Sanjay Subrahamanyan at the Navaratri Mandapam, 2023

One fine September afternoon in Trivandrum. Own picture.

As I wrote earlier on this blog, Carnatic stalwart Sangīta Kalānidhi Sanjay Subrahmanyan performed in Thiruvananthapuram at the Padmanabhaswamy Temple's annual Navaratri concert last week. These concerts, one for each of the nine evenings, are held in the Navaratri Mandapam in the Kuthiramalika Palace, near the temple's eastern gate. He was performing on the sixth, for which Maharaja Swati Tirunal has composed the Kamavardhani kriti 'Saroruhasana Jaye'. Only the compositions of Swati Tirunal are performed here.

I was slightly late to the show. The city's traffic held up the bus I had boarded, and I could only reach the temple by 18:05. I felt embarrassed: concerts like those at the Navaratri Mandapam are not meant for people without a sense of punctuality. In fact, Prince Rama Varma had written on his blog that no one would be allowed to come late. There is also the rule that patrons cannot leave before the concert ends: this concert is not for those in a hurry, either! Fortunately, I could still enter. I quickly changed into the temple's dress code and left my luggage at the cloak room (I had two large bags with me because I was catching a night train after the concert). As I was late, the Mandapam was already full and I had to take a seat on the walkway outside with many other rasikas, including a friend from college who lived near the temple.

Sanjay started his concert with a Sanskrit song in Kedaram, 'Paramānanda Naṭana Mām Pāhi'. This was a meditative piece that correctly set the mood for the rest of the evening. It was slightly surprising that Sanjay started a concert at a Vishnu temple with a song on Shiva. Up second was a more popular kriti, 'Sarōjanābha Dayārṇava Mām Ava' in Chakravakam. This song has been immortalised in the Keraliya consciousness by Dr K J Yesudas.

That song was followed by an ālapanam that seemed (to me) very Huseni-esque. My friend reassured me that the ragam was Bhairavi, and it was easy to see then why that was the case. I am terrible at distinguishing the serious sounding ragams. The violin solo ensued, confirming Bhairavi to me. The song was 'Pālaya Dēvadēva', a relatively lesser-known composition. There was outstanding swarakalpana with the piece, and Sanjay and his regular violinist Varadarajan got to bring out their typical chemistry.

The next ālāpanam was in Chalanatta (identified by the friend's sister). Once I heard it was Chalanatta, I knew what song it was going to be: the version of 'Jaladhisutā Ramaṇēṇa hi Sō'ham' popularised by Sanjay in that ragam. I have not been able to find who composed the Chalanatta rendition of this song, and so I will desist from saying anything more than that Swati Tirunal originally composed it in Behag. The Chalanatta version has also been adopted by Sanjay's students; Vivek Sadashivam sang it in May this year at his Edappally Sangeetha Sadas concert on the occasion of Swati Tirunal day.

Two short bridge pieces connected Chalanatta to the day's main kriti. The first was the familiar 'Vihara Manasa Rame' in Kapi and then 'Ānandavallī' in Neelambari. Then came a long ālāpanam in Panthuvarali/Kamavardhani, and the violin solo. Then an elaborate tānam. The night's main kriti, 'Saroruhasana Jaye' was then sung. There was a fantastic swarakalpana afterwards. The Kamavardhani episode went on for nearly an hour, including the thaniavarthanam by Neyveli Venkatesh and kañjira vidvān Alathur Rajaganesh. It was only then that I realised there was no ghaṭam in the concert!

After the thani, Sanjay sang 'Japath Japath Hari Nām', a kriti originally in Todi but put to music in a chaturrāgamālika by Prince Rama Varma: Mand, Sushama, Behag and Sindhubhairavi.

The entire concert is available online on All India Radio's (Trivandrum Studio) YouTube channel.

It was the utsavam at the temple, so my friend Janardhanan and I strolled around the temple watching the procession of the utsavamurtis and the other festivities, including a caparisoned elephant. Afterwards, it was a boring three hours in a waiting hall at Central station before I boarded my train back to my parents' place in Kochi, where I attended a Navaratri concert in Changampuzha Park. More on that soon.