P.R.K.Sastry
A pada varnam composed by vidwan M. Balamuralikrishna in the 22nd melakartha raga, Kharaharapriya has great richness in the Telugu literature and this composition narrates the the events that happened according to the Ganesa Purana. The beauty of this particular composition is the rhyming word sequences that occur in the stanzas, and also a single word being used at multiple places for conveying different meanings. The varnam was not composed entirely at once. First Balamuralikrishna composed the pallavi, anupallavi and ettugada, later, he added chittaswara sahityam and then kept adding the charanams to it, and he rendered this during a concert in Chennai in the year 1999.
To
listen to this varnam please click
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T887RCz58yY
The
six-stanza varnam starts with the pallavi, Ninnu
nera nammithi Gananayaka, nata jana vighna vinaashana. The composer says
that he has a great faith on the Lord Ganesa who is always engaged in
eliminating the obstacles of his devotees. The composer has inscribed his
signature/mudhra in the anupallavi, and it rhymes at end of the each phrase perfectly;
Muni gana pranuta, mangala charita,
Murali Krishna sahodari sutha. The
composer describes Lord Ganesa as being praised by the holy sages, with an
auspicious history and the son of the sister of Murali Krishna; Goddess Parvathi, sister of Lord Vishnu. In order to inscribe
his signature, the composer describes the incarnation of Vishnu in the form of
Krishna who holds flute (Murali) in his hand.
The
chittaswara sahityam describes an important incident in the Ganesa Purana. The
moon, which adorns the head of Lord Siva laughs at Ganesha on the sacred
Chaturthi day, when Ganesa with his stomach full is unable to bow and offer his
prayers to his parents Siva and Parvathi. In order to suppress his ego, Ganesa
curses the moon that whoever person sees the moon will face unnecessary blames
and undeserved defames. Having realised his mistake, Chandra (moon) surrenders to
the feet of Ganesa. The Lord retracts the curse, but says that a person who
will see the moon on the Ganesa Chaturthi without worshipping him will have to
face the undeserved blames!
The
ettugada pallavi continues at end of each stanza. The composer describes Lord
Ganesa as Sumukhaa paavana, sritha sumukha,
meaning, the lord is holy and handsome and is agreeable to his devotees. The
first Sumukha refers to describe the handsomeness of the Lord and in Telugu,
the word Sumukha means accept, agree or to make a nod.
In
the first stanza, the composer says that he trusts the feet of the Lord. In the
second stanza the composer says that Naraadi
vinuta pada vaarana mukha, bhaya vaarana vara guna daana vitarana. Lord Ganesa, with an elephant face, whose feet
is worshipped by the humans, is the remover of fear, and has the noble
character as he showers his blessings liberally. Once can see rhyming word at
end of each phrase, and also the word Varana
is being used at two places. It is used as a synonym for an elephant in the
first place, and in the second place it is used as a synonym for
removing/eliminating. In the third stanza, the composer feels grateful to the
Lord and says that he feels blissful by reading the glorious history of Ganesa
and asks him to forgive the sins committed knowingly or unknowingly and to
transform him into a noble/kind hearted person.
The
first three stanzas describe the qualities of Lord Ganesa and the wishes made
by the composer on behalf of the devotees. The last three stanzas describe the
incidents that happened according to the Ganesa Purana. In the fourth stanza,
the composer says that Ganesa took the form of a bird and killed three demons that
were in the form of a tree, a net and a human, thereby bringing peace and
prosperity to earth. In the fifth stanza, he describes how Lord Ganesa
suppressed the demon Durasara. Durasara was a greedy demon, who attempted to
invade and conquer the holy city of Varanasi. At first, Ganesa took the form of
a dwarf, and then expanded himself to full strength, killed the demon by
crushing his head with one foot, and spread the second foot as an umbrella over
the entire city of Varanasi and hence established peace. Finally, the composer
says that Ninu pogada mementha – we humans
are meagre people to sing in praise of you. There are continuous rhyming words
that come one after the other in this stanza such as Varanasi nakraminchina durasaruni durasa nirasa gavimpa. Here,
duraasa means greed, and niraasa means sorrow. There is an underlying message
being conveyed that too much of greed will always lead to sorrow.
The
sixth and final stanza, and the largest of all, describes how Lord Ganesa acquired
the leadership of the ganas. There is a story where the ganas, the servants of
Lord Siva ask him to appoint a leader for them. Then, Lord Siva calls upon his
two sons Ganesa and Muruga (Karthikeya) and conducts a test that whoever goes
around the entire universe and takes a dip in all the holy water bodies and
returns first, will be assigned the leadership. Muruga heads out on his peacock.
Ganesa, unable to move fast, recognises that the entire universe is dependent on
his parents, and hence goes around them, and thus wins the test.
This
composition is unique since no other varnam describes the glory of Lord Ganesa
in such an elaborative manner.
