Kamalambikayah

Happy Shashti to all of you! I continue my posts on Dikshithar’s Navavarana kritis (Nine Enclosures) and we have come to the sixth one today. As we unfold one Avaranam (Enclosure) after another, it is clear that each one is one further step in reaching the state of oneness with the Supreme Consciousness which resides in the centre. A true worship is not just revering this chakra, but in exploring the meaning of each consecutive state and training our minds to reach that state. It is all so complicated! So what of us ‘normal’ people with limited abilities? Are we to just blindly worship the symbol without any follow through? Are we to resign ourselves to the fact the we are just not capable?

Here, Dikshithar comes to help with the very first line of today’s kriti. He addresses Kamalambika as sangIta rasika, She who loves music and says that he, Dikshithar, is Her devotee. It is only that one sentence that I cling today, telling myself that surely She who loves music will be present every time I play this beautiful song…

The sixth Avarana is called the सर्व रक्षाकर चक्र Sarva Rakshakara Chakra (All Protecting Chakra). Let us forget meaning, let us forget prescribed forms of worship, let us forget everything except that She who loves music IS music itself, that our love for music is in fact a worship it itself. This kriti is set to Raga Punnagavarali and is presented to us today by K.Gayatri.

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Footnote (Lyrics and Translation) :

Composer : Muthuswami Dikshithar
Raga : Punnagavarali
Language : Sanskrit

पल्लवि
कमलाम्बिकायास्तव भक्तोऽहं
शङ्कर्याः श्रीकर्याः सङ्गीत रसिकायाः श्री

अनुपल्लवि
सुम शरेक्षु कोदण्ड पाशाङ्कुश पाण्याः
अति मधुर-तर वाण्याः शर्वाण्याः कल्याण्याः
रमणीय पुन्नाग वराळि विजित वेण्याः श्री

चरणम्
दश कलात्मक वह्नि स्वरूप प्रकाशान्तर्दशार सर्व रक्षाकर चक्रेश्वर्याः
त्रि दशादि नुत क च वर्ग द्वय मय सर्वज्ञादि दश शक्ति समेत मालिनी चक्रेश्वर्याः
त्रिदश विंशद्वर्ण गर्भिणी कुण्डलिन्याः दश मुद्रा समाराधित कौळिन्याः
(मध्यम काल साहित्यम्)
दश रथादि नुत गुरु गुह जनक शिव बोधिन्याः दश करण वृत्ति मरीचि निगर्भ योगिन्याः श्री

Transliteration

pallavi
kamalAmbikAyAstava bhaktOham
shankaryAH SrI-karyAH sangIta rasikAyAH shrI

anupallavi
suma sharEkshu kOdaNDa pAshAnkusha pANyAH
ati madhura tara vANyAH sharvANyAH kalyANyAH
ramaNIya punnAga varALi vijita vENyAH shrI

charaNam
daSa kalAtmaka vahni svarUpa prakAshAntardashAra sarva rakshA-kara chakrEshvaryAH
tridashAdi nuta ka cha varga dvay maya sarvajnAdi dasha shakti samEta mAlinI chakrESvaryAH
tridasha vimshadvarNa garbhiNI kuNDalinyAH dasha mudrA samArAdhita kauLinyAH
(madhyama kAla sAhityam)
dasha rathAdi nuta guru guha janaka shiva bOdhinyAH
daSa karaNa vRtti marIci nigarbha yOginyAH shrI

Translation

Note : As I did not have time to do the translation, this is as available on Guruguha.org  I will do a word by word translation as soon as I am able.

I am a devotee of you, kamalambika. The auspicious, the harbinger of prosperity, the connoisseur of music.

The one who holds bow of sugarcane, arrow of flowers, the noose and goad, the one with the sweetest voice, the consort of sharva; the auspicious, the one whose tresses are blacker than the bees in the punnaga trees.

The controller of the Sarvarakshakara chakra with ten petals ; The controller of the Malini chakra which has the ten shaktis beginning with Sarvagna the shakti represented by the ka series & ca series and praised by the devas;
the one who is kundalini which is embodied in the 50 letters; The kaulini devi worshipped with the 10 mudras, the perceptor of shiva – the father of guruguha; The one adored by dasharatha; the one who has taken the form of yogini power who holds in herself hearing and all activities of the 10 indriyas