Spring is here! Holi celebrated as the festival of spring colors is truly more than that. The 8 days before holi are called Holashtak, and are observed as the days that Hiranyakashyapu carried out atrocities on his son Prahlad for choosing to be a devotee of Vishnu. Soon after the holika dahan on the 8th day of Holashtak, it is said that Narasimha appeared. I would like to offer this humble prayer to the lord on today's day following holashtak, as we celebrated holi yesterday. It is also an offering to the genius of Muthuswamy Dikshitar whose work continues to open windows in our minds, hearts and souls towards a profound musical consciousness.
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Narasimha Agachha, is a kriti composed by Shri Muthuswamy Dikshitar in Raga Mohanam, which in Hindustani classical music is known as Raga Bhupali. The kriti carries all hallmarks of Dikshitar’s compositions - the exemplary usage of Raga dynamics and patterns, written in the finest form of sanskrit and embellished with mantrashastras. His poetic flavor and above all his characteristic polish and finish of the details in each of his kritis is what shines through.
This kriti displays the distinctive dhrupad pattern of layakari, a strong hallmark of the genre. The sanskrit is beautifully composed such that one can easily observe the movement from pallavi, anupallavi and finally the charanam that evolve from ekgun (single) to dugun (double) and then chaugun (x4). As we move along, the tala and the composition almost depict the movement of Narasimha’s lion like gait, slow at first and charging later.
I was drawn to this kriti from a comment on one of my previous Dikshitar Kritis published on KZread. He requested me to do a complete rendition of Raga Bhupali in typical Dhrupad style alaap jod jhaala followed by Narasimha Agachha. Inspired by this I worked on the kriti and presented it for my concert at India International Centre, New Delhi in November 2023. Unfortunately we were unable to record the concert live and in my last trip to India I decided to record the entire rendition in the studio. This track is a precursor to the full length rendition of Bhupali including alaap jod jhaala and kriti. I will be sharing the alaap jod jhaala preceding the rendition of this kriti in Bhupali in a separate video shortly. These recordings will also be released on all major music streaming platforms soon.
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Narasimha -
half-man half lion (narsimha) is the 5th incarnation of Vishnu.
He represents transition, and is uniquely positioned between the animal form and the human form incarnations of Vishnu. The mythology of Narasimha emphasizes the an inverted world, where values and life styles are the opposite for a harmonious peaceful world order. As an example of this, Hiranyakshyapu, an asura has a son, Prahlada, who unlike his father, is born with sattvika attributes and worships Vishnu, the deity of sattvika nature, while the god Vishnu appears in the form of Narasimha, with a lion head, commonly associated with fierce animalistic, or dark tendencies.
Narasimha is recognized as the God of rescues, renewals and new beginnings. The traditional Narasimhamantra contains an invocation to Narasimha as Vishnu and narrates his role beyond the world as death to death (mrityurmrityum). Popularly, Narasimha is worshipped to seek relief from close-to-death or end-of-life crises (disease, accidents etc.). Narasimha Jayanti, celebrated at the beginning of the year marking beginning of the year and the changing of seasons signify renewal and new life.
Interesting analysis on Narasimha Avatar can be found at - digitalcommons...
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Credits -
Dhrupad Vocal - Shilpa Shanker Narain
Pakhawaj - Roman Das
Recorded by Anuj Jain at Sound Forte Studio, Noida, India
Edited, Mixed & Mastered by Anuj Jain at Sound Forte Studio, Noida, India