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Chaturdandi Prakashika
Ve"nkaTamakhin, the son of
GOvindAcArya, is often regarded as the grammarian (PANini) of karNATik
music. His monumental work "CaturdaNDI PrakAshaika" is the base for the modern
system of karNATik tradition. CaturdaNDI (four pillars) refers
to four aspects of music: gIta, thAya, Alapa and prabandha.
The book as extant is incomplete; only nine chapters have survived, on the
topics shruti, svara, mELa, rAga, AlApa, thAya, gIta, prabhandha, and
vINa (the tenth and last chapter on tALa may have been lost for
ever). The book's exegesis of musical theory is both concise and precise.
Ve"nkaTamakhin can be credited with the attribution of twelve svara sthAnams
for seven svarams, and the classification scheme of seventy-two mELas.
But he gave importance only to nineteen mELas (prasiddha mELas),
namely, mukhAri, sAmavarALi, bhUpALam, sha"nkarAbharaNam, sAmanta, dEshAkSi,
hejjajji, vasantabhairavi, gauLa, bhairavi, Ahiri, shrI, kambhOji, nATa,
shuddhavarAli, pantuvarALi, shuddharAmakriya, simharavam, and kalyANi.
Ve"nkaTamakhin only described how to construct the seventy-two mELas.
The actual names given to these mElas based on the kaTapyAdi
counting scheme (KanakAmbari for mELa #1, phEnadyuti to mELA
#2, … to rasama~njari for mELa #72) was a much later invention,
attributed to his descendent Muddu Ve"nkaTamakhin. There is an anubandham
(appendix) to caturdaNDI that gives the names and the definitions of all
seventy-two asampUrNa mEla with the janyams (derivatives) of
each of these mELas. Most scholars are in agreement that this appendix
segment of the work was added later by Muddu Ve"nkaTamakhin, who might also
have authored the several gItams that appear as illustrations in later
works.
SangIta Saramrita
TujAja MahArajA (also known as tukkAji) was a
ruler of Tanjore during 1728-36. He was the brother the famous Maratta King
Shaji and SerafOji, and the third son of EkkOji. "Sa"ngIta Saram.rta" by
TulAji Maharaja is a work consisting of fourteen chapters, called prakaraNas,
concerned with shruti, suddha svara, vik.rta svara, grAma mUrcchana,
sadharaNa, varNalamkara, jati, gIti, mELa, rAga, vAdya, gIta, and tALa.
In each chapter, the author briefly discusses details about his family, and
often refers to existing classical work. He declares that nAda is the
Lord paramAtma himself, and forms the base for the entire system of
music. He describes varieties of nAdas such as sUkSma, atisUkSma,
puSTa, apuSTa, and kritrima. He follows his predecessors very
closely in providing an exhaustive description of shrutis. Just like
Bharata, he describes twenty-two shrutis. The seven svarams take
on the tonal values of 4, 3, 2, 4, 4, 3, and 2 (equalg twenty-two shrutis),
and are named sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, and ni,
respectively. GrAma, mUrcchana, shuddha and kUTa tAna are also
discussed. Various mELas are obtained by grouping svaras in
different permutations and combinations. He also describes the seventy-two
mELas propounded by Ve"nkaTamakhin, but only nineteen popular mELas
are described in greater detail. A variety of rAgas, totaling 111, are
given. Various instruments and the rhythmic system are also extensively
discussed. On the whole, "Sa"ngIta SarAm.rta" constitutes an invaluable
scholarly achievement.
Sangraha Chudamani
GOvindAcArya's "Samgraha
CUDAamaNi" is considered as the last among the great works on music since
ShAr"ngadEva's period, and prior to the advent of the modern era. The work is
written in chaste Sanskrit, and describes the evolution of music. GOvindAcarya
adopted shrutis of the sudddha svarams whose ratios to the
fundamental are 1, 16/15, 9/8, 4/3, 3/2, 8/5, 27/16, and 2, and surmises that
676 ragas are possible. On the discussion of mELa, GOvindAcarya
modified the system of mELakartA, introducing the essential requirement
of fullness that the ArOhaNa and avarOhaNa contain exactly
seven svaras. The current nomenclature for the seventy-two mELas
(KanakA"ngi, RatnA"ngi, . . . rasikapriya) can be found in this work.
He also describes the Maratti work bAhattara mELakartas by LAvani
V"enkaTa Rao, a Maratta composer and poet in the court of Saketa Ram Sahib who
was adept in playing LAvaNi (a Marati folk style). MahA VaidyanAtha
Iyer's mELa rAgAmalika (a musical composition in a garland of 72
rAgas) was influenced by LAvani Ve"nkaTa Rao's contributions.
GOvindAcArya's work concludes with an index to many janya rAgams with
ArOhaNa and avarOhaNa. He composed 366 lakSya gItams,
seventy-two for each mELa and 294 for the various janyams of his
time.
Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini
The greatest contribution to
karNATik music in the modern era can be attributed to SubbarAma
DIkSitar (1839-1906). He was the grandson of BAlusvAmi DIkSitar, the
illustrious brother of MuttusvAmi DIkSitar. Practicing musicians,
musicologists, and writers have drawn continual inspiration from Subbarama
DIkSitar's mammoth work, "Sa"ngIta SampradAya Pradarshini". Through this work,
we can obtain the most authentic account of the music of the DIkSitar school.
SubbarAma DIkSitar was very reluctant about the idea of sharing his music, but
at the urging of A.M. CinnsvAmi MudaliyAr, a Madras Government superintendent,
he finally agreed. It took more than four years for him to complete this
magnum opus, a book in Telugu whose two volumes contain nearly seventeen
hundred pages.
This mammoth work, is an
encyclopedia that details in a very systematic fashion the type and style of
music prevalent till the time of the DIkSitar School. Th work employs numerous
"gamaka" symbols, printed carefully for the first time and explained
clearly by the author in the introduction. The entire work is written in a
mathematically precise style, and .the material is arranged sequentially
according to the 72 "rAgA"nga rAga"s Each section has discussions of
the various janya rAgams, commencing with a detailed description of the
particular rAgam, followed by some illustrative examples, namely,
shlOkams and gItams of (Muddu) Ve"nkaTamakhi, some k.rtis
of well-known composers like MuttusvAmi DikSitar, and finally a sa~ncAri
by the author himself. This voluminous treatise includes seventy-six
biographies of notable musical personalities, 170 lakSaNa gItams of (Muddu)
Ve"nkaTamakhin, 229 compositions of MuttusvAmi DIkSitar, ten prabandhams,
forty-one ciTTa tAnas of Ve"nkaTamakhin, a few pieces by various
composers like ETTappa MahArAja, and Svatii TirunAL. Also included are two
huge Appendices. Appendix A contains a host of very lengthy rAgamAlikas,
some by the author himself, which includes his own 72 rAgA"nga rAgamAlka,
as well as sixty-one lines of RAmasvAmi DIkSitar's famous rAga tALa
mAlika, (supposed to contain 108 rAgas and 108 tALas). Appendix B has 56
compositions (some very rare) from various composers including KuppusAmayya,
ShrInivAsayya, mAt.rbhUtayya, TyAgarAja, and ShyAma ShAstri,. Four among the
five pa~ncaratna k.rtis of TyAgaraja are given with notations, but style given
here is significantly different from what is currently in vogue. (the varALi
pa~ncaratnam is not featured here for some unknown reasons).
From the early 1960s until 1980, this work
was translated into Tamil by the Music Academy, with the aid of a grant from
Sa"ngIta Nataka Academy. Its 1,522 pages fill five volumes. Very recently,
the first volume was translated into Kannada and published in Bangalore. An
English web edition of the entire work is in nearing completion, and what is
completed can be accessed from
www.ibiblio.org/guruguha/ssp.htm.
Subbarama DIkSitar wrote two
more books, (I) a small introductory work, "PrathmAbhyAsa Pustakulu", where he
included the noTTu svara songs (western melodies) of MuttusvAmi
DikSitar, and (ii) "saMsk.rta Andhra drAViDa kIrtanamulu". Both works are in
telugu. He had projected another large work containing numerous k.rtis
of ShyAmA ShAstri, padams of KSEtraj~na, and rare kritis of TyAgarAja, but he
did not live to complete the work. The famous Tamil poet Subramanya Bharathi
wrote an elegy on his death.
Sangita Shastra, Krama Pustak MAlika
The beginning of the
twentieth century saw the emergence of an important musicologist, Vishnu
Narayan Bhatkande (1860-1936). He wrote several books in Sanskrit, Maratti,
and Hindi. He developed the Hindustani system of generating and
classifying rAgas. His theoretical approach to the rAga, as well
as his classification and musical notation of rAgas, are valuable
contributions to the present-day Hindustani system of music. Among his
numerous writings are "Sa"ngIta ShAstra, Krama Pustak Malika", and several
textbooks. Bhatkande's contributions to the Hindusthani thATh
system were similar in aim to that of the mELakartA theory of
karNATik music, and he was inspired by the works of Ve"nkaTamakhin. Also,
it was Bhatkande who brought into the limelight the existing versions of
famous treatises such as CaturdaNDI PrakAshika, SvaramELakalanidhi, and
Sa"ngIta Saram.rta, which were later published by scholarly institutions like
the Music Academy in Madras.
SangIta Kalpadrumam
The advent of the modern age
brings with it the contributions of Harikesanallur MuthayyA Bhagavathar
(1877-1945). An eminent composer and creator of numerous new rAgams,
MuthayyA BhAgavatar wrote "Sa"ngIta Kalpadrumam" and presented it as a D.Litt
dissertation to the Travancore University. The book summarizes the work of
many of its predecessors from Bharata to Ve"nkaTamakhin, quoting them
extensively. Of the work's two parts, only the first was published. The
language is Tamil, with occasional shOkams in Sanskrit, but written in
grantha script. A translation in Malayalam of the entire work (by Dr.
S. Venkatasubramonia Iyer) was published in 1977 by the Kerala Bhasha
Institute. The first part has eight prakaraNams (chapters), on
upOdgAtam, nAda, shruti, svara, varNAlamkara, svaraprastAra, jati, nd
gIta. Part 2 (the remaining six chapters) discusses prabandha, vAdya,
tALa, rAga, nartana and vAggEyakarAdi lakSaNa.
The work forms a true treatise in every sense of the word. It contains many
prastAras (exercises) for practitioners of the art of music. In his own
beautiful composition, "VijayAmbikE VimalatmikE", composed in the
rAga VijayanAgari (a rAga created by MuthayyA BhAgavatar), he aptly
addresses the goddess VijayAmbika as the essence of music:
shruti svara grAma
mUrcchanAlaMkAra
nAda janita rAga rasa bharita
sa"ngIta rUpini
Each of
these aspects is fully discussed by the author in this beautiful work.
SangIta Candrika
"Sa"ngIta Candrika" (1954)
a relatively recent work from Kerala by AttUr K.rSNa PiSArODy. The work is in
maNipravALam (a mixture of Sanskrit and malayalam), and has 467 verses,
grouped under twelve chapters (called prakAshas), on nAda, shruti,
svara, vINa, grama mUrcchana. mELa, tALa varNAlamkAra, gamaka, prabandha, rAga,
and gIta. The work extensively quotes its predecessors Bharata,
Mata"nga, RAmamatya, and GOvinda DIkSitar, among others. Around 442 ragas and
their scales are discussed, and a new scheme of eighty-four sa"nkIrNa mELas
is proposed, modifying the classical seventy-two mELa scheme. This
includes twelve new mELas in which the presence of two varieties of the
same note (ri, ga, ma, dha) is permitted. While the names of most
mELas of Ve"nkaTamakhin are retained, their serial placement is different.
The scheme is extremely complex, yet very systematic. At this time, its
potential is not yet realized.
Conclusion
The various milestones in the
development of our rich musical system can be summarized as follows. The
vEdas provided us with musical notes, and the nATyashAstra dealt with
grAmas, which may be treated as a forerunner to the concept of rAga.
The classical Tamil poems gave us the paNN system; b.rhaddEshi and
sa"ngItaratnAkara treated the jatis (which later became rAgas),
the dEshi system of music, and twenty-two shrutis. Later,
RAmAmAtya explored the mELakartA concept, Ve"nkaTamakhin expounded the
seventy-two mELakartas, and GOvindacArya gave them the names that are
used today. Further works by other musicologists have set the standard for
today's music.
Finally, it should be
noted that the above listing is not complete, nor is our discussion of the
material from various treatises exhaustive. Pandit V. N. Bhatkande, in his
work "Music Systems of India", mentions a host of rare and valuable
musicological work that were available in the libraries of H. H. The Maharaja
of Bikaner, Government Oriental Library (Mysore), Palace Library (Trivandrum),
Central Library (Baroda), Library of the Maharaja of Kashi, Tanjore Palace
Library, Royal Asiatic Library of Calcutta, and the Oriental Library of
Madras. These scholarly treasures further enhance the richness of our
musicological writings.
The following monographs offer
detailed studies of the vast amount of literature on Indian musicology.
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Bhagyalekshmy, S., Lakshanagranthas in Music. CBH
Publications, Trivandrum (1991)
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Nijenhuis, Emmie te., Musicological Literature. A History of Indian
literature. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, (1977).
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Bhatkande, (Pandit) V.N, Music Systems in
India,
(Journal articles, Edited by S. N. Ratanjankar, S. Lal & Co
Delhi (1984).
CONCLUDED
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