This piece is in the raaga Naatai. It goes as "Ari thiru marugane vigna vinayaka" praising Lord Ganesha. Originally it was called "Kavithuvam" or poetry which over years has morphed as "Kauthuvum".
Raagam: Naatai
Taalam: Aadi
....
I am rewriting this after a few months (ahem... ok more than a few months). I figured it's going to be hard to capture the dance parts of the piece. Instead I am going to concentrate on what is essence of a kauthuvam and what are some salient features. Hopefully I will capture most of them and those should be enough to juggle my memory (and yours) when needed.
This is the first Kauthuvam that you will learn most probably for couple of reasons - 1. Being on Ganesha, the remover of obstacles it is customary to invoke Him first.
2. The kauthuvam itself has relatively simple steps and almost devoid of any expressions.
For those of you who know carnatic music, think about lambodhara. This is analogous. It may seem like a jump from learning adavus but fret not, soon enough you will start remembering this fondly and yearn for this piece of cake - pun intended.
The lyrics are as follows. It is interspersed with a lot of solkattu.
Aru thirumaruganai Vigna vinayaka
Vinai keda aruliya ganapathy jaya jaya
Dhaditha thudhukai yaanai mugathanai
Devargal ganapathy
Ganapathy kavithuvam katravar vinai ara
As you can see the lyrics are simple. In this we also learn to do the same verse twice - once with normal adavus and once in thattu mettu.
Raagam: Naatai
Taalam: Aadi
