Kacchapi Charitable Trust is a 501(c) non-profit organization formed to promote Indian Classical Music and Dance, Humanitarian, Educational and Literary and activities. Kacchapi is the name of the devine Veena played by Goddess Saraswathi. The name reflects the musical and educational goals of the trust.
Music has no language and can be enjoyed by majority of the creation i.e., not only humans but also by other species too. “ SiSurvEtti paSurvEtti vEttigAna rasah phaNihi”. Enjoyment and tranquility one attains with music increases, if one knows the language of the song, understands the meaning and correlates it with the rAga bhAva of the particular song.
Our Vedas define music and literature as emanating from Goddess Saraswathi. They are described as a continuous flow of sweet liquid (ApAta madhuram) and nectar as we go on thinking and understanding (AlochanAmritam). Hence, music and literature are inseparable. Music and literature have a number of formats in them: rAgam, tAnam, niraval, swara- kalpana in music and kriti, padam, bhajan, jAvali, thillana in literature i.e., poetry in particular. Musicians from other languages, at times, feel it is difficult to pronounce some words or punctuate the sentence at the correct places when they sing lyric in a different language other than their mother tongue. It shows the need for transliteration and meaning of the songs so that the singer understands the bhAva as intended by the poet. For example: ‘mA jAnaki cheTTapaTTaga maharAjuvaitivi’ are the actual words in a Thyagaraja kriti. Either by mistake or unknowingly, if we replace one letter i.e., instead of ‘cheTTapaTTaga’ if we sing as ‘cheTTapaTTaka, the meaning will become opposite and negative. The original meaning which is you have become a maharaja by holding the hand of our Janaki will be changed to you have become maharaja by NOT holding the hand of our Janaki!
To extend a helping hand to young musicians, we have created this website to present lyrics in five languages i.e. Telugu, Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada and English with transliteration and meaning in English. We sincerely hope that this helps musicians and music lovers, whose mother tongue is one of the above languages, while performing on the stage or listening to the concert.
Finally, we humbly state that in spite of several references, readings and number of attempts to present the songs with 100% accuracy, it is possible that some errors/mistakes may be seen. We hope the music family would understand our effort to maintain accuracy. We appreciate feedback on the format and errors so that we can correct them, if appropriate.
Contact email: kacchapitrust@gmail.com