Thodaya Mangalam In Tamil Pdf Download [EXCLUSIVE]

THODAYA MANGALAM - 2 c Singing of the set of five thodaya mangalam songs prior to the start of a solo Sadir recital was still in vogue in the early decades of this century. T. Sankaran, cousin of Balasaraswati, wrote in an article on the Tanjavur Quartet in the Hindu of 2.') March 1970: "The melaprapti from behind the curtains consisted of konnakkol to the accompaniment of the nattuvanar's cymbals and the clang of the mridangam- all in the khanda nadai. This convention used to be a wonderful preliminary thus building up the proper atmosphere for a dance recital. The curtain rose only after the thodaya mangalam in Nattai ragam heralded the dancer." In the scheme of dance developed by the Tanjavur Quartet, the melaprapti was indeed obligatory as an overture. T. Balasaraswati also mentioned the practice of melaprapti, which included the singing of the thodaya mangalam, in the exclusive interviews she gave to SRUTI editors prior to her demise. Her observations were reported in the first of the twopart article on her which appeared in the February 1984 issue. Yet, in her presidential address at the Tamil Isai Conference at the end of 1975, she omitted reference to the melaprapti and thodaya mangalam while drawing a parallel between the format of a Bharatanatyam recital and the architecture of a temple. She said: "We enter through the gopuram (outer hall) of alarippu, cross the ardhamandapam (half-way hall) of jatiswaram, then the mandapam (great hall) of sabdam, and enter the holy precinct of the deity in the vamam." She made no mention of the thodaya mangalam at all, probably because the thodaya mangalam is a prelude to and not a part of the dance recital, but more probably because the practice of melaprapti had been discontinued years earlier. The person who reportedly had taken the initiative to do so was none other than her own guru Kandappa (see SRUTI, February 1984). While melaprapti has fallen into desuetude, dancers belonging to the older tradition do have knowledge of its prior existence. Thus Indra Rajan, for example, recollects her grandmother Tirunallar Sundaramma telling her about melaprapti and thodaya mangalam. Strangely, U.S. Krishna Rao's little lexicon, A Dictionary of B haratanatya (first pu blished in 1980), makes reference neither to melaprapti nor to thodaya mangalam, although Krishna Rao had the privilege of studying dance from none other than Pandanallur Meenakshisundaram Pillai. If melaprapti, with the complementary thodaya mangalam, rendered as an .overture from behind the curtains prior to the start of a dance event is no longer in vogue, some dancers present a thodaya mangalam as the first choreographed item of their recitals. Dancers trained by the late Mangudi Dorairaja Iyer and Adyar Lakshman do so, for example. What they offer, however, are abridged versions of the vintage thodaya mangalam, evidently because it would be time-consuming to dance to all the 70 lines of the original five songs. Products of the Vazhuvoor school also present a thodaya mangalam, but this piece is a creation of the great nineteenth century nattuvanar who hailed from Vazhuvoor but was known as Tanjavur Swaminathan. It starts with the words 'Jaya su bhrapurivasa, jaya mahajnana sameta', in Nattai. In its last line it contains the mudra of the composer, which is Bhakta Swaminathan. Swaminathan was the grandfather of Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai who refers to him as Samu Thatha. Kamala, Padma Subrahmanyam, Chitra Visweswaran and all the others who studied with Ramiah Pillai start their recitals with this particular thodaya mangalam. Chitra says she has seen the song inscribed on the walls of the Vazhuvoor temple. The disciples of Swamimalai Rajarathnam and K.J. Sarasa- gurus who were earlier associated with the Vazhuvoor tradition- also do the same. Ramiah Pillai claims he has composed many melaprapti jati-s, but they are not in vogue now. Many have replaced the erstwhile melaprapti and thodaya mangalam with the rendering of invocatory verses or songs prior to the entrance of the dancer. Some sing Dikshitar's Mahaganap atim in Nattai or Vatapi Ganapatim in Hamsadhvani; some sing Kothavasal Venkatarama Iyer's Vinay aka ninu vina; also in Hamsadhvani. There are a few, however, who eschew this practice altogether. With the emergence of Bharatanatyam as a stage art, either the dance teachers or the dancers or both appear to have felt the need to instal an iconic 11 2b1af7f3a8