PADAM |
| Padam is part
of the South Indian dance form, bharata nātyam. The genre is one
of the oldest in the Karṇātak paddhati and is also a concert
piece without dance. As a concert vocal piece, padam is usually faster
than in the context of dance. |
| Some aspects of the dance performance remain
particularly the repeated lines of text that emphasize the longing of
a woman for her lover. The original purpose of the repeats is to allow
the dancer time to elaborate and illustrate the text with her dance. |
| The
meaning of the texts of padam — as in many South Asian vocal
genres — can be interpreted on two levels. The surface level interpretation
has a the mortal orientation: the woman is a real woman with human desires
and emotions and the man is flirtatious and uninterested a serious lasting
realtionship. The other interpretation — a metaphysical interpretation
— has the woman as mortal, but her interests are not carnal. Rather,
she expresses a human longing to understand the supernatural and the beatific. |
|
Selected
Performance |
| Padam: "Ini
yenna paiccirukkudu pōm pōm . . . "; composed by Subbarama Ayyar (fl.
1850) in rāga Śahāna and tāḷa Rūpaka and with a text in
Tamil. Performed here by Ramnad Krishnan (voice), V. Thyagarajan (violin),
T. Ranganathan (mrdangam), V. Nagarajan (kañjīra),
and P. Srinivasan (tambūra) on Ramnad Krishnan Kaccheri:
A Concert of South Indian Classical Music (Nonsuch Records Explorer
Series H-72040). |
| Manadirk-kicainda paḍi
yāccē maṭṭumīri pōccē, |
You
have done what ever you pleased, and it has gone much too far. |
| Kusuma
kuntala Vaḷḷi maṇāḷanō, |
O
husband of Vaḷḷi, who has beautiful flowers in her hair, |
| Subbarāman
tamirkkicaina lolarē, |
O
you who sway to the Tamil songs of Subbarāma, |
| Ini
Yenna . . . . |
What
is the use . . . . |
