സംഗീത സന്തോഷങ്ങൾ - IR & MFM

App ji,
Terrific analysis and insight on the first line itself. So much hidden meaning, ONV Kurup wow! So exciting to hear to the rest of the song.

nanRi V_Sji, for the appreciation!

That first line was quite easy. The second line, however, throws in a lot of challenges (to me)

ആദിസർഗ്ഗതാളമാർന്നതിവിടെ - Adhi sargga thALam Arnnathivide

Two words are repeat from the first line - Adhi & ivide, first & here.

Another word is very familiar to anyone coming to discuss about IR - thALam - which is again part of everyday Thamizh I really don't know (and don't want to get into such a charchchai) whether tAL came from thALam or vice versa

While there may be multiple English words that people could use to translate this, I guess the one preferred by musicals is "rhythm".

Now, the other two words are not that easy - sargam & Arnnathu - honestly, I had to look up lexicons to find out. Let's dig them one by one

sargam - Hariharan himself directed the movie 'sargam' in 1992 which was a big hit (and so was the Hindi one with Jayapradha in the previous decade). I see in wikipedia even an Urdu movie with that title

Now, since the word is added to thALam, this has to have something to do with music is anybody's guess. But then, what is sarga thALam? I'm not knowledgeable enough in music to identify that. On top of it, it comes after Adhi and there is this "Adhi thALam" too That way, sargam cannot be the "structure" of rhythm but something else...

"gamut" is what the literal translation it seems which includes the whole musical spectrum. Alternatively, like Shankar renders in dhool it could be canto, which means song. Let's decide after we get the context and the meaning of other word

That other word is 'Arnnathu' / Aruka is defined in dictionary as "niRainja / vardhichcha / uLLa / koodiya / pooNda / vyApichcha / chErnna' - which literally means "fill".

Putting both these together, we can either come to the same conclusion as Shankar :

"the first canto got its rhythm from here"

Or, alternatively, we can translate that as " the very first musical spectrum of rhythm filled this place"

There we get two alternate renderings, one involving a specific song and another broadstroking the whole musical spectrum!

As far as I know sargam is nothing but swaram or notes (sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni). I think he refers that the swaram and thaaLam (which is music) initiated from here? #justguessing

Fantastic effort App on providing the translation of Aadhi Ushus song. I have been longing to know the meaning of this song right from the first time I heard it but have been lazy not to try figuring it out. Hats off to your effort sir

nanRi rajkumarc for reading and commenting

nanRi V_Sji for furthering the thought on 'sargam'!

swaram & spectrum (collection of frequencies / notes) are quite synonymous I suppose.

Also, swaram + layam (~thALam) suits the summary of thought very well.

So, "Adhi sargga thALam Arnnathivide" can be rendered as "the first set of musical notes and rhythm accompaniment filled the air right here"

Here again, contextually, we can fit to all the three scenarios that I've applied for "first morning / evening" earlier...

#1 This dark jungle gets music today, thanks to the swarming of the army of people, war bands, horse gallops etc

#2 The FIRST song of freedom movement (like Bharathi's "enRu thaNiyum engaL sudhandhira dhAgam") has begun here!

#3 Kerala is Bhagwan's own country - where else the first notes of music could have begun!

I guess all three interpretations will jell well with what comes after as 'bOdha nilAppAl kaRannum, mAmunimAr thabam cheydhum nAdha ganga yozhuki vannathivide"...let us do the word-by-word of that as next exercise

Moving on to the last line of the pallavi :
ബോധനിലാപ്പാൽ കറന്നും മാമുനിമാർ തപം ചെയ്തും നാദഗംഗയൊഴുകി വന്നതിവിടെ
(bOdha nilAppAl kaRannum, mAmunimAr thabam cheydhum, nAdha ganga yozhuki vannathivide)

Let's start from the last phrase of this line, which is much easier

നാദഗംഗയൊഴുകി വന്നതിവിടെ / nAdha ganga yozhuki vannathivide - here almost all words are familiar to an average Thamizh person.

nAdham - music (nAdham en jeevanE)

ganga - river gangai, considered holy by majority of Indians, people undertake pilgrimage to take a dip in it, icon for "source of life" - being a jeeva nadhi. BTW, terms like this cannot be simply understood by a new student of an Indian language, unless they know the culture of the land. Here, it is a metaphor for music. The rush of , the flow of the LIVELY music!

ozhugi - though it literally means 'trickle' in Thamizh, in Malayalam, it includes generous flow - that way, all the rivers there are told to be "ozhugi"fying

vannathivide = vandhadhu ingE in Thamizh. I've posted about this in the hub of Malayali's being 'mellinap piriyarkaL' changing vallina consonants in Thamizh into mellinam for the Malayalam equivalents That way, 'vantha' becomes 'vanna' and this word means come / arrive.

So, we got the meaning of the last part of this line : "the river of music flowed-in here". This is a "result" statement.

The first two parts of the line explains how this has resulted...or, how this 'grand flow of music' happened here...

Two causes are given for the arrival of the river of music.

One is easy to decipher : മാമുനിമാർ തപം ചെയ്തും / mAmunimAr thapam cheydhum.

This is traditionally considered a great heritage of the country of India in general and Kerala (and similar mountainous / foresty regions) in particular. That of having many great sages doing prayer / meditations / penance / yOgA and such - some focussing on supreme power and others dwelling on self-realization etc.

That way, mAmunimAr - great sages, thapam cheydhum -conducting prayers / meditation / penance / self-sacrificing acts, is considered one reason for the flow of music.

This could be interpreted both as a) due to the effort of extraordinary humans (gifted musicians, for e.g.) b)the blessings of supreme power!

The other cause is not so easy to decipher (for me)

ബോധനിലാപ്പാൽ കറന്നും - bOdha nilAppAl kaRannum

The part that is easy to translate is "pAl kaRannum" = milking

But the question is milking what?

So, the focus is on "bOdha nilA" - what is that? As such each word is easy to translate - bOdham = budhdhi / wisdom & nilA = chandiran / moon.

But what is "bOdha nilA" and what is its milk? I still cannot conclude

My current understanding : Moon is used as a metaphor to wisdom. Often we refer moon also as "milky moon", for it's lovely milky light. That way, the "milk of moon" is the calming light that emanates from it. In effect, the phrase can be rendered as "milking the light rays of moon-like-wisdom", or, simply "by the power of wisdom". Which is a suitable cause for the "flow of nAdha gangai"

Moving on to saraNams, let me first get the "repeated portion" done (because it's quite easy )

സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം മേലേ നീലാകാശം പോലേ
പാടുന്നതാരോ കാറ്റോ കാട്ടരുവികളോ

(swAthanthryam mElE neelAkAsham pOlE, pAdunnathArO kAtRO kAttaruvikaLO?)

swAthanthryam - freedom / independence

mElE - above

neelAkAsham pOlE - like blue sky

pAdunnathArO - who sings? (pAdunna = pAduRa, another removal of vallinam by Malayalam from Thamizh)

kAtRO - is it the wind?

kAttaruvikaLO? - Or the wild brooks / streams / waterfalls? (Please note, aruvi is typically "waterfalls" in Thamizh but it means all these in Malayalam. In any case, all these cause an interesting & loud sound, music to the ears of many)

So, this portion is almost entirely dedicated to the freedom movement / uprise & the related gathering of troops in the forest by the King.

While there is lament about lack of freedom (desirable but unreachable - like the blue skies above), there's also jubilation about the support they are getting - as the song is compared to thundering wild winds & streams!

huh - this many posts and still we have 2 saraNams left

The first one seems to be somewhat easier :

ആരിവിടെ കൂരിരുളിൻ മടകള്‍ തീർത്തൂ (Arivide kooriruLin madakaL theerththu)
ആരിവിടെ തേൻ കടന്നല്‍ക്കൂടു തകർത്തൂ (Arivide thEn kadannalk koodu thakarththu)
ആരിവിടെ ചുരങ്ങൾ താണ്ടി ചൂളമടിച്ചൂ (Arivide churangaL thANdi chooLamadichchu)
ആനകേറാ മാമല തൻ മൗനമുടച്ചൂ (Ana kERA mAmala than mounamudachchu)

I did the last line before, in explaining the context in pallavi...which is quite simple for a Thamizh person, except that 'ERuthal' in Thamizh becomes 'kERuthal' / 'kayaRudhal' in Malayalam.

That way, that line gets translated as "breaking the silence of the great hill that was not climbed by elephant".

Now, the other three lines have the same first word 'Arivide', which is same as Thamizh - who here (did xyz)

There are three things that are asked about, as to who did it!

Let's get those three in another post...

kooriruLin    - pitch dark (same as Thamizh, kAriruL is similar to kooriruL)

madakaL     - sluice gates (madai thiRandhu thAvum nadhiyalai nAn There is a village called "chulli mada" between Palakkad and Coimbatore. "mada" can also mean home of animals, there is another village called 'mudhala mada' between Palakkad and Pollachi).

theerththu  - finished / eliminated etc

So, the first line can roughtly be translated as "who eliminated the sluice gates of pitch darkness".

In other words, "aren't these warriors of freedom who cleared the jungle out to enable entry of light" or "haven't we started the movement that will eliminate slavery".

Quite an inspiring line!

The next line of 'thEn kadannal koodu thakarththu' is kind of interesting.

While the overall meaning is easy to guess (there are lot of beehives in jungles that had to be demolished for humans to settle down, as in the case of Pazhassi Raja and his military), the word "kadannal" gives a twist.

That means wasp - in other words, the poet literally mentions "honey wasp nests" - which could be interpreted in two ways...

One is both beehives & wasp nests - meaning the forces had to clear off both kinds of insect settlements (one made of wax and the other paper, both equally dangerous insects, especially when coming in big swarms).

The other could be a special kind of wasps (like the mexican "honey wasp" that stores nectars but builds paper nests) that are native to the particular jungle where Pazhassi Raja had to take refuge.

Either way, the line 'who had demolished the nests of wasps & bees (or honey wasps)' nicely brings to mind the perilous journey of the king into the jungle!
 
It could also have the figurative meaning of terming the British & their cohorts as "visha jandhukkaL with kodukku"

One more line left in first saraNam - ആരിവിടെ ചുരങ്ങൾ താണ്ടി ചൂളമടിച്ചൂ - goes well with what follows after (ആനകേറാ മാമല തൻ മൗനമുടച്ചൂ)...

Something is done that breaks the silence of the mountain unclimbed by elephants.

Some sort of sound / noise, which is told by the word "Arivide...chooLamadichchu" (who whistled?)

Now, the left-out phrase is "churangaL thANdi".

Even without knowing the exact meaning, this can be easily guessed, what does one need to "cross" to reach a mountain peak & make noise?

Obviously a steep climb / narrow mountain way / mountain pass / ghat. All these are the meanings of "churam" (churangaL being the plural, making the journey across one too many, to reach the mountain peak).

So, the overall translation of the saraNam goes like :

Who finished off the sluice gates of darkness?
Who demolished the honey wasp nests?
Who passed many ghats to whistle and break the silence of mountains never climbed by elephants?

:wiping sweat on forehead:

One more saraNam / four more lines to interpret in this classic song!

Nice and extensive analysis on the lyrics.  Really loved the analysis for 'thEn kadannal koodu thakarththu' and the ending lines. Now really getting the grip of the song.

nanRi V_Sji!

innum oru stanza pending...

Meanwhile, since dhool.com is now infected with virus (thankfully, Norton catches it...google also reports it) and I really value Shankar's writing there, I would like to copy-paste it here (and hopefully he won't mind):

My friend Shankar, in dhool.com wrote:
Hariharan + MT Vasudevan Nair + mammookka gave us a brilliant movie + album in “oru vadakkan veera gAdhA” (Chandana lEbha sugandham, to name one – by Bombay Ravi, Hariharan’s regular MD). After 18 years, they are back, except this time, Raja scores for them, and my personal expectation was very high because Hariharan doesn’t compromise on quality, and Raja doesn’t disappoint.

After a long time, I found a Raja album where each song had something interesting in it unlike an “elankAthu veesudhE” here, and “maa ganga” & “kaNNil pArvai” there.

While many people swear by Chithra’s “kunnathE konnaikkum”, I found this song pretty interesting for two reasons:
1. This is set to a pre-written poem by ONV Kurup
2. This song captures the essence of this movie (the lyrics, and the dynamics of the song clearly sets the context of the movie)

The prelude with its Keyboard rhythm, violins, and the Horn sets the stage for KJY to start:
“Adhi ushas Sandhya poothadhividE, (ONV shows his class with the very first line – “the first dawn/dusk blossomed here”)
Adhi sargam thALamArnadhividE” (the first canto got its rhythm from here – experts correct me if I’m wrong).

He talks further about the beauty of this land…
“bOdha nilA pAl karan-n-u,
mA munimAr thavan cheidhu,
Nadha gangai ozhugi vannadhividE“ (check the percussions brought in to augment the primary rhythm….kalakkals!!)

Raja brings the ominous signs of invasion, creating an eerie mood (including the hissing female voice). I’ve no idea what Raja had in mind while composing this interlude, but to me, it looked like the Snake (satan) slithering into the Garden of Eden.

The first charaNam starts lamenting about the chaos created by the invaders in the God’s own Country
“ArividE kooriruLin MadagaL theerthu,
ArividE thEnkadaN-N-aL koodu thagarthu
ArividE churangaL thANdi chooLamadichu
Ana kErA mAmalathan mounam udachu”

[who disturbed the honey comb, who created noise in the Ghats (of wayanad), who broke the silence of the mountains that aren’t treaded even by elephants]

The next lines explain the anguish of people to whom freedom is as unreachable as the Sky, and Raja aptly introduces the chorus to create the right mood:
“swAdhandriyam mElE neela AkAsham pOlE”

Till now, the anguish is represented by a solo male voice (with MGS repeating KJYs lines).
The second stanza talks about the uprising, and Raja brings back the Horns, and the violins, and KJY starts with (there’s a very quiet bit, depicting their night camping, right before KJY begins – donno if Raja added this piece after the song was shot)

“Edhu kaigaL araNikkol kadannjirunnu,
chEdhanaiyil, aRivindE agni yuNrnnu,
soora tEja sAksharadham jeeva NALam pOl
nooru mana vAdhalgaLil jwalayuNarnnu”

[How many hands worked on getting the ‘araNi (“samith” - small sticks used in Yagna), and gave life to the (fire of) knowledge, Like the life line of the intellects (brave & sharp literates), the fire of freedom touched the minds of 100s of people]

When the song reaches the climax, Raja uses his tested technique of chorus repeating the male lead, leading to a crescendo denoting the uprising, to end the song.

There are a few glitches like KJY going off key in places like (uNarnnu, and losing clarity in places like sAksharadham/vAdhalgaLil etc).
Except that the song left a lasting impact, making me listen to it in repeat mode (which hasn’t happened to me for any song in recent times except masakali from dilli-6)

The movie itself is well-shot, with good production values. More than the songs, Raja, as expected, shows his class in the BGScore. His usage of silence, as always has been exemplary.
A motif lasting just 3 bars, has some 4-5 variants, depending on the mood of the scene, and I was pleasantly surprised to see so many variants of such a short motif (the best is when Mammootty visits Captain Raj’s place, and the one towards the climax comes a close second).
There’s a tribal theme, played during the thalassery fort scene, which remains etched in the memory.

I was tempted to draw parallels with Guru, but given that Guru was a fantasy, and this a period movie, it made no sense whatsoever to compare the songs (and the mood they depicted). Guru was a landmark album and any good Raja album relying primarily on Western classical form, would be compared to Guru. While, Guru scored in its variety, this scores purely on Raja freaking out in the rhythm/percussion sections

While in the first stanza ONV focussed on the "conquering the forest" theme (much like in the pallavi itself), he switches to a different theme in the second one - that of knowledge, wisdom - another matter of pride for contemporary Keralites (literacy / sAkshara kEraLam / സാക്ഷര കേരളം)

While Shankar's post above captures the underlying meaning, along with interpretations for key words, let us do the word-by-word literal interpretation, as in the case of other lines of this song...

ഏതു കൈകള്‍ അരണിക്കോല്‍ കടഞ്ഞിരുന്നൂ
ചേതനയില്‍ അറിവിന്റെ അഗ്നിയുണര്‍ന്നു
സൂര്യതേജസ്സാര്‍ന്നവര്‍തന്‍ ജീവനാളംപോല്‍
നൂറുമലർ വാചകളിൽ ജ്വാലയുണര്ന്നൂ

Taking the first line, the key to understanding the whole sentence lies with one word "അരണി" - which is not an everyday word and not known to an average-TN-er like me! Well, as shown in web dictionaries, it means "wood used for producing fire by attrition during yAgA", a piece of wood used in making fire during vELvi.

The poet wonders "which hands stirred around with the yAgA stick" (Edhu = which, kaikaL = hands, araNikkOl - piece of wood used to incite fire in yAgam, kadaidhal - stirring, much like "thayir kadaidhal")

Except that araNi part, rest are all from ordinary Thamizh only

We'll get the meaning / impact of this line only in combination with the rest...

ചേതനയില്‍ അറിവിന്റെ അഗ്നിയുണര്‍ന്നു

First word is tough, others are not so tough for TN-ers...

aRivu       = knowledge
agni         = fire
uNarnnu    = slight difference between Thamizh and Malayalam here. In Thamizh, this means "felt" or "understood". OTOH, it means "rose up" "woke up" also in Malayalam...essentially the same meaning but more literal there.

Now, what is this ചേതന / chEthana?

A simple dictionary search will tell that this means "consciousness, knowledge, thought, life". As knowledge cannot get ignited in itself, we need to take the other meanings (consiousness / thought or life itself).

So, the second line means - spark of knowledge got ignited in life.

Obviously, this refers to the thought of freedom in the movie's context ; but in the general conscience of Keralites, it meant the very beginning of wisdom - that got started by the hands of their ancestors (whose hands stirred up the stick of yAgA)...

The two lines left - Shankar claims KJY sings these unclear. OTOH, the Malayalam lyric sites consistently render them as I posted before :

സൂര്യതേജസ്സാര്‍ന്നവര്‍തന്‍ ജീവനാളംപോല്‍
നൂറുമലർ വാചകളിൽ ജ്വാലയുണര്ന്നൂ

I'll agree with Shankar on the first word - KJY clearly says it 'soora thEjus' (and not soorya thEjus). I wonder what 'soora' means - it is a form for sun or the Thamizh meaning of "extra valiant" (soorappuli). On the visuals, they show Mammootty on a white horse when this line is played. So, it could be either the brightness of sun or the brightness of a valiant soldier. Either way, it talks about "brilliance" (thEjus).

Now, continuing from the prior line of "spark of wisdom fire", here one can render it as a much bigger arrival of "massive flames of fire".

soorya thEjuss Arnnavar tham jeeva nALam pOl= "just like the lively vessels of those filled with sun's brilliance" - in other words, people charged with brilliance.

nooru malar vAchakaLil jwAla uNarnnu- flamed off in statements like hundreds of flower petals (literally).

Obviously, these two lines are somewhat difficult to literally interpret - but the poet hits the target - of the sparks of wisdom turning into massive flames of fire of wisdom!

Lovely song, packed with a lot of passion for all three - the movie situation involving the King's exile, freedom movement in general & native Keralites' pride in their heritage!

Like we've seen in these two pages of this thread (multiple posts), the song cannot be given true justice by a mere literal translation! (Which is true of any decent poem of some literary value).

Still, for someone who looks around for just a mere translation, it could be laborious to read thru all my blA-blA.

So, here is the straight literal translation of the song :

Chorus:

The very first morning and evening blossomed here!
The very first musical spectrum of rhythm filled this place!
By milking the moon of wisdom
And by great sages conducting penances
The gangA(river) of music flowed and reached here!

Stanza 1:

Who finished off the sluice gates of darkness?
Who demolished the honey wasp nests?
Who passed many steeps to whistle and break the silence
Of the great mountain never climbed by elephants?
Freedom is like the blue sky above!
Who sings now? Is it the wind? Or the wild brooks?

Stanza 2:

Which hands stirred around with the stick of holy fire?
And ignited the spark of knowledge in life?
Like the life conduit of those filled with sun's brilliance
Flamed off in statements like hundreds of flower petals!
Freedom is like the blue sky above!
Who sings now? Is it the wind? Or the wild brooks?

Checked out the TF version of Adhi Ushus, which sounds more like Malayalam - but there are some "adjustments" too (By Vaali):

ஆதி முதற்காலம் பூத்ததிங்கே
ஆஹா ஆதி எனும் தாளம் ஆர்த்ததிங்கே
மோகம் எல்லாம் தாம் விடுத்து
மாமுனிகள் தவம் செய்து
ஞான கங்கை பெருகி வந்ததிங்கே

யாவர் இங்கே கும்மிருட்டாய் குகைகள் செய்தார்?
யாவர் இங்கே கொம்புத்தேன் கூடுகள் கொய்தார்?
யாவர் இங்கே அடிக்கல் நாட்ட உரிமை படைத்தார்?
யானை ஏறா மாமலையின் மௌனம் உடைத்தார்!
நாம் வாழும் காடு நம் தாய்வீடு என்று
இசைக்கின்றதாரோ காற்றோ காட்டருவிகளோ?


எந்தக்கைகள் அரணிக்கோல் கடைந்ததிங்கே?
சிந்தனையில் அறிவென்னும் செந்தழல் தோன்ற!
ஞான சூர்யன் என்றிருக்கும் ஞானவான்கள் போல்
நூறு வகைப் பூக்களிலே சுடர்கள் எழுப்பும்!
நாம் வாழும் காடு நம் தாய்வீடு என்று
இசைக்கின்றதாரோ காற்றோ காட்டருவிகளோ?

Thanks app ji for all the hard work. The song and the meaning now will never fade away from my memory.

Excellent song, V_Sji!

Again, first time listen - rare ഗാനങ്ങൾ ഇവിടെ നൽകി കലക്കുന്നു!

വളരെ നന്ദി!

I'm thinking of starting another adventure - transliteration / translation of 'kunnaththe'

Well, may be after a week

app_engine wrote:rare ഗാനങ്ങൾ ഇവിടെ നൽകി കലക്കുന്നു!

വളരെ നന്ദി!

Sure you are welcome! I could read this now.

kunnathe - seiyungo seiyungo