Sangraha Chudamani of Govinda

If you are into south Indian music, then you might be aware of  the  common name confusions. I mean the raga names – Tyagaraja’s Manohari versus Muttuswamy Dikshita’s Manohari, for example. Melodically very different, but share the same name. On the other hand, Tyagaraja’s dArini telusukonTi (Shuddha Saveri) and Muttuswami Dikshita’s Sriguruguha tArayASu mAm (dEvakriya) have the same melodic structure.  And as if to make matters worse, Tyagaraja has another dEvakriya, and Muttuswami dikShita a different Shuddha sAvEri (EkAmrEsha nAyike)!

Most of this happened because many manuscripts that contained Tyagaraja’s composition did not have raga names in them, or had them in some encoded form. When these were copied, and re-copied in the years after Tyagaraja, the scribes who copied these manuscripts  assigned raga names very likely based a book they had access to. This resulted in many names unheard till then being assigned to some of these compositions, some compositions were even assigned to two different ragas (rasALi/vanAvaLi, dundhubhi/divyamaNi, Srutiranjani/Kantamani, dEvAmrtavarShini/nAda chintAmaNi  etc). Tyagaraja’s school dominated the music scene of the later 19th and 20th centuries, these variations in names stay put.

This reference book these scribes referred to was most probably the ‘Sangraha Chudamani’ – written by one Govindacharaya. Although he got some of the facts wrong, and went against traditional music terminology, the usage of such terms has stayed on even till now as part of the musical vocabulary of Karnataka sangeetha.

So when I found out from the Guruguha blog that the text of Sangraha Chudamani is online on DLI’s website, I went ahead and read some parts of the text. Reading from the DLI site was not a very user friendly experience. Since the book is in public domain anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to post a .pdf version of the book for those who might be interested. Thanks Sunil for creating the PDF files!

Here are links to the first four parts of the book on Scribd (There are 16 PDF files). While the introduction is in English,the main body of the book is in Samskrta. Links for the remaining parts are available on the right hand side under the “From the same publisher’  menu, when you are browsing any of the following pages :

Sangraha Chudamani: Part 1

Sangraha Chudamani: Part 2

Sangraha Chudamani: Part 3

Sangraha Chudamani: Part 4

Happy reading!

-neelanjana

What’s Wrong With Michael Wood’s ‘The Story of India’?

I really had high hopes with this documentary film,  when I came to know that it would be broadcast on PBS. For one, this  was a BBC production. The second was that it is a fairly recent production – and a lot of water has flown through the Ganga, Sindhu and Kaveri since the first time they came across the ruins at Mohenjodaro and Harappa.

Although Michael Wood has put in a lot of  effort to present ‘The Story of India’, and the documentary is beautifully filmed, it leaves much to be desired.  I am sure it is quite hard to encapsulate the six thousand years of Indian history in a six hour documentary.  But Michael Wood has not tried to consider and mention alternative views; there are gross omissions, and serious factual errors, some of which I list below. (These are not in any specific order):

1. The film does not even mention about the alternatives to Aryan Invasion Theory (Well, it does mildly call it the Aryan Migration Theory) – Same old wine in a new bottle.  It does not say that AMT is one of the different possibilities, and talks as though it is a proven fact and set in stone.

2. The film tells about the discovery of a large number of Indus civilization sites on the bed of Ghaggar, it falls short of saying Ghaggar is nothing but the dried up Saraswati river.

3. It does not mention anything about the role of Saraswati river in the vedas – I guess if he did, Michael  had to contradict himself, because most of the sites on Ghaggar had ceased to exist by 1800 BC, but the AIT/AMT assigns a time of 1500 BC for Rg Veda.

4. The film mentions that most of the Indus cities were vacated because of dwindling water resources. So what Michel has employed is selective blindness; take newer research whenever it suits and just drop those that seem inconvenient.

5. Vast tracts of history, both in time and space have been neglected – For example there is no mention of kingdoms such as Chalukya, Rashtrakoota, and Pallava dynasties, that have left treasures such as Ajanta, Ellora, Badami and Kanchipuram.

6. Wood says that Chola kings(10th century) started recording deeds on stone, and copper plates. But copper plates inscriptions are found all the way from gangas (5th century) and  through the reign of  Chalukyas and Rashtrakootas ( upto 11 centuries) in other parts of India. And as for as stone inscriptions are concerned, there a plenty of them all the way from Kadamba, Pallava and Chalukya times (starting in 5th century).

7.  Among preachers,  Buddha makes is presence felt, but for whatever reason, the likes of Mahaveera, or Sankara are not even mentioned. Then no hope for the likes of Basvanna, or Purandara dasa. Sigh!

8. Michael Wood says Indian’s did not know where the city of  Ayodhya was till the 4th century! This I find hard to believe, but I do not have a firm argument as yet.

9. This one takes the cake – Michael Wood interview’s the current Maratha prince of Tanjavoor, (or call him descendent of the Maratha kings, if you like), and tells us that he comes from the family of Rajaraja Chola!

10. The biggest blunder is the series does not even mention the kindgom of Vijaya Nagara – Arguably the best city in 16th century as per European traveler’s records!

Well, I can go on – But I thought it would be OK I will stop at number 10 – until I remembered the next one. which I should really mention!

11. Wood speaks to a woman at Belagola, and based on her story, say that the statue of Bahubali at Sravana beLagoLa (Gommata) was built by none other than Chandragupta Maurya in the 3rd century BC! Chavundaraya must be crying, wherever he is.

So much for authenticity, and research.

-neelanjana

Prof.R.Satyanarayana Chosen For Sangeeta Nataka Academy Award

The first time I came across his name was in 1991. I found one of his books at the Karnatik Music Book Center (KMBC) in Royapetta, Madras. The moment I started reading this book titled “Veena Lakshana Vimarshe”, I became his fan. Later I have read a few more of his books, and can say that his knowledge in various art farms and languages, and history of Indian music has few comparisons.

So when I got the news of Prof R Satyanarayana getting the Sangeeta Nataka Academy award, I was definitely thrilled.

Here is a clipping from the ‘Star of Mysore’ dated January 11th 2009.

Prof R. Satyanarayana

For anyone interested in Indian musicology, his works are a must-read. I recommend reading his translation and commentary on Venkatamakhi’s Caturdandi Prakashike.

-neelanjana

Graha Bheda – A Beginner’s Guide

The first time I came across the phrase ‘graha bheda‘ was in  a book called Sangeetha Darpana by Prof. Ramaratnam. For someone who exactly knew the aarohana and avarohana of three or four raagas, a detailed discussion of graha bheda, it’s possibilities and limitations were too much to swallow. What? Getting Kalyani from Shankarabharana and todi?

Luckily, I had the luxury of having my grandma’s old harmonium at my disposal. Using that, and testing out some of the things in that book, I was able to make sense of what the professor was saying!  But over the years, and after becoming a somewhat serious listener of Indian music, I am glad to say  the topic excites me today, as much as it did so many years ago.

To cut a long story short, I was asked to present about some topic that could be of interest to students of music at Mahati School of Music in Cupertino, CA last week. And I chose to talk about graha bheda, as used in Karnataka sangeetha.

I tried to intersperse it with some examples which I sang myself, and some examples from professional performing artists. I could not cover all the clips I had, and also some of  the other points that I wanted to bring up for want of  time, but the participation of kids during the presentation was really very encouraging, to say the least.

Here is a recording of the lec-dem. It is about 50 minutes long, and starts around the 3rd minute marker.I did not have time ( or patience) to edit it,  and so it is posted as it is

Comments are welcome, more so if they are in the form of other nice graha bheda examples!

-neelanjana

ದೀಪವು ನಿನ್ನದೆ, ಗಾಳಿಯು ನಿನ್ನದೆ

I still remember listening to the song “ಹತ್ತು ವರುಷದ ಹಿಂದೆ” (hattu varuShada hinde) decades ago, when I was in my elementary school. This is a bhAvagIte written by K.S.Narasimhaswamy. If I recall correctly, the AIR version was sung by Jayavanti Devi. Or it might have been H.R.Leelavati. I forget. My mother used to sing this song very well too. Even though she was partial towards singing classically tuned bhAvageethes, she sometimes sang songs falling into sugama sangeta genre too, and this was one of them. I came to learn about the book called “Maisooru mallige” by K S Narasimhaswamy from her.

When the cassette revolution started in the early 80’s, it gave a new life for kannaDa  sugama sangeetha, C Ashwath’s album Maisooru Mallige became one of my favorites. I believe this is one of the most highly successful albums in kannada sugama sangeetha, along with the likes of Nityotsava (ನಿತ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ) and Bhava sangama (ಭಾವಸಂಗಮ). In my opinion Ashwath was in his best during this time.

If you have not listened to this collection, then you must

Songs from C Ashwath’s maisooru mallige

This online link does not have the song ತೌರ ಸುಖದೊಳಗೆನ್ನ (Toura sukhadoLagenna). Based on Sindhu bhairavi rAga, and sung very nicely by Ratnamala Prakash, (daughter of nonegerian musician Sri R K Srikanthan) I consider that one as the best song in the collection. Very apt music for the lyrics.

Sometime later, probably in mid 1990s a movie was made based on the poems of maisooru mallige. This may have been the first time a story was written with the framework provided by the songs. The movie went on to become commercially successful too. Nagabharana directed the movie. The songs were OK, but in my opinion they were definitely paler, because of choosing mainstream singers like SPB, and S Janaki instead of the original singers from the album for some of the songs. Many songs from the album were in the movie, and some other songs were introduced too.

Last year, during an interview on Udaya TV Nagini Bharana, wife of the director Nagabharana choose one of the songs from the movie Maisooru mallige- this was not part of the original Maisooru mallige album - ದೀಪವು ನಿನ್ನದೆ, ಗಾಳಿಯು ನಿನ್ನದೆ (dIpavu ninnade, gALiyu ninnade) as her favourite song among the songs of all the movies directed by her husband.  This was when I rellay noticed this song. The picturization is wonderful. Just taken with the light of a ದೀಪ, it provides a very nice imagery of the lyrics.

Here is the text of the song:

ದೀಪವು ನಿನ್ನದೆ ಗಾಳಿಯು ನಿನ್ನದೆ ಆರದಿರಲಿ ಬೆಳಕು
ಕಡಲು ನಿನ್ನದೆ ಹಡಗು ನಿನ್ನದೆ, ಮುಳುಗದಿರಲಿ ಬದುಕು

ಬೆಟ್ಟವು ನಿನ್ನದೆ, ಬಯಲು ನಿನ್ನದೆ, ಹಬ್ಬಿ ನಗಲಿ ಪ್ರೀತಿ
ನೆಳಲೋ ಬಿಸಿಲೋ ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ನಿನ್ನದೆ ಇರಲಿ ಏಕರೀತಿ

ಆಗೂಂದು ಸಿಡಿಲು, ಈಗೊಂದು ಮುಗಿಲು ನಿನಗೆ ಅಲಂಕಾರ
ಅಲ್ಲೊಂದು ಹಕ್ಕಿ, ಇಲ್ಲೊಂದು ಮುಗುಳು, ನಿನಗೆ ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ

ಅಲ್ಲಿ ರಣದುಂದುಭಿ, ಇಲ್ಲೊಂದು ವೀಣೆ, ನಿನ್ನ ಪ್ರತಿಧ್ವನಿ
ಆ ಮಹಾಕಾವ್ಯ, ಈ ಭಾವಗೀತೆ ನಿನ್ನ ಪದಧ್ವನಿ

You can listen to the song here:

ದೀಪವು ನಿನ್ನದೆ – Listen here

Or here is an alternate link, if the above does not work:

dIpavu ninnade – On Music India Online

In the  first link above, there is the filmi version sung by S Janaki, and another, more elaborate version sung by Ratnamala Prakash on a stage show – The background music is much better in the stage show version. You can hear the flautist creating magic here!

For those of you who may not understand kannDa, here is a gist of the poem:

The candle is yours;
The wind, yours too;
Don’t blow out the light.
The ocean is yours;
The ship is yours too;
Pray, don’t wreck it.

The hills are yours;
The plains are yours.
Let love blossom everywhere!
The sunny days are yours;
The cloudy days are yours.
Measure them alike.

The great thunder,
The dark clouds
Dress you up in the sky!
The chirping birds,
The smiling faces
All salute thee.

Pounding War Drums
The gentle-sounding lutes
They are both your echo.
The great epic poems
This simple song
They are all your words.

The ocean is yours;
The ship, yours too;
Pray, don’t wreck it.
The candle is yours;
The wind is yours;
Don’t blow out the light.

This song was used in the movie “Maisoora Mallige” – Watch it here.

Now coming to my favorite part This song is based on a rAga from Indian classical music. In karnATaka sangIta, this rAga  is called bhOgavasanta (ಭೋಗವಸಂತ). It is not a very popular or well known rAga. This may be because it treads the territory of other well-known rAgas such as kAmavardhini. In fact, there were no formal compositions in this rAga until Jayachamaraja Odeyar, the last king of Maisooru,  composed a kriti sometime during the 1940s.

You can listen to this kriti, in the voice of M S Sheela. This is a recording from a program on Jayachamarajendra Odeyar’s compositions on All India Radio.

Before singing the song, she describes the notes that are used in this melody. This is a shADava rAga, meaning a rAga that uses six of the seven notes.

M.S.Sheela sings amba srI rAja rAjEshwari

You may have noticed that ambA ShrI and dIpavu ninnadu seem very different, even though  I say they are basically the same melody. That is because the song dIpavu ninnade, takes more from the form in the hindUstAni counterpart of this melody.

In hindustAni music, this rAga called din-ki-pooriya. The name suggests it is a rAga to be sung during daylight hours, and is a relative of rAga pooriya. Although not very well known,  din-ki-pooriya stands much better off than bhOgavasanta in terms of the number of recordings available. Pandit Jasraj and his shishyas like Sanjeev have popularised this rAga quite a bit.

Here you can listen to a very nice rendition of rAga din-ki-pooria from Sandeep Ranade, an exponent of mEwAti  gharAna. See if you can spot elements of the song dIpavu ninnade in here.

Sandeep Ranade sings din-ki-pooriya

This din-ki-pooriya recording is part of a rAga mAlika begins with din-ki-pooria and then moves on to lalit, and  then toother rAgas, each time differing by one-note-hamming distance.  I highly recommend you to listen to the entire recording   of Sandeep Ranade’s raga-morphing rAgamAlike here:

http://www.sandeepranade.com/html/ClassicalSinging/raga-morphing.htm

There  are many more such wonderful recordings for music lovers available on the artists website (www.sandeepranade.com).

As I was writing the lines from deepavu ninnade, I remembered two other haridasa compositions. But let me blabber about that some other time!

Happy listening.

-neelanjana