Sri Maha Ganesha Pancharatnam

Adi Sankara who has composed devotional songs of great beauty, packed at the same time with a true philosophical perspective, praising all the well-known forms of God worshipped by the Hindus, has sung five ``verse-gems'' in adoration of Lord Ganesha.

According to the Puranas, Ganesha - the Lord of the Ganas - the attendants on Siva - is a unique manifestation of Brahman. His supremacy is clear from the fact that even the Trinity, the three primal manifestations of the Absolute, viz.,  Brahma,Visnu and Siva are hampered in their work if they do not first pay homage to Ganesa. It is from Him that all other Gods derive power to bless and grant boons to devotees.

Ganesha Pancharathnam is of course universally associated with amma Smt MS Subbulakshmi. Everyone has heard "THE RENDERING" and it is etched in our heads. So exactly what is the significance of this hymn? What does it mean? First and foremost -- let us get the lyrics & meaning of this sloka.

Sanskrit Lyrics
English Lyrics
Tamil Lyrics

Meaning of the Sloka (English)


Our teacher and composer Mrs Durga Krishnan has composed the music for this sloka patterned after MS Amma's rendering. As you probably know, MS Amma sang each of the 5 stanzas in a different raga - Hamsadhwani, Malahari, Kalyanavasantham, Kuntalavarali & Madhyamavati. Expanding on the same theme Mrs Krishnan has composed a prelude & interlude to each stanza in the appropriate raga which blends in perfectly with amma's original tune.

She trained us rigorously and she herself performed on the Veena. If you listened to us all perform together you will understand how great we felt. It is hard to tell that this group consists of children ranging in age from 8 all the way to middle age. Click on the link below to hear our unique rendering of ths bhajan.

Ganesha Pancharathnam Bhajan (10 MB)


The Talented Volunteers in this effort were:

Durga Krishnan: Composer, Director & Lead Veena.

* indicates  Students of Durga Krishnan
Violin: Surya Sundarajan
Percussion: Gauri Shankar
Veena & Bass Clarinet: Amrita Mangalat*
Flute & Vocal: Ranjana Srinivasan*
Western Notation: Siddarth Bhaskar*
English Connotation: Dr. Vijayakumar		 Lead Vocal: Sangeeta Shroff
Vocal: Anjana Mangalat*
Vocal: Sachita Sekhar*
Vocal: Nandakumar Mohan*
Vocal: Siddharth Mohan*
Vocal: Gita Srinivasan*


Now you can use one of these notations to attempt reproducing the music in your instrument be it voice, veena or flute or keyboard. They are set to Adi tala. 
Sample Swara Notation
Sample Western Notation (Prelude) and  Western notation (Song)

Here is a sample beat to help you keep pace.

Sri Thanjavur S Kalyanaraman has rendered this sloka on the concert platform in a different style. If you know of other renderings please do let us know.

Feedback

The Ganesa Pancharatnam orchestrated and produced by Durga Krishnan with musical interludes composed by her, is an appealing blend of voices and instruments, sung and played mostly by children. While retaining the music popularized by M.S.Subbulakshmi, for the stanzas, Durga has embellished them with instrumental interludes, each of which builds up to the succeeding stanza through passages replete with beauty and intricacy of melody and rhythm. It marks an auspicious and apt launch of a project to popularize Carnatic music to an audience not familiar with its idiom. The audio along with notations in the western music format is expected to enable easy learning and playing - distinguished musician & musicologist   Sujatha Vijayaraghavan


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