Whenever I listen to certain Indian flautists (like Hariprasad Chaurasia or S Shashank), I hear a thur-thur-thur sound in the way they blow. This normally happens at the drut – or fast phrases. I have no better way of describing it! Listen to this short recording of Hariprasad Chaurasia on youtube. You can distinctly hear the sound I am indicating by the phrase thur-thur-thur at several places. As just couple of examples, I would mark around the the 2 min 25 second, and 5 min 6 second mark, just to tell you what I am talking about.
I was thinking this was a novelty of some flautists (because I don’t think every flautist uses such a technique). That was only till I came across a song that was written more than five centuries ago! Oh boy, How wrong our inferences could be!
This is a song written by Purandara Dasa, acknowledged as a pioneer in Karnataka Sangeetha. The title of this blog happens to be the opening line (pallavi) of one of his songs. It goes like
tutturu toorendu battisa raagagaLannu chittaja janaka tanna koLalallUdidanu
“Krishna, the father of Manmatha, played 32 raagas on his flute with a sound of ‘thur-thur-thur’ ”
Now do you see why I said this technique could not be all that new? Krishna is described by Purandara as playing his flue this way. Nobody has seen Krishna playing his flute. But Purandara must have see other flautists around his time ( 1480 AD – 1564 AD) producing such sounds on their flutes, and this of course, he has attributed to Krishna. So far so good.
But this song is also significant in other ways. Purandara dasa is said to have composed hundreds of thousands of compositions. Now, we have just over a thousand of his compositions available. Although Purandara Dasa is called as the “pitAmaha of Karnataka sangIta”, most of his original tunes are lost. There is pretty little information available on how many of his compositions were sung. However, being the musician he was, some of his compositions talk about various musical aspects, although indirectly. And this song, tutturu toorendu, is one of them.
For a long time, Indian music was supposed to have 32 major rAgas. This has showed up even prior to Purandara dAsa. Basavanna, a social reformer from Karnataka (1134-1196 AD) has this in one of his vachanas (saying):
ಎನ್ನ ಕಾಯವ ದಂಡಿಗೆಯ ಮಾಡಯ್ಯ
ಎನ್ನ ಶಿರವ ಸೋರೆಯ ಮಾಡಯ್ಯ
ಎನ್ನ ನರಗಳ ತಂತಿಯ ಮಾಡಯ್ಯ
ಬತ್ತೀಸ ರಾಗವ ಹಾಡಯ್ಯ
ಉರದಲೊತ್ತಿ ಬಾರಿಸು ಕೂಡಲಸಂಗಮದೇವ!
Here is the text transliterated:
enna kAyava daMDigeya mADayya
enna shirava sOreya mADayya
enna naragaLa tantiya mADayya
battIsa rAgava hADayya
uradalotti bArisu kUDalasangama dEva
And here it is translated:
Make my body the fretboard,
Make my head resonator
Make my nerves into the strings
Sing thirtytwo rAgas
Play intensely, Oh koodalasangama dEva*!
* : Koodala sangama – A place at the confluence of Krishna and Malaprabha rivers in Karnataka.
It is the same 32 raagas which Purandara dasa refers to in this song “tutturu toorendu’ too. – “Krishna played 32 rAgas”. (battIs = 32). However, he does not list out all the 32 raagas in this song. How unfortunate for us?
First lets see what he says in one of the stanzas of tutturu toorendu:
ಗೌಳ ನಾಟಿ ಆಹೇರಿ ಗುರ್ಜರಿ ಮಾಳವಿ ಸಾರಂಗ ರಾಗ ಕೇಳಿ ರಮಣಿಯರತಿ ದೂರದಿಂದ
ಫಲಮಂಜರಿ ಗೌಳಿ ದೇಶಾಕ್ಷಿ ರಾಗಗಳನು ನಳಿನನಾಭನು ತನ್ನ ಕೊಳಲಲೂದಿದನು
gouLa nATi AhEri gurjari mALavi sAranga rAga kELi ramaNiyarati dUradinda
phalamanjari gauLi dEshAkSi rAgangaLanu naLinanAbhanu tanna koLalalUdidanu
“When the maidens from listening from afar, the one with a lotus in his navel, played raagas like gouLa, nATi, AhEri, gurjari, mALavi, sAranga, phalamanjari, gouLi and dEshAkShi”
So, we have the following 9 distinct rAgas listed in this song. However, it falls short of the required 32!
1. gouLa
2. nATi
3. AhEri
4. gurjari
5. mALavi
6. sAranga
7. phalamanjari
8. gouLi
9. dEshakshi
Luckily for us, there are at least two other songs (that I know of) in which he lists out some of the raagas (melodies) that were vouge in his time.
Here is a stanza from another song that starts as ನಳಿನಜಾಂಡ ತಲೆಯ ತೂಗಿ – “naLinajANDa taleya toogi”:
ಮಾರವಿ ದೇಶಿ ಗುರ್ಜರಿ ಭೈರವಿ ಗೌಳಿ ನಾಟಿ ಸಾವೇರಿ ಆಹೇರಿ ಪೂರ್ವಿ
ಕಾಂಭೋಜಿ ಪಾಡಿ ದೇಶಾಕ್ಷೀ ಶಂಕರಾಭರಣ ಮಾಳವ
ವರಾಳಿ ಕಲ್ಯಾಣಿ ತೋಡಿ ಮುಖಾರಿಯರಳಿ ವಸಂತ ಬೌಳಿ ಧನ್ಯಾಸಿ
ಸೌರಾಷ್ಟ್ರ ಗುಂಡಕ್ರಿಯ ರಾಮಕ್ರಿಯ ಮೇಘ ಕುರಂಜಿಯು ಪಾಡಲು ನೋಡಿ!
mAravi dEshi gurjari bhairavi gauLi nATi sAvEri AhEri pUrvi
kAmbhOji pADi dEshAkSi shankarAbharaNa mALava
varALi kalyANi tODi mukhAriyaraLi vasanta bauLi dhanyAsi
saurASTra guMDakriya rAmakriya mEgha kuranjiyu pADalu nODi
Now, let me list out the rAgas from here, discounting the ones that have been listed before:
10. mAravi
11. dEshi
gurjari
12. bhairavi
gouLi
nATi
13. sAvEri
AhEri
14. pUrvi
15. kAmbhOji
16. pADi
dEshAkshi
17. shankarAbharaNa
18. mALava
19. varALi
20. kalyANi
21. tODi
22. mukhAri
23. vasanta
24. bouLi
25. dhanyAsi
26. sourAShTra
27. guMDakriya
28. rAmakriya
29. mEgha
30. kuranji
Whew! We are so close to the magical number 32!
Now, to conclude, here is a stanza from the last song – which starts as ಅಂಗನೆಯರೆಲ್ಲರು ನೆರೆದು – ’anganeyarellaru neredu’
ಪಾಡಿ ಮಲಹರಿ ಭೈರವಿ ಸಾರಂಗ ದೇಶಿ ಗುಂಡಕ್ರಿಯ ಗುರ್ಜರಿ ಕಲ್ಯಾಣಿ ರಾಗದಿ ತಂಡ
ತಂಡದಲಿ ನೆರೆದು ರಂಗನ ಉಡಿಯ ಘಂಟೆ ಘಣ್ ಘಣ್ ಘಣ್ ಘಣಿರೆಂದು ಹಿಡಿದು ಕುಣಿಸುವರು
pADi malhAri bhairavi sAranga dEsi guMDakriya gurjari kalyANi rAgadi taMDa
taMadali neredu rangana uDiya ghaNTe ghaN ghaN ghaN ghNirendu hiDidu kuNisuvaru
If you look carefully, you’ll notice there is only one name that has not appeared before.
31. Malahari
So, the internal evidence from these compositions is giving a list of 31 rAgas (probably out of the legendary 32 – this is but my speculation) that were in vogue in the 15th-16th centuries. The set of 32 rAgas was not a static list, and over the centuries, new rAgas gained popularity, and some went outdated. The evidence from these three compositions also shows that the rAga kalyANi, was adopted by composers like Purandara Dasa , although the text writers continued to shoo it away because of its foreign origins, and kept saying that the rAga is not fit for compositions for another two centuries!
But the golden rule in Music is “If it is melodious, it stays“. Kalyani has passed the test of time. Composers who came in the 18th-19th centuries explored all facets of this rAga, and today it has became one of the major rAgas of Karnataka Sangeetha .
-neelanjana
16 comments
Comments feed for this article
ಡಿಸೆಂಬರ್ 3, 2007 at 4:42 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Roshan
Very interesting and thought provoking article.
I know only one kriti each for these raagas. Do you know more kritis? Would be great it you could share more info.
gurjari – varalandu kommani
mALavi – nenarunchinaanu
padi – Sri Gurunaa paalitosmi
I have few doubts on these raagas:
AhEri – same as Ahiri?
Megh – it is an equivalent of Madhyamavathi in Hindustani music. Can we assume this to be Madhyamavathi?
dEshi – same as desh?
dEshakshi – could it be same as deShi?
mAravi – is it same as mALavi?
mALava – mAyamALavagauLa?
purvi – purvi kalyani?
I have never heard of this raga – phalamanjari. I wonder how it feels like to hear or sing it.
Also why don’t raagas like Shree, Kharaharapriya, etc. don’t find a place here? Could there be a reason for it?
LikeLike
ಡಿಸೆಂಬರ್ 4, 2007 at 12:31 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
neelanjana
Roshan,
We can debate about some of the names. (mAravi v/s mALavi). dEshi may be mArgadEshi rather than dEsh, since dEsh is a (uttara)dEshIya rAGa 🙂
dEshAkShi is distinctly different – not dEsh
mAyAmALavagouLa was never referred to as just mALava, although it was variously called as mAlavagoula, mAlavagouLA or mAlavagouDa.
LikeLike
ಡಿಸೆಂಬರ್ 4, 2007 at 10:56 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
neelanjana
Roshan,
I think I left a few questions unanswered in my previous comment. Trying to add a few more points on that here:
1. gurjari has a kriti by MD – guNijanAdi nuta guruguhOdayE. You can listen it here at the following link
http://boomp3.com/m/2d333ba64b19
gurjari seems to have been a quite a popular rAga, and was considered as a mELa rAGa, but finally had to lose it’s place to mALavagouLa.
2. mALavi has at least one more kriti of Mysooru vAsudEvAchArya
3. I have heard one kriti of annamayya in pADi (tolli kalavE iviyu). IIRC, many of annamayya’s kritis are listed under pADi
4. AhEri which Purandara dAsa lists may have been different than today’s Ahiri, as most lakshaNakAras before him, and after him (15th to 18 centuries) give it as a mELa, with swaras from that of current day’s kIravANi.
5. pUrvi is not same as pUrvi kalyANi. I have not heard the pUrvi kriti of MD. It is derived fro mAyA mALavagouLa, but takes prati madhyama as well. In that sense, it may have been similar to current day’s pUrvi in hindUstAni scheme (given MD’s hindUstAni exposure)
6. In Phalamanjari, there are couple of kritsi by Tyagaraja ( srI nArasimha mAm pAhi, sanAtana parama pAvana) and one by Patnam (I think) – palukuTace phalamEmO.
You can listen to Tyagaraj’s sanAtana paramapAvana in phalarmanjari played on the violin by LGJ here:
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/p/x/xqO0bASeW9.As1NMvHdW/
Phalamanjari is also called as Phalaranjani in some shishya parampare of Tyagaraja – with a change in the gAndhAra. You can listen to one track (SrI nArasimha listed as phalaranjani) in the following page:
http://surasa.net/music/karnatak/contrib/
7. You would not find Kharaharapriya in these songs, because it did not exist at that time! But the absense of Sri, that is a bit hard to explain …
LikeLike
ಡಿಸೆಂಬರ್ 4, 2007 at 11:16 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
Roshan
Thank you very much for all the answers and links to the compositions. I was wondering if “battis” has any relationship with the 32 thaats of Hindustani music….
LikeLike
ಡಿಸೆಂಬರ್ 4, 2007 at 11:26 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
neelanjana
Battis rAga concept has been there for at least a thousand years ( since Basavanna quotes it) – At that time, there was just one system of music in India. Somewhere I remember reading that the sum number of purusha rAGas and rAginis totalled 32.
Currently, hindUstANi employs as 10-thAT system.
Interestingly enough, the number of non-vivAdi mELas in the 72 mELa scheme is also 32. But I am sure that has nothing to do with battIs rAgas!
LikeLike
ಡಿಸೆಂಬರ್ 5, 2007 at 8:57 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
Arunk
Excellent! I had always wanted to know more about those specific songs/vachanas which listed the 32. I am going save your article away as a very useful reference!
LikeLike
ಡಿಸೆಂಬರ್ 14, 2007 at 10:38 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
neelanjana
When I was looking through Purandara dAsa’s compositions, I found another pada – ರಂಗ ಕೊಳಲಲೂದಲಾಗಿ (ranga koLalalUdalAgi) which also describes Krishna playing flute, and mentions two rAgas, namely: rAmakriya and mEgharanjani. mEgharanjani is not listed in the other 3 compositions I wrote about earlier ! So this is making it to 32 now 🙂
The sAhitya of this song is available here:
http://www.rasikas.org/wiki/ranga-kolalanudalagi
Some more rAgasa may show up in compositions if I look through.. May be some other time!
-neelanjana
LikeLike
ಫೆಬ್ರವರಿ 12, 2008 at 1:57 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
praneshachar
simply marvellous neelanjana the descriptive write up and the dedication with which you have answered readers query something unique. I would like save this seperately as a reference as referred by fellow reader. hearty congratulation for your committment interest and dedication. hats off to u
btb I came here thro your comment in RK’s blog wherein you have given this link great work keep going
@praneshachar
Welcome to my page! I am really glad you liked this posting 🙂
-neelanjana
LikeLike
ಫೆಬ್ರವರಿ 12, 2008 at 8:06 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
rk
dear neelanjana,
enjoyed reading this post.
thanks for sharing your knowledge on sri purandaradasa’s “tutturu toorendu battisa raagagaLannu”
a humble request from me: there is a query in my blog from a reader asking information about how the Navarathnamalike songs were chosen as part of Purandara Dasa Aradhane Goshti Gayana. i searched in a couple of books which has notations of the 9 devaranamas, but no details as to how they were chosen. if you have any info, can you please share it at this link:
Sri Purandara Dasa (1494-1564)
thanks in advance
regards and best wishes
rk
LikeLike
ಫೆಬ್ರವರಿ 25, 2008 at 1:48 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
rk
dear neelanjana,
thanks a lot for the prompt and useful reply.
LikeLike
ಜನವರಿ 13, 2010 at 4:01 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
deshakshi sengupta goswami
somebody has told me that deshakshi is one of the 7 raginis of Raga Megh.
I just want to know that is it true? If yes then no problem. If Not, then i shall be very greatful if anyone of you can explain me the meanings and origin of deshakshi.
LikeLike
ಫೆಬ್ರವರಿ 5, 2013 at 11:24 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Ramakrishna
Deshakshi is not a ragini of Megh. It is a Harikambhoji Janya Raga. It is a rare raga and classified as one of the ragas used in Kathakali (Kerala). Purandaradasa composed a geeta in this raga and it is as follows:
bhayasamaya dEvuni dEva shree
vEnkaTaacala dEvanallarE
keraLa manadani sevarE
shree purandara viTThalaraaya shree
venkaTaacala dEvanallarE
keraLa manadani sevarE
This raga is used to express happiness.
LikeLike
ಜೂನ್ 15, 2012 at 1:35 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Ragas of Sri Krishna - Indian Music :Learn about Indian Music | Indian Music :Learn about Indian Music
[…] post was originally published at Neelanjana. You may also like to read..My idea about Music and Appreciating musicAbout Indian MusicIndian […]
LikeLike
ಫೆಬ್ರವರಿ 4, 2013 at 1:51 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
Ramakrishna
Dear Neelanjana,
In the song “naLinajANDa taleya toogi” of Purandara Dasa ” raga YARALI is mentioned. You have not taken this raga in your list.
Tahanks
LikeLike
ಫೆಬ್ರವರಿ 4, 2013 at 1:52 ಫೂರ್ವಾಹ್ನ
Ramakrishna
Dear Neelanjana,
In the song “naLinajANDa taleya toogi” of Purandara Dasa ” raga YARALI is mentioned. You have not taken this raga in your list.
Thanks
LikeLike
ಸೆಪ್ಟೆಂಬರ್ 25, 2014 at 12:50 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ
Nine Nights: Day 2 | ಅಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆ
[…] and still going strong – Varaali. It has been mentioned music text more than a millenia old. Purandara Dasa also lists it as one of the popular ragas of his time. It is considered a “ghana” raga – a raga which shines with tAna playing. And […]
LikeLike