Art & Events
Devotional art from our community
Sangeethopacharam · Navavarna Kritis
The Sri Chakra
The Navavarna Kritis honour Devi in her nine forms, and the power of Lalitha Tripura Sundari is represented by the Sri Chakra. For the concert, the decor team of Kripa Ram, Ratna Avasarla, Vidya Iyer and Arvind Sundar created two Sri Chakras.
The first was a 4 ft × 4 ft printed canvas used as the stage backdrop. The second, displayed at the auditorium entrance, was painted as a community project: children from the HTGC Vidyalaya each painted a section, and Kripa completed it with the finishing touches. It was gifted to Mrs. Suguna Varadhachari, who taught the Navavarna Kritis from India.
What is a Sri Chakra?
The Sri Chakra is the mystical diagram of the Sri Vidya tradition. Nine interlocking triangles surround a central point, the bindu: four point upward, representing Shiva, and five point downward, representing Shakti. Projected into three dimensions it becomes the Maha Meru.
Its deity, known from the Brahmanda Purana, is Lalita Tripurasundari, the playful, transcendent beauty of the three cities. The Sri Chakra expresses the recursive structure of reality and the interpenetration of Nature and Consciousness.
Why it suits the Navavarna Kritis
The Sri Yantra is also called the Nava Chakra because it has nine levels, or avaranas. Each level has its own mudra and its own form of Tripura Sundari with her mantra, and each of the nine kritis is sung to one of them.
Navaratri
Golu
During Navaratri, homes set up the Golu: steps of dolls showing gods, saints, and scenes from the epics and from daily life, arranged in odd numbers of tiers. Friends visit each evening, sing, and leave with tambulam.
Made by hand
Kanyakumari in miniature
A hand-built model of the Kanyakumari Bhagavathy Amman temple, with its gopuram and red-and-white striped walls, made for the Golu.