Inspired by a very very moving rendition of “varugalamo” by *TM Krishna, RK Shriram Kumar and Arun Prakash at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, 28 November 2015
pallavi: varugalAmO ayyA undan arugil ninru koNDADavum pADavum nAn
My Lord (ayyA) [1], may I (nAn) be permitted to come (varugalAmO) close and stand/stay/exist (ninru) beside (arugil) you (undan) to celebrate (koNDADavum) [2] and sing (pADavum) your praises?
*anupallavi: parama kripAnidhi allavO indap-parayan upacAram shollavO undan
paramAnandat-tANDavam pArkkavE nAnangE (varugalAmO ayyA…)
Aren’t (allavO) you the veritable repository (nidhi) of compassion (kripA)? Do you need this (inda) lowly harijan/untouchable (parayan) to explain (SollavO) the niceties of being civil (upacAram)? So, please (my Lord), may I (nAn) (be permitted to come close to you) here (ingE), so that I can observe (pArkkavE) your (undan) supremely (parama) blissful (Ananda) cosmic dance (tANDavam) to my heart’s content?
caraNam: bhUmiyil pulaiyanAip-pirandEnE nAn puNNiyam sheyyAmal irundEnE en
sAmi un sannidhi vandEnE bhavasAgaram tannaiyum kaDandEnE karai kaDandEnE
sharaNam aDaindEnE tillai varadA paritApamum pApamum tIravE nAn (varugalAmO ayyA…)
(My Lord), not only was I (nAn) was born (pirandEnE) as an outcaste (pulaiyanAi) upon this earth (bhUmiyil), but I have also lived (irundEnE) my life without accumulating/performing (SeyyAmal) deeds that would gain me moral merits/virtue (puNNiyam). However, my (en) lord and master (sAmi), the benefactor (varadA) [3] of cidambaram (tillai), I have arrived (vandEnE) at your sanctum (sannidhi) and sought (aDaindEnE) your refuge (SaraN) after crossing (kaDandEnE) this worldly ocean of misery (bhavasAgaram) and attaining (kaDandEnE) the shore (karai). So, (may) I (nAn) (be permitted to come and stay close to you) so that my painfully miserable anguish (paritApamum) and heinous sins (pApamum) are destroyed (tIravE) forever?
*MDR and Amritha Murali start from the anupallavi; I noted in bold some of the differences in MDR’s sahityam
*The versions by MDR, KVN and Amritha Murali are are s.l.o.w and beautiful (vilamba laya, chowka kaalam)
S Soumya Violin: RK Sriram Kumar, Mrudangam: Neyveli Narayanan
Sangeetha Sivakumar Violin: Meera Sivaramakrishnan Mrudangam: Umayalpuram Mali Ghatam: RA Rajagopalan Kanjira: BR Latha. 2001. DD Bharati
Udayalur Kalyanarama Bhagavathar
MM Dandapani Desikar From the film, Nandanaar (1942)
*Parayan, poramboku and devadasi: The dark casteist history of these common words – article by TM Krishna