A Day of Dwijavanthi

I had this urge to listen to Ustad Bismillah Khan today and I started playing his music. I trusted the YouTube algorithm to feed me tracks of his music and had this Jaijaivanti delivered. This is a jugalbandi with Pandit V.G. Jog on the violin and the duo have created magic. Simply mesmerizing. Let us listen to that first. 

While listening to this I started thinking how this ragam has been transplanted in Carnatic music. Muthuswami Dikshitar is credited with bringing this ragam to the South. It is said that he, being the Sanskrit scholar that he was, christened the Carnatic ragam as Dwijayavanthi, instead of Jayajayavanti (which got morphed into Jaijaivanti in Hindustani) with its repeated Jayas, and it became to be Dwijavanthi. Dikshitar’s two brilliant compositions in Dwijavanthi, of course, are Akhilandeswari and Chetha Sri. 

One very interesting point to note is that when Jaijaivanti was brought to Carnatic music it was not a direct cut and paste. It was not introduced as a completely new ragam that has been imported from Hindustani music. The transition was made easy by adapting it on the back of a well known ragam Sahana. Lot of Sahana phrases were incorporated into Dwijavanthi and then the distinction between the ragams was highlighted and brought out brilliantly. That way, the listeners were not made to listen something alien but a take off on something familiar. This has been a consistent practice when such imports were made from other music forms. Talk about change management. 

I only wish I could get someone to demonstrate some of these common phrases between Sahana and Dwijavanthi and how Dwijavanthi sounds distinct despite those phrases. Let us listen to some of the songs set in Dwijavanthi.

First up is the legend Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer singing Chetha Sri in his own inimitable style. I don’t know how many times I have listened to this rendering and every time the way he paints the ragam from 00:40 to 01:40 just leaves me breathless. I feel like he is executing a lazy dive off a cliff, suspending himself for a bit before a graceful dive into the waters. Just defines what Dwijavanthi is, in one mere minute. Or how in the middle of swaram singing he throws that one small embellishment in at 14:37 followed by violin. Simply great.  

Next comes is Akhilandeshwari by Dikshitar. Here Vignesh Ishwar and Sriranjani Santhanagopalan are singing a delightful version of that song after a shlokam. 

Another famous song is the Padam ’Taruni Njaan Endu Cheivu' by Maharaja Swati Thirunal of Travancore, where Dwijavanthi has been used in a haunting melody to bring out the separation anxiety of a girl who is away from her lover. Ramakrishnan Murthy has done a fantastic rendering of this and in the video you can see the smile of approval of his guru RK Shriram Kumar. Dwijavanthi has been used in Kathakali as well to bring out this emotion. 

Not to forget Tamil songs, here ‘Engu Naan Selven Ayya' by Periyasami Thooran sung by Sikkil Gurucharan. 

Thillanas in Dwijavanthi provide a different facet of the raga as they involve much faster phrases than the compositions we listened to above. Popular thillanas include those composed by Lalgudi Jayaraman and Balamurali Krishna. This one is composed and performed by Bharat Sundar. 

In retrospect I realize my first exposure to Dwijavanthi has been through Tamil film music and it is no wonder that it is a MSV song. The song is from the MGR movie ‘Maduraiyai Meeta Sundara Pandiyan’. It is sheer bliss to listen to how MSV has handled this ragam in this song.  The movement in the two seconds from 00:38 to 00:40 is such a joy to listen to. 

We have had some other nice songs in this ragam in Tamil film music. Dwijavanthi seems to be a favorite of Vidyasagar. His Poi Solla Koodathu Kadhali from the movie Run,  Mouname Parvaiyaai from Anbe Sivam and this song from the Malayalam movie Mister Butler are all good examples of Dwijavanthi in film music. Himesh Reshammiya has tuned Mukunda Mukunda in Dasavatharam and Shakar Ehsaan Loy the song Unnai Kaanadhu Naan in the movie Vishwaroopam in this ragam. Google tells me AR Rahman has used Dwijavanthi in a background score if not a song. It is surprising that I have not come across a song by Ilayaraja in this ragam. 

I will end this post with Chetha Sri rendered by my favorite, TM Krishna, in his languorous style. Just bliss.