opening section) itself. I like their version so much so that I am trying to learn it just by listening to it. I think it is a tall order for my level of carnatic training – but it is way too inviting! Here is a short excerpt showing the beautiful sangatis in the pallavi part, and also the anupallavi part.

(Download by clicking here)

The lyrics of the composition are also very beautiful with lot of rhyme built into it. For example: Isanai prakAsanai guhadAsanai kAkkum nEsanai nal pUsanai seiviSvAsanai tillai vAsanai naDarAsanai (ekkAlattilum). As you can see the same/similar suffix is used as rhyme throughout the metre (naDarAsa is colloquial tamil for naTarAja – i.e Shiva). Similar concept is seen in other paras too. Very poetic, very beautiful.

mAyamma nannu brOva: A brilliant, and masterful composition by Syama Sastry. Among all the compositions in nATakurinji that I have heard, this one has the most elaborate, exquisite sangatis. It is indeed a majestic composition. Gayatri Venkatraghavan has sung it in a commercial CD janani released by Charsur, and her rendition is simply beautiful! Would love to learn this composition someday – but that day is probably very far away!

budham ASrayAmi: This is a composition of muttusvAmi dIkshitar, and is perhaps the one you are most likely to run into in a carnatic music concert. It is set to a leisurely pace typical of dIkshitar’s compositions. I love this composition, have listened to renditions by many artists, and I especially love M.D. Ramanathan‘s (MDR) rendition.

jagadISa sadA: This is a popular composition by Swati Thirunal, the king of Travencore. I have renditions by MDR and Sanjay Subrahmanyan. I always loved the MDR one (he is one of my favorites), but I have now fallen in love with Sanjay’s rendition too. He has handled the raga brilliantly embellishing it with caresses at the right spots.

pAhi janani santatam: This is another composition by Swati Thirunal. I had never heard this composition until very recently, when I came across a rendition by KVN, and I absolutely love it! It is somewhat unique in the sense that among all compositions mentioned here, this is the only that starts in the upper octave and that too on the rishabam, which although not unimportant, but not the most prominent swara in the raga. It provides a unique look at the raga.

swAmi nAn undan aDimai: This is a beautiful composition by Papanasam Sivan for dance (as a pada varnam). There is a version on musicindiaonline.com but it is too fast. I have listened to it set in slower speed as a main item in dance, and it is truly magnificent.

manasu vishaya: This is one of Thyagaraja‘s composition – short but very sweet. Perhaps surprisingly, Thyagaraja has not composed what you may call “big” compositions in nATakurinji.

Under the hood
Now on to a “under the hood” look at the technicalities of the raga. I will try to avoid a dry presentation of the technical details and instead mix it with some context and audio samples.

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