Maṅgalācaran: Auspicious Beginning 

Maṅgala Bhavana Amaṅgala Hārī 

TV Series: Ramayan 1987

Director: Ramanand Sagar

Stars: Arun Govil, Dipika Chikhlia

Lyricist: Jaidev Verma (1918–87)

Music: Ravindra Jain

Singers: Arun Dangle and Satish Dera

Film Clip: https://www.sagarpictures.com/tv-shows/ramayan#video-section

Introduction

What more auspicious start than the title song of the famous televised Ramayana series that framed each episode, playing as the credits rolled? Originally screened on Doordarshan from January 1987 through July 1988, the series quickly became such a hit that the Sunday morning 9:30 slot became prime time, its advertising revenue eclipsing that of all other programs. Watching popular Bollywood director Ramanand Sagar’s “mythological” became a literally a weekly ritual with millions glued to their television sets for a weekly feast of darshana or “religious viewing.” The main actors Arun Govil and Dipika Chikhlia went from relative obscurity to become household names. Their likeness was featured in devotional posters that graced many people’s homes. Wherever they went, they were treated like gods on earth, like the actors of the devotional theater Rām-līlā who are worshiped as svarūps or “embodiments of God.”

While the credits mentioned multiple other Ramayana retellings as sources of inspiration, Sagar’s series was closely based on Tulsīdās’ Rām-carit-mānas, often referred to briefly as Mānas. In the TV series’ introduction of the very first episode, this famous sixteenth-seventeenth-century saint is the first holy man featured among Ramayana composers. Throughout its seventy-eight instalments, stanzas from the Mānas are frequently heard recited at appropriate moments. Small wonder then that the title song is very often merged with verses from that text.

Lyrics, Transliteration, and Translation

(Gratefully acknowledging www. hinditracks.in/ramayan-song-lyrics)

Wordlist

मंगल maṅgal [maṅgala-], adj. & m. 1. adj. fortunate, prosperous. *2. auspicious. 3. m. good fortune; prosperity. 4. auspiciousness. 5. well-being.

द्रव- drav- [cf. H. drav: and ad. dravati], v.i. Brbh. Av. to be fluid: 1. to melt; to dissolve. 2. to be moved (as with pity); to show mercy.

अजिर ajir [S.], m. Brbh. a courtyard.

चरित carit [S.], m. 1. behaviour, practice; acts, deeds. 2. narrative of a person's life; a biography. 3. an institutionalised observance. 4. disposition of mind; character.

पावन pāvan [S.], adj. & m. 1. adj. purifying. 2. pure; holy. 3. m. the name of various purifying or cleansing things, esp. fire; water; cow-dung. 4. the nuts of the tree Elaeocarpus ganitrus (from which rosaries and bracelets are made). 5. fig. repentance; penance.

मधुर madhur [S.], adj. 1. sweet. 2. attractive, charming. 3. melodious. 4. soft, gentle (as gait, manner).

सरस sa-ras [S.], adj. 1. juicy, &c. (see सर). 2. fresh (as fruit). 3. tasty. 4. charming, elegant. 5. lively; engaging attention, interesting. 6. full of feeling, sentimental (as verse, style, heart).

अरु = और

मन-भावन, adj. pleasing, agreeable; amusing; charming

पुनि puni [cf. H. punar], adv. Brbh. Av. 1. again. 2. moreover.

कितनेहु = कितने भी

बूझना būjhnā [budhyate], v.i. 1. to understand, to perceive. 2. to consider, to think. 3. to ascertain; to enquire.

बुझना bujhnā [*vijjhāyati: Pa. vijjhāyati, × *avajjhāyati], v.i. 1. to be extinguished (a fire, light, &c.). 2. to be cooled, slaked (hot iron, lime); to be tempered (steel). 3. to be relieved (hunger, thirst). 4. to be calmed (agitated feelings). 5. to be dampened (as ardour, morale). 6. to be subdued (as emotions; or voice).

बुझाना 2bujhānā [*vijjhāpayati: Pa. vijjhāpeti, × *avajjhāyati], v.t. 1. to put out (a fire, light, &c.). 2. transf. to cool, to slake (hot iron, lime); to temper (steel); to disinfect (water, by plunging a hot piece of iron into it: में); to soak (indigo plants). 3. fig. to relieve (hunger, thirst). 4. to calm, to allay (agitated feelings). 5. to dampen (as ardour, morale). 6. to repress, to smother (anger, &c.).

सारद = शारदा śārădā [S.], f. 1. mythol. a title of Sarasvatī. 2. mythol. a title of Durgā. 3. name of a script used formerly in Kashmir.

सेस = शेष śeṣ [S.], adj. & m. 1. adj. remaining, left over. 2. last, final. 3. m. remainder, the rest; balance (of an account); arrears (of payments). 4. conclusion, end; outcome. 5. mythol. name of a thousand-headed snake, regarded as the symbol of eternity, on which Viṣṇu sleeps throughout periods of dissolution of the world

महेस mahesa [maheśa], m. Śiva 

बिधि = विधि vi-dhi [S.], f. (m., Pl.). 1. rule, form, ordinance. 2. law, statute. 3. a rite, ceremony. 4. method, manner. 5. a title of Brahmā; fate, destiny. 6. fig. what is ordained (for one, in life); horoscope.

आगम ā-gam [S.], m. 1. coming, approach; entry; appearance. 2. the future, the hereafter. 3. a sacred text, esp. a Veda; a text containing spells and incantations; a tantra. 4. document, deed. 5. income.

निगम ni-gam [S.], m. 1. the Vedic text; scripture. 2. a particular passage or word cited from the Vedas. 3. a sacred precept. 4. a corporation; municipal council. 5. a municipality. 6. name of a sub-group of the Kāyasth community; a merchant, trader. निगम-आगम, m. the Vedas and śāstras.

नेति neti [na + iti] not thus (Vedic statement of Advaita or non-duality)

जासु = जिसके

गुण guṇ [S.], m. var. /gũṛ/. 1. a quality, a property. 2. ling. (in Sanskrit grammar) a partic. vowel grade. 3. philos. each of the three constitutents of nature (viz. sattva 'goodness', rajas 'passion' and tamas 'darkness'). 4. a symbol for the number three. 5. a good quality, a virtue; a skill, aptitude; a talent.

करहिं = करें, करते हैं

निरंतर nir-antar [S.], adj. without gaps or intervals (esp. of time): 1. continuous; uninterrupted. 2. eternal. 3. similar, identical. 4. contiguous.

Song Analysis

The verse recited at the beginning of the title song comes from Mānas’ retelling of Rama’s childhood (Bāl-kāṇḍ 112.2). This double-verse or caupāī, consists metrically of four 16-mātra units with internal rhyme. It is perhaps one of the best-known of the whole Mānas, its popularity owing a lot to its auspicious beginning, using the word maṅgala. What is more, in the story of the Mānas this verse is uttered by none else than one of the narrators, Shiva himself, who enters a state of ecstasy as he is queried by his wife the goddess Uma to describe Rama’s glories. Thus, it is doubly auspicious.

In the title song, this verse is followed by two in the same meter and with the same rhyme structure. Yet, while sounding alike, these are not really verses from the Mānas. Their composition has been credited to award-winning Bollywood music director Jaidev Verma. Famous for his skills in integrating classical and folk tunes in popular films, it would make sense that he took up the challenge of sounding like Tulsīdās to promote the new series. The lyrics of the verse craftily employ figures of speech like repetition (punarukti) of the word ati, stressing the “extremely” divine and holy nature of the Ramayana story. By calling it the story of Rama and Sita, the lyrics foreground the love story. Yet characterizing it as ati pāvan, “extremely holy,” the verse distances this television series’ love angle from the more secular fare screened elsewhere on Doordarshan. As if anticipating the spectacular success of the television series and its later avatars, the verses stress how listening and reciting will create an unsatiable craving for more. The composer uses paired related verbs of the same root, involving one causative. The first is: sune sunāe, literally “one might hear or make heard” and the second (pyāsa) bujhata na bujhāe “(as thirst) is slaked, it cannot be slaked”.

In the first episode of the series, this is followed by the start for the series showing none less than Tulsīdās himself, the composer of the Mānas at work. Fittingly, he tops off these two caupāī stanzas with a short pithy verse of the type dohā (metrically consisting of 13+11 mātrās), as indeed is the basic structure of Tulsīdās’ work. This one is a quote from early on in the Mānas (Bāl-kāṇḍ, dohā 12). It laments the impossibility of doing justice to the description of Rama. It singles out some of the great mythological experts of poetic composition to make the point that even they are in fact unable to do so, starting with the goddess of speech herself, Vishnu’s own thousand-tongued vehicle Shesha, even Shiva, and the creator himself. Yet this very utterance of poetry’s shortcomings is highly ornamental. It employs figures of speech of sound such as internal rhyme and alliteration of s- (sārada, sesa, mahesa), as well as of meaning, as the statement is a hyperbole (atishayokti). Even the scriptures, referred to in the set expression Āgama-Nigama, and the Purāṇas can only sing Rama’s praise by repeating the famous Upanishadic saying: neti neti, literally “neither thus, nor thus,” meaning in effect that God is not subject to language with its reliance on contrastive features. God is beyond duality. In other words, this theme song represents a humble disqualifier at the outset: it denies the very possibility of singing Rama’s praise, while simultaneously introducing the very retelling of Ramayana by Sagar.

Following this time-honored way of auspicious beginnings, the contributors to this book too in all humility recognize the impossibility of that endeavor, yet we move forward out of eagerness to share our joy in trying and keeping trying nevertheless.

By Heidi Pauwels

Discussion Question: How could this theme song of the television series of the late 1980s serve to attract audiences and build community?

Sources/Further Reading:

Farook, Farhana. Aug. 3, 2021. Why Jaidev Lived and Died an Unsung Genius. Yahoo Entertainment. https://sg.style.yahoo.com/why-jaidev-lived-and-died-an-unsung-genius-tragic-tale-090311839.html

Lutgendorf, Philip. 1990. “Ramayan: The Video.” TDR: Drama Review 34 (2): 127–76. doi:10.2307/1146030.

Premchand, Manek. 2004. Yesterday’s Melodies, Today’s Memories: Singers, Lyricists and Music Composers from Hindi Cinema’s Yesteryear. Section II: The Early Greats. 2nd ed. Mumbai: Jharna.

Mankekar, Purnima. 1999. Screening Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography of Television, Womanhood, and Nation in Postcolonial India. Durham: Duke University Press.