R Vedavalli - V Sumithra - R K Shriram Kumar - Kallidaikurichi V Sivakumar
Lec-Dem on 'Sanskrit compositions in Carnatic music'
Music Academy mini hall
15th Sept 08. 6:30 pm
The lec-dem started off with a brief introduction by Sri Pappu Venugopala Rao.
Smt. Vedavalli began the programme quoting 'yagnavalka' saying sangeetham + samskrutam = amrutam + bhakti = athi amrutam. Smt. Vedavalli gave all the explanations and the commentry, while her disciple Smt. Sumithra sang the compositions.
The language samskrutam exists only in music today was the first observation made.
She gave first credits to Lava & Kucha to have sung the Story of Rama composed by Valmiki. however, she noted that the musical forms of those days were completely different and have undergone a lot of changes to reach the present form of musical compositions.
The programme was split into 3 parts, the pre-trinity, the trinity and the post-trinity.
The first part started with Jayadeva. His Ashtapadis have 8 caraNams or 8 pAdams. They basically deal with the Krishna - Radha relationship and its ups and down. As a example, the ashtapadi 'lalita lavanga' in vasantA was sung.
The next was Narayana Theerathar. The tarangams that he composed used a lot of grammatical usages. The gadyam, padyam were all found in his compositions. He also had used some wordplay. He was credited to be a composer who had a lot of followers and a lot of his compositions seems to be cited. As as example, 'AlOkayE rukmaNi kalyANa gOpAlam' in kIravANi set to misra cApu was rendered. The mention of all the eight consorts of Lord krishna and the description of Krishna and Rukmani sitting in their darbar at dwaraka in this composition was explained.
The third composer was Margadarsi Sesha Iyengar. It was placed on record that he was the one who brought the pallavi - anu pallavi - charanam format for the kritis. His mudra is 'kOsala'. Mention of another Sesha Iyengar who was his contemporary and the confusions which exists between them was also mentioned. Most of his kritis are available but the original tunes have not been traceable. They seemed to have been lost during the trinity period. Mention of a composition 'sEshAnga sAyinam' which seems to have been the basic format for the 'bhOgIndra sAyinam' was made. It was also observed that this person was a staunch vaishnavite and has also composed on Nammalwar and Ramanuja, giving full story of their life and descriptions of their looks and deeds.
Upanishad Brahmam was the next composer to be mentioned. He seems to have lived a little before the Trinity's time. It is also believed that during his later years he taught Thyagaraja and Dikshitar a lot of Vedanta and philosphical stuff. He was a saintly man. A lot of kritis and compositions are attributed to him. Also mentioned was the rAmAshTapadi krits composed by him and tuned by Muthuswami Dikhitar, which are not available to us presently.
Ramaswamy Dikshitar, Muthuswami dikshitar's father could not be forgotten. His gangA taraNgini daru which is palindromic, was cited as the classical example. it goes like 'sArasa nayana sarasA sAratara ratarasA mAratAtatAramA'. This man was credited to have brought in the concept of rAgamAlikA compositions into the carnatic music. A lot of his varnams and kritis are available from the Pradarshini.
The Trinity period.
The discussion on the trinity period was started with the mention of the fact that in those days, a person considered to be a learned or educated or called mahA vidwan, was invariably a sanskrit scholar. Everybody knew the language and had a good command over it. It was but natural for people to compose composition of such high order. On a light note, she said 'making a jumble of various sahasranAma stOtrams will not make a sanskrit composition'.
A mention of Shyama Sastri was made for his 'talking-style' compositions on the goddess. The other fact that was mentioned was the presence of a sanskrit kriti in the same tune as another telugu kriti.
Smt. Vedavalli mentioned that Thyagaraja's kritis are largely ignored when it comes to sanskrit compositions and gave a lot of examples of nice usages and similies. Varied usage of names and terms to mean the same thing to incorporate beauty and prAsam was mentioned. The reference to the Surya vamsa as suryavamsa, raghukula, jalajAptakula, inakula etc was cited. Also cited was reference to the sun god as dinamaNi, dinarAja, jalajApta, dinakarAja etc in various compositions. His usage of rAkA chandra and rAkA sasi in compositions to indicate the moon rising from darkness was mentioned. I was reminded of the sahAnA navAvarNam which also has a similar usage in the anupallavi.
Smt. Vedavalli took up the example of the nATTai pancharatnam and cited phrases that were indicative of the richness in thyagaraja's language. In the 5th caraNam, srushTistityantakAra... the phrase 'anurAga rAga rAjita kathA' which was to mean a story ruled by love and music was cited. In the 6th caraNam, sajjana mAnasAbdi.. 'surasAripu karAbja lAlita caraNA' meaning, the legs which are taken care off by the same hands which killed the monstress surasai. In the 9th caraNam, purANa purusha... refering to rAma as virAvaNa, or the one who killed rAvaNa where are given as examples. The other kriti which was taken up was grahabalamEmi in rEvagupti. Here the various words like nigraha, anugraha, navagraha.. etc used to get the correct prAsam was mentioned. Also mentioned was the usage of the various alankarams available in samskrutam like yati, anuprAsam, yamakam etc, which have all been carefully incorporated into his compositions. The bhairavi kriti 'srI raghuvara suguNAlaya' was taken up to show example of word play with kamalAhita to refer to vishnu and kamala ahita dhara to refer to shiva. The other kritis that were mentioned are rAma ninnE in husEni and rAmam bhajE in sAvEri. Also placed on record were the numerous occasions where Thyagaraja swami has given un-referenced and new facts from unknown sources, which are not found in compositions before him. For starters, he refers to rAvaNa has satavadanA or the one with 100 heads.
Smt. Vedavalli remarked that Dikshitar's compositions form a Samskruta Samudram and we can only stand on its shore and have a look at them. She referred to them as totally divine and the compositions to have the maximum swAdhInam. She observed that the grammar was perfect everywhere.
The speciality of dikshitar, Thematic and Kshetra kritis was mentioned. She mentioned the amount information that he gives about each kshetra and its deity and the temple all the way from the legend of the temple to the kind of flowers that are offered, all of it bundled into one composition with sAhitya suddham, and perfect grammar and some amazing similies was a great thing.
3 kritis were sung as examples. aruNAcala nAtam, jambUpatE and mAmava paTTAbhirAma were taken up. Appropriate usage of smarAmi for aruNAcalanAtam going by the old saying which says that one can attain mOksham thinking of Lord aruNAchalEsvarA was mentioned. The composition on the agni kshEtram, had lots of mentions and indications of words referring agni, and the rather extensive usage of the syllable 'ra' which stands for the Fire god was also mentioned. Similarly in jambUpatE, the composition on the apu kshEtram, the number of words to indicate water was mentioned. In mAmava paTTAbhirAmA, the depiction of the paTTAbhishEkam event, like a painting, on who were all present and where they were present and all that, making the scene come in front of those singing and listening, was elaborated. Also mentioned along was the maximum usage of the syllable 'ksha' in akshaya linga vibhO.
Appropriate usage of words and terms, esp in the vAra kritis was told as well. sUryamUrtE namOstutE, thus appeasing the Sun god who is the namaskAra priyan, and the immediate connection of the Moon god and the mind with chandram bhaja mAnasa satatam we all mentioned.
Next taken up, was the incorporation of rAga mudras in his compositions. srI nAtAdi guruguhO, cintayE mahAlinga mUrtim, hastivadanAya, srI sarasvati namOstutE, guruguhAdanyam, srI guruguha tArayAsumAm, kAmAkshIm varalakshmIm, srI guruguha mUrte were the examples taken up.
The navAvarnams do take a big place in this discussion. However, only the Ahiri navAvarNam and especially the incorporation of all the vibaktis into it, and with a special mention to the sixth vibakti in the line 'prEmAspata siva guruguha jananIm' was mentioned.
Wrapping up this portion were the Note swaram 'santatam pAhimAm' and the thyagaraja kriti 'vara lIla gAna lOla' both sounding similar to the British national anthem.
post trinity:
Swathi thirunal was the first post trinity composer who was mentioned. It was observed that his works in sanskrit stand alone and follow a distinctive style different from all those which exist before. The flow of the language and the music is very distinct and is readily identifiable. The composition 'bhAvayAmi raghurAmam' which is complete rAmAyaNa in one piece, is probably the first of its kind in sanskrit. srI rAmachandra in husEni was also cited for the lyrical beauty.
Krishnaswamy Ayya was next in line. His compositions are not very popular, but they have a lot of lyrical value. In a certain kriti, he explains the position of the tilakam on the forehead of the god, with nice usages. The kriti 'sAradE sadAshrayE' in shankarAbaraNam was also referred. In another kriti in shankarAbaraNam on Lord Vishnu, a certain line goes as 'shankarAbaraNa shankachakra dara shankarAbaraNa sayana shankara'. Smt. Vedavalli had Sri Shriram Kumar explain this line as 'the one who has the conch and wheel which are known to give good boons, the one who sleeps on shiva's ornament, the one who bestows good boons'.
Existance of compositions by Mysore Sadasiva Rao, Mysore King Jayachamraja Wodeyar, Vanamamalai Jeeyar, Papanasam Sivan were all placed on record. Maha Vaidhyanatha Sivan was credited for his intelligent ways of incorporating the rAga names and bhavam within two lines in his mela ragamalika. The third chakram of the composition was presented. Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavathar's sivAshTOthra and chAmuNDAshTOthra kritis were mentioned as well. Mysore Vasudevacharya's compositions were mentioned for their intricate word plays like 'pannakEndra sayanA pannakAdi vAhanA'.
Dr. V. Raghavan of Music Academy was the last composer to be mentioned. His compositions on occasions, people were all mentioned. Placed on record were his compostions on Bharatha matha, Kanchi Paramacharya, Music Trinity amongst others. His composition tuned to nAma nArAyaNi kriti for golden jubilee of Music Academy was also mentioned. Also mentioned was the composition on Kanchi Paramacharya in kIravANi, chandrasEkaram AshrayE for its intricate wordplays. He is also said to have composed note svarams and kavadi chindu like compositions in sanskrit.
It was a very informative lec-dem. Smt. Vedavalli gave a brief overview of all that is available. Smt. Sumithra sang the appropriate compositions in full or in parts. Sri Shriram Kumar and Sri Sivakumar were both very supportive.
