sangeet natak JOURNAL OF THE SANGEET NATAK AKADEMI
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I SANGEET NATAK journal of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, is published quarterly by the Sangeet Natak Akademi (National Academy of music, dance and drama for India). Printed at The Statesman Press, Connaught Circus, New Deihl.
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All enquiries to be addressed to the Editor, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan] Ferozeshah Road, New Deihl-I sarrgeet .natak 13 A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION ON MUSIC, DANCE AND DRAMA SANGEET NATAK AKADEMI. RABINDRA BHAVAN, NEW DELm JULY-SEPTEMBER 1969 The views expressed in Sangeet Natak are the writers' own and·· do not necessarily conform to the opinion of the publishers. Permission to reproduce, in whole or in part, any material published in this Journal must be obtained from the Secretary, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, New DeIhi-I
,EDITORIAL BOARD pr. V: Ragha~~ • <." ,... '" Mrinalini'Sarabhai ..
. Dr Dr. Suresh Awasthi 'VIDa Analld:,.Editor Contents 5 MUSLIM INFLUENCE ON VENKATAMAKHI AND HIS SCHOOL Dr. K. C. Brahaspati 27 RAMLILA IN RAMNAGAR Balwant Gargi : 35 CHHAU - A Comparative Study of Sareikela and Mayurbhanj Forms Jiwan Pani 46 BHAGAVATA MELA-DANCE-DRAMA OF BHARATA NATYA E. Krishna Iyer 57 THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF INDIAN MUSIC M.R. Gautam 64 GOPESHWAR BANERJEE Suresh C. Chakravarti Cover: Ramlila, Mickey Patel MUSLIM INFLUENCE ON VENKATAMAKHI AND HIS SCHOOL Dr. K. C. D. Brahaspati Introduction It is highly gratifying to note that enlightened scholars of Ka~atak Music have begun to concede that the so-called suddha mukhari mela of Ramamatya, Raghunatha and Venkatamakhi is totally. non-vedic- and that it has no connection with the Vedic tradition of Bharata, Matanga and Sarangadeva. Moreover, it has also become evident that the .tonal struc- .ture of Vagiswari(Bageshri) is identical with the original Sadjagrama which is the basis of the other murcchanas of Sadjagrama; and that this very tonal structure can be changed to the Madhyamadi (first)murcchana of Madhyamagrama» In spite ofthe above view being unmistaken, unassailableand authentic, there are some persons who still continue to say that the music ofSouth .India is traditional and that the music of North India has undergone dis tortion on account of Muslim contact and influence.s These persons fall in to twocategories: the firstis comprised of the votaries of the viewsexpressed by the late Prof. Bhatkhande and the second.is comprised of those who are not we~-versed in the Sanskrit language, although their demeanour suggests this. The: second category is also comprised of those who have acquired. a working knowledge ofSanskrit through Sanskrit - English dictionaries and who.have no comprehension of prakrti-pratyaya (root and suffix) and do not give thought or pay attention to the anvarthata (conformity to literal meaning) of technical terms. The 'credit' of ascribing the authorship of the. present non-Vedic form of Mukharito Revered Madhavacarya (Vidyaranya) goes to Govinda Diksita, the father of Venkatamakhi is the real author of Sangita- Translatedfrom the Hindi. Notes at of SANGEEr NATAK 6 sudha bearing the authorship of Raghunatha, the ruler of Tanjores, The Vidyaranya-mata which is mentioned in Sangitasudha, was neither available to any preceding author nor to any succeeding one, so much so that even the son of Govinda Diksita viz. Venkatamakhi could not have a glimpse of Vidyaranya-mata. This state ofaffairs should be full of concern for scholars. It appears that the text expounding Vidyaranyamata was perceptible only to the imagination of Govinda Diksita and his patron. The mutual relation ship of Madhava and Sayana is well-known. The following extract ascribed to Sayanat compares the svaras current in Sayana's times with the Vedic svaras: ~ if f"itjl~~14: W:O~: srfu;[r:, cr ~ mfl:;:r ~: w:o mr: 1fCfRr I ~ - 4l~: ~~:, acrcr: 3Nli:,. ~ ftRft<:r: ~bll~«lr:i'lq:, .1ie-ai{~""14: ~ ~:, ~ ft:R:qFt: I That is to say, the seven svaras beginning with Nisada current in Loka (as contradistinct from Veda) are identical with the seven Vedic svaras beginning with Krusta. Nisad is Krusta, Dhaivata is Prathama, Pancama is Dvitiya, Madhyama is Tritiya, Gandhara is Caturtha, Rsabha is Mandra, Sadja is Atisvarya. Sayana is comparing the svaras current in his time with the Vedic svaras,consequently his exposition is naturally different from that of Narada. Sayancharya's exposition gives us the svaras of the Kalyani Mela. This becomes clear by putting the svaras in the ascending order as follows. SAYANA'S LAUKIKA SVARAS (Kalyana Thata) os os f! os os a Sayana's Sama-Svaras: "0 "E .~ .s I=: 0 o£ -=~ '"0 os ~ 0;::: .~ .. ~ :::s u E-< ~ p.,.. ~ ~ " Laukika Svaras: sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa The Gandharadi Mur- cchana of Sadjagrama Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa Ri Ga No. of Srutis 0 4 4 3 2 4 2 2 Mutual intervals in savarts 0 51 51 46 28 51 46 28 Interval from the tonic in savarts 0 51 102 148 176 227 273 301 Vijayanagar had come under Muslim influence by the time of Sayana. Emano, Kalyana Thata, Mechakalyani Mela and the Gandharadi Sudha Murcchana of Sadjagrama present an identical tonal structure with a difference only in names. There is, therefore, no place in the time ofSayana 7 MUSLIM INFLUENCE ON VENKATAMAKHI (the contemporary of Vidyaranya) for the Mukhari of Ramamatya, Raghu natha and Venkatamakhi. Intervals of the Laukika dha-pa-ma-gd of Sayana identical with the Pradhama, Dvitiya, Tritiya and Caturtha used in Samaveda are found only in the Kalyana Thata or Mechakalyani Mela. The Muslim musicians of North India derive all other thatas only from the Kalyana thata.6 Venkata makhi himself has described Kalyana thata as Turuska-Priya and thoroughly inappropriate for Gita-Prabandha.l Origin of the Mukhari of the South The votaries of mela and thata, ignoring the subtle interval of Pramana-Sruti, accept twelve :fixed tones each in the Mandra, Madhya and tara sthanas. These twelve tones bear different names in North and South India. Really speaking, the twelve tones accepted by the Muslims have beengiven different names in North and South India by bringing about some modifications or additions in the traditional svara-names. The reason for this difference in names lies in the fact that the Southern authors forcibly super-imposed the svara-names of Sarngadeva on the twelve tones fixed according to the Muqam-system of the Muslims. This super-imposition alone was responsible for giving the illusory impression (to those who depend on texts alone) that the musical tradition of the South is connected with Sarngadeva and this illusion has persisted for centuries. On the Southern vina, the girka of the Muslims is located and similarly on the eleven frets beginning with the first are located their Hijaz, Nawa, Hisara, Husaini, Aganu, Nima-mahura, Rasta, Sahanawaz, Doka, Kurda and Sika respectively. The fixed nature of sarika (fret) is opposed to the literal meaning of the word Sarika and the acceptance of twelve tones each in the Mandra, Madhya and Tara sthanas is to bid adieu to the well-known Murcchana systems and Pramana-sruti of India. This fatal influence of the Muslims affected Indian svara sastra(science of scales), but Baiju, Tanasena, and even Sadaranga (the last in eighteenth century)-these non-Muslim musicians continuedto have an understanding of the Murcchana-system andthey used to label as gupta(secret) the svara-names fallingin accordance with the Murcchana-systemand as prakata (manifest) the svara-names following the mela-system. But the Southern Vainikas, went astray from the tattva (fact), because they had super-imposed the svara names of Sarngadeva on Muslim svara-names and in order to obviate the natural contradiction arising from that had coined svara-names like Varali madhyama which had no tinge of Madhyamatva (the state of being middle- point) in it.8 . SANGEET NATAK 8 The subtle but very useful interval Pramana-Sruti is the gift of India to the whole world. The acceptance of sadja and pancama as Acala implies the denial of the existence of Pramanasruti and the funeral of tile grama murcchana system of Vedic origin. This happened as a consequence of Muslim impact and southern authors took their Varalimadhyama to be identical with the Madhyama-gramika Pancama or Cyuta Pancama of Bharata. The Northern tradition never got into such an unseemly error: The interval between Varali Madhyama and Pancama is two-sruti, just like the Dhaivata-nisada of Bharata, because in accordance with the above quoted exposition of Sayana, the 'dha-ni' of Gandharadi Murcchana have become 'Ma-pa'. The 'Ri-ga-dha-Ni' used in Vagiswari (Bagesri) are lower than those of Bhimapalasi by one pramana-sruti each. The votaries of mela and thata ignore this difference of Pramana-sruti and. force both Bhimapalasi and Bagesri into one and the same 'thata', but the tradition of skilled practical musicians ofthe North tune the first left string of the Tambura to madhyama for Vagiswari andpancama for Bhimpalasi, They may not be able to explain the reason behind this tuning today, but their practice follows the injunction of those elite who knew the purport of sapta gupta (seven secret). and sapta prakata (seven manifest). Really speaking, the 'Kharaharapriya Mela' of the South or the'Kafi Thata' of late Bhatkhande is the Rsabhadi Sadharani Murcchana of Madhya magrama as shown belowr-s- svaras of the Murcchana Ri ga ma pa dha ni sa (ri) svaras of the'thata or MeTa Sa n ga ma pa dha m sa MutuaI note-intervals (in srutis) 0 4 2 3 4 4 2 3 -do- (in savarts) 0 51 28 46 51 51 28 46 Interval from the tonic (in srutis) 0 4 6 9 13 17 19 22 -do- (in savarts) 0 51 79 125 176 227 255 301 Muslims of mixed blood like Amir Khusro struck a compromise. They gave the name Sa to the first tone of the Muqam-system andPatoits eighth samvadi (roughly 'consonant) tone. The second tone was called 'utari (lower) Rikhabha'; third 'carhi (higher) Rikhabha', fourth 'utari Gandhara', fifth 'carhi Gandhara',' sixth 'utari Maddhama' seventh 'carhi Madhama',eight'Pancama', ninth 'utari Dhaivata', tenth-'carhi Dhaivata' eleventh - 'utari Nikhada', twelvth 'carhi Nikhada', Thus 'Sa' and'Pa' 9 MUSLIM INFLUENCE ON VENKATAMAKHI became 'acala (fixed) and Rsabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Dhaivata, Nisada came to have two varieties each. 'Thata Lautana' (Inverting the Thata): Lowering of the higher tones in a 'thata' and augmentation of the lower tones was also accepted as a means of obtaining new scales. In the eighteenth century this process was called Svara-vyatyasa or Mela-bhedana in the South and Thata Lautana in the North.v Obtaining the 'Purbi Thata' from 'Kafi Thata: The 'Purbi Thata' was thus obtained by inverting the 'Kafi Thata' Kafi Thata Sa n ga ma pa dha ni sa Purbi Thata Sa ri ga Ma pa dha ni sa Consequently ragas like Sri and Vasanta shifted to the Purbi Thata from Kafi Thata. The origin of Mukhari Mela from the Purbi Thata: The Nisada-Murcchana of Purbi Thata is the mother of Mukhari Mela: Nisadadi Murcchana of Purbi Ni Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni North Indian names of the Mela Svaras Sa Ri Ri Ma Pa Dha Dha Sa of Mukhari This process was called "Surabheda' (change of 'Sura' or tonic) in the Sadarang tradition and 'Srutikarana' in the South. " This is the history of the origin of Purbi from"Kafi Thata and of Mukhari from Purbi. Purbi or Mukhari cannot be obtained directly from any Murcchana of Bharata or Matanga. Bhairava Thata or Mayamalavagauda "Mela from .Kafi Thata: Bhairava Thata is obtained by lowering the Rsabha-Dhaivata and augmenting the Gandhara-Nisada of Kafi. The raga 'Bhairava' of this thata was called the first among all other ragas in the Indraprashta-mata founded by the Muslims. Through Muslim. impact this raga reached Vijayanagar and became the foremost basis of instruction since the time of Purandaradasa. Simhendramadhyama from Bhairava: .... Stmhendramadhyama is born of the Madhyama-Murcchana of Rhairava and it is the 57th Melakarta of Venkatamakhi. Madhyamarcchana of Bhairtlva-Thatha Ma Pa Ri Ga (Ma) Svaras of Simhendra . Madhyama Ri (Sa) SANGEEl' NATAK 10 Rasikapriya from Bhairava: The nnd Melakarta Rasikapriya is born of the Rsabhadi Murcchana of Bhairava Thata: Bhairava Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa (Ri) Rasikapriya Sa Ga Ga Ma Pa Ni Ni (Sa) The present 'Bhairava Thata' can never be found in Sangita Ratnakara, because according to the school of Bharata or Sarngadeva, two consecutive svaras can have a maximum interval of 4 srutis, called udatta. The five-sruti intervals like Ri-Ga, Dha-ni, or Ga-Ma cannot, on any account be taken to represent the interval between two svaras in any musical tradition having its origin in Vedic music. Marava from Asavari: The Asavari Thata gives rise to the Marava- Thata by the process of Svara-vyatyasa or Thata-Lautana. Asavari Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni (Sa) Marava Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni (Sa) Jhankaradhvani from Marava: The 19th melakarta Jhankaradhvani is derived from the gandharadi murcchana of Marava thata. Gandharadi Mur cchana of Marava Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa Ri Ga Jhankaradhvani Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Dha Sa Todi Thata from Khamaja Thata: The Khamaja Thata is trans formed into the Todi Thata or Pantuvarali Mela as a result of svara-vyatyasa or thata lautana. Khamaja Thata Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni (Sa) Todi Thata Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni (Sa) The Northern Todi or the southern Pantuvarali has been called Turuskapriya (dear to the Turks) by Venkatamakhi.w Calanata from Todi: The 36th melakarta ca/anata (the first mela of the so called Vidyaranyamata) is derived from the Dhaivata-Murcchana of Todi Thata. Thus we see that Bhairavaor Mayamalavagauda Mela, Todi Thata or Pantuvarali Mela, Purbi Thata or Kamavardhani Mela and Marava Thata or Gamanasrama Mela do not have their origin in the tradition of Bharata and Sarngadeva, but in the tradition of the Indraprastha-mata founded by the Muslims, which is an Indian form of the non-Indian Muqam system. The Muqam-system has been called Samsthana Paddhati Locana. Muqam and Samsthana are synonymous. 11 MUSLIM INFLUENCE ON VENKATAMAKHI Muslim impact in Southern view The Indian Musical tradition is based on saptaka (group of seven tones). The madhyamatva (middle position) of madhyama is possible only in saptka not in an astaka (octave). The Mandra, Madhya and Tara sthanas extend to one saptaka each. In 'Sa-Ri-Ga-Ma-Pa-Dha-Ni-Sa' the last svara is the initial svara of the next sthana, but that is indispenable in the astaka. The concept of astaka or octave is non-India and all deliberations based on it are totally different from the Indian grama murcchana system. A sampurna raga has seven svaras according to the grama-murcchana system, but Venkatamakhi, the upholder of astaka says that a sampurna raga has eight svaras. The word sadava literally means that which does the avana (holding)of sata (six), butVenkatamakhi, countingthe 'sa of the next sthana, says that sadava ragas have seven svaras. Uduva stands for akasa, in which the Uda (naksatras or constellations) do vana (movement), akasa is the fifth in the five primary elements (panca-mahabhutas); hence 'uduva' represents the number five. The ragas that use five svaras are called auduva, but Venkatamakhi says that auduva ragas have six svarasv, It is a very interesting fact that some people gave the epithet 'Panini of Karnatak music' to Venkatamakhi, who is an opponent of the Anuvarthata (conformity to literal meaning) of technical terms.12 Ramamatya super-imposed the svara-names of 'Ratnakara' without understandingthe purport of Samgadeva, on the twelve tones in one sthana located by the foreigners. Raghumatha derisively mentions the names of Kesava and :Kallinatha, the commentators on Saptadhyayi (Sangita Ratnakara) which is branded by him as 'incomprehensible' and 'obscure'.I3 Somanatha also says that the purport of the exposition of ancient authors is not clear or comprehensible (vide Ragavibodha, author's commentary on I 4). The reason behind this state of affairs is that these vainikas were obsessed with a desire to classify the ragas according to the viewpoint of melas, on account of the impact of.the Muqam-system; and all of them had given up paying attention to the anvarthata of technical terms. None of themhad any definition of the sudhata of svaras,without any reason they had begun to accept the absurd scale of Mukhari Me/a as the sudha svaras of Bharata and Sarngadeva whereas Mukhari Mela was the product of the 'Nisada-Murcchana' of Poorbi Thata derived from Kaft Thata through svdra-vyatyasa. Tanappa the Paramaguru of Venkatamakhi:.. Venkatamakhi has said: "The learned Samgadeva has described 264 ragas in. his work Ratnakara, but those ragas are not to be found anywhere in current usage; hence on account of their obscurity I shall describe fifty-five ragas reconstructedby my Paramacarya Tanappacarya and having conformity of Laksya-Laksana"I4. He •further says _ "Thus.I have described fifty-five. ragas, in which Arya SANGEEI' NATAK 12 Tanappa has composed or introduced Gita, Thaya and Prabandha''ss, "The definition of alapa given by me should be applied to the fifty-five ragas constructed by Tanappa",' "My Paramaguru Acaryasekhara Tanappa has composed thayas in all these ragas according to current usage".I7 The following conclusions can be derived from the above and similar other statements of Venkatamakhi. (i) Venkatamakhi's guru's guru was Tanappa who was the founder of a special school, radically different from the exposition of Ramamatya and others of the same times; he had a peculiar viewpoint in raga-classi fication and held a different view on this matter. (ii) The School of Venkatamakhi's father Govinda Diksita was different from that of Tanappa and Venkatamakhi was not. a .follower of his father's school but of that of Tanappa. On many points.Venkata makhi has a sharp differenceof opinion with his father, just as he has with Ramamatya. The only difference between the treatment meted out.by him to these.two lies in the fact that he has openly contradicted Ramamatya but has excused his father by keeping quiet over the points of difference with him. (iii) Tanappa had composed or introduced Gita, Thaya and 'Pro bandha in fifty-five current ragas. Muslim Influence on Tanappa-Scheol Venkatamakhi says that lands (desas) are infinite and infinite are the human beings residing therein. Ragas already created, in the process of creation and to be created in future by high-class and mediocre musicians are used in these lands by men.I8 This statement obviously impliesthat in Venkatamakhi's purview of knowledge there were many ragas of non Indian origin and many ragas were being created in his own times according to some non-Indian method. This method was that of the Muslims which had got intermingled with Karnatak music. He had evolved the scheme of 72 melakartas, according to his own viewpoint, for the sake of classify ing all possible ragas. Venkatamakhi clearly says that singers use the Rsabha-Gandhara of Tara-sthana while singing Karnata Padas (compositions in the Kannada language) AndhraPadas (compositions in the Telugu language) and Turuska Padasw (compositions in Dakkhini Hindi used by the Muslims). This statement clearly indicates that the singers of Karnataka, Andhra and Turuska Padas belonged to one and the same schooland. their style of singing was similar..•.After the fall of the Vijayanagar kingdom,some 13 MUSLIMINFLUENCE ON VENKATAMAKHI musicians went to Tanjore and others took refuge in the Bijapur court. Themusicalcompositions of Ibrahim Adil Shah II, the Sultan of Bijapur are in Dakkhini Hindi and are compiled in Kitab-i-Nauras published by. the Sangeet Natak Akademi. . Venkatamakhi has reckoned ragaslike Kalyaniand Pantuvarali among non-Indian ragas and has branded them as Turuska-Priya. These two names deserve attention. Emana isan Arabic word, meaning Kalyanamaya which is an. exact Sanskrit rendering of Emana. The Gandharadi Suddha Murcchana of sadjagrama gives us the svaras of Emana. On account of Muslim influence Kalyani (Ka/yana) gained prominence, hence Venkatamakhi called it Turuskapriya. .Pantu is an apabhramsa of Pandita, in Marathi and Kumayuni (the dialect of Kumaun region) this very word is Panta. Pantuvarali means the Varali of Pandits (Muslim Pandits). Pantuvarali is obtained from Khamaja Thata by inverting the svaras according to the svara-vyatyasa method of the Muslims. For this reason Venkatamakhi has branded Pantuvarali also as Turuskapriya. Sometime before Venkatamakhi, Somanatha clearly said in his Raga vibodha that twelve ragas of Parada (persia) were current in his times. He saysthat there is resemblance between Husaini and Todi,Julufaand Bhairava, Musli(Busalika) and Ramakriya, Ujjva/a and Asavari, Navaroja and Vihanga ngda, Bakhreja and Deshakara, Hijeja and Saindhavi, Pancagraha and Kalyana- Yamana, Puska and Devakri, Sarparda and Velavali, Karnata and Irakha. It is a fact that Indian Muslims and other Hindu musicians influenced by them had created new ragas by mixing up svaras of different thatas according to a non-Indian method, but had given Indian names to those ragas. The origin of mixed ragas created by Khusro, Husainshah Sharki, Tansen, Ramdas etc. cannot be traced in Brhaddesi, Ratnakara or Sangita raja. The current ragas that are classified under Bhairava Thata, Purbi Thata, Marava Thata and Todi Thata may be bearing names of Indian languages but their origin lies in the Muqam-system. Those who hold the Southern musicians to be inventors of the me/a system have no argument to supporttheir belief. Somanatha has clearly said that me/as are represented on the vina. Those Svara-Samsthana-Visesas are me/as from which ragas are obtained or under which ragas areclassified. In Bhasa' they are called thata.20 Soma- SANGEET NATAK 14 natha has given the name Vajrathata (Acalai-thata) to the thatha of the Akhua-raga-meta-vtna having fixed frets.2 1 Somanatha has thus clarifiedthe position by using the words samsthana thata and mela as the synonyms of muqam. Thus it is self-evident that the thata-system or the mela-school is the result of Muslim influence. All the vainikas of the medieval times declared that only sadjagrama had survived in their times. It is an interesting fact that these people had no definition of their so-called sadjagrama and the characteristic feature of the original Sadjargrama-murcchana spoken of. by Bharata, Matanga and Sarngadeva does not appear in any mela or thata of theirs. Bharata says that the interval of Madhyama and Nisada is identical with that of Sadja and Madhyama. The Sadja-Madhyama of Sadjagrama become the Madhyama-Nisada of Madhyamagrama. Madhyama cannot bear this name unless it is in the middle of the first and the last svara of the saptaka. In no mela of the South, is the interval of Sadja-Madhyama and Madhyama-Nisada identical. Bharata's Gandhara-Madhyama, Madhya ma-Pancama and Nisada-Sadja is identical. No mela of the South bears this characteristic feature. Pundarika, Srikantha, Akobala, Srinivasa, Ramamatya, Somanatha,Venkatamakhi and Bhatkhande - all fall in this category viz. of the votaries of a system which has no affinity with Bharata's tradition. The Southern authors are silent about the geographical relation or lineage to which Tanappa belonged. Probably he was a North Indian scholar. Some people guess that he was Tansen and others surmise that ~e was Tanabhatta, the grand-father of Bhavabhatta. A Dhrupada of Tansen containing the exposition of a secret is available as follows-> , Ucm fu, lITfcnr,~, ~, ~ W ffifcr mfcr madhyama-bhava in the next third svara (excluding the initial svara) or a representative of such a samvadi. This may be shown as follows: Firstmurcchana of sadjagrama ss-sio« (Antara) Ma-Pa-Dha-Ni Firstmurcchana of madhyamagrama Ma-Pa-Dha Ni-Sa-Ri-Ga The learned ones know this principle. The exposition of Tansen has seven svaras three gramas, twenty one murcchanas and thirty-six (ragas and raginis) in the context of Nada-Vada (discussion of Nada). The Bilavala of Akbar's time, the Dhirasankarabharana of South and the Buzurg Muqam of the Muslims is oneand the same thing. In Buzurg Muqam, however, the lower Pancama (of madhyamagrama) is also included, but that has been dropped in Bilavala and DhiraSankarabharana. This 'Dhrupada' proves beyond doubt that Tansen understood the 'grama-murcchand system and he knew fully well the rule expounded by Bharata that the first 'santara murcchana' of sadjagrama, becomes the first Suddha Murcchana of Madhyama-grama and he also understood that the nisadadi sudha murcchana of sadjagrama is Bilavala or Dhirasankara- I bharana Mela. Along with this he knew the Muqamsystem and the method of Svara-vyatyasa. It is just possible that he might have derived the present form of Mian Ki Todi by inverting the Svaras of Khamaja Thata. The musicians of Rampur belonging to. the Sadaranga tradition were well versed in the method of Svara-vyatyasa. Anyhow, the Dhrupada under reference undoubtedly proves Tansen to bethe founder of a special tradition or expositionalthough Tansen might , have concealed the principle of the murcchana system according .to the motto 'he who finds, does conceal'. Pundarika Vitthala was well connected with the court of Akbar. He must have been influenced by Tansen. FaqruIlah, the author of Ragadarpana informs us that a text entitled Ragasagara was composed in Akbar's court. It is just probablethat Pundarika made his owncontribu tion to this work.•. The principle of North Indian ragas must have been explained by Tansen to Pundarika Vitthala. While describing the vina, Pundarika Vitthala does not giveany scienti ficmethod of fixing frets on the vina, but says that one should.take e vina manufactured by an artisan knowing the laksya (current practice).23 •':fhe same statement has been made byVenkatamakhi.24 Thus both Pundarika andVenkatamakhi have left to the artisan conversant with the laksya the Important task of fixing the frets. SANGEEI' NATAK ]6 Venkatamakhi has time and again referred to his Paramaguru Acaryasekhara Tanappa, but he is completely silent about his guru. It is quite possible that Pundarika was the guru of Venkatamakhi. The vina-section in Rasakaumudi of Srikantha is .similar to that of Pundarika Vitthala. The editor of Rasakaumudi has proved beyond doubt that Pundarika was the guru of Srikantha.sa If Tanappa was Tansen and Pundarika was his pupil, in that case Venkatamakhi was the prasisya (grand-pupil) of Tansen. This is simply a surmise, which has a reasonable possibility of being true. Tanabhatta, the grandfather ofBhavabhatta could also be the paramaguru of Venkatamakhi. No Southern author other than Venkatamakhi has made a reference to Acaryasekhara Tanappa. Srikantha cites the evidence only of his guru and not of any text in the context of twelve fixed tones in mandra-madhya and tara sthanas. Ramamatya's Svarmelakalanidhi is the first extant text mentioning twelve fixed tones in one sthana, but Srikantha speaks of his guru and not of Ramamatya.ss The vainikas of the South were following the twelve tones of Muqam system with great hardship and were indulging in self-deception by giving traditional Indian names to those tone-names which had no conformity of their literal meaning with the tones with which they were associated. When this new arrangement could not be reconciled with the Sangita Ratnakara, the Southern authors found self-satisfaction by calling themselves the pioneers of the mela system. Neglect of Pramana-8mti The subtle interval of pramanasruti is the unique contribution of Indian seers to the musical science of the world. The votaries of mela ignored this. Somnatha gave a clear in junction that the loss or gain of one STUti did not make any difference nor did it entail any discrepancy-f? All votaries of mela and thata belong to the class which bade adieu to the Vedic tradition by ignoring Pramana-sruti, the distinguishing feature of two gramas. Historical evidence of Muslim influence on the South Arab travellers and merchants have old associations with the. sea coasts of India dating back to thousands of years. Arab travellers used to go to China via the sea-coast ofIndia.28 In 815 A.D. i.e. 175 years before the attack of Mahmud Ghaznavi, the ruler of the town of Kadanganoor 17 MUSLIM INFLUENCE ON VENKATAMAKHI Malabar had become a convert to Islam; with his order Muslim colonies were established in South India. 29 "" During the reign of Jalaluddin Khilji, Karomandal was under full influence of the Muslims. The Chief Minister of the famous Sundar Pandya was a Muslim known as Malik Taqiuddin.av In the last decadeof the 14th century when Malik Kafoor invaded Sundar Pandya, South Indian Muslims had fought on the side of Sundar Pandya.3I The Indraprastha Mata and its country-wide influence In the Chishtia tradition of Sufis, music was held to be a means of God-realization. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Ajmeri was devoted to listening to songs. Kutubiddin Aibak was his devoted admirer.n Khwaja Kutubbdin Bakhtyar Kaki was the disciple of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Sultan Shamsuddin Alltumash was his devotee. Khwaja Kutubuddin died while listening to Qawwali,33 Khwaja Fariduddin's disciple was Baba Fariduddin Ganjashakar; when the latter became the disciple of Khwaja Kutubuddin, at that time the famous saint Sheikh Bahauddin Zakaria Multani (1182-1267) also had gone to meet Khwaja Kutubuddin. Shaikh Bahauddin Zakaria is the inventor of Raga Multanishri and he is counted among great musicians.34 He created many mixed ragas on the basis of the muqam system. In those" times the Muslims held music to be a branch of mathematics. Sheikh Nizamuddin Chishti was the disciple of Baba Fariduddin and Amir Khusro was the favourite of Nizamuddin Chishti.3s Khwaja Saiyad Muhammad Imam, the grandson of Baba Fariduddin Ganjashakar and his younger brother Khwaja Saiyad Moosa were highly learned musicians, singers and great patrons of. the singers of Hindi and Persian compositions.w Nizamuddin Chishti had proved the efficacy and acceptability of devotional music from the devotional viewpoint in a debate (Sastrartha) in the court of Gayasuddin Tughlak. Sheikh Bahauddin Suhrawardi, the grandson of Sheikh Bahauddin Zakaria had given his judgment in favour of Sheikh Nizamuddin Chishti in the same.debate,37 The above facts obviously indicate the strong connection of Sufi Muslims withmusic. As for the impact of Sufison the South, one fact may be cited here. Sheikh Nizamuddin Chishti had sent four hundred Sufis to the South for religious propaganda. Among them was Raju Qattal (the father of Khwaja Bandanawaz Gesudaraz ,the famous Sufi of. the South) who went to the South with Sheikh Burhanuddin,38 SANGEEr NATAK 18 The maternal grandfather of Amir Khusro was a Hindu chieftainwho had accepted Islam i.e. Khusro's mother was an Indian and his father wasa Turk of Lachir, Khusro was born in Patiali, in Eta district, which falls under the Braja-bhasha region.3 9 Khusro received Indian 'Samskara' (culture) from his mother's side and Brajbhasha as his mother-tongue. From his father's side he was educated .in Islam, Sufism and Turkish, Persian and Arabic languages. Khusro was a pupil also of Brahmins. He has highly commended Indian music. He has equated Indian Brahmins with Aristotle and has proclaimed the superiority of India over other countries in many respects.w Gramaragas were related to the Vedic tradition and their use for secular entertainment had been prohibited. Somesvara (period of reign 1127-1134 A.D.) has mentioned this prohibition.O Hence it can be safely inferred that Khusro did not have knowledge of the grama-murcchana system, but he knew in accordance with the educational system of his times, the subtleties of the four 'Usula's (principles), twelve frets and the like of Iranian music. Frets fixed on string-instruments are called parda in Persian. The sound produced on these instruments by pressing the string with the left hand and striking with the right hand with a mizrab (special ring) is called nagamab (svara). The twelve tones accepted in Iranian music have been spoken of above. The various groups of frets representing the groups constructed out of the twelve tones, necessary for rendering the proposed ragas, were called muqam (samsthana) and as a result of this method of groupingmuqam reached the' South and was called mela there. In 1296A.D. Ulugkhan and Nusratkhan, the military commanders of AIauddin Khilji invaded Gujarat. Karmavati, the princess (queen) of Gujarat was captured by them and sent to the harem ofAIauddiri. Kama, the ruler of Gujarat took refuge in Devagiri along with his daughter Deval Devi.4Z In this invasion, a number of men and women of a class or caste called Parvar gifted with exquisite beauty and adopting music as a means of livelihood, were sent to Delhi.o During the same invasion, a very hand some eunuch was also purchased for one thousand Dinars and sent to Delhi. He was later known as Malik Kafur, the famous military commander. The Parvar class captivated Delhi with its beauty and artistic This is an indication of the musical contact of Gujarat and Delhi. In 1306A.D. Malik Kafur was sent to invade the South. He succeed ed;Deval Devi was captured and brought to Delhi and was married 19 MUSLIM INFLUENCE ON VENKATAMAKHI Khijrakhan, the son ofAlauddin Khilji, in 1307. RamachandraRaithe ruler ofDevagiri came to Delhi for acknowledging his subordination to Alauddin Khilji. It is a fact that on this occasion the musicians of the South also came to Delhi and most probably Gopala Nayak was one of them. The following Dhrupad bearing the mudra of Gopala .Nayak and praising Alauddin Khilji is available (in an unpublished manuscript) in the Gwalior tradition. SCli~t~'1R~~~~ I ~ an: mR f1:R;rcm ~ 'qN ~~ I ;fur lTTCffl YfTllCfi mm;~ , ~t1r~<1fllf~ ~ ~ fuffl ~ ~ CJWIT W'm w;r QcRi m: II Khusro had lived in Multan, Awadh and Bengal, Braja was his birth place and Delhi the centre of his activities. The Parvars of Gujarat had settled in Delhi and the musicians of. the South also joined them. This situation gave rise to the Indraprastha-Mata which included (i) ragas of Indian origin, but classified in accordance with the muqam-system on the model of Iranian music, (ii) ragas created by the mixture of Indian and Iranian melodies and bearing Indian names and (iii) ragas which had old 'names, but which had shifted from one thata to another as a result of svara-vyatyasa (inversion of tones) - e.g, Vasanta and Sri came from Kafi Thata into Poorbi Thata. This new school of Indian music, was known as the tradition of Qawwal Bacchas. In course of time this tradition came to be known as Indraprastha-Mata. FOlUldation of Vijayanagar Empire and MuslimInfluence .Harihar and Bukka, the founders of the Vijayanagarempire wereunder confinement in Delhi for a considerable time. They were releasedonpolitical grounds and under the guidance of Sri Vidyaranya the two brothers founded the Vijayanagar empire in 1336 A'.D. In 1347 A.D. Muhammad ShahI founded the Bahmani dynasty; he was a great devotee of Nizamuddin Chishti. . There was inbred animosity between the Vijayanagarand Bahmani lineage. . There were three hundred singers in the court of Muhammadshah I. Khusro's compositions were profusely sungin his court...Once he was highly delighted to hear Khusro's compositions rendered by his musicians and sent an orderto Bukka, the ruler ofVijayanagar that he should grant prizes to those musicians from the Vijayanagar· treasury. Bukka, being an independent ruler with self respect, affronted the envoy of Muhammad shah., As a consequence a fierce battle was fought, there was horrible bloodshed. and Bukka had to enter into a treaty onthe conditions stipulated bythe Bahmani Sultan and he had to pay for the prizes to musicians.w SANGEET NATAK 20 hi 1398 A.D. the Bahmani Bultan Feroz had a battle with Harihar, the ruler of Vijayanagar. Feroz was a great lover ofmusic and his Qazi named Siraj was so skilled in dance and music that he danced along with his party in feminine garb in the presence of Harihar's son and in this disguiseassassinated the latter.o The above incident reveals the extent to which the music of the Bahmini court bearing the influence of Khusro, had gained ground in the Vijayanagar court. The climax was reached in 1403 A.D. and Devaraya I, the ruler of Vijayanagar had to give his daughter to the Bahmani ruler Feroz; she was married to Hasan, the son of Feroz. On this occasion Feroz was a guest in Vijayanagar for three days. The. artistes of Vijayanagar entertainedthe bridegrooms's party with their performances.w Devaraya II sent two hundred slave-women from Vijayanagarto the court of Alauddin II, the then Bahmani Sultan, after having been defeated by the Iatter.e? Ahmadshah I, the father of Alauddin II was favoured and blessed by Sheikh Gesudaraz. In 1442 A.D. Devaraya gave land-gifts to the Muslims serving under him; in order to please them, he constructed a mosque in Vijayanagar and ordered that nobody should interfere with the religious practices of the Muslims. He ordered that the Holy Quran should be kept on a high and valuable pedestal in front of his throne, so that the Muslims could salute him without violating their religious decorum. Devaraya encouraged the Hindus to learn archery and general military discipline from the Muslims. Consequently sixty thousand Hindus and two thousand Muslims became skilled in archery.48 Having been impressed by this attitude of Devaraya II, the Shah of Iran sent Abdur-razzak as envoy to Vijayanagar, and the latter livedin Vijayanagar till 1443 A.D. Devaraya used to invite Abdur-razzak twice a week to his court and used to honour him.49 KaIIinatha wrote his commentary on Sangita Ratnakarain these times when the impact of Muslim contact had been fully felt in the South. He was the only scholar of his time who was competent to understand the Sangita Ratnakara. The following words. of Kallinatha (vide his commentary of S.R. ~I 158-159) reveal the influence of the Muslim muqam-system on. the mUSIC current in his time in Vijayanagar, (i) In my times everyraga is begun with Sa. (ii) The Pancama having samvada only.with Sa has survived . (on account of the disappearance of the Pancama having samvada 21 MUSLIM INFLUENCE ON VENKA TAMAKHI with rsabha) the ragas of both the gramas have now come to use the Sadja-Samvadi Pancama. (iii) In Sri raga, Rsabha, Gandhara, Dhaivata and Nisada have become augmented by one sruti from their originalpositions. (iv) In the Kriyanga raga Ramakri, Madhyama has become augmented by two srutis (that is to say, the Madhyamatva has been lost and the seed has been sown for names like Varali Madhyama, Pata Pancama or Tivra Madhyama). (v) In ragas like Nattaand Devakri, Rsabha and Dhaivata have taken two srutis each of Antara Gandhara and Kakali Nisada (that is to say the Ga and Ni of Sa-Ge-Ga-Ma-Pa-M-Ni-Sa are called Rsabha and Dhaivata respectively). Thus (non Vedic) names like Pancasruti Gandhara and Pancasruti Nisada have come into existence. (vi) In Karnata-gauda, Nisada has become the Graha and Amsa in the place of Sadja (i.e. the thata of this rag'! has changed). . (vii) In Hindola the omission (Topa) of Rsabha-Pancama has taken the place of that of Rsabha-Dhaivata. (viii) Sometimesthe omitted (Topya) svaras are used in Audava (penta tonic) ragas. (ix) In some places, the Melana (grouping) of Janya and Janaka (ragas) has become different. (x) There is violation of rules in the use of ragas according to rasa. It obviously follows from these remarks that one hundred years after Madhavacarya and one hundred years before Ramamatya, the music of Vijayanagar has become non-Vedic. The meTa-system of raga-classification had become acceptable to all concerned. ' Kallinatha has deemed it proper to keep quiet on the reasons of this radical change affecting the fundamentals of traditional music and has simply said that as these ragas aredesi, the irregularities mentioned by him do not entail any blemish. But this statement is just an attempt to veil the cultural influences of his times; it is neither scientific nor rational. The medieval authors. counted.upon the following statement ascribed to Anjaneya, for. the sake of resolving the contradicton in their current musical practice: .ittrt l!1fdt<4UlJJf .... 7;*4If~f<1~'i1 If this statement is interpreted to mean that desi ragas have no regula tion whatsoever, then there would be no ground or necessity of any ration alisation about desi ragas. Kallinatha was a Pandita patronised by a royal court. How could he write the chronicle of the defeat of his patron dynasty? It is a remarkable fact deserving attention that till Kallnatha's time, the music of Mewar had not come under Muslim influence, because Maha rana Kumbha's Sangitaraja is a work contemporary to Kallinatha and this text does not make any mention of the irregularities and vicissitudes spoken of by Kallinnatha, Kallinatha did not speak of the mela system anywhere because he was writing a commentary on the Sangita Ratnakara, in which he has made a casual reference to the current music of his times. He refers to Melana Bheda (difference in 'mela') in Janya-janakaraga which is ample evidence of the influence of muqam-system in that region and time. "Every raga starts from Sa and only the Pancama having samvada with sadja is used in all ragas", by this statement Kallinatha has clearly. declared that the import of 'Grama Murcchana' had fallen into oblivion. Nearly fifty years after Kallinatha, Lakshminarayana, who was patro nised by the Vijayanagar court, had defined ghazal and qaul in his work Sangita Suryodaya, which means that in those times ghazal and quaul were well in vogue in Vijayanagar. This situation was responsible for giving rise to musicians who sang the Andhra Pada, Karnata Pada and. Turusaka Pada in one and the same way; Venkatamakhihas referred to such musicians. In extant ·works the Svaramela-Kalanidhi of Ramamatya is the first text expounding the southern mela-system. Muslim contacts and Muslim .Influence 011 Ramamatya RamaIllatya has referred to hiIllself as the son of TiIllIllamatya iil the colophons of Svaramela-kalanidhi. Both the names are compounds, in which Rama and Timma are proper names and Amatya is a titleimply ing that they were royal ministers. Ramamatya is identical with.Aliya Ramaraya known to historians. The author of A ForgottenEmpire, Robert Swell.. has given the name of Krsnadeva Raya's Illinister as Timma and mentioned 'Ramaraya'as 'Timma's son. 'Raya' in 'Ramaraya'stands 23 MUSLIMINFLUENCE ON VENKATAMAKHI 'king'. Ramamatya was the son-in-law of Krsnadeva Raya. In 1542 A.D. Sadasiva became the king of Vijayanagar but he was just a puppet in Ramamatya's hands. .Ramamatya was the actual ruler. Hence Muslim historians took 'Rama' as the 'Raja' (ruler) and mentioned him as 'Rama raya', Ramamatya entered into alignment and disalignment on different occasions with Burhan Nizamshah, Jamshed Kutubshah, Ibrahim and his son Ali Adilshah etc. He once kissed the hand of Hussain Nizamshah.se Ramamatya's wife declared Ali Adilshah to be her'Dharmaputrd (adopted son). In 1565 AD. the Muslim rulers of the South en bloc fought against Ramamatya and he was killed in that battle at the age of 96. After this incident Ramamatya's brother Tirumal established his capital in Penukonda. In 1568 AD. Tirumal assassinated Sadasiva. Tirumal died in 1575 AD. and Tirumal's son Ranga II became the ruler. In 1586 A.D. his brother Venkata I become the successorand in 1614AD. Venkata I died. During the reign of Venkata I, in 1602, the rulers of Tanjore and Madura declared their independence. Venkatamakhi was patronised by Vijayaraghava, the ruler of Tanjore whose predecessors were subordinate to the successors of Ramamatya and had become independent, revolting against Venkata I, the lineal descendant of Ramamatya. The venomous bitterness of'.. Venkatamakhi against Ramamatya seems to have its roots in lineal animosity. Prof. Ramakrishna Kavi has said that Ramamatya was the grandson (daughter's son) of Kallinathas>, but he has not cited any evidence in support of this statement. Ramamatya did not feelthe necessity of studying Kallinatha's commentary on Sangita Ratnakara, otherwise he would not have given the adjective Gramaraga to Hijuji (Muslim Hijeji) and wouldn't have cited the approval of Srangadeva in that context and he would have done justice to the svaras of Sri raga current in his times. If Ramamatyll.had understood Kallinatha's words he would not have said that Cyuta-Pancama _ Madhyama (VaraliMadhyama) was three srutis higher than Suddha Madhyama. Kallinatha has clearly said that in the Kriyanga Raga Ramakri, Madhyama has taken two srutis of Pancama i.e., Madhyama is two srutis lower than the Sadja-Samvadi Pancama. Really speaking, the. votaries of mela grossly ignored Kallinatha and created an illusion that their utterly non-Vedic Mukhari born out of the Nisadadi Murcchana of the Poorbi'Ihata of the Muslims (or Kamavardhani Mela) was the suddhascale spoken of by Sarngadeva. SANGEET NATAK .. 24 Ramamatya has classified his ragas as Uttama, Madhyama and Adhama and has branded Adhama ragas as Pamara-Bhramaka (ellusive to the foolish or base). .Venkatamakhi has labelled Pantuvarali as Pamara-Priya. The class of persons implied by the epithet Pamara of Ramamatya and . Venkatamakhi was at the root of the mela system. The school of music which did not care for the Southern scholar Kallinatha and took all licence with the words of Sarngadeva, the scholar from Kashmir, can ill afford to boast of being ancient and Vedic. Venkatamakhi has referred to Gopala Nayaka with reverence. It is a well-known fact that Gopala Nayaka had come in to contact with the Delhi court and Arnir Khusro. Gopala Nayaka was a savant who founded a school of music. He'had founded a special school of Caturdandi viz. A/apa, Thaya, Gila, and Prabandha: words like this occur in Dhrupad texts and they prove that Gopala Nayaka was the founder of the Caturdandi School. It isimpossible to say that Delhi made no contribution to this new school. Venkatamakhi's Paramaguru Tanappa must have bee~ acquainted with some secrets ofthis school. Whosoever Tanappa might have been he was not a votary of Grama Murchana. Granting that he was acquainted with Grama-Murcchana the way he classified ragas, the names he gave to svaras, the explanation he offered for grama or sadjagrama they were all non-Indian and influenced by the Muslims. ' The Mukhari of Locana is quite different, it is the Dhaivatadi Santara Murcchana of Sadjagrama and is like AsavariThata or Natabhairavi Mela. Conclusion Thus we have seen in short thatcontrary to current belief, Karnatak Music is not immune from Muslim influence. The mela and thata systems have a common origin and the Mukhari Mela has no connection whatsoever with the tradition of Bharata. Incidentally, we have also had glimpses of the process of the uprooting of the ancient Grama-murchchana systemin medieval times. . 2S MUSLIM INFLUENCE ON VENKATAMAKHl FOOTNOTES . C I T. R, SrinivasaAiangar, Sangraha-cudamani, Introduction p. 12, 13. 2 Ibid. P. 8, 9. 3 P. Sambamoorthy - p. 57, Souvenir, 1967. All India Music Teachers'confe~nce; sixth session, Hyderabad, ..' . 4 Caturdandiprakasika, Vinaprakarana, Sl6ka 154. t . • .•. , S M. S. Ramaswami Aiyar in his article entitled 'Sarnagana' (The Journal of the Banaras Hindu University, Vol. II No. I, 1937, p. 101) has ascribed this extract to Sayana's Bhasya on Samavidhana brahmana without giving the exact reference. The present author has failed to locate this extract in the said Bhasya. Relying, however, on the testimony of Prof. Aiyar, the authorship ofSayana has been tentatively accepted here. 6 For a detailed exposition, see 'Sangita Chintamani' p. 386-397, Publisher, Sangit Karyalaya, Hathras, 7 Caturdandiprakasika, Ragaprakarana, sloka, 107. 8 For a fuller account see 'Sangita Chintamani' p. 367~385. 9 For it fuller account see 'Sangita Chintamani' .p, 398..w9. 10 Caturdandiprakasika, Ragaprakarana, sloka 108. II qq~ ~ uit ~, W{f ~ I ~ qe , .. '" , Caturdandiprakasika, Alapaprakarana, sl, 13 12 English introduction to Caturdandiprakasika p, 4. 13 Sangita-Sudha, RagadhY:J,ya, Slob, 407-409. 14 ~ (ci1lifi«A04!lIl1f~~i1 ~~: q~!:T't <1<'QldiI4tgf1f 16 dli1QjI'lldqiitIQilWm114q~1 ~m 17 ~"Hfql'fi dli1tq''t{/4Jii( 18 WRlT: ~ ~!/IIW~!/jRI mtr llFf Ibid. Vinaprakarana, Slob 140-151. SANGEET NATAK .26 .20 ~ ).;:jfdt4 Rasakaumudi Ch. II Sloka 46. Ragavibodha 11, 34. 28 Arab Aur Hind ke Talluqat; P. 6, 7. 29 Ibid. P. 266, 267. 30 Ibid. P. 271-273. 31 Ibid. P. 275. 32 Nizami Bansari, P. 110. 33 Ibid. P. 112. 34 Ma-danul Musiqi, P. lSI, 152. 35 Nizami Bansari, P. 78-81. 36 Ibid. P. 446,447. 37 Ibid. P. 289-292. 38 Dakkhini Hindi, P. 65. 39 Dhruvapada Aur Hindi Sahitya - by the author of this paper (unpublished) P. 68. 40 KhUji Kalin Bharat, P. 198. 41 ManasoJlasa Vol. III, P. 13, SI. 132. 42 Khilji Kalin Bharat, P. 160. 43 Nizami Bansari, P.228. 44 A Forgotten Empire P. 33-39. 45 Ibid. P. 53, 54. 46 Ibid. P. 50, 61. 47 Ibid. P. 72. 48 Ibid. P. 73. 49 History of Medieval India -lshwari Prasad P. 431, 432. 50 A Forgotten Empire, P. 196 (fodtnote). 51 Bharatakosa,p. 550. Acharya K. C. Brahaspati; M.A. Ph.D. Shastri Sangeeta Mahamahopadhyaya, Maha: pandit, Vidya Martand, An eminent musicolog;;t and vocalist ill Hindustani, 'dhrupad style, he studied with Mirza Nawab Hussein and Ayodhya Prasad. An Honorary doctorat/, !I'asc.onferred on h~m by ~he A.B. Gandharva Mahavidyalya Mandai. Has done re.se~!c tn History ofMUSIC, designed research instruments like shruti darpan, brahaspatl una. PUblicafion: "Bharat ka Sangeet Siddhant"; "Sangeet Chintamani" and various'papers on music, W'asformerlya Member, Central Advisory Board, AllIndia Radio, Han., Dlrecto.r, Rest;archCentre, Sur Si!,gar Samsad, Bombay. Atpresent is ChiefAdviser, Indian MUSIC, Brojbhasha and Sanskrit, All India Radio, New Delhi. • RAMLILA IN RAMNAGAR Balw~nt Gargi The annual Ramlila at Ramnagar, twelve miles from Banares across the Ganges, is a spectacular production. Before Independence, Ramnagar State had a RamliIa Department with a secretary-general and under secretaries. One of the clauses at the time of the merger provided that everyyear the UttarPradesh Government would set aside the sum of one hundred thousand rupees for the RamliIa. Apart from this subsidy, the Maharaja spends large sums from his private purse: to celebrate this pageant. The royal armoury, elephants, andcourtiers are at the service of the Ramlila. . 'The acting sites cover an area of a triangle of about three square miles, The holy shrines, gardens, and temples in Ramnagar are named for places in the Ramayana: Ayodhya, Janakapuri, Chitrakut, Pampasar, Kishkindha, Panchavan, and.Lanka. They are reserved solely for the enactment of Ramlila and are guarded all year. The RamliIa .opens with the birth of Rama and lasts thirty days, . ending approximately on the ashwin poornima with Rama's coronation. On the last day, Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita enter the courtyard of the Maharaja's palace amidst cheering people, all seated accordingto classand .status. The Maharaja, dressed in a white dhoti tucked up at the knees in thestyleof a common farmer, receives the trio and leadsthem to the decorat ed throne where they sit accompanied by Bharata, Shatrughna, and others. The Maharaja squats on the floor and offers'worship to the swaroops with the assistance of a Brahmin priest who pours holy water of the. Ganges [rom a jar while ringing a tiny bell. During this ceremony the swaroops ~e present article is taken from the author's book, ~'Folk Theatre in India", along With the photographs, with his kind permission. SANGEET NATAK 28 are fed on palm leaves from .silver bowls. After this, the. Maharaja gives dakshina to the participants and offers homage to the gods. The lila starts at five every evening and lasts until nine, with a half hour interval at sunset. The Maharaja retires for evening prayers, and Rama and Lakshmana are carried away on Hanuman's shoulders to the retiring ashram, a temple orchard on one side. The congregation relaxes; buying sweet-meats, souvenirs, and masks from the lamplit stalls. Each day's performance concludes with the thrilling arati. Burning magnesium wires light up the faces of Rama and Lakshmana. The spluttering blazes heighten the tension of the scene. Some spectators come for the arati alone. No microphone is used even when five thousand spectators attend. The semicircle of the squatting people is hemmed in by a troupe of seven elephants who carry the Maharaja's guests and other important spectators. The royal elephant stands a few steps ahead of the others and is distin guished by a canopied howdah on which the Mah~~aj~ sits, The singing chorus.sits near the elephants. Everyone knows the words of the song, The gold-dusted sky, the serene forest, and the pure air create an atm0~ phere:· Eveq when the spectators cannot hear the lines or .make out the actors. clearly, they see the play becauseit is being enacted in their minds. Wre~tl{ng bouts, sword-fights, acrobatics, and tumlJling and exciteQ1el1t add to tlie pageant. During tile final combat, Rama and Ravana stand on two sides of the rectangular arena. Ravana's chariot is drawn by blue cardboard horses and Rama's by milk-white ones. The chief director (V:y~) and his two assi~t~l1ts in white dhotis run about the stage prompting ·atld helpin~ thecombatants. . . . . , Raghunath Datt Sharma has acted as the chief VyaS for the last ten years: He said: "Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita do not know when and where to speak. I am here at their service, like the charioteer who guided the valiant Arjuna, telling him when to shoot the arrow and in which direction." When Rama was asked to take off his crown for a photograph, the head priest thundered a rebuke: "It is not a drama, but an act of faith! Once Rama puts on the crown, nobody can take it off. He is the god. Who are you to ask the god to remove his headgear?" Illustrations 1'.. 29 "Hanuman" -Ihe mask is 100 years old; the actor, Baba Lakhandas has play,edthis, r~le for 40 years. P. 30 Left: Sadhu's attend "Ramo" throughout the celebrallon.. chanllng the holy name "Ramo". Right: "Sitds" make up; final tOllches. The role IS played by a yO/mg boy. (Pholographsby the author). 33 RAMLILA While Hanuman, Ravana, and Jatayu play their role for years, Rama, Sita, and the three brothers are changed every third year. They are rehearsed for about two months by the Vyas, but young players cannot memorize a drama lasting for thirty days. The Vyas prompts them con stantly in full public view. If Rama forgets his lines, the Vyas speaksthem loudly and Rama takes them up. While speaking his lines Rama does not show any expression. He does not move. He is detached. He does not act. He is unconcerned, lost in the ceremony. He looks like a young prince being crowned. There is so much awe of Rama's god-head that in spite of the noise the boy actor's piping voice is heard by thousands. The spectators have heard these words many times. They have grown up listening to them in the street plays, in narrative poems, in chanting on the ghats. The Ramlila only confirms what is already familiar. Some devoted spectators sit with eyes shut, "watching" the performance. This ritualistic presentation, almost dehumanized and devoid of theatrical realism, has glorious spurts of realistic effects. While the scenes of Dasaratha's pangs and the long discourses on religious philosophy'are at times dull to watch, the scenes of crossing the river, Sita's marriage, setting the Golden Lanka on fire, and Rama's coronation are pageants of splendour. Sita's marriage is celebrated in Janakpuri in the Vedic tradition. About ten thousand people attend. At the sacrificial fire sandalwood is burned and clarified butter is poured as the Vedic hymns are chanted. The Maharaja's courtiers attend, dressed in gold-lacedturbans and stiff brocade tunics.. When Rama lifts Shiva's bow, plucks the cord, and breaks the bow, it is timed with the firing of a cannon, and the thunder is heard for ten miles around. Tulsidas, while describing the breaking of Shiva's bow, says that the sound was so terrifying that the frightened elephants trumpeted and the horses of the Sun God fled in all directions. The realistic enact ment is born out of the belief that everythingpresent is the incarnation of a spiritual reality which must manifest itself in the physical. Similarly, when Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita are rowed across the river by Guha, the king offerrymen, the scene is enacted by the side of a a little stream, just as a film is shot "on location". The Ksheera Sagar (Ocean of Milk) takes place in a huge water tankwhere Vishnu li~s in re pose on the coils of Sheshanag (the mythical Cobra), shaded by his hood. Setting the Golden Lanka on fire draws more than twenty thousand people. The spectators are devout believers in the celebration. . Illustrations P.31..4.bove: DetailsoI"Rama's"elaborate make-up. Below: "Ramaand Sita", Note sandal-paste "ribbing" on "Ramo's" arms andlegs. P. 32. AbovezA young street-musician in Varanasi. Below: Coronation Scene. Photograph taken around1890. SANGEET NATAK 34 This form of Ramlila was started by Maharaja Udita Narayan Singh about 125 years ago. The devout Maharaja used to attend the Ram/ila celebration at Banares every year. Once the Crown Prince Ishwari Narayan Singh fell so ill that there was no hope of his recovery. The Maharaja was greatly perturbed. That evening, when he went to attend the Ramlila, the spiritual head of the celebrations offered him a garland worn by Rama and asked him to put it on the ailing prince. The prince recovered. From then on the Maharaja became a devotee of Ramlila and Tulsidas. He decided to propagate the Ramayana in two ways: by making available the meaning of the Ramayana to the common man through its enactment in the form of a spectacular Ramlila, and by having Tulsidas' Ramacharitmanas compiled in a massive illustrated book of five volumes 18 by 14 inches. Famous artists of Rajasthan were invited to do the illustrations. They were done in Rajput style, showing many locales and different actions in a single painting. Real sapphires, topazes, emeralds, rubies,and diamonds werepowdered and used to colour the paintings, which are still amazingly fresh. The volumes lie in the royal archives. The Maharaja's son, Ishwari Narayan Singh, perfected the stagingof Ramlila. He had scholars write a commentary on Ramacharitmanas. A patron of art and culture, Maharaja Ishwari Narayan Singh trained students and established the tradition of chanting and enacting. He was the first Vyas. Some of his famous pupils were Ram Ghulamji, Bandhan Pathak, and Chhakan Lal. They in turn taught the art to their pupils and carried the tradition further. The present Maharaja, Vibhuti Narayan Singh, a young man of ascetic habits, maintains the tradition. He talks warmly about this religious pageant. He believes that the festival has bound the people of all castes and creeds into one single body, experiencing the same spiritual joy. When he was asked, "Why does a young boy always play Rama 1" he replied: "Ramlila is not a play, it is a yagna. A yagna has a different purpose. It is to propitiate the gods so that the people in Ramnagar shall live in peace and prosperity. A twelve-year-old boy is pure. The god can enter 'only a pure body. A young boy is detached; so is Rama. Therefore only an innocent boy can play Rama in this yagna". Ramlila in Varanasi is not a dramatic spectacle, it is a ritual. It is an expression of the whole life of the people: their customs, beliefs, crafts, arts, philosophy, poetry, music, even their wealth and valour. .Balwant Gargi: See "Sangeet Natak-5" CHHAU A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SAREIKELA AND MAYURBHANJ FORMS Jiwan Pani Deep in the past, before guns thundered the age-old weapons off the stage, men-at-arms'used to parade, rhythmically, their mastery over weighty weapons like the sword, shield, club, spear or bow. To keep up the mastery they also held a sort of mock-fight·in which, to the beat of the huge war drums, one group used to attack the other or defend themselves in turn. This gave rise to a form ofmartial dance named RookmarNacha or POOri khanda Khela. The Chhau of today gradually took shape out of this basic war-dance and grew to classical heights with elaborate stylisation and developed a grammar of its own. Under royal patronage of the different princely states of Orissa, Chhau was nurtured and developed. In the. course of stylisation of the costumes of ChOOu and the use of the mask, it branched off into two schools. The school of Chhau led by the Sareikela princely state used masksfor each of the dancing characters and the other led by Mayurbhanj, masked none. This singular difference made an •appreciable angle of divergence since the aesthetic appeal of each rested at different poles with this change. The two arms of the angle of divergence grew with time and subsequent stylisation. Now the simlarity .betweenthe two lies buried so deepin each form that it may escape notice if one.does not look for it. The first and immediate similarity between the two is that both of them are called Chhau Nacha. ·..Those who have limited their considera tions to only the Sareikela School of Chhauand have ignored and Mayur bhanjSchool,surmise that the word chhauhas been derivedfrom the Sanskrit etymon chhaya.This not only appears far-fetched but philologically SANGEE.T NATAK 36 incongruous since chhaya means shadow and stretched rhetorically it may come to mean a mask. Besides, the natural derivative of chhaya in collo quial Oriya is chhayi. So, logically Chhayi Nacha, instead of Chhau Nacha, should have been the name were it required to mean a masked form of dance. In fact chhau is an independent colloquial Oriya word. It means, as can be seen in Promode Abhidhan, the most authoritative Oriya lexicon, to hunt or attack stealthily. The word chhau has, onthe other hand, three colloquial Oriya derivatives; chhauri, meaning the armour; chhauni, meaning the military camp and chhauka, meaning the quality of attacking stealthily. All these derivatives as well as the root word chhau have un mistakable reference to war. Therefore, Chhau Nacha in all probability and rationality does mean war-dance, not masked dance. This is further borne out by the similarities in the nritta aspect of both the schools of dance. The basic steps and gaits from which the dance stemsare called Topkas and Uflis in both the schools and are alwaysperform ed formally with a sword in the right and shield in the left hand. These are modified forms of physical exercises which, in ancient times, were practised by the soldiers to tune up their bodies to play the hand-held wea pons with the agility of lightning. Even the casual eye cannot miss the martial spirit that exudes from these basic steps and gaits when being rightly performed whether in the Mayurbhanj or in Sareikela dance. When the basic elementsof a dance form are undoubtedly martial in nature it is but logical to infer that Chhau Nacha always meant war-dance and not mask-dance. In naming and performing the said Topkas and Uflis dissimilarity is however seen in the two schools of Chhau. Mayurbhanj Chhau has six types of Topka and thirty six types of Ujii, but Sunil Kothari in Chhau Special number of "Marg" has listed nine types of Topka and twenty-three types of Uflis in Sareikela Chhau. - Topkas in Mayurbhanj Chhau Topkas in Sareikela Chhau 1. Sada Topka (simple locomotion) I. Sur Gati (gait of a god) 2. LaharaTopka (ripplingloco 2. Bagb Dumka (leap of a tiger) motion as in a rivulet) 3. Bagb Gati (gait of a tiger) 3. Dhen Topka (wavylocomotion 4. Hansagati (gait of a swan) as in a-sea) 5. Kasa Gati (gait of a demon) 4. Moda Topka (wiggling 6. Sagar Gati (waves of the sea) locomotion) 7. Hast; Gati (gait of an elephant) 5. Dooba Topka (diving locomo 8. MayurGati (gait of a peacock)•. tion) 9. Jhunka (swinginglocomotion) . 6. Uska Topka (leaping loco motion) 37 CHHAU Imagery inspiring Topkas in Sareikela Chhau, as can be seen, are all different from those of Mayurbhanj Chhau except Sagar Gati which is some what similar to Dhen Topka. More similarity is, however, noticed in the two schools of Chhau when Uflis are taken into consideration. Uflis which are common to both the schools are listed below: Uljli ofMayurbhanj Ufli of Sareikela Imagery inspiring Chhau Chhau Ujli 1. Gobargola Gobargola mixing cowdung in water . 2. Gobarkudha Gutikudha picking cowdung from ground 3. Chhada dia Chhadadia sprinkling the cowdung 4. Haldibata Pithou bata grinding on a stone-slab 5. Jhoontia maja Edimaja cleaning the toe-ring with the heel. 6. Gadhia Swan bathing 7. Sindoorpindha Sindoor-tika putting a dot of vermilion on the forehead. 8. Dhankuta Dhankuta pounding paddy 9. Dhan paehhuda Kula pachuda winnowing the dehusked rice. 10. Jhoontidia Jhoonti dia drawing decorative motifs on the floor 11. Kantakata Pasari hana cutting down thorny. shrubs. 12. Bata-chira Batachira splitting a bamboo in two. 13. Untamoda 'Untamoda to kill by trampling on the abdomen. 14. Harindian Harindian leaping gait of a deer. 15. Clzlzeli dian Cheeli dian a kid jumping playfully. 16. Baga topka Baga topka a stalking Crane. 17. Baghapanikhia Baghapanikhia a tiger drinking water. Some of the Uflis practised in Mayurbhanj Chhau but not in Sareikela which are rich with.powerful imagery,are 1. Chingdichhitka flashy. jerks of· a lobster. when it is pulled out of water. 2. Baga-machhakhoja crane searching for a fish. Hanuman panikhia" a monkey drinking water. Mankadchiti a Dlonkeysomersaulting. SANGEEI' NATAK 38 Topka may be defined as the style of gait or locomotion in which the imagery suggested by the name is conjured up mainly through the flexions of the body and the footwork follows perfectly in consonance with it. But in Ufli, the legs become eloquent in conjuring up the inspiring imagery and the body moves obediently in agreement. Uflis and Topkas are the alphabet of Chhau. When these are purpose fully woven into a phrase it becomes a Bhangi, that is, a dance-unit. Uflis and Topkas independently, like the letters of the alphabet, have no communi cative power, but a Bhangi has. So, Bhangis properly syntaxed delineate the theme of the dance, build up drama and give meaning to the rhythmic movements. Neither of the schools of Chhau have hasta-mudras in its grammar. This is so because at the formative stage the movement of hands was restricted by holding some weapon or other. Therefore, it is through cadencesof movement spelled by foot-work and body-flexions that the Chhau dancer' communicates. Delineation in Chhau is accomplished not by gestural interpretation but by a sort of kinetic suggestion. The most important difference between the two schools of Chhau lies in the mode of Bhangi-forrnation. The face, that mirrors the subtle emotions like Lajja (shame), Ananda (ecstasy), Pratishodh (vengeance) etc. sinceis masked in Sareikela Chhau, it isthrough movements of body and positioning the mask in relation to the movement, that the expressions are communicated. There are set Bhangis in the grammar of Sareikela Chhau to express symbolically: conflicting emotions. The mask thus not only stands at the focal point of the dance but also conditions the formation of Bhangis. This takes the aspect of angikabhinaya (expression through the body-movements) of Sareikela Chhau to a height that is not touched by any school of Indian dance. It is so unique, so symbolic and so expressive that without vachikabhinaya and mukhabhlnaya the transfer of Bhava is complete and'aesthetically most satisfying. The formation of Bhangis in Mayurbhanj Chhau does not sufferfrom the limitation imposed by the mask as in the case of Sareikela Chhau. So it is richer in variety, choreographic excellence, and the original virility of Chhau. Vilchikabhinaya is, so to say, absent in Mayurbhanj Chhau also. The rich poetry of movement compensates' it amply. The movement hands is less important and is subordinated to the foot-work which is so eloquent thatit is hard to find aparallel. ' Illustration:: P. 39. The jubilant Shabar Toka (young hunter) takes a leap into the air MayurbhanJ: 40. Above: Guru demonstrating Mayurbhanj ufli called Boga Top~a (crane stalkIng). Below: Mayurbhanj is usually a group-dance-youngboys ill1pe"r:,s. ona,ff]Ig, " female characters. ". , 43 .CHHAU There are a number of set Bhangis in the vocabulary ofMayurbhanj Chhau. New Bhangis are, however, formed by juxtaposing different Uflis and Topkas as required for the delineation of the theme of a dance. For example, a Bhangican be formed by coupling the locomotion of Lahara Topka with the first part of Gobargola and last part of Jhoontidia. The formation and imaginitive interlacing of Bhangis always depends.on the aesthetic mood and the rhythmic pattern. The rituals connected with the annual festival of Chhau in both the schools are strikingly similar in content and the slight difference is only superficial. Annual Festival of Chhau is called Chaitra Parva and is held on Chaitra Samkrantic corresponding roughly to April 13. Thirteen days before the Samkrantic a series of rituals begin. Thirteen devotees, called bhagata and drawn from different .castes that. are considered lower than Brahmin in social prestige, perform daily some religious rites. They wear deepred dhotis and like the Brahmin wear the sacred thread. The bhagatas on the day of initiation assemble near a Shiva temple and are. first con verted to Shiva-gotra (clan of Lord Shiva). They remain as the clansmen of Lord Shiva for the thirteen successive days. Each of these days they go to the temple and perform a ritualistic dance to a typical tune and rhythm. On the 26th day of Chaitra, they bring out Jatra Ghata to herald the begin ning of the festival. An earthen pitcher, painted crimson with vermilion and filled with holy water to its brim, is sanctified by mantras. This is the ghata and the holy water in it represents Maha-Shakti, This Ghata is placed on the head of a particular bhagata. The exposed parts ofhis body, such as face, hands, neck etc; are painted red like the ghata. The musicians then strike the typical Jatra-Ghata note. The ghata bearer soon falls into a trance and goes dancing all the way.· The ghata is taken to the temple and kept there for four days till the dance festival is over. On the final day of the Festival, aftermidnight, comesanother ghata called Kamana Ghata. It is also known as Kalika Ghata or Nishi Ghata. It is just like the Jatra Ghata, but the ghata as well as its bearer is painted black. The holy water in it represents the human desires and the deity worshipped is goddess Kalika, This ghata is taken to the temple and is kept buried there till the next year. All these rituals •have symbolic significance as per <•• the Hindu scrip There is no apparent relationship.betweenthe danceand these rituals exists ata much deeper leveL.-· his wife. Seraikelais either a duet or solo-dance. 42.Left:T/ze --c·- ~-- •• _ •• ---Fisherman; Seraikela masks are symbolic, rather than_· descriptive, SANGEET NATAK " 44 Besides the rituals, the two schools of Chhau bear a lot of similarity in music and formation of Tala - the rhythmic pattern, which is a very complicatedand specialised art peculiar to Chhau, In both the schools instrumental accompaniment is provided by the following instruments: 1. Dhol a barrel .shaped drum played with the palm and fingers of the left hand and a blunt stick in the right; 2. Tikra or Nagara - a small hemispherical drum played with two thin sticks; 3. Chadiltadi a short cylindrical drum played with two lean sticks; 4. Dhumsa a huge bowl-shaped kettle-drum played with two heavy blunt sticks; 5. Mahoori An, indigenous wind instrument very much like She/maio Dhol leads the drums, but the reverberating beats of dhumsa flash through the body of a Clthau dancer as chamaks. The bol, that is, the verbal notation of the rhythmic pattern is composed of the sound of the dhol and chadehadi or nagara. In order to illustrate the peculiarity of formation of rhythmic pattern in Chhau let an example be taken. A tune played in the dance Dandt of Mayurbhanj Chhauis set to Dhamar tala of 14 matras according to Hindu stani Classical music. This tala may be played on tabla in the following manner as one bar: ' Ka dhi ta dhi ta dga xka ti. ta ti ta ta x In Chhaufour such bars have been taken as one and the pattern of the unit is designed as follows: do den da den da tadhan x x den daden do tadhin x x den.da .den da tadhin x da den da tadhin gr gr gr gr .ta den da den da 'tadhin x x khiti Khiti ta x xkhitikhiti ta x x take tiki take tiki ta gr gr . grgr repeat from the beginning. (each of the strokes represents one matra and under it the x sign A4~,ntp,~,' silence for that matra). 45 CHllAU The choreography of Mayurbhanj Chhau is more complicated and artistic than the Chhau of Sareikela. Due to the limitation imposed by the mask group dances with choreographic excellence is almost absent in Sareikela Chhau, which is quite rich in solos and duets. There is no dearth ofsolos and duets in the repertoire of Mayurbhanj Chhau, but its distinctive character is best displayed in the group dances. To sum up the comparison: use of mask in Sareikela Chhau necessi tated a differenttype of stylisation in which the movements had to be more symbolic than virile. Solos and duets out-numbered the group dances with rare imaginitive beauty. Use of hands and positioning the body in relation to the mask claimed equal, if not more, attention than the foot work. The art of preparing masks rose to great aesthetic heights. With masks the Sareikela Chhau takes fantasy to the summit of poetry, where beauty is distilled from a world of magnificent dream. Without masks the Mayurbhanj Chhau developed a stylisation that retained the original virility of movement as well as the martial strain. Stylised thus, solos, duets, and specially the group dancesexcel in choreo graphy. In Mayurbhanj Chhau, it is the movement alone that becomes visual poetry of stormy passion gestured in a style that is free, intense, fluent, dynamic .and melodious. -Jivon Pl111i ..a well-known Oriya .poet and writer,·· has .also taken-an activ~. interest in the cult';ralli!e ofhis State., He is an authority on both traditional and clasSlc~f?J.': ofdance in Orissa. He has written andlectured widely on.these subjects; . S~J:' ~J j/ Oriya have been published. At present he ts workinz as EduCQtlo.n Offiecr in the Education, Orissa. . BHAGAVATA MELA DANCE-DRAMA OF BHARATA NATYA E. Krishna Iyer The classical dance-drama of the Bhagavata Mela tradition which is struggling for survival in the Tanjore District is a rare art of great value. Its revival will not only add one more rich variety to our existing dance arts but also help to clear away many prevailing misconceptions about Bharata Natya, by proving, that it is not confined to, or exhausted by, the solo Sadir-Natya of women and that it has a dramatic form too with many male and female characters expounding great Puranic themes and rasas other than Sringara as well. In short it will be found as an exemplifica tion of the 2000-year old conception of Natya as dance-drama according to the Natyasastra. Incidentally it may also prove the art to be a source of rich material to help the creation or evolution' of new forms of dance drama and ballet. Bharata Natya, properly understood, is a vast, comprehensive and generic system of classical dance in India, the principles and technique of which are closely applied to three chief forms among others namely; (1)the lyrical solo Sadir nautch, (2) the heavy Bhagavata Me/a dance-drama and (3) the light Kuravanji ballet. Of these, only the first has become widely popular and is called by the generic name itself. Early Origins The Bhagavata Mela Dance-Drama tradition seems to have been in vogue in this country from the 1lth century A.D. ifnot earlier. It is known to have come into prominence in South India from the time of Thirtha narayana Yogi, the author of Krishna Lee/a Tharangini who migrated from Andhra Desa, lived 'and died at Varahur in the Tanjore District about The late 'Shri E. Krishna lyer passed away in January, 1968. first pre~nted as, a paper at a Seminar held some years ago by Akademi, at Delhi, 47 BHAGAVATA MELA years ago. According to him and his followers, devotion to God through the fine arts became perfect only when it was expressed through a combina tion of music, dance and abhinaya in drama, expounding the philosophic truths of the Bhagavata lore. Among his followers of later generations, Venkatrama Sastriar was a great composer, who lived at Melatur about 150 years ago, as a senior contemporary of Saint Thyagaraja and he wrote about 12 dance-dramas of high artistry. Of them Prahlada, Markandeya, Usha, Rukmangada and Harischandra have been the favourite plays enacted in some of the villages round about Tanjore namely Melatur Soolamangalam, Oothukad, Salidamangalam, Nallur and Thepperuma Nallur. Besides these, the author had composed other dramas also namely, Gollabhama, Sila Kalyanam, Rukmini Kalyanam, Dhruva; Kamsavadha, Savithri Vaibhavam and Bhasmasura Vadham. These playswere being enacted year after year as a part of temple festivals in these villages in the months of May and June. It is a pity that after a glorious existence till the recent past, the great Bhagavata Mela art is now found in an attenuated form and kept up regularly in an appreciable art form, only in Melatur. Though the tradition seems tosurvive in Saliamangalam and Thepperuma Nallur also, it is more or less a religious formality in the former village without much of interesting artistry, while in the latter village plays other than those of Venkatrama Sastri seem to be enacted without much reference to classical technique. Itis a pity that the Soolamangalam Village, with all its authentic version of the dance-dramas, appreciable music and fairly good actors, has not been able to continue the tradition after the death of that master-conductor, Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, in 1943, except for a stray spurt of activity in one year 1950 under the leadership of Prof. Radhakrishnan, the talented son of the Bhagavatar. Similar seems to have been the fate of the tradition at Oothukad. In. the former genera tion the art was in a delectable form in Melatur, Soolamangalam and Oothukad when Natesa Iyer, Sitarama Bhagavatar and Swaminatha Bhagavatar of these villages respectively, dominated and directed the shows. Melatur is a medium sized village situated in the interior about ten miles from Tanjore town. With a branch of the Kaveri river flowing nearby and with fertile rice fields and shining ponds all round, the surround ings.of the village are beautiful.· It is said to have been given as a gift by Achyuthappa Naick, a former King of Tanjore, to 510 Brahmin families, each with a house a well and a few acres of cultivable lands, presumably , ...... for the purpose of encouraging the.fine arts. . The village contains the Varadarajaswami temple. As a part of its annual Narasimhajayanthi celebrations in May and June, the dance-drama festival also is conduct~d. A flat thatched pandal, about 100 feet in length and a small stage at Its eastern end are put up on the street in front of the temple and the dramas are enacted in the presence of •. the deity. installed in •the front hall of. the temple..The vast crowds of devotees and art lovers who assemble, squat SANGEET NATAK 48 on the street floor inside the pandal and witness the shows, which com. mence at 9-30 P.M. and close with the earlyhours of the morning. The Performance The show commences with the appearance of the first character called Konangi or Buffoon. He dances about for a few minutes in a humorous manner, asks the audience to watch the play in silence and quits the stage. Then appear a group of musicians who sing the Thodaymangalam or invoca tion song. It consists of many tunes including sabhas and sollukkattus, of an interesting variety. There is also the custom of the appearance of the character of Lord Ganesa to bless the play so that it may get through without a hitch. Generally a young lad below 12 years of age puts on the mask of Ganesa and dances a few steps to the accompaniment of background music. It is said, such dance is done in fulfilment of a vowby the parents of the lad. Then the play proper begins. The chief characters are first introduced with dance called Pathra Pravesam, They first apper behind a cloth spread like a screen and then remove the cloth and dance. After that, scene by scene is 'enacted, in a leisurely manner. These dance-dramas are expounded with music of classical Karnatak tradition, dance and abhinaya in Bharata Natya techni que, poetic speeches and dialogues and appropriate dramatic action. The sentiments of the songs and speeches are of varied interest with devotion and philosophic truths permeating all through. Dharus (resembling the longer Kritis, couplets, duets and verses are the various forms of musical composition employed. These along. with poetic soliloquies and dialogues blend with dance and abhinaya at every stage. The interpretation of song and speech with significant hand-gestures and facial expression coincide with rhythmic cadences of the'feet, while intermittent svara passages and corresponding nritta or pure dance sequences, punctuate some of the songs in a scintillating manner. Background music is. supplied by a chours of musicians who sing and do the Nattuvangam also (giving the combinations ofrhythmic syllables). The sollukkattus are sung in tune with sruthi unlike the unmusical practice in Sadir Natya: Such remarkable synchronisation of music, speech, dance and abhfnaya produces a high aesthetic appeal. The written and spoken words of the song and speech are. lifted from the audible to the visible. plane, In short the Sravya Kavya becomes the. DrisyaKavya as per the ideal. of the ancient Bharata Sastra. No wonder, the 2000 year old Bharata's Nat!~tr~di~on can be said to still live in these dance-dramas of Tamil-Nad. '. .><, Illustrations.: P. 49 Top: Chondramati,fr;mthe play 'Harishchandra', r;nderi;;~~e4~en~efio~ pure clafzce In the Bharata Natyam style• . Bottom: E. Krishna Iyer, left• . who did mucht:r thi! revivalof the BhagavataMela Nataka, in animated conversation with Balu Blwgava .. (right), semormon exponent ofthe today•. 51 BHAGAVAl"A MELA In the words of the scholar, the late K. V. Ramachandran "Though verse seeks a composite expression in unison with the fully developed arts of music and dance in the drama, it is dance which triumphs and dominates, dance in its infinite variety as a decorative unit that twines in and out of every speech and song, as the basis and supreme resource ofabhinaya; dance that conditions everything from the simplest courtsey to the most elaborate ritual and helps to recapture the epic atmosphere of the stories." The high tension of that atmosphere is occasionally relieved by comic interludes. Comparison with Kathakall The BhagavataMela dance-drama of Tamil Nad resembles Kathakali of Malabar in being an all-night show without the stage settings of modern drama and in having such features as Pathra Pravesam or introduction of the chief characters of the play with song and dance. But the two differ in other aspects. The abhinaya of Kathakali, though rich and vivaciously exuberant too, differs in many aspects from that of traditional Natyasastra, ,which is closely followed in the Bhagavata Mela shows. The actor-dancers in the former. do not speak or sing but expound their abhinaya only mutely to the accompaniment of background music. In the Bhagavata Mela the dancers speak and sometimes sing also. While the maddalam (drum) is the dominant feature in the music of Kathakali dances, there is a blend of vocal and instrumental music, with many accompaniments like the flute, the violin and themridangam in the Bhagavata Mela dances. In its costume and style of dance and abhinaya, the Kathakali smacks somewhat of the eeriness of the earlier folk art, from which it was developed. The Tamil Nad Dance-Drama is more'refined. with .soushtava (grace and elegance). The predominance of masculine vigour with fierce passions. and thrilling realism . characterise the Kathakali as an art.of dynamic energy. In contrast to it, the Bhagavata Mela'dance-drama is subdued and more graceful with the characteristically suggestive gesture language. in abhinaya and highly artistic designs in dance, eschewing realism as per the conception of Bharata's Sastra. Violent acts of war and killing are not acted but only narrated in the Bhagavata Mela: unlike Kathakali. Sound Musical Base Considering. the music of thesedance-dramas alone,Venkatrama Sastry's compositions. deserve special attention. He was a senior con temporary of Saint Tyagaraja belonging to the golden age of Karnatak Music. Some of songs in the ,dance-dramas of the former are of as ,...... - Illustrotions: P. 50 Top: A scene/rom a Bhagavata Mela play show~nglhe king seated an;I beingentertained by a dancer. ,Bottom: After the closl!0f1he p!ay/'.rahlad.a Charitram'; at dawn, the character impersonating Narasimha is taken In procession WIt? bhaJanas through thestreets of the Village. (Phorographsby Mohan Kh0kar) . SANGEET NATAK 52 high an order as those of the latter. For example, Hiranya Kasipu's entrance dharu, Vedale Nama Hiranya in Devagandlzari raga closely resem bles Tyagaraja's Evaru Manaku Samanamu Kriti in the same raga. Prah lada's entrance songPralzladlzudll in Bhairavi raga sounds almost like Tyagaraja's Upacharamu Kriti in the same raga. But the two great com posers never copied from each other. Both were remarkable geniuses and master composers. Hence in estimating the development of Karnatak music in its golden age of the l Sth and 19th centuries, one has to take into account not only the contributions of the famous Trinity, Tyagaraja, Dikshitar and Syama Sastri but also that of other composers like Venkata rama Sastry of Melattur. As Telugu had been the court language in Tamil Nad from the time of Vijayanagar kings down to the time of the Maharatta princes of Tanjore, the Bhagavata Mela Dance-Dramas also had been composed in that lan guage. Character roles in these dramas had been the properties of parti cular families, inherited from generation to generation. As such the art had been a part of the lives of the people in these villages. All the charac ters including feminine ones are personated only by young men. Age long social conventions do not allow women to mix with men on the stage. One cannot pretend to admire classical art and at the same time decry such conventions long associated with it in India. Though the extant dance-dramas of Tamil Nad are those composed 150 years ago by Venkatarama Sastry, the Bhagavata Mela tradition had been in existence long before his time. All fine arts in India had been conceived of, from ancient times, as a means of expounding bhakti or devotion to God for spiritual realisation. Even from the 9th century, temples in India had their own theatres and devout artistes exhibited their arts in music, dance and abhinaya as offering to God as part of their wor ship. Troupes of Brahmins are said to have offered operatic performances in those temples. Patronage under the Chola and Vijayanagar kings and other later rulers too contributed to the growth and development of dance dramas. The origin and growth of the present beautiful village of Melattur, the birth place of Venkatarama Sastry and Natesa Iyer, can be cited as evidencefor it. As has been mentioned before it is said to have risen from the settlement of 500 Brahmin families with gifts of 500shares, each consist ing of lands, a house and a welltherein during the time of King Achyuthappa Naik of Tanjore •for the purpose of keeping up and developing .the arts including the dance-drama. Related Compositions ,- ''''''--.. About three hundred years"ago;-Thirtha.Narayana Swami the author of Krishna Leela Tlzarangini,who lived in Val"ahu~:.was ->~ ~devout artiste and he composed a number of dance-dramas in Telugu like Parijatlzaharanam 53 BHAGAVATA MELA and Rukmangadaha and also some padavarnas. Long after him, Venkata rama Sastry's father Gopala Krishna Sastry also had composed some dance-dramas like Dhruva, Gouri, Sitakalyanam and Rukminikalyanam, Manuscripts of these plays are said to be found still in some of the villages. Jayadeva utilised song and abhinaya for his devotion; Purandaradas used song and pure dance for his bhakti. Later day saints like Tyagaraja were content with music itself as a means of devotion. Others like Thirtha Narayana did not consider each of these by itself as enough, but were con vinced that, along with music, expression of sentiments and emotion through dance and abhinaya also was necessary for perfect devotion. Reference to this concept is to be found in his Lila Tharangini songs. He followed closely, the tenets and modes of bhakti as exemplified in the Bhagavata-lore and he composed his songs and dance-dramas accordingly. He found perfect devotion in the exposition of Puranic stories with music, dance and abhinaya in Bharata Natya technique. Those who sang the praise of God and expounded bhakti through such media and kalakshepams came to be called Bhagavatars, and the dance-dramas enacted by them, as 'Bhagavata Mela-Natakas', Venkatarama Sastry and his father followed the tenets of Thirtha Narayana and.composed their own dance-dramas in that line, improving the tradition to suit their own times. As the object of playing these dramas was.devotion to God, the practice of presenting them before temples only came into vogue. Conceptions like 'Art for Art's sake', or Art for earning one's livelihood; or Art a a pleasant pastime, had no place in that tradition and it is so even today. Nonetheless, what art was exhibited before God, had to be of high aesthetic value as well, without which no God would be pleased. . Hence high technique and perfect mastery thereof, was made a sinequa non in the exposition of these arts. Though now-a-days, religious faith and devotional aspect may not have as much importance to connois seurs of art as before, one cannot but be struck by the high aesthetic value and appeal of these dance-dramas. Hence their usefulness and importance even today. Present-day Conditions It is true that the present day standard of these dance-dramas in. the Tanjore villages is not what it was during the hey-day of former generations of master-artistes. While the dancers of former times lived in their own villages and cultivated the art with patience and care, economic circum stances have forced their descendants to eke out their livelihood in outside towns and cities, leaving little time or opportunity to keep up th~ir practice of the art in good. condition. Most of them return to their VIllages only on the eve of the annual festivals and with what little practice they might SANGEET NATAK 54 have had and without much of necessary over-all rehearsals, they play their parts as best as they can in a devotional mood. Hence the present-day shows suffer from many avoidable defects. All the same, from what I saw at Soolamangalam in 1950, and at Melatur in the succeedingyears, I could not but be struck by the high conception of the art, and its underlying technique in music, dance and abhinaya. In spite of present-day general deterioration in the standard of the shows, high class music still remains intact. Most of the members of the orchestra supplying background music happen to be well-trained musi cians and they sing well, and do the nattuvangam also in an enjoyable manner. After seeing their shows, one is convinced that, if re-conditioned and developed to suit modem times, the classical dance-dramas of Tamilnad can be made attractive and popular, as it was done in the case of Sadir nauth and Kathakali which were also in a deteriorated state three decades ago. Though the art had been developed in villages in days of yore, it had been conceived only as a classical dance-drama with high technique and great refinement, and not as a mere village folk dance. But, owing to intermittent disuse and neglect, and also to the exigencies ofdeclining village conditions, its artistry and showmanship had suffered by the introduction of some crude and incongruous conventions, so much so, in spite of its high classical technique, the mode.of its presentation had been giving room to superficial observers, to mistake it as a mere folk dance. By the reforms brought in through my efforts, the dance-dramas are now being enacted on a high, though small, stage,at a dignified. dis tance from the spectators, instead of being done on the street floor in the midst of the audience as before. Be it remembered that theatres' of diff erent sizes are prescribed for such art in the Natyasastra; and classical dances are to be enacted only on a stage. The whole stage is now provided' with a simple blue decor. The ubiquitous table harmonium with its.'vociferous noise has been dispensed with, and a violin and flute have been included in the orchestra besides the traditional mridangam, As in the solo Sadir-nautch, the old. habit of the conductor, the singer and the Nattuvanar with their orchestra, follow ing the dancers up and down the stage, has givenplace now to the arrange ment ofseating them in two rows or one wing ofthe stage so as to eliminate the crowded appearance of the stage. The cast of characters, costumes and lighting too, have been .Im proved. Above all, except in Prahlada, the shows have been limited to the endurable proportions of 3 t04 hours, instead ••• of being run ~I1 .. through the night till day-break as before. ... . i ' . 55 BHAGAVATA MELA The Bhagavata Mela art differs from the ordinary drama, chiefly from the fact that the former has not only dramatic interest, but also the combined interest of classical music, dance and abhinaya among other things, and hence it is a synchronisation of many classical arts. Another distinguishing feature is the all-pervasive and dominant rhythmic sense in the dance-drama. The characters, big and small, move and walk in rhythm, love and hate in rhythm, laugh and weep in rhythm, and swoon and die in rhythm. In short, from the simplest courtesy to the most com- . plicated situation, every bit of speech, song and action is conditioned by rhythm. Even today, when the standard of the art is said to fall short of what it was in its hey-day, one could not but be struck by three notable features, namely, classically pure and appealing Karnatakmusic, scintillating nattuvangam with musical sollukkattus, and shastraic abhinaya of an elaborate type. There is a plethora of foot-work too, in varied talas and tempos. But it is only in the matter of combining it with Nritta Hastas (beauty ofhands) and alluring poses to form characteristic davujathi sequences of Bharata Natya, that the present day Bhagavata Mela art is found deficient. Much of the agreeable effect produced by the Melatur dance-dramas can be said to be due to the richness of their music. The dance-drama songs of Venkatrama Sastriar being highly classical and of varied forms, like verses and churnikas, sabdhas and dharus, padas, and pada varnas, with swara passages and sollukattu - jathis in many of them, their exposition by the well trained vidwans, is so superb and charming in its emotional appeal, as to provide a rich feast of varied appeal to keep the audience spell-bound. When in this enchanting background, the various characters play their roles, as best as they can, the effect is marvellous. The speeches of poetic diction melt into song, the song scintillates into dance and is visually emotionalised in abhinaya, all finishing off with flashing thirmanams in sruthi. Well-knit swara passages andjathisequences are inter-twined in the songs leading in alternatenritta and nritya and gripping the audience in varied effects.. If the Melatur abhinaya is uncommonly expansive, it is because of its good fortune in having BaluBhagavathar to train the dancer actors in it. .Venkatrama Sastriar's dance dramas have much scope for music, danceand abhinaya and.revel in depicting the eternal varieties of human life, character and emotions with a moral purpose, through a combination of these arts, thereby leading to rasa-realisation, according to the concep tion ofNatya in the ancient treatises. The Melatur art fairly .approaches that ideal (though it may not be perfect as yet) and hence produces a pro found and classical atmosphere elevating the spectators to a fancy world of rare emotional and. aesthetic .experience; SANGEET NATAK 56 When all is said, this great art of the Tanjore Bhagavata Mela Dance Drama is a fairly faithful reflection of the ancient Natya of Bharata's con ception. It is neither of the folk type nor the modern glamorised type of ordinary drama. Nor can it be said to have been evolved from folk plays like Therukkoothu or Veedhinataka, as has been the case with Kathakali which was evolved out of earlier folk dances. The Bhagavata Mela is simply a revival, in regional languages, of the common ancient Natya tradition. Aspiring modern dancers with faith in, and liking for, higher aspects of the art, can find in it a treasure-house of high class music, abhinaya, and nattuvansam to pick and choose from, to improve their own art, and to help them in the creation of newer forms of dance, dance-dramas, and ballets. The late E. Krishna Iyer, trained in all the three arts music drama and Bharat Natyam. He I!layed a significant role ill the revival ofBharat Natyal1~ through his lectures, demons ~ratlo~ .and scholarly writings. Similarly, the Bhagavata Mela dance-drama today '!lI'es Its positton amolllJ. the arts ofthe Tamil region mostly to his efforts. He.wrotee.xtr;nslvely on dance and."U1slc.and receivedseveralhonours and titles from appreciative societies. The State recognized his services to art by awardina him the Padma Shree, He was elected Fellow ofthe Akademi ill 1966. He died in Jc:;,uary, 1968.· . THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF INDIAN MUSIC M.R. Gautam Before I express myself on the subject in view, I would like to offer my apologies to the erudite scholars for whom it is but natural, because of their intellectual excellence, to take delight in dwelling upon the minute technicalities of the scientific structure of artistic practice and its philoso phicalbackground. Indeed it is difficult to accommodate a critical attitude in a creative frame of mind that is inspired in its search for the sublime moreby intuition than by analytical intellectualisation and purely objective judgment. My approach to the subject is rather that of a performing artist than that of a scholar-critic, and my viewpoint is naturally condi tioned by the limitations of my approach. That music gives delight, and to use a much more comprehensive Indian word ananda, is almost axiomatic. While this may seem rather an elementary fact about music, the source of that delight or the musical instinctis by no means elementary. It is in fact one of the primary puzzles of consciousness and science. What is it that causes the sound waves when they strike the ear to produce 'volleys of nerve impulses to flow up into the brain' thereby resulting in a pleasurable sensation? More than that how is it that we able to make sense out of these 'volleys of nerve impulses' so that we emerge from engulfment in the orderly presentation of sound stimuli as if we have lived through the instinctive life of the emo tions? We have a part answer, I supposein that the physical nature of sound has been well explored; but the phenomenon of music as an expressive, communicative agency still remains one of nature's supreme mysteries. Certain phases of human activity may seem simple and straight forward on the surface but which when carefully studied confront us with SANGEET NATAK 58 manifold problems and paradoxes. The less we think about them, the more we think we know about them; the more we think about them, the less we realise we know about them. Music is like life and just as inscrutable. Just as people discuss life and its multifarious aspects without revealing what it exactly is, likewise music also is often the subject of talk by many but they find it like life, a baflling mystery. Now in the context of the present, prevalent state of enormous scienti fie achievement on the one hand and the tremendous interest in and enquiry into the phenomenon of music that is evident here and in the West, on the other, if we look back and retrace our steps about a couple of thousand years ago, we may perhaps be amazed at the profundity ofperception and understanding of our ancients. Their perception, was, of course, through keen intuitive insight. And hence our music, like our Vedanta philosophy of the Upanishads and other Yogas was essentially a process of withdrawal from without and going within. Hence music has always been. looked upon as an intimate path toward God and spiritual salvation. But spiritual ultimately though it is, our great ancestors were fired with unquenchable curiosity about the nature of musical sounds and the way to systematise them. Our music, the origin of which is attributed to the Vedas, is said to have begun with three swaras, subsequently developed to five and then to seven forming the saptaka. As early as the 1st century B.C., perhaps the remotest in the history of the musical systems of the world, when there were no scientific means of placing notes at fixed intervals, it was Bharata Mum, who first by analysis of the gramas or scales explained those intervals through the analysis of the srutis. He employed the Sarana Chatustaya method. Bharata Muni may btl considered to be the greatest scholar, seer of and contributor to Indian music to-date. Our music, with all its myriad modifications down the centuries is all the result of his magnificent research and gift. After establishing the various frequencies of the swaras, Bharata ~~ni discovered the Murchhana system. By a system of tonic-shift, which IS In a way the Murchlzana system, he presented an exhaustive series of swaras that could be used in-music, In his time, the Komala Rishabha and the Komala Dhaivata had not been located and •nominated, .. but they certainly occurred in some of the Murchhanas. Bharata,therefore, claimed that there could hardly be any melodic music in the world which could be comprehended in these Murch!ranas; because by a modal-shift, could get all the musical notes that are possible within the compass S9 FUNCTION OF MUSIC octave. This was only possible through the modal-shifts that the Mur chhanas of Bharata gave; so his claim seems justified. Instrumental Music So far, we have considered very briefly the intellectual aspect of Indian music. Hence also, as in the case when the intellectual aspect was being dealt with, the great unfailing reservoir of information regarding the condi tion of instrumental music in our country a couple of thousand years ago is again from Bharata Muni's Natyasastra. As early as the 1st century B.C., we had a number of evolved instruments which were classified by Bharata under the following four heads: 1. Tata, 2. Sushira, 3. Avanadha or Ananddha and 4 Ghana i.e, stringed, wind, membranophonic, audio phonic. There are no instruments in the world which cannot be subsumed under the above heads. This gives an exhaustive classification of all the types of instruments. Bharata mentions a number of instruments like the Eka Tantri Veena, Vipanchi Veena, Matakokila Veena etc., among the stringed instruments; Vanshi or the flute among wind; Mridanga, Dardura Panava etc., among the membraphonic instruments and Tala in the ghana variety. What may be a matter of interest is that the conception of the instrumental ensemble had not only taken place in Bharata's time but it had also attained a so phisticated and highly systematised standard. Bharata uses the word "Kutupa" forinstrumental ensemble meaning thereby a well-worked out- arrangement of instruments. Bharata describes in his Natyasastra the manner in which the Tala, the Sushira (wind) and the Avanadha (membranophonic) instru ments ought to be arranged on the stage and their relative distance from each other. And he has given a detailed description of ensemble music on melodic lines when no system of music in the world had thoughtof such a thing. He mentions the Anga Veena and the Pratyanga Veena or the main veena and a number of other veenas that were to be played in a com plementary manner. The same order applied to the percussion instru ments.as well. .. There are numerous prabhandas or compositions for vocal and also instrumental music. . The instrumental music compositions were known as vadya-prabandhas. Bharata has given copious examples of such compositions for various instruments. To have an idea of the maturity of instrumental music in our country, Sarangadeva, who follows him closely, has given, in his Sangita Ratnakara nearly forty seven different compositions to be played on Pataha which perhaps resembled the present day Dholak, There were several types of compositions. Gila andSushkakshara Gila; under Gila there. were seven types: .Mudraka, Aparantaka, Ulloppayaka, Prakari, Uvenaka.. Rovindaka and "Rattar 'In the compositions .without words One finds the following varieties;.Vakrapani, ·Sankhotana, Parigha-. tana, Margasarita, Lilakrita etc. All these were set indifferent chandds Or metres.• It. was therefore necessary in those days fora \Veil-versed in poetic metres also. SANGEEI' NATAK 60 Spiritual Aspect Yajnavalkya, the great law giver says: Vinavadanatatvajrah Srutijativisaradah Talajnyaschaprayasena M okshamargam nigachhati. "One who knows the principles ofplaying the veena, one who is an expert in sruti, jati etc., and has a mastery of tala attains to moksha without any effort. Sangita Darpana, Page 6, Sl. 32. As the above slojka states, music in our country right from the beginn ing has been very intimately connected with spiritual pursuit. It is one of the most dynamic expressions of man's inner-most being, not only his personality but also the unfoldment of his entire surging aesthetic passion within; with the result that, the expression attains an extraordinary creative status and the artist and his expression of art become one indivisible ex perience. Then virtuosity becomes merely the vehicle for the realisation of aesthetic beatitude that the artist experiences. Every note he sings or plays is creative i.e. which is unpremeditated and utterly new. It is a state of deconceptualized egolessness. The terms used in our music like nada, swara, sruti etc., have their deep mystical significance also; although their connotations in respect of music are quite different. But it may not be incongruous to state that the coincidence of the same terms in our mysticism and music is more than fortuitous and is perhaps an indication of the latent dynamic contentof the outward manifestation of musical notes. The Hindu view of music treats it as a form of yoga and identifies aesthetic emotion with the transcendental delight of self-knowledge. The entire approach of the Hindus towards art, be it architecture, painting or music was one of inward integration, similar to the objective of yoga which insisted on mental concentration carried so far as to transcend the dis tinction between the subject and object and thus realising harmony or unity of consciousnes. In music also true creative expression is .synony mous with the same spontaneous dissolution of the duality of subject an~ object. Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy, the great savant and indefatigable advocate of Vedic thought.:' especially its art and philosophy,· quotes Sankaracharya's commentary on the Brahma Sutras when .. the acharya draws the analogy of the practice of art and craft to that of Samprajnata or yoga. Also the concept ofprayer for achieving perfection in one's art through divine intimation in dreams, in the Agni Purana (patanjali's 61 FUNCTION OF MUSIC Sutra Nos. 1 and 38) indicate the' anticipation of modern views that asso ciate myth and dream and art as essentially asimilar phenomenonrepresent ing the dramataisation of man's innermost hopes and fears. Sukracharya advocates 'the practice of visualization' in art to be identical with that of worship. Just as the worshipper uses the dhyana mantram which facilitates his forming a mental picture of the deity as described in the mantram and to which he addresses all his prayer, so does the artist follow similar prescriptions and 'proceeds to represent the mental picture' in the form of notepatterns and figures of ragas. But the essence of all the practice was, 'setting aside the transformations of the thinking principle'; fusion of the subject-object, and the crystal clarity of expression. One finds a similar approach to art in certain European aesthetics also. Goethe is said to have perceived that, "he who attains to the vision of beauty is from himself setfree." Riciotto Canudo remarks that "the secret of all art is self-forget fulness." Laurence Binyon says that "we too should make ourselves empty, that the great soul of the Universe may fill us with Bliss." Behmen says: "It is nought indeed but thine own hearing and willing that do hinder thee so that thou does not see and hear God." 'Hindu art which includes music, always envisaged art as 'accessible to the concentrated and one-pointed mind without the intervention of the senses.' Sangita Ratnakara (page 14, Vol. I Adyar edition) defines both Marga Sangitaand Desi Sangita. Marga Sangita, it says, is that which is Margita i.e. the way that was shown by Brahma and other divine beings and which was put into use by Bharata and other great musicians, when it was per formed in the audience of the Divine Sankara and is said always to lead towards prosperity and divine bliss. The Hindu ideal in music from the term nodopasena used often, shows that it was a form of yoga (unity) to put the human en rapport with the divine. Social Aspect In the days gone by more than 15 centuries ago, music was an indis pensable, integral part of the very fabric of Hindu social life. No ceremony was performed, no function took place without the prelude or accompani ment of some form of music. Right from Ramayana one finds references in plenty about the prominent role of music in Hindu life. In the Ayodhya kanda (71st Sarga, 29th Sloka),Valmiki describes the amazement of Bharata when he was brought from his mother's place to Ayodhya soon after he demise of Dasarata in the following exclamation: 'how is it that Ayodhya is quiet, a city that always used to resoundwith the music of veena,bheri etc.? It is indeed very ominous.' Bharata Muni says in his Natyasastra thatgita is the saiya (bed) of nataka. Nataka or drama was the main source of entertainment for the people. There were no other distractions like the cinemas, radio or the SANGEET NATAK 62 television. In fact the word nagarika denoting a cultural citizen was applied to only those who could either perform or appreciate music and poetry. Every aspect of social life was intricately interwoven with music. There were the sutas, magadhas and kusilavas; a hereditary, professional class of wandering ministrels who recited the heroic exploits of the various kings of the epics and other kingdoms then in existence in our country in the form of verses or ballads set to attractive tunes easily assimilable by the people. It may not be inappropriate to infer that the two great Hindu epics were also the result of the nucleus created by the songs from .such minstrels. Even today some remnants of this tradition of ministrel songs are available in the Charanas and Bhatas of Rajasthan, a band of walking gazeteers who recite the geneologies and exploits of all the various kings. Vatsyayana in his Kama Sutra, a book attributed to the 5th century has given a detailed description of the life of an average, ordinary citizen. He says that apart from his daily routine of physical labour, he had in his house, veena, a set of colours and a shelf of books. In the evening he invariably went to the Saraswati Mandir,an institution which was in variably present in every city worth the name in those days and attended the meetings of the Vidagdha goshti - a kind of art ensemble of both artists and rasikas where critical discussions took place on poetics, literature music etc., followed by actual performances. This institution in those days served as an excellent source for scouting talent. Today with all our technological advance and so called highly improved social conditions, we have not found it possible to form an artists' guild in our country, whereas we find that so many centuries ago, Hindu Society's very significant wing was this Vidigdha Goshti (Kamasutra Adhikar I, adhyaya IV). There were what were known as Samajas, a technical term meaning a social gathering wherein people met to enjoy a picnic and have music and dance. Itwas a very common feature in ancient India. Subsequently when there were signs that these gatherings were tending towards mere revelry, Emperor Asoka forbade them in his edicts. But all this is of the past. While it may be of psychological comfort and pride that the Hindu can claim such an enviable hoary heritage, it must nevertheless be realised that the present society, with its multifarious fissi parous, dissipating distractions has little chance of a really integrated growth if it does not revitalise its spiritual force and translate it into its daily life. Music is a tremendous force in the achievement of this end.... It is more potent than religion or precepts ofphilosophies; because, •it operates on both the mind. and heart through suggestions. Because music has rhythm an~ harmony, they find their way to the inward places of the soul, o~ WhICh they fasten, imparting grace and making the IS rightly educated, graceful. 63 FUNCTION OF MUSIC Aristotle says that any kind of emotion could be produced by melody and rhythm. Therefore by music, man becomes accustomed to feeling the right emotions; and so music has the power to form character, and the various kinds of music based on different ragas, instruments and styles may be distinguished by their effects on character '- in the direction of hope, self-control, abandonment, enthusiasm etc. "As above, so below" - likewise musical vibrations may be perceived only on the physical plane but its influence on the psyche is inscrutable, but nonetheless the basis of our character. Therefore, to summarise, if man is to survive as a human being delivered from the threat of being transformed into an automaton in the present stupendously technological and industrial environment, he must immediately galvanize his energy toward something that is not merely mechanical and physical but something that enlivens the mind and elevates the spirit. For this there is no better medium than music which both directly affects our superficial senses and our deep inner sensibilities, there by facilitating the effiorescence of real culture whichis synonymous in its truest sense with self-denial. Music isa universal language; it knows no barriers of caste, creed, community or nation. It is the vibrant dynamic language of the emotions and emotions are practically the same the world over. Hence music would undoubtedly serve as annihilator of attrition between human beings, as an unchallengeable cementing force of man and in addition most significantly lead him upward, toward celestial ecstasy and divine communion. One of the practical ways of inculcating music into the social fabric of today is through the introduction of music and other fine arts in our educational institutions right from the kindergarten upto college; and also the formation of an artists' guild which would both help promote art as well as the artist; progressive reduction of sensual music; revival of our folk lore and organisation of music concerts by the various state Govern ments, by sending the musicians of their States to other states where they have not been heard. ,"This would act as both patronage.and propagation of the art andthe artists. Then perhaps one many hope for creative fusion of the intellectual and spiritual aspect .of our great music into our social fabric. , , ' M. R. Gautam: .M. Mus•.A well.knon·nvocalist iinnlndustani Khf'YlIl, ofAKJ'.a gharana: Studied with Rama Roo Nayak, Dilipchandra Vedi, Anwar !!ussem Khan, Si'!dheshwan Devi, Dagar Brothers. 'At present is Reader in Vocal MUSIC, College ofMusic and Fine Arts, Banaras Hindu UntrersityvVaranast. GOPESHWAR BANERJEE Suresh C. Chakravarti Gopeshwar Banerjee (Bandopadhyay) popularly known as Gopeshwar Babu was born in 1879 at Vishnupore, a sub-divisional town in the district of Bankura, West Bengal. His father Anantalal Bandopadhyay was a renowned musician belonging to what is known as the Vishnupur Gharana of Dhrupad. Anantalal was one of the later disciples of Ram Shankar Bhattacharya, who is regarded by many as the founder of this Gharana. That Ram Shankar was a great musician there is no doubt. Quite a number of his disciples became famous in course of time. One was Kshetramohan Goswami whose books were eagerly studied by Pandit Bhatkhande, and who guided Raja Shourindra Mohan Tagore in his innumerable publica tions. Another was the famous Jadu Bhatta who took his early lessons from Ram Shankar. A third was Anantalal, the father of Gopeshwar Babu. Ram Shankar's anniversary is still regularly celebrated at Vishnupur. But it is difficult to determine from whom Ram Shankar had his training in music. One story that has gained some ground is that the real founder of the Vishnupur Gharana was Gadadhar Chakravarti who was Anantalal Banerjee's grandfather on the maternal side. This Gadadhar is said to be the first and chief disciple of Bahadur Shah or Bahadur Khan, a descendant of Tansen. King Raghunath II is said to have brought him to Vishnupur for the propagation of music in the State. Previously the rulers of Vishnupur were worshippers of Sakti but the Vaishnava trend of art and culture came to influence Vishnupur more and more, as it spread all over Bengal since the time of Sree Sree Chaitannya Mahaprabhu, particularly from the time of King Hambir (Bir Hambir) who became a disciple of Sreenivas Acharya. Thus Vaishnava Padabali (kirtans), Raul, Jhumur and other folk songs became very popular, being typical in their new character. •Although Vishnupur was under the 65 GOPESHWAR· BANERJEE suzerainty of the Mughal Emperor, the kings of Vishnupur paid a sort of tribute to the Mughal Emperor and acted almost as independent kings towards making developments in their territory. In the early part of 18th Century King Raghuhath II invited Ustad Bahadur Khan of Delhi and honoured him as the Chief Musician of his court, This was the dawn of classical music in Vishnupur. Along with Bahadur Khan came the well-known accompanist of percussion (mridanga) Pirbox whose disciples left behind as their torch-bearers Jagat Chand 'Goswami (father of Radhika Mohan Goswami) and Kirti Chand Goswami (elder brother of Jagat Chand Goswami). Historical Discoveries But recent researches into historical facts relating to the Vishnupur Gharana lead to certain revelations which are contrary to such popular belief. Some of these observations which seem to be of importance in this connection are, (i) Ram Shankar Bhattacharya was not a discipleof either Bahadur Khan or Gadadhar Chakravarti; (ii) Gadadhar Chakravarti was also not a discipleof Bahadur Khan; (iii) Ram Shankar however was the originator of the Vishnupur style of music and his guru or ustadwas a resident of Agra; (iv) there is, in fact, no link between the Seni Gharana and Vishnupur Gharana but on the other hand it is related to the source of music that was predominant in the Agra-Mathura-Brindaban zone though both of these sourceswere directly or indirectly linked with the Gwalior Gharana; (v) main controversy regarding Vishnupur Gharana and its link with Seni Gharana lies in the time factor. So far history can be traced King Raghunath V did not live beyond 1712 whereas Bahadur Khan (son of Jiban Khan and grandson of Gulab Khan) lived in the last part of the 18th Century. The other Bahadur Khan (from Tansen's daughter's side) who introduced the famous Rampur Gharana died in 1870. However, it is a fact that King Raghunath II had a progressive mind and was a great patron of art, craft, architecture and music. Since his time there has been an intensive and uninterrupted cultivation of music at Bishnupur. To understand the peculiar nature of theart and culture ofVishnupur, one must remember that Vishnupurwas the capial of the region known as SANGEET NATAK 66 Mallabhum which retained its independence even during the first half of Mughal rule in India. Isolated Surroundings Being surrounded by hills this State was almost out of touch with the outside world. Independent forms of art, crafts and architecture were therefore developed here, the relics of which can even now be found abun dandy in and about Vishnupur. The famous Bankura horse is still an attraction for lovers of arts and crafts. The town of Vishnupur, however, lay on the only road then leading from North India to Puri and it is claimed in a recent statement (Vishnupur Gharana -,- by D. M. Mukherjee) that a great musician from Agra or Mathura, while returning from his pilgrimage to Puri, stopped at Vishnupur for two years at the request of the then Rajah and gave intensive training to Ram Shankar. The simple.way of rendering Dhrupad peculiar to the Vishnupur Gharana is ascribed to the visitor who was a Vaishnava devotee. Anantalal, like Jadu Bhatta, was quite young when Ram Shankar died. But both of. them learned enough music through other sources. While Jadu Bhatta's subsequent gurus did not belong to the Vishnupur Gharana Anantalal remained a strict follower of.it and had a large number of dis ciples to his credit. Anantalal in course of time grew old and felt that he was not long for this world and would not survive to give adequate training to his son, Gopeshwar.. He perceived that young Gopeshwar had enough talent for both music and art.: It was at times thought that the boy might go in for painting and not for music. But Anantalal had a stronger bias for music and decided that his son should become a musician. So after a few years of his own training he thought that it would be wiser to send Gopeshwar away from home to receive intensive culture of music outside Vishnupur. At the tender age of twelve therefore he was sent to Calcutta with instruc tions to learn music from the great musicians who .were then residing in that city. There, for about five or six years, Gopeshwar Babu learnt Dhrupad from Shiv Narayan Misra of Retia Gharana, Khyal from Guru Prasad Misra and Khyal and Tappa from' Gopal Chakravarti (popularly known as 'Noolo Gopal'), from whomUstadAllauddin Khan also received his systematic lessons in music. At tbartime the Maharajadhiraj of Burdwan. used to maintain a court of poets, scholars, artists and. musicians, in the same manner as some of the rulers of Princely States. Gopeshwar Babu was hardly seventeen years old, but he was so confident about his own musical achievement, that 61 GOPESHWAR BANERJEE he aspired to be included in that court. For a young artist of his age it was certainly a bit ambitious, but Gopeshwar was determined to try his luck. In order to be successful in this venture it was necessary for Gopeshwar Babu to prove his mettle before the sitting membersof the court, who were veterans and not at all lenient in their judgement. On an appointed day the young artist was called for and asked to sit for a demonstration. Gopeshwar Babu stood the test well and came out successful to the pleasant surprise of all. He was then formally appointed by the Maharajadhiraj. This employment lasted for twenty-nine years (1895-1924). These twenty-nine years at Burdwan may be regarded as the first important period in the musical career of Gopeshwar Baneriee-, During this period he not only gave demonstrations and taught a number ofpupils, but also learnt from those renowned musicians who often visited Burdwan. Oftenhe would go to Calcutta where such musicians stayed with rich people. This gave him an opportunity to be more widely known and enrich his own repertoire. He was not satisfied with vocal music only but took lessons also in instrumental music, both string and percussion. Emphasis on Theory During the earlier part of the 20th Century a number of musicians ofall-India fame were in the temporary employment of some of the big zamindars and other moneyed men of Calcutta. Although most of them were reluctant to impart their knowledge to others, Gopeshwar Babu was fortunate in persuading some of them to teach him. Gradually he felt that however much these.musiciaus were efficient in the practice of music, they knew very little of the theory or history of music, without which no study of music could be complete.· In fact practising musicians of the time cared very little for theory or history. But Gopeshwar Babu was an exception. He realised that the mission of his life would never be fulfilled unless he knew the theory and history of music. He therefore devoted himself to the study of theory and history of music almost single-handed. The only inspiration he received was from the pioneering works of Kshetramohan Goswami and Raja Sourindra Mohan Tagore. Soon Gopeshwar Babu became known not only as a singer and player, but also as a scholar of music. It happened once that two eminent scholars attached to the Burdwan Raj had a long debate with Gopeshwar Babu on some matters of Sangeet Shastra in which the latter so convincingly proved his depth of knowledge, that the Maharajah Jatindra Mohan Tagore was pleased beyond measure and conferred on him the title of 'Sangeet Nayak'.· Gopeshwar Babu carried this title with pride throughout the rest ofhis life. For the sake of the better study. of music Gopeshwar Babu learnt Hindi, Sanskrit and Persian and acquired a fairly good knowledge ofthese SANGEET NATAK 68 languages. Between 1906 and 1915 he worked hard and did some research work also. When he saw that his elder brother Ram Prasanna Banerjee em ployed by the Raja of Narasole became well-known not'only as an expo nent of vocal music, but could also play efficiently, instruments like veena, surbahar, sitar and esraj, Gopeshwar Babu also resolved to learn instru mental music. It is said that he learnt surbahar from Sayed Mohammad who was then in the employ of Maharaja Jatindra Mohan Tagore and from Imdad Khan he learnt sitar. Both Imdad and Gopeshwar had their surbahar recitals recorded on commercial discs. The technique of per formance of the two artists, however, showed a wide difference, though both were much appreciated. Gopeshwar Babu could also play esraj, pakhawaj and tabla. Besides these instruments he also learnt to play nyas-tarang, a wind instrument of a very rare type. This instrument looked more or less like the shehnai and had to be played, not by blowing through its cylinder, but by controlling the muscles of the throat, against which the instrument was placed and pressed. It is said very few people tried to learn to play it due to the extreme effort it requires. The only other musician who was known to have played on it was Kali Prasanna Banerjee, who had played it to the utter amazement of King Edward VII, then the Crown Prince of England during his visit to Calcutta. Gopeshwar Babu however, gave up playing on the nyas-tarang as he was told that the instrument might have an' adverse effect on his vocal cords. Although his ability in playing percussion instruments was con siderable, he seldom allowed himself to be used as an acccompanist. By 1920 Gopeshwar Babu: became very well-known as a vocalist as well as an instrumentalist. Earlier in 1910 and 1911 he widely travelled throughout India with the Maharajadhiraj of Burdwan and became ac quainted with the renowned musicians of different regions. This tour also afforded him ample opportunity to widen his knowledge in music. He came to realise that classical music was not being maintained and cultivated in its proper perspective, particularly as when compared with that of South India, and he apprehended that unless something was done to propagate Hindustani classicalmusic in a very systematic way the condi tions might deteriorate later in view of obvious Gharana factors involvedin the typical verbal talims of the then ustads - there being very little in black and-white, which no doubt led to a distortion of wordings and original tunes. 69 GOPESHWAR BANERJEE This realisation inspired him to doggedly persuehis scheme of including music in the education system through the curriculum of the University. While Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee was the Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University it was the constant effort of Gopeshwar Babu to convince him of the necessity of including music at least as an optional subject in the syllabus of the University. Committees were accordingly formed from time to time to examine the feasibility of this proposal and every time Gopeshwar Babu was a leading member of them. Before any definite success was attained, Sir Ashutosh died in 1924, but the matter was pursued by Gopeshwar Babu and his dream at last took concrete shape in 1937, when the University included music as an optional subject in the syllabus for the Matriculation Examination. Subsequently this step was followed up by the Board of Secondary Education. On his return from tour Gopeshwar Babu felt that he must publish traditional songs with proper notation. Although there were many famous musicians like Aghor Chakravarti, Radhika Mohan Goswami, Vishwanath Rao, none of the practising musicians of that time thought of such a venture. But he saw that adequate propagation of music was not possible without this, and in order to facilitate his work he studied all the systems of notation which were then in vogue or.recently introduced. - danda-metric, akar-metric etc. As he deeply entered into the subject, he found that many of the classical compositions incirculation were incorrect in their ex pression,which no doubt had occurred through lack of authentic publica tions, particularly with notations. His extensive collection of classical songs from all over India and the extraordinary hard labour involved in publishing them correctly with notations no doubt plays a very important role in the history of Indian, music. His various publications were distri buted over a prolonged period and in his initial efforts he received financial help from a few rich patrons. His strenuous labour for the cause of Indian classical music helped subsequent research workers to follow the track with more ease and. precision. Stagesof Career Gopeshwar Babu's active life can be divided into three main periods. The first period covers his connection with the Burdwan Raj (1895-1924); of course during the. later part of this period his activity was projected to Calcutta.also. .The second period was.almost wholly spent in Calcutta itself (1924 1942). The third period, that is the last twenty-one years of his life, covers his stay in his native town Vishnupur (1942-1963). As alreadyindicated, Gopeshwar Babu often came to Calcutta ~uring his employment atBurdwan. These visits became a regular fortnightly SANGEEI' NATAK 70 feature when he. was appointed Principal of "Sangeet Sangha" - an im portant music institution run by Lady Pratibha Chowdhury, wife of Justice Ashutosh Chowdhury of the Calcutta High Court. The out-going Principal Vishwanath Rao, other-wise known as Vishwanath Dhamari, was an out standing vocalist, and the appointment of Gopeshwar Babu in the place of such an eminent musician went to show how.highly he was appreciated by the authorities of the institution, the teaching staff of which included such renowned musicians as Kankan Khan and his brother Keramatullah Khan - sarod player, Lakshmi Prosad Misra, better known as Lakshmi Guru, vocalist and veenkar, Shyam Sundar Misra, Darshan Singh etc. After twenty-nine years of association with the Burdwan Raj, Gopeshwar Babu left Burdwan for good and went to Calcutta and took up permanent residence there for another eighteen years. During these two periods at Burdwan and Calcutta he was found working hard with very little respite in looking after the "Sangeet Sangha", in training his many private students, in preparing and publishing books on music, in frequently demonstrating before public gatherings and in doing his bit in various organisations for the propagation of music. In practical demonstration he was never found wanting. There are people who still remember how he sang without rest for seven long hours at a soiree at the Arya Sangeet Samiti at Chittagong in 1924. Gopeshwar Babu's presentations were shorn of intricate embellishments but always very bold and clear. . As a musician, teacher and musicologist his activities of daily life merged into the trinity of untiring culture and meditation, liberal teaching and composition of songs and books on music. In fact, except fulfilling the bare needs of life, he did not spend any leisure on causes other than music. Even in his old age he maintained a steady voice and he did not refrain from his daily vocal exercises in three sittings - in the morning, afternoon and evening- as according to him one could not otherwise realise the depth and inner significance of ragas because of their hourly groupings. His daily practice continued regularly till his eighty-fourth year - he was found singingeven a few days before he took his last breath. On the other hand he never grew tired of teaching students - no matter if they were mediocre or brilliant -and in fact he kept his treasury of music always open to eager students caring not at all for money which he always considered as secondary although he had to suffer for this at times in the latter part of his life. Music became so. inseparably intermingled with his ·life that while demonstrating he never hesitated for a single moment even when requested to sing an uncommon raga. He could sing innumerable songs, common 71 GOPESHWAR BANERJEE or uncommon, to any tala in the same raga without the slightest hesitation in recalling them.. This indicates how immensely rich and wide his collections were, but it is difficult now to recall how tough, ceaseless and sincere his efforts must have been to maintain such standards. Gopeshwar Babu was endowed with an uncommon memory. He made a large collection of songs of different types. For him the work of collection was nota mere hobby. Although the collection exceeded several thousands, he. could recite from memory each item and could also indicate the book number and the page number where a particular piece could be found. Since one of the aims of his life was to spread Indian classical music, he valued his students and did not hesitate to bear the brunt while he main tained certain poor students at his residence even when he himself had to pass through hard days. At times it so happened when somebody was singing incorrectly in the adjoining room while Gopeshwar Babu was having his meal, he would at once leave his food and go to explain the correct manner of singing. • In training his disciples he was never found impatient. . Publications As already stated, Gopeshwar Babu had an immense collection of songs of various forms and styles. But his ambition to publish them was only partially fulfilled due to lack of finance and other difficulties. The following are the main books written and published by him, shown against the year in which they were published, chronologically arranged, 1915. Sangeet Chandrika - Vol. I. 1917. Sangeet Chandrika - Vol. II. These two volumes contained a large number of Dhrupad, Khayal, Tappa and Thumri songs, with notation. The volumes were reprinted i~ 1923 and are long out of print. As there is a considerable demand for this book even now, Rabindra Bharati University has decided to reprint it under the editorship of Shri Ramesh Chandra Banerjee, Gopeshwar Babu's Son. . 1924. Geeta-Mala _ This is a collection of old devotional songs in Bengali with notation. 1926. Tana-Mala -A collection of Khyal songs with notation. It contains songs of all the traditional eighteen varieties of Kanada, and as. such is a very rare collection. SANGEET NATAK 72 1927. Sangeet Lahari -- Another collection of traditional Khyal songs. The Rabindra Bharati University has decided to bring out another edition of this book. also. 1933. Geeta Darpan - This is just another collection of Khyal, Tappa, Thumri and Bhajan songs with notation. 1938. Bahu-Bhasha-Geet 0 Bahu-Tala-Geet - This is a curious collection of songs belonging to different languages and with different Talas. All the songs are with notation. 1951. Bharatia Sangeet Itihash - Volume I and II. These books whichmay not be regarded as history of music by modern historians, contain interesting stories that the older generations believed to be true. These books also contain a number of songs with notations composed by well-known lyric writers. Besides these Gopeshwar Babu wrote a few other books, such as Sangeeta Subha, Geeta-Rajika, Geeta-Prabeshika, etc. The last named book was especially written for the benefit of the Matriculation candidates who took up music as an optional subject. He also edited a second edition of the voluminousbook Sangeeta Manjari written by his elder brother Ram Prasanna Banerjee. His contributions to various monthly magazines are too numerous to be mentioned here. The Tagores While at Burdwan he became known to Maharshi Debendra Nath Tagore, father of Rabindranath, and the Maharshi often invited him to his house to sing before him. But after his connection . with the Sangeet Sangha became established he came into closer touch with the whole Tagore family, who became Gopeshwar Babu's admirers. He became an important contributor to Sangeet Prakashika, a monthly magazine devoted to music, edited by Jyotirindranath Tagore. This magazine was regularly published for ten years. The number of articles and songs with notation which Gopeshwar Babu contributed to this paper was considerable and they are still to be found in the collection of music lovers. Another periodical entitled Ananda Sangeet Patrika was run for three years •• under the editorship of Lady Pratibha Chowdhury, and Gopeshwar Babu was a prominent contributor to this also. Both these papers were in great demand, and even today people are eager to have old copies for fancy prices. Later on another music magazine - the Sangeet Bijan Prabeshika - was published and for many years was the only regular periodical of its kind. GopeshwarBabu was its chief editor till it ceased publication in 1963. He also contributed to a large number of periodicals not meant only for music, such as. Prabasi, Bharatvarsha; Bimmati. 73 GOPESHWAR BANERJEE Rabindranath, who was always in favour of the simplest presentation of melodies and detested complicated alankars in singing, readily found in Gopeshwar Babu's Dhrupad a clear reflection of his own ideas, and when ever he happened to be in Calcutta he would call for Gopeshwar Babu, to listen to his songs. It is not surprising therefore that in many composi tions of Rabindranath the influence of Vishnupur Gharana is clearly notice able. Once Gopeshwar Babu composed a Dhrupad "Shyam ko Darasan Nohin" and showed it to Rabindranath who lost .no time in composing a Bengali song in close imitation of the tune and rhythm of that Dhrupad. The Bengali song was "Samsare kono bhoi nahi", Rabindra nath once expressed his desire to have Gopeshwar Babu employed at Santiniketan, but had to abandon the idea due to the multifarious engage ments of the latter in Calcutta. In 1919 Gopeshwar Babu was invited to attend the third All India Music Conference at Varanasi organised by Pandit Bhatkhande; there he was introduced to men like Thakur Nawabali Khan and Shibendra Nath Babu(veenkar). He was again invited to the 1924session ofthis Conference at Lucknow, An Executive Committee was formed here with the purpose of propagating- music, to maintain its standard, and to draw up a suitable syllabus to be followed by music institutions allover the country. Gopeshwar Babu was elected a member of this Committee and after the establishment of the Marris College of Music at Lucknow, his book Sangeet Chandrika was prescribed as a text book for the higher classes of that College. After the •demise of Aghor Nath •Chakravarti, Radhika Prosad Goswami and Vishwanath Rao, Gopeshwar Babu was the only person left to look after the interest of Dhrupad in Bengal. It may be remem bered in this connection that during the first two or three decades of the present century Khyal made little headway in 'Bengal and Dhrupad was the main form ofclassical vocal music that was favoured by the listening public. In the early thirties Gopeshwar Babu prevailed upon the then Broad casting authorities to broadcast classical programmes from the. Calcutta Radio Station, the music concerts of which had so far consisted of light music only. For several years the Sangeet Sangha under his leadership broadcast classical music. regularly every month. Return to .Vishnupur ... Since 1936-37. however Gopeshwar Babu's lifein •Calcutta became less eventful. The War broke out in 1939 and living conditions in Calcutta grew harder every day. Music and the other fine arts suffered heavily. Gopeshwar Babu feltthat he should leave Calcutta and go where life was • more tolerable. He also felt that so far he had not done much for his ancestral town. Soafter due considerationhe left Calcutta for Vishnupur in 1942. .He was also fairly _aged then, but age never interfered with his SANGEET NATAK 74 activities. At Vishnupur he started a music College and threw himself headlong into an ambitious scheme in connection with this institution. His idea was to raise the college to the status of an ideal music institution, with a good library, a museum, a hostel for residential students to attract students and teachers from all regions and to offer facilities for research work in music. The scheme naturally required a good sum of money, and he applied to the Government for financial help, but with poor response. The unsympathetic official attitude however could not damp his zeal and he carried on with his work with varied success even to the last day of his life, and tried to keep alive the musical tradition of Vishnupur. The college is still a running concern. There had been a time when members of leading families of Bengal and the neighbourhood had shown eagerness to learn music from Gopeshwar Babu. Thus the Maharajadhiraj Uday-Chand Mehtab of Burdwan and his brothers and sister, the Maharaja of Natore, the members of the Mayur bhanj Raj family including the present Maharaja Pratap Bhanj and the daughters of late Sir R. N. Mukherji became his disciples. One of his sons, Ramesh Chandra Banerjee, who has learnt music all along from his father is now the Dean of the Faculty of Music at the Rabindra Bharati University. . His exodus from Calcutta was however responsible for a great financial loss to Gopeshwar Babu, He began to see days of difficulty during the last fifteen years of his life. The Government of West Bengal saw this, felt for him and granted him a monthly allowance of Rs. 200 to be enjoyed as long as he lived. Even this allowance did not reach him regularly every month, for each payment - before it was actually made - had to undergo certain official formalities. He received this help -for about fifteen years. Nor was this help an adequate relief for Gopeshwar Babu. Even placed in adverse circumstances, he would not reduce his hospitablity to the visitors to his house, for which hospitality he enjoyed a good name. To meet his wants in the last fifteen years he once tried to obtain the job of a Producer of Music at the Gauhati Station of All India Radio. With difficulty he was dissuaded from this attempt as it was physically too arduous for him. In fact his health was gradually failing him and he became so weak that he could not even get into or alight from a rickshaw without some body's help. But this did not stand in the way of his regular work - of training his disciples, reading and .writing and attending his classes at the Vishnupur Music College. In spite of hisage and .infirmity he maintained a good a steady voice as was proved by his recording of Dhrupadat All India Radio. As has already been said, Rabindranath was a great admirer of Gopeshwar Babu and once declared in writing that Gopeshwar Babu was 75 GOPESHWAR BANERJEE the best of contemporary vocalists. He conferred on Gopeshwar Babu the title of "Sura-Saraswati" on behalf of the Vishwa Bharati. ~ In 1956 Gopeshwar Babu was appointed Visiting Professor to Viswa . Bharati. The influence he exerted there is still marked in the music syllabus of the University. '. Last Honour A special convocation was held at Santiniketan in 1961 in connection with the Rabindra Centenary Celebration and on this occasion Gopeshwar Babu received the title of "Deshikottama" from the hands of the Prime Minister, Nehru. "Deshikottama" is an honorary Degree equivalent to D. Lit. In the year 1959 the GovernmentofWest Bengalprepared and released a documentary film depicting the life and work of Gopeshwar Babu. In 1963 Gopeshwar Babu became a fellow of 'the Sangeet Natak Akademi. It was during Gopeshwar Babu'stime that a group of Bengali com posers introduced what is now called modern Bengali songs. This new movement was hailed by those who had little care for serious (i.e, classical) music, and the lover of raga-music found in it a powerful intruder into the traditional forms. 'This modernism in music was the precursor of the irresponsible compositions that were subsequently utilised with advantage by composers of film music. Gopeshwar Babu was mentally shocked at this. He-perceived that once this new movement gained ground, the beautiful old songs in Bengali, based on ragas and the Bengali tappa of the pre-modern period would automatically perish. He therefore began composing "a number of lyrics in Bengali and set them to tunes according to strict raga principles. One cannot say that he was very successful in his mission tosave old traditions in the regional music 'of Bengal, for' he was not a powerful lyric writer like D. 1. Roy or Atul Prasad. His tunes also, however strictly they followed the,raga character, failed to gain popularity due to a certain lack of bright ness. It is not however in terms of success that his' attempt should be judged, but in the spirit of service to the cause of music which guided him in his activities in this regard and,whichmust be recognised. . Lone Efforts During the last few decades ofthe 19th Century and the first quarter 0: the present century Bengal produced a number. of P?werful D~rup'ad slllgers Who did not belong to the Vishnupur. Gharana. Their style of smging SANGEET NATAK 76 was popularly known as Khandarvani. The famous Jadu Bhatta, Ram Goswami, Aghor Nath Chakravarti .and Radhika Mohan Goswami, Ganganarayan Chatterjee, guru of Jadu Bhatta and Hara Kumar Banerjee, his friend, were some of them. The immense influence they exerted through out the region was sufficient to create an atmosphere in favour of Khandarvani style or Betia Gharana, much at the cost of the Vishnupur Gharana. Gopeshwar Babu stood almost as a single-handed rival fighting in defence of his own style, but as time went on even after the demise of these. singers it was felt that in spite of all efforts.the.Vishnupur Gharana steadily 'lost ground. Gopeshwar Babu's contribution towards the cause of music may be assessed from various angles. As one of .the most devoted lovers of music he tried to bring the traditional Indian classical music within the reach of the common man and make it more popular instead of its being a pre rogative of the privileged few. The life and works of Gopeshwar Babu can easily be linked' with the general spirit of the Renaissance of Bengal. A new awakening with a conscioujness for the great classical tradition of music was coupled with his love for Bengal, which resulted in an attempt at a new synthesis of the old classical tradition with the tradtion of Bengal. There is a'natural ease and a touch of sentimentalism in different forms of Art in Bengal particularly in songs where classical music is adopted in a characteristic pattern. Gopeshwar Babu not only wrote and sang different forms of classical music in Bengali, but made them simple and straightforward eliminating too much embellishment. We need not make much of his poetic abilities in the face of the rich heritage of Bengali poetry and songs from the middle ages down to modern times, and we may not always find the tonal structure of his songs very brilliant, but he must be remembered as one of the pioneers who tried to make the classical current flow in the channel of Bengali songs. The spirit here - as was evident in the life of Gopeshwar Bandopadhaya - was definitely that of the Renaissance and the motive is more important than the success achieved. . Gopeshwar Babu died in the year 1963 on July 29. His death, according to the music-minded people of Bengal, means and end of the Vishnupur School of Dhrupad singing. Undoubtedly his life sets an ideal example to those who cherish the idea of fulfilling the mission of life through music. SANGEET NATAK AKADEMI PUBLICATIONS FOR SALE Price "SANGEET NATAK" Quarterly Journal Rs, 3'00 (Annual Subscription Rs. 101) INDIAN FOLK MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS· by K. S. Kothari . 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