The
Concert Tradition
By
Sangeetha Ratnakara Ariyakudi T. Ramanuja Iyengar
(English
Translation)
It gives me
immense pleasure to contribute to this Symposium an
article on some aspects of Karnatak music. For,
though I can claim a successful and unbroken career,
extending over fifty-two years, I have had no
opportunity till now to assemble and present my views
on kacheri paddhati (concert sampradaya or tradition).
Here, I propose to
deal with kacheri paddhati, as I have learnt and
practised it on the platform all these years, in the
light of its historic background after a rigorous
period of gurukulavasa, first under Pudukottai
Malayappa Iyer and Namakkal Narasimha Iyengar, and
later, for over eleven years, under Poochi Srinivasa
Iyengar of Ramnad. More than this, I have had the
good fortune to listen to and learn from the
expositions of such great masters as Tirukkodikaval
Krishna Iyer, Tiruchi Govindasami Pillai, Saraba
Sastri, Sakharam Rao, Vinai Dhanammal and a host of
others. In vocal concerts today, certain changes are
perceptible which, if allowed to grow unchecked, may
spell ruin for our great tradition of Karnatak music,
and eventually result in the total disappearance of
sampradaya. This is all the more regrettable when our
music is claiming hundreds of adherents in the West.
It is the peculiar
feature of Karnatak music that it has survived the
invasions of kings and chieftains, and feudal wars,
in South India to build up a great tradition-a
tradition that dates back to Vedic times. The Tamil
classics speak of seven palais, later developing into
sixteen melas, leading to a further emergence of one
hundred and three pannas. Those versed in them were
the Panars, such as Tiruppanazhwar,
Tirunilakantayazhpanar and others. They were not
worldly-minded; to them music was divine. They were
God-intoxicated and aimed at the attainment of
Supreme Bliss. Their devotional and soul-stirring
lyrics were sung in the temples. Next, we are deeply
indebted to Sarngadeva for his great and invaluable
work, Sangitaratnakara, in which he describes and
interprets the lakshanas of Karnatak music.
Karnatak music
took its final shape and form from the time of
Purandaradasa, who systematized the laws of teaching
music and wrote of innumerable padas and prabandhas,
besides composing svaravalis, gitas, suladis, tayams
and alankaras in the saptatalas as preliminary
exercises and early lessons which must necessarily be
learnt. Subsequently, Ramamathya, in his work
Svaramelakalanidhi, condenses the Sangitaratnakara
and explains the nature of nineteen melas and their
one hundred and sixty-six janya-ragas. But it was
Venkatamakhi who formulated the scheme of seventy-two
melas in his Chaturdandi Prakasika. It is, however,
not known if he assigned names to the several ragas.
Later, Akalanka, in his work Sangitasarasangraham,
speaks of a number of ragas and determines their
lakshanas. The great work of Govindacharya,
Sangrahachoodamani, is an authoritative and later
contribution, containing
lakshanagitas for
366 ragas (including the 72 melas), and this became
the classic authority for the great vidwans like my
guru Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar.
While the great
stream of Karnatak music has been enriched by
vaggeyakaras who have preserved the musical forms,
like the varna, kriti, javali, tillana and svara-jatis,
the torch-bearers of South India's musical traditions
were the numerous sabha musicians and vidwans, who
were patronised by kings, princes and zamindars.
Kacheri is an Urdu
word, referring to the musical concerts held in the
courts of the Mohammedan rulers in North India. It is
akin to those held in the South which were known as
arangam, sabha or sadas. A kacheri in its early
phases was confined to a recital before a select
gathering at the royal court or in the assembly hall
on an auspicious occasion. The court of Sarabhoji of
Tanjore seems to have had on its rolls nearly 360
musicians, each specialised in certain specific
branches of vocal or instrumental music, and each
waiting for a day in the year to exhibit his skill
and prowess!
Varnam
Singing
The celebrated
composer of the "Viriboni" varnam in
Bhairavi, Pachaimiriyam Adiyappayya, was a
distinguished musician who adorned the courts of
Tanjore, Pudukkottai and Ettayapuram as also Pallavi
Doraisamy Iyer, Gopala Iyer, Todi Sitarama Iyer,
Sankarabharanam Narasayya and several
instrumentalists and dancers. Varnam singing may be
presumed to have been in vogue from Adiyappayya's
period. Among his disciples may be counted such
distinguished names as Syama Sastri and Ghanam
Krishna Iyer. We are ushered into the treasures of
Tyagaraja by Umayalpuram Krishna Bhagavatar and
Sundara Bhagavatar, Walajapet Venkatramana
Bhagavatar, Tillaisthanam Rama Iyengar and
Tiruvotriyur Thyagier. The point worthy of note is
that, while Dikshitar adopted Venkatamakhi's system
of asampurna-mela paddhati, Tyagaraja followed the
Govindacharya sampradayam of sampurna-mela-krama.
Like my guru, I
have never begun a concert without singing a varnam
at the commencement. It imparts mellowness to the
voice and a flavour to the subsequent rendering of
kritis or ragas. Palghat Anantarama Bhagavatar and
Bidaram Krishnappa began their concerts with tana
varnas. In the past (pre-varna days), performers used
to sing tanas in the Nattai, Gowla, Arabi, Varali and
Sri ragas, to the accompaniment of tbe mridangam.
In the concerts,
the singer is accompanied on the violin and the
mridangam. Where a gayaka has specialised in the laya
aspects, he revels in having additional
accompaniments like the kanjira, ghatam, mugarsing,
konnakol and dholak. In early times, the musician
used to sing in sthayi sruti; now they have lowered
it, owing to several exigencies. A performer must be
deeply conscious of his strengths and weaknesses. The
effect of the performance should be such as to keep
the listeners spell-bound, making them stay on to the
very end, thirsting for still more.
Sruti sense,
earnestness, a proper conception of raga-swarupa, and
good laya-jnana — without these, it is
impossible to perform entertainingly. The choice
should be from classical pieces conforming to the
South Indian type (whatever the language), with a
knowledge of the meaning thereof. The purpose should
be to elevate and educate the listeners and improve
their tastes. The concert should begin with a varnam,
to be immediately followed by a few fast-tempo kntis.
A short and crisp alapana of two or three of the
ragas of the kritis to be sung may be rendered.
Kalpana-svaras must be limited and proportionate, and
restricted to a few pieces, after a reasonable
measure of niraval.
The pieces
selected should be of varied talas, and no two of the
same tala need be sung consecutively. In rendering
kalpanasvaras, for kritis or pallavis, it would be
more appropriate to adopt the traditional mode of
sarvalaghu pattern with variations in the nadai in
tala imparting ranjakatva, keeping in view the raga-swarupa.
An admixture of slow-and fast tempo kritis
alternately is preferable. The main raga for tanam,
pallavi, should be a Ghana raga familiar to the
audience, and the rendering of the alapana must be
fairly lengthy and should explore into the
mandarasthayi as well. In the alapana of rare ragas,
their distinctive character should reveal themselves
at the first touches in all their purity and
clearness, and should neither get confused with nor
clash with ragas closely allied to or resembling them.
A couple of opportunities (according to the
convenience of the artiste) may be given to the
mridangam player—the first an hour after
the commencement,
the second during the pallavi stage, in different
talas of convenient tempos. The items should
comprise padam,
javali, tevaram, tiruppugazh, ashtapadi , tarangam,
tillana, ragamalika and sloka, all of which must form
Part II of the concert. The singer should enlist the
cooperation of the companists all through with the
object of making the concert a success.
Thus it will be
seen how the great tradition of Karnatak music has
been built up by the South Indian genius. It is up to
the vidwans and rasikas to see that this torch of
Karnatak music is kept effulgent for all time to come
and in all its glory.
