Karnātak
Sangīt Paddhati |
| Svara-mela-kalānidhi \svara-mela-kalAnidhi\ [Sanskrit svara nm "note" + mela nm "meeting, group, scale" + kalānidhi nm "a treasure of digits"] |
| Written in 1550 by
Rāmamātya [\rAmamAtya\] — a minister of Rama Raja, prince
of Vijayanagar — the SMK appears 15 years before that city
was destroyed. Remarkably, the treatise shows relatively little influence
from Islamic north. |
| Notable is Rāmamātya's
description and grouping of rāgas according to the number of
scale types necessary to accommodate the varying intervallic structure
of rāgas in current practice. This grouping of rāgas
by scale type probably dates from 14th century, but we know this idea from Rāmamātya's 16th-century interpretation. |
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| Rāgavibodha \rAgavibodha\ [Sanskrit rāga nm "melody" + vi-bodha nm "awakening," "perception," "intelligence"] |
| Somanātha's The
Rāgavibodha (1609) shows that the north was gradually influencing
the music of south India. For example, some of the rāgas it
mentions have Muslim names. |
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| Caturdaṇḍī-prakāśikā \caturdaNDI-prakAshikA\ [Sanskrit catur "clever," "ingenious" + danda nm "rule," "control" + prakas nm "volume." Sathyanarayana
(2002: vii) translates the title as "Illuminator of the four daṇḍī"
referring to four modes of performance in the ancient world.] |
| Venkatamakhi
wrote the Caturdaṇḍī-prakāśikā (1661) as a classification of rāgas according to 72 basic
scales (melas), a system that still prevails in south India. |
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|
Representation of Tyagaraja
Muttuswami Dīksitar |
| Karnatak
Musical Trinity |
| Three individuals
— brahman musician, devotee, composers —
who helped transform Karnatak sangit with their compositions,
flourished during the period when Tanjore occupied the political
center of southern India. Tyāgarāja (1767-1847), Muttusvami
Dīkṣitar (1762-1827) and Śyāma Śāstri (1775-1835) composed numerous religious songs which became
the basis of the modern Karnatak repertoire. |
| Arguably, Tyāgarāja
(or sometimes Tyāgarāju) is the most important of
these composers and was born in the village of Tiruvaiyaru,
near Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu on 4 May 1767 to Smarta Brahmans.
Most of his compositions were in Telegu, but some were in
Sanskrit. |
| Dīkṣitar's most
famous composition is his Navagraha ("Nine Celestial Bodies"), nine kritis, each describing the astrological significance of the sun, the moon, five planets, and two deities who help to direct eclipses and other astronomic events. |
| Śāstri (sometimes also known as Śyāma Krisna) was born in Tiruvarur in Tamil Nadu to a family
of Brahman priests. He may not have been as prolific a composer as Tyāgarāja and Diksitar, but many find his kritis to be exceptionally sophisticated. |
| Professional
musicians learned the devotional compositions of Tyagaraja
from his disciples and transformed them into elaborate concert
presentations during the 19th century. |
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| Selected
References |
| Jairazbhoy, Nazir.
1971. Introduction to the Historical Background. In The Rāgs of North
Indian Music: Their Structure and Evolution. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan
University Press. |
| Powers, Harry. 1980.
Subcontinent of India. In The New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie 9:69-166. London: Macmillan. |
| Venkatamakhin. 2002. Caturdandīprakāśikā (edited and translated with commentary and notes by R. Satyanarayana).
Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt., Ltd. |
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