Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma

They say music has no language or religion. Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma is a beautiful Hindu Kannada devotional song composed by 15th century poet Purandara Dasa and is dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi, the divine consort of Lord Vishnu. Goddess Lakshmi means Good Luck to Hindus. The word Lakshmi is derived from the Sanskrit word Lakshya, meaning aim or goal, and she is the goddess of wealth and prosperity, both material and spiritual. Here is a compilation of this song, sung and played on instruments by various artists at different times, a Diwali gift to all my readers.

    

M S Subbulakshmi :  



Bhimsen Joshi :  



S P Balasubramaniam :  



The lyrics roughly translated into English go like this :

Oh, Goddess of Fortune, Lakshmi Devi,
Do come slowly with your anklets making the jingling sound,
Come to us like butter emerging out of buttermilk when it is churned.

Come and shower on us a rain of gold and fulfill our aspirations,
Come with the brightness of countless number of rays of the sun,
Come and bless us, Oh, Devi, who has taken incarnation as Sita.

Oh, lotus eyed Devi who is the pride of Mahavishnu,
Appear before us wearing the shining golden bracelets on your wrists,
and the auspicious vermilion mark on your forehead,
Oh, Consort of Purandaravithala.

Welcome to You who shine auspiciously in the hearts of great sages,
Oh, Queen of Alagiri Ranga,
Come to our worship on Friday when ghee and sugar will overflow.

... and the instrumental versions :

Ananyampatti S Dhandapani on Jaltarang :  



Chandrasekaran M & Bharathi on Violin :  



Kunnagudi Vaidyanathan on Violin :  



Gayathri E on Veena :  



K Gopalnath on Saxophone & P Godkhindi on Flute :