The annual Navaratri music festival at Thiruvananthapuram will begin on October 8th 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.

NAVARATHRI FESTIVAL – 2010 (1186 M.E.) – NAVARATHRI MANDAPAM CONCERTS  

Navarathri Mandapam, Fort Palace Complex, (Inside East Fort) Thiruvananthapuram - 695 003

2010 October 08 to 16, 6pm to 8.30pm

October 08 Friday

Main Krithi:    Devi Jagath Janani

Ragam :        Sankarabharanam

Vocal :            Sri Kunnaikudi M Balamurali Krishna  

Violin :             Sri S.R.Mahadeva Sarma 

Mridangom:    Sri Palakkad Mahesh Kumar

Ghatom:          Sri Perukavu P.L.Sudheer

October 09 Saturday

Main Krithi:       Pahimam Sree Vageeswari

Ragam:            Kalyani

Vocal:              Smt. Seetha  Rajan

Violin               Sri  S.R. Vinu

Mridangom     Sri Arun Prakash

Ganjira             Sri B.S.Purushotham

October 10 Sunday

Main Krithi:      Devi Pavane

Ragam:            Saveri            

Vocal                Prince Rama Varma  

Violin                Sri S.R.Vinu  

Mridang om       Sri Bangalore Praveen

Ghatom            Sri S. Giridhar Uduppa

Morsing             Sri Payyannur T. Govinda Prasad

October 11 Monday

Main Krithi:   Bharathi Mamava

Ragam:         Thodi

Vocal:          Smt. Parassala B. Ponnammal

Violin:           Smt. S.R.Rajasree

Mridangom     Sri Nanjil Arul

Ganjira            Sri Uduppi Srikanth

Ghatom            Sri Manjoor Unnikrishnan

Morsing            Sri Payyannoor T. Govindaprasad

October 12 Tuesday 

Main Krithi:     Janani Mamava

Ragam:          Bhairavi           

Vocal        Sri T. V. Gopalakrishnan

Violin         Sri S. Varadarajan

Mridangom   Sri B. Harikumar

Ghatom       Dr.S.Karthick

October 13 Wednesday

Main Krithi:     Saroruhasana

Ragam:           Panthuvarali  

Vocal             Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyan

Violin              Sri Nagai R. Muralidharan

Mridangom      Sri Neyveli Venkatesh

Ghatom            Dr. S. Karthick

October 14 Thursday

Main Krithi:       Janani Pahi

Ragam:            Sudhdha Saveri

Vocal             Sri Trichur V. Ramachandran 

Violin              Sri M.A. Sundareswaran

Mridangom     Sri Kadakkavoor G.S.Rajeshnath  

Ghatom           Sri Vaikom Gopalakrishnan

October 15 Friday 

Main Krithi:   Pahi Janani

Ragam:         Nattakurinji

V ocal                Sri   Thoppur  B. Sai Ram

V iolin                Smt   T. H. Vasantha

M ridangom        Dr. G.Babu

Ghatom             Sri Adichanallur Anil Kumar

October 16 Saturday

Main Krithi:      Pahi Parvatha Nandini

Ragam:            Arabhi

Vocal               Sri   Venkataramanan

Violin               Sri   Edapally Ajithkumar

Mridangom     Sri   Cherthala Ananthakrishnan

Ghatom           Sri   Uduppi Sreedhar

The ambience at the Navarathri Mandapam is something to be experienced to be believed. Perfectly balanced acoustics, lighting by oil lamps, the divine grace of the Goddess in whose honour the concerts are conducted, utterly disciplined and informed audience, the feeling of having travelled back in time by around two centuries.....the list is endless.

There are some restrictions though.
Only Hindus are allowed inside since it is a temple.
Men have to wear a mundu/veshti/dhothi and take off their shirts.
Everybody has to be seated by 6:00 pm at the latest.
Nobody can leave before the concerts finish.
The concerts start at 6:00 pm Sharp and finish at 8:30 pm Sharp.
Since the concerts are done as offerings to the Devi and not as "Performances" there is no applause.
Mobile phones are STRICTLY Forbidden inside.

The main krithi for each day is fixed.
Women were not allowed inside the Mandapam for 200 years but Rama Varma had the privilege of getting this tradition changed after fighting against this for 22 years. And now women can enter the place both as performers as well as listeners.

A speaker will be kept outside the steps of the Shree Padmanabhaswami Temple (Which is adjacent to the Navarathri Mandapam) for the benefit of those who wouldn't be prepared to follow all the restrictions listed above, but would still like to enjoy the concerts.  A chunk of each concert would be broadcast by the All India Radio, Trivandrum on all days from 9:30 pm till 11:00 pm.