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The word keerthana may be taken to mean a ditty sung in glory
(keerthi) of the Lord. It may be on any of His avatars or other different forms like Vinayaka, Muruga, Rama, etc. The keerthana may be on a particular God or it may narrate the story of a devotee of that particular Lord and end with a submission save the one that sings the lyric now, as the Lord saved the devotee in the story. Or it may end with the exhortation that He would come to save us too, as he did in the case of the devotee in the story. Or it may be a simple and plain narration without any of the above two.
Usually the keerthanas are not set in melancholic ragas. Since these are lyrics sung in praise of the Lord, they would be set in other appropriate ragas, reflecting and conveying the mood of the lyric in question. In general, all the
keerthanas end with a humble supplication of the devotee to the Lord to save him or her and would therefore not be set in a raga that evokes melancholy.
Padhm and jaavali portray and convey all kinds of human emotions. As far as
Keerthanas are concerned, the emphasis is more on singing the glory of the Lord then in expressing human emotions.
Krishangini - Neeraja Nagarajan
Postures by Neeraja Nagarajan
Translated by Hari Krishnan
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