The annual Navaratri music festival at Thiruvananthapuram will begin on October 12 at the Navarathrimandapam.

The music for the Navaratri concerts was composed and codified by Swati Tirunal. He has composed nine keerthanas in the ragas Shankarabharanam, Kalyani, Saveri, Thodi, Bhairavi, Panthuvarali, Shuddha Saveri, Nattakurinji and Arabhi respectively, to be sung as the main piece on each day of navaratri. Main concerts begin at 6 p.m. every day preceded by the singing of the ‘Thodayamangalam' by the Mullamoodu. The programme schedule is a follows.

Oct 12th Friday 6pm
Main piece: "Devi Jagat Janani" RAGAM: SHANKARABHARANAM

Vocal : PRINCE RAMA VARMA
Violin : Sri Mumbai Madhavan
Mridangam : Sri Bangalore Praveen
Ghatam : Dr S. Karthick
Morsing : Sri Payyannur Govinda Prasad

Oct 13th Saturday 6pm
Main piece: "Pahimaam Sri Vaageeswari" RAGAM: KALYANI

Vocal : SRI TRICHUR V. RAMACHANDRAN
Violin : Sri T.K.V. Ramanujacharlu
Mridangam : Sri Srimushanam Raja Rao
Ghatom : Dr. S.Kartick

Oct 14th Sunday 6pm
Main piece: "Devi Pavanae" RAGAM: SAVERI

Vocal : Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Violin : Sri M.A.Sundaresan
Mridangam : Sri Mannargudi Eswaran
Ghatom : (to be confirmed)

Oct 15th Monday 6pm
Main piece: "Bharathi Maamava" RAGAM: THODI

Vocal : Master M. Balamuralikrishna
Violin : Sri S.R.Vinu
Mridangam : Sri Nanjil Arun
Ghatam : Sri P. L. Sudheer

Oct 16th Tuesday 6pm
Main piece: "Janani Maamava" RAGAM: BHAIRAVI

Vocal : Sri T.M.Krishna
Violin : Sri R.K.Shriramkumar
Mridangam : Sri Arun Prakash
Ghatam : Sri Udipi Sridhar

Oct 17th Wednesday 6pm
Main piece: "Saroruhasana" RAGAM: PANTHUVARALI

Vocal : Sri Vechur Sankar
Violin : Sri Attukal Balasubramoniam
Mridangam : Sri Kuzhalmannam Ramakrishnan
Ghatam : Sri Adichanallur Anilkumar

Oct 18th Thursday 6pm
Main piece: "Janani Paahi" RAGAM: SHUDDHASAVERI

Vocal : Prof. T.V. Gopalakrishnan
Violin : Sri S. Varadarajan
Mridangam : Sri T.V.Vasan
Ghatam : Sri V.Suresh

Oct 19th Friday 6pm
Main piece: "Paahi janani" RAGAM: NATTAKURINJI

Vocal : Prof. Parassala Ponnammal
Violin : (to be confirmed)
Mridangam : Dr G. Babu
Ghatam : Sri Karthikeyan

Oct 20th Saturday 6pm
Main piece: "Paahi Parvathanandini" RAGAM: ARABHI

Vocal : Sri K. N. Renganatha Sarma
Violin : Sri S. R. Mahadeva Sarma
Mridangam : Sri R. Ananthakrishnan
Ghatom : Sri Vaikom Gopalakrishnan

1) Concerts start at 6 pm
2) The pieces performed are all composed by Maharaja Swati Tirunal.
3) Preceding the concerts there is the rendering of tODaya mangaLam from 5.30 pm to 6 pm by the "Mullamoodu Bhagavatars", traditional musicians attached to the Padmanabha Swamy Temple.
4)Concerts are open to all lovers of music. However, since the Mandapam is a Hindu temple for the duration of the festival, certain rules and regulations apply with regard to seating, attire and timings. These are enforced strictly and are part of the folklore and traditions associated with the event and the venue. For the benefit of those who are not able to be present inside the Mandapam, a loudspeaker is positioned outside, which broadcasts the music to the eastern steps of the Padmanabha Swamy Temple.
5)AIR Trivandrum generally broadcasts highlights of each day's concert at 9.30 pm the same night, i.e. one hour after the conclusion of the actual concert at the Mandapam.
6) A special feature on the Navaratri krithis, authored by Carnatica's Dr. P. P. Narayanaswami:
7) For more details, the organizing committee may be contacted via crrvarma@vsnl.com .