With perfectly balanced acoustics and lighting by oil lamps, Navarathri Mandapam concerts at Fort Palace Complex, (Inside East Fort), Thiruvananthapuram are much looked forward to by Carnatic music rasikas.

This year the concerts begin on Oct. 8 and go on till Oct. 16. From 6 pm to 8.30 pm.

There are strict rules for the rasikas, like only Hindus are allowed inside since it is a temple, men have to wear a mundu/veshti/dhothi and take off their shirts and have to be seated by 6 p.m. and cannot leave before the concerts are over. Since the concerts are considered as offerings to god, there is no place for applause too.

Each day one of the Navarathri kritis composed by Swathi Tirunal is rendered as the main song by the artistes.

If you think you just want to enjoy the concerts, there is a speaker kept outside the steps of the Shree Padmanabhaswami Temple, adjacent to the Navarathri Mandapam. 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.

The schedule of concerts is as below:

October 8, 2010 - Friday : Main Krithi: Devi Jagath Janani, ragam - Sankarabharanam Kunnaikudi M Balamurali Krishna - vocal, S.R.Mahadeva Sarma - violin, Palakkad Mahesh Kumar - mridangam, Perukavu P.L.Sudheer - ghatam

October 9, 2010 - Saturday: Main Krithi: Pahimam Sree Vageeswari, ragam - Kalyani Seetha Rajan - vocal, S.R. Vinu - violin, Arun Prakash - mridangam, B.S.Purushotham - Kanjira,

October 10, 2010 - Sunday : Main Krithi: Devi Pavane, ragam - Saveri Prince Rama Varma - vocal, S.R.Vinu - violin, Bangalore Praveen - mridangam, S. Giridhar Uduppa - ghatam, Payyannur T. Govinda Prasad - morsing

October 11, 2010 - Monday : Main Krithi: Bharathi Mamava, ragam - Thodi Parassala B. Ponnammal - vocal, S.R.Rajasree - violin, Nanjil Arul - mridangam, Uduppi Srikanth - kanjira, Manjoor Unnikrishnan - ghatam, Payyannoor T. Govindaprasad - morsing

October 12, 2010 - Tuesday : Main Krithi: Janani Mamava, ragam - Bhairavi T. V. Gopalakrishnan - vocal, S. Varadarajan - violin, B. Harikumar - mridangam, S.Karthick - ghatam

October 13, 2010 - Wednesday : Main Krithi: Saroruhasana, ragam - Panthuvarali Sanjay Subrahmanyan - vocal, Nagai R. Muralidharan - violin, Neyveli Venkatesh - mridangam, S. Karthick - ghatam

October 14, 2010 - Thursday : Main Krithi: Janani Pahi, ragam - Sudhdha Saveri Trichur V. Ramachandran - vocal, M.A. Sundareswaran - violin, Kadakkavoor G.S.Rajeshnath - mridangam, Vaikom Gopalakrishnan - ghatam

October 15, 2010 - Friday : Main Krithi: Pahi Janani, ragam - Nattakurinji Thoppur B. Sai Ram - vocal, T. H. Vasantha - violin, G.Babu - mridangam, Adichanallur Anil Kumar - ghatam

October 16, 2010 - Saturday : Main Krithi: Pahi Parvatha Nandini, ragam - Arabhi Venkataramanan - vocal, Edapally Ajithkumar - violin, Cherthala Ananthakrishnan - mridangam, Uduppi Sreedhar - ghatam