 |
| The idol of Saraswathi in a procession/travel.manoramaonline.com |
Above image: The festivities officially begin with three deities – Saraswathi, Kumaraswami and Munnuttinanka setting out on a three-day journey, covering 60 km to Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala from Padmanabhapuram palace, now in Tuckalay, Tamil Nadu. At Navaratri Mandapam, the deities will be kept for nine days and after the festival, they will be reverentially brought back to Padmanabhapuram Palace in Kanyakumari district ...................
Goddess Saraswathi on the elephant, Kumaraswami and Munnuttinanka follow on palanquins. Photo: Rinku...
Read more at: http://travel.manoramaonline.com/travel/essential-kerala/two-states-three-gods-faith-navarathri-thiruvananthapuram-padmanabhapuram-deities.ht
Read more at: http://travel.manoramaonline.com/travel/essential-kerala/two-states-three-gods-faith-navarathri-thiruvananthapuram-padmanabhapuram-deities.ht
 |
| Navaratri Mandapam, Thiruvanthapuram swathithirunal.in/ |
Tradition has it that in the 13th century Saint Kambar Who wrote Kamba Ramayanam in Tamil gifted the idol of goddess Saraswathi to his disciple, Chera King on condition that the deity would be worshipped every year during Navrathri. Later, the Chera kingdom became Venad and Travancore. As promised by the early Chera king, the tradition of celebrating Navaratri continues to day by the king's descendants. Earlier till 1834 the Saraswathi mandapam in the Padmanabhapuram Palace complex was the venue for this festival.
Long ago the royal family shifted the capital from Padmanabapuram, now in Tamil Nadu to Thiruvananthapuram. However, the rulers of Travancore made special arrangement to bring Saraswathi idol in a grand procession from the temple at Padmanabhapuram palace in Tamil Nadu to their new capital during Navaratri festival time and the idol would be kept in the specially built Navaratri Mandapam at the temple. Besides, the sword, kept in Upparika Malika in the
 |
| Padmanabhapuram palace, TN thehindu.com |
Pamanabhapuram palace will also be taken to the temple at Thiruvanthapuram after reverentially kept at the feet of Padmanabhapuram Thevarkattu Saraswathi Amman Temple. During the10 day festival pujas will be conducted amidst chanting of Vedic mantras by the pundits and priests.
The Navarathri Mandapam, the main venue of the concert is a nicely carved wooden building and during the festival days it is well decorated with flowers, etc. Countless oil lamps are lit in this place and elsewhere in the temple. No electric lights are used in the concert hall which provides soothing ambiance for the performers. The audience is not allowed to applaud by way of clapping their hands as Navaratri Mandapam is part of a venerated temple. Women singers were not allowed either to do Katcheri (concert) or sit in the audience in the past. Thanks to late Amma Maharani Sethu Parvathy Bayi (1896-1983), Since 2006, women have been allowed to perform and attend the concert. However, there is a strict dress code being followed. Men should wear vesti / dhoti or mundu. Women should wear sari and girls pavadai-dhavani
Late Maharani Parvathy Bayi was also instrumental in changing the format of the concert by inviting well-known musicians from other parts of the states. The music concerts will be from 6 pm till 8 pm sharp, Earlier local musicians called Mullammodu Bhagavathars will sing Thodaya Mangalam every day from 5.30 pm till 6 pm. This tradition has been in vogue for a pretty long period. Violin and flute solos and Gottuvathyam were allowed after 2006.
One interesting aspect of this concert is in those days, the tricky technique of acoustics in a concert hall was not well-known. However, here to have reasonably good acoustics, a series of earthen pots of various sizes are kept above to the ceiling. They are tied by rope to their open necks that face downward. The mouths of the pots are of different sizes and are not uniformly arranged. The thickness of the pot varies. They act as sound reflectors and cut down the echoes. The earthen pots provide equal distribution of sound in the hall and produce reined sound.
Since Maharajah Swathi Thirunal (1813-1846) was a patron of arts, dance, etc., and was keenly interested in Classical music, the main attraction of the festival was music concerts (Katcheris) in the evenings. The ruler himself composed songs - Swathi Thirunal Keerthanas in nine ragas for the festival. They are quite famous even to day. Carnatic music vocalists like Semmangudi Srinivasa Aiyar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar and others excelled in them. First three days are dedicated to Saraswathi, second three days Lakshmi is worshiped and last three days Devi Durga is worshiped.
The Navarathri Mandapam, the main venue of the concert is a nicely carved wooden building and during the festival days it is well decorated with flowers, etc. Countless oil lamps are lit in this place and elsewhere in the temple. No electric lights are used in the concert hall which provides soothing ambiance for the performers. The audience is not allowed to applaud by way of clapping their hands as Navaratri Mandapam is part of a venerated temple. Women singers were not allowed either to do Katcheri (concert) or sit in the audience in the past. Thanks to late Amma Maharani Sethu Parvathy Bayi (1896-1983), Since 2006, women have been allowed to perform and attend the concert. However, there is a strict dress code being followed. Men should wear vesti / dhoti or mundu. Women should wear sari and girls pavadai-dhavani
 |
| Padmanabha swamy temple, Thiruvanathapuram. Halo Backwater |
Late Maharani Parvathy Bayi was also instrumental in changing the format of the concert by inviting well-known musicians from other parts of the states. The music concerts will be from 6 pm till 8 pm sharp, Earlier local musicians called Mullammodu Bhagavathars will sing Thodaya Mangalam every day from 5.30 pm till 6 pm. This tradition has been in vogue for a pretty long period. Violin and flute solos and Gottuvathyam were allowed after 2006.
One interesting aspect of this concert is in those days, the tricky technique of acoustics in a concert hall was not well-known. However, here to have reasonably good acoustics, a series of earthen pots of various sizes are kept above to the ceiling. They are tied by rope to their open necks that face downward. The mouths of the pots are of different sizes and are not uniformly arranged. The thickness of the pot varies. They act as sound reflectors and cut down the echoes. The earthen pots provide equal distribution of sound in the hall and produce reined sound.
Annamacharya kriti was made famous by the late Bala Muralikrishna. Every year the Swathi Thirunal kritis would reverberate here in the near-by Kuthiramalika in the first and second week of January every year. All stalwarts of Carnatic music from Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Karnataka and Kerala performed here over a period of several decades.
http://www.swathithirunal.in/rlinsti/navarathrimand.html
.jpeg)
