Istanbul Technical University Graduate School of Arts

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ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY  GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

THE SINGING BODY: THE EMBODIMENT PROCESSES IN THE

TRANSMISSION OF MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE – A CASE STUDY OF PROF. DR. V. BALAJI

M.A. THESIS

Aslı BÜYÜKKÖKSAL

Dr. Erol Üçer Center for Advanced Studies in Music

Music Program

JUNE 2018

ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY  GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

THE SINGING BODY: THE EMBODIMENT PROCESSES IN THE TRANSMISSION OF MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE – A CASE STUDY OF PROF. DR. V. BALAJI

M.A. THESIS

Aslı BÜYÜKKÖKSAL (409131111)

Dr. Erol Üçer Center for Advanced Studies in Music

Music Program

Thesis Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. E. Şirin ÖZGÜN TANIR

Thesis Co-Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Robert F. REIGLE

JUNE 2018

İSTANBUL TEKNİK ÜNİVERSİTESİ  SOSYAL BİLİMLER ENSTİTÜSÜ

TINLAYAN BEDEN: MÜZİK BİLGİSİNİN AKTARIMINDA

BEDENSELLEŞME SÜREÇLERİ – PROF. DR. V. BALAJI ÜZERİNE VAKA

İNCELEMESİ

YÜKSEK LİSANS TEZİ

Aslı BÜYÜKKÖKSAL (409131111)

Dr. Erol Üçer Müzik İleri Araştırmalar Merkezi

Müzik Yüksek Lisans Programı

Tez Danışmanı: Doç. Dr. E. Şirin ÖZGÜN TANIR Eş Danışman: Doç. Dr. Robert F. REIGLE

HAZİRAN 2018

Aslı Büyükköksal, a M.A. student of ITU Graduate School of.Arts and Social Sciences, student ID 409131111, successfully defended the thesis entitled “THE SINGING BODY: THE EMBODIMENT PROCESSES IN MUSICAL TRANSMISSION OF MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE – A CASE STUDY OF PROF. DR. V. BALAJI”, which she prepared after fulfilling the requirements specified in the associated legislations, before the jury whose signatures are below.

Thesis Advisor : Assoc. Prof. E. Şirin Özgün ...... İstanbul Technical University

Thesis Co-Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Robert Reigle ...... İstanbul Technical University

Jury Members : Assoc. Prof. Jerfi Aji ...... İstanbul Technical University

Asst. Prof. U. Ulaş Özdemir ...... İstanbul University

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Belma Kurtişoğlu ...... İstanbul Technical University

Date of Submission : 4 May 2018 Date of Defense : 7 June 2018

FOREWORD

My gratitude goes to all who helped me during the course of preparation, conducting, and writing phases of this thesis by their active contribution, material and psychological help, and/or just by their supportive presence.

First of all, without my guru, Prof. Dr. V. Balaji, this work would not be possible. His mastery in music and teaching gave me endless inspiration in music and his generosity, understanding, and offerings made this work to come alive. I thank to mataji, Dr. V. Balaji’s wife, Shanti Balaji, for having my husband and me in the intimacy of their house and taking care of us sincerely. I owe special thanks to their daughter Bhairavi Balaji, who kindly read my thesis and suggested the necessary corrections in a very short time. I present my best wishes for all the family of Prof. Dr. V. Balaji.

I would like to give a special thanks to my husband Ertuğrul Küçükbayraktar, for being the strong supporter under hardest conditions both in India and in Turkey, enduring the changes and intensity in our shared daily life, and acting out with love.

Throughout our journey in India, so many knowledgeable, wise and nice people helped us to find our way. I must say that I’m impressed by the open-heartedness of the people we encountered. Dear Sheetal Sanghvi, Drupad and Neeraj Mistry, Derya Albayrak, Roy Novick, Syed Salman Chisty, Aparajita Tomer and her husband, Akshay Chadha and Güldeste Mamaç opened our way. I thank to Sukhdev Prasad Mishra who introduced the style of Indian violin to me and treated us with dearest hospitality. I owe a special thanks to Shubha Chaudhuri who was generously spending time with me discussing my thesis, trying to connect me to key people. Additionally, the warm-hearted crew in AIIS Archives and Research Center in Gurugram, Haryana did their best to provide me the material for my thesis.

My advisor, Şirin Özgün Tanır, guided me through the intricate paths of social science research with her keen understanding, clear suggestions, and calm presence. I’m happy that I had the chance to work with her.

My co-advisor Robert Reigle supported me all through my graduate years and has always been kind, generous, and encouraging regardless of the conditions. I especially thank him for asking me repeatedly the important question of what is my genuine interest in research.

I owe special thanks to the jury members Belma Kurtişoğlu, Ulaş Özdemir, and Jerfi Aji for showing their sincere interests in my research and giving valuable suggestions to make it complete.

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Özlem Gürkan, being the most positive and smiling librarian on earth, helped me all through my graduate years, too. Robert O. Beahrs shared kindly his knowledge about the embodiment literature and about the research process with me.

I thank all of the interviewees, namely, Perrine Vincent, Gabriele Politi, Arnaud Bourdonnay, and Mari-Line Aubry, for giving their valuable time. Especially, Perrine Vincent inspired me about the focus on embodiment in my thesis.

I would like to thank the scholars in the SEM list for sharing generously their knowledge, including Martin Clayton, Byron Dueck, Richard K. Wolf, Matthew Rahaim, Tomie Hahn, Bruno Deschênes, Caroline Bithell, Rolf Groesbeck, Bernd Brabec de Mori, Jerome Camal, Colin P. McGuire, Melanie Pinkert, Davindar Singh, CedarBough T. Saeji, Lisa Gold, Kim Carter Munoz, Sydney Hutchinson, Esther Kurtz, Justin Scarimbolo, Lois Ann M. Anderson and Grace Toland.

Aslı Bala Aşkan and Merve Aykaç Sönmez were present in the key moments when I felt desperate and kindly helped me out in technical and intangible issues. My dear friends in the department inspired me to continue with my studies. Oğul Köker has been a big help about my jury members and many other details.

My dear soul sisters, Seda Seyrek, Yarden Cohen, Ezgi İçöz, Zainab Lax, Hande Başaran, Melike Doğan, Alaleh Sayedahmadi, and Burcu Kındır generously gave me strength, logistic and psychological support to finalize this project. Sine Boran Art and Olcayto Art helped me out when I was caught in a “writer’s block”.

I owe special thanks to Sinan Erdemsel, a master in playing and teaching of Turkish maqam music, who supported me throughout my music life. In addition, Prof. Dr. Sibel Kalaycıoğlu from METU and Sinan Erdemsel had given their references so that I was able to be in the music program.

Finally, I would like to express my everlasting gratitude to my parents, Gülden and Nejat Büyükköksal. With their beautiful presence, they have been giving me the support, opportunity and love to be who I am ever since we have been together.

May 2018 Aslı BÜYÜKKÖKSAL Musician

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS...... ix LIST OF FIGURES ...... xi LIST OF TABLES ...... xiii SUMMARY ...... xv ÖZET...... xvii 1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1 Purpose of the Thesis ...... 1 1.2 Motivation ...... 3 1.3 Methodology ...... 4 1.3.1 Doing ethnography as a disciple ...... 4 1.3.2 The autoethnographical approach ...... 6 1.3.3 Interviews ...... 7 1.4 Literature Review ...... 9 1.4.1 Embodiment ...... 10 1.4.2 Spiritual/religious setting ...... 21 1.5 Overview ...... 23 2. THE GURU-SHISHYA RELATIONSHIP ...... 25 2.1 Introduction ...... 25 2.2 The ‘Lesson’ ...... 26 2.2.1 The setting ...... 26 2.2.2 First part ...... 29 2.2.3 Second part...... 33 3. TEACHING METHODOLOGY ...... 35 3.1 The Technical Transmission ...... 36 3.1.1 Technical exercises ...... 36 3.1.2 Linking the exercises to the performance-related material ...... 36 3.1.3 ‘First the movement!’ ...... 37 3.1.4 Rote repetition ...... 39 3.1.5 ‘You can’t change the teacher!’ ...... 40 3.1.6 The language ...... 43 3.1.7 Notation/textbook ...... 47 3.2 Immersion In Music ...... 49 3.2.1 Cyclicity ...... 51 3.2.2 ‘Take your violin in hand, don’t stop, work!’ ...... 53 3.2.3 Focus on music ...... 55 3.2.4 Riaz ...... 58 3.2.5 The drone ...... 61 4. PEDAGOGY...... 65 4.1 ‘You Know Friends Kick Each Other. It’s Like a Friendship.’ ...... 66 4.2 ‘Try, Do the Mistake!’ ...... 67 4.3 Attentiveness ...... 68

5. THE SPIRITUALITY – THE SPIRITUAL/RELIGIOUS SETTING ...... 71 5.1 Dr. Balaji’s Teaching in Relation to Hinduism and Sufism ...... 72 5.2 An Autoethnographical Approach ...... 80 6. THE ENGAGEMENT - SOCIO-CULTURAL SETTING ...... 91 6.1 Dedication and Submission ...... 91 6.2 The Transmission of Ethics ...... 96 7. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 99 7.1 A Brief Summary……………………………………………………………..99 7.2 Preservation, Memorialization, and Mediation ……………………………..102 7.3 The Consent Process and Dialogic Editing………………………………….105 7.4 The Research Question and Answers...... 107 7.5 Recommendations For Future Research...... 109 REFERENCES ...... 111 APPENDICES ...... 115 APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY …………………………………..……………….116 APPENDIX B: PHOTOGRAPHS…………...………………………………….119 APPENDIX C: CURRICULUM VITAE OF DR. BALAJI…...…………...…...123 APPENDIX D: BIO DATA OF V. K. VENKATARAMANUJAM……………127 APPENDIX E: CONTENT OF THE CDS……..……………………………….128 CURRICULUM VITAE ...... 129

x LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Map of South Asia……………………………………………………..26 Figure 2.2: Map of North India...... 27 Figure 2.3: Dr. Balaji, playing the Rajam Bela…………………………………….32 Figure 3.1: An example page from the notebook of Dr. Balaji...... 48 Figure 3.2: The first page of Dr. Balaji’s textbook...... 48 Figure 3.3: The music room in Dr. Balaji’s house...... 58 Figure 3.4: The tanpura machine...... 62 Figure 5.1: The picture of Dr. V. K. Venkataramanujam...... 76 Figure 5.2: The picture of N. Rajam...... 76 Figure 5.3: The blessing and gifts by Dr. V. Balaji...... 90 Figure 6.1: The picture of a plate, presented to Dr. Balaji...... 94 Figure B.1: The Saraswati statue...... 119 Figure B.2: Dr. V. Balaji in his room in BHU...... 119 Figure B.3: Three generations playing together...... 119 Figure B.4: Dr. V. Balaji’s daughter; Bhairavi Balaji...... 120 Figure B.5: Dr. V. K. Venkataramanujam playing with Dr. V. Balaji...... 120 Figure B.6: Dr. V. K. Venkataramanujam together with Ravi Shankar...... 120 Figure B.7: Dr. V. Balaji with some of his family members...... 121 Figure B.8: Dr. V. Balaji playing with his son; B. Anantha Raman...... 121 Figure B.9: The award of “Doyen of the Music World”...... 121 Figure B.10: Picture of a statue of Lord Balaji...... 122 Figure B.11: The statue of Lord Shiva...... 122 Figure B.12: A painting of Lord Hanuman...... 122 Figure C.1: Rajam Bela...... 125 Figure C.2: Malviya Bela...... 125 Figure C.3: Bala Bela...... 126 Figure C.4: Triveni Bela...... 126

xii LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Transcription of the first exercise...... 30 Table 2.2 Transcription of the second exercise...... 31 Table 2.3 Transcription of the exercise in raga Bhairavi...... 33

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xiv THE SINGING BODY: THE EMBODIMENT PROCESSES IN THE TRANSMISSION OF MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE – A CASE STUDY OF PROF. DR. V. BALAJI

SUMMARY

This thesis explores the embodiment processes I have experienced during my study period of violin with Dr. V. Balaji, in Varanasi, India. I investigate the mechanisms, ideas, and belief systems through which the embodiment of musical ideas occurred in my experience. I investigate the issue through examining his teaching methodology, pedagogical approach, the spiritual/religious setting in Dr. V. Balaji’s space, and the mutual engagement by both the teacher and the student. It is designed as a case study about one of the reputable violin players and teachers, Prof. Dr. V. Balaji, living in Varanasi and teaching as a professor of violin in Banaras Hindu University. As a player having legacy in both styles of Indian classical music; namely North and South Indian—Hindustani and Carnatic—music, and as a teacher standing in both systems of university and guru-shishya parampara (master-disciple tradition), he occupies an interesting intersection point representing the up-to-date aspects of transmission of musical knowledge. I focus on the phenomenon by taking my personal experience as the starting point, looking closely at the mechanisms and processes at work in the transmission of musical knowledge by Dr. V. Balaji, and presenting it in relation to the larger Indian context, in dialogue with the literature about the concept of embodiment and the researches about the spiritual/religious aspects of music in India. In the scope of the thesis, I define embodiment as ‘being in the space of Dr. V. Balaji’, in relation to the spiritual/religious setting and the sociocultural context, the bodily changes I experienced that took place mostly "without being an object of conscious pedagogical attention" (Weidman, 2012, p. 219), and the methodological and pedagogical approach of Dr. Balaji in this sense. I look at the processes, which brought my experience further than having a mere technical

xv learning period to the profound changes in my body and mind. My scope as a case study necessitates the use of self-reflexivity and auto-ethnography. Reviewing the valuable works about Asian music and embodiment until now, with this research, I hope to fill the gap of an elaborate up-to-date study focusing on the transmission of musical knowledge as a case study with an embodiment approach.

xvi TINLAYAN BEDEN: MÜZİK BİLGİSİNİN AKTARIMINDA BEDENSELLEŞME SÜREÇLERİ – PROF. DR. V. BALAJI ÜZERİNE VAKA İNCELEMESİ

ÖZET

Bu tezin amacı, Hindistan’ın Varanasi şehrinde Prof. Dr. V. Balaji’yle geçirdiğim keman üzerine öğrenimi esas alarak, müzik aktarımında bedenselleşme süreçlerini incelemektir. Hint Klasik Müziği öğretimi, üniversitelerin kurumsal yapısının son yüzyılda etkisini arttırmış olmasına rağmen esas ve geleneksel olarak hocanın evinde gerçekleşir. Yüzyıllardan beri geçerli olan bu sisteme Hindu geleneğinde guru-şişya, Müslüman geleneğinde üstad-şakir sistemi denmektedir. Sözel aktarım özellikleri açısından Türkiye coğrafyasında özellikle Cumhuriyet öncesi dönemde hakim olan, şimdi kaybolmaya yüz tutmuş usta-çırak sistemiyle benzerlikler göstermektedir. Bu sistem, Hint Klasik Müziği’ni icra eden ve aktaranların modern dünyanın koşulları altında geliştirdikleri adaptasyon ve hayatta kalma stratejileriyle bugüne kadar gelmiştir; üniversite ve çeşitli müzik okullarının yanında geçerliliğini korumaktadır. Prof. Dr. V. Balaji hem bu geleneğin guru sıfatıyla taşıyıcısı hem de Banaras Hindu Üniversitesi’nde keman profesörü olarak iki akımın kesiştiği bir noktada ilginç bir rol oynamaktadır. Kendisi V. K. V. Parampara geleneğinden gelmekte, hem üniversitede ders vermekte hem de şişya tabir edilen ‘çırak’larını (öğrencilerini) evinde verdiği derslerle yetiştirmektedir. Guru-şişya sistemindeki müzikal bilginin aktarım süreçlerine baktığımızda sözel aktarım geleneğinin özellikleri yanında bedenselleşme süreçlerinin önemli bir rol oynadığını görmekteyiz. Öğretim teknikleri, pedagojik özellikler, ruhani / dini arka plan ve sosyo-kültürel özelliklerin birleşimiyle bedenselleşme süreçleri, müzikal ifadenin aktarımında önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Bedenselleşme çeşitli yollarla gerçekleşmektedir. İlk olarak, öğretim tekniklerinde içkin olan, teknik etütler ve kompozisyon dahil tüm müzikal materyalin notaya bağlı kalınmadan aktarılmasındaki kulaktan tekrar ve taklit tekniği bedenselleşmenin gerçekleşmesinde önemli bir etkendir. Geleneksel müziklerin sözel aktarımında dünyada yaygın olan bu teknik, Hint müziğinde doğaçlamanın da bu yolla öğretilmesi nedeniyle bedenselleşme süreçlerine önemli bir alan açmaktadır. Tekniğin öğretiminde öne çıkan diğer bir özellik, Klasik Batı

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Müziği’nin tersine özellikle sol elin hareket serbestliğine öncelik vermesidir. Hint müziği tavrında süslemeler, müziğin melodik yapısında belirleyici bir özelliğe sahiptir. Hint müziği keman öğrenimi ve çalımında klavye üzerinde standart yerleri olan pozisyonlar belirtilmemektedir. Süslemeler, kaydırma ve notayı titretme üzerine yoğunlaştığı için sol elin hareketinin akıcı olması büyük önem taşımaktadır. Hatta bunu sağlamak için müzisyenler parmaklarına çeşitli yağlar sürmektedir. Bu hareketin ustadan çırağa aktarımında bizzat ustanın bedensel hareketlerini içselleştirme süreçleri etkindir. İkinci olarak, müziğin içine girme olarak nitelendirebileceğimiz bir süreç, öğretim tekniğinin yapı taşlarından biridir. Klasik Hint Müziği’nde zamanın dairesel algılanması, dersler sırasında sözel olmayan bir ortamda aktarımın kesintisizliği ve sürekliliği, ustanın da hayat tarzıyla vurguladığı, hayatın merkezine müziğin alınması, devamlı dem sesi veren ve yüksek titreşimli, doğuşkanlar açısından zengin tanpura enstrümanının kullanımı, ve riaz olarak adlandırılan etüt pratiğinin talepkâr bir süreç olması bedenselleşme sürecini ortaya çıkartan etkenlerdendir. Üçüncü olarak Klasik Hint Müziği’ndeki pedagojik özellikler bedenselleşmenin önünü açmaktadır. Ustanın daimi olarak öğrenciyi sınırlarını zorlamaya teşvik etmesi, beraber geçirilen uzun saatlerde dikkatinin öğrenci üzerinde olması, ve öğrenciyle otoriter bir figür olarak ilişki kurması bunlardan üçüdür. Dördüncü olarak, ruhani / dini arka plan bedenselleşme süreçlerine alan açmaktadır. Ruhani / dini öğeler Klasik Hint müziğinin vurgulanan önemli bir özelliğidir. M.Ö. 1100’e dayanan felsefi altyapısıyla Klasik Hint müziği, icracıyı ilahi gücün dünyevi olanla iletişiminde bir aracı olarak görmektedir. Bu özellik, Hindu ve Müslüman müzisyenlerde ortaktır. Müzisyenin benliğinin ön plana çıkarılmasından ziyade gurunun temsil ettiği geleneğin nesiller üzerinden aktarımı söz konusudur. Bu noktada müzikal bilginin aktarımında bedenselleşme süreçleri birincil önem kazanmaktadır.

Son olarak, usta ile yüz yüze geçirilen uzun saatler sırasında müzikal ifadenin öğrenimi, ustanın bedeninin duruşu, hareketleri, ve duygusunun ilk başlarda bilinçli, daha gelişmiş öğrenim seviyelerinde bilinç tarafından analiz edilmeden taklidi, ya da edinilmesi yoluyla meydana gelmektedir. Önemli bir etken, Hint Klasik Müziği öğreniminde önemli yapıtaşlarından biri olan, ustayla kurulan neredeyse ailesel ilişkidir. Bir usta öğrenciyi çırağı olarak kabul ederse, kendisini onun babası/annesi olarak ilan etmektedir. Bu ustanın öğrencinin hayatında ne kadar önemli bir yerde olduğunun göstergelerinden biridir. Çırak / öğrenci ustayla sadece ders saatlerini değil, gündelik ve/veya ruhani hayatın pek çok alanını da paylaşmaktadır. Tüm varoluşunun müzikal olduğu kabul gören ustayla geçirilen zamanda aktarımın devam

xviii ettiği düşünülmektedir. Usta, öğrencisini sadece müzikal olarak değil, ahlak, özellikle de bir sanatçının sahip olması gereken ahlak açısından da eğitmektedir. Müzikal bilginin aktarımında bedensel süreçler yukarda saydığım bu etkenlerle meydana gelmektedir. Bu tez, bedenselleşme süreçlerinin derinlemesine bir incelemesini kendi öğrenim sürecimden yola çıkarak, Prof. Dr. V. Balaji üzerine bir vaka incelemesi çerçevesinde müziğin ruhani / dini arka planı üzerine araştırmalar, Klasik Hint Müziği ve bedenselleşme teorilerinden oluşan bir iskelete oturtarak yapmaktadır.

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xx 1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Purpose of the Thesis

With a good master, one’s overall musical sensitivity deepens, which becomes applicable to any music style. With guruji1 [master], the emotionally intense situation I experience and the high musical energy I am exposed to result in that I gradually become able to understand the music from deep inside of myself; nearly a visceral feeling. This intense exposure and the unique situation that the master practices (does riaz) with the student are first time experiences for me. Guruji’s states while singing, teaching us rhythm, and playing the violin remain with me long after the lessons, even entering my dreams occasionally. (Field diary, 23 December 2017, Varanasi)

One of the things I try to do is to see myself as an extension of the master. To be able to imitate him hundred percent, I try to empty my mind, feel like a blank page, and be transparent. If I accomplish to do this, these moments I observe an intense skill and understanding transfer from the master to my whole body, through my fingers, posture, and arms especially. (Field diary, 27 December 2017, Varanasi)

This thesis explores the embodiment processes I have experienced during my study period of violin with Dr. V. Balaji. I investigate the mechanisms, ideas, and belief systems through which the embodiment of musical ideas occurred in my experience. I explore this issue through examining his teaching methodology, pedagogical approach, the spiritual/religious setting in Dr. V. Balaji’s space, and the mutual engagement of both the teacher and the student in the learning process. It is designed as a case study about one of the reputable violin players and teachers, Prof. Dr. V. Balaji, living in Varanasi and teaching as a violin professor in Banaras Hindu University. As a player having legacy in both styles of Indian classical music; namely North and South Indian music, and as a teacher standing in both systems of university and guru-shishya parampara (master-disciple tradition), he occupies an interesting intersection point demonstrating up-to-date aspects of transmission of musical knowledge (for detailed information about Dr. V. Balaji’s achievements, see

1 The first time common Indian terms appear they will be italicized. Either they will be defined in the text, or they can be looked up in the glossary (Appendix A: Glossary). Thereafter, they will appear without italics. 1

Appendix C). I focus on the phenomenon of embodiment by taking my personal experience as the starting point, looking closely at the mechanisms and processes at work in the transmission of musical knowledge by V. Balaji, and presenting it in relation to the larger Indian context, in dialogue with the literature about the concept of embodiment and the spiritual/religious aspects of music in India.

In the scope of the thesis, I define embodiment as ‘the coming into existence of musical ideas in the student’s body through the mechanisms at work in the transmission of musical knowledge’. I explore the bodily changes I experienced that took place mostly "without being an object of conscious pedagogical attention" (Weidman, 2012, p. 219) in relation to the spiritual/religious setting and the sociocultural context. Furthermore, I analyze the methodological and pedagogical approach of Dr. Balaji in this sense. Throughout the thesis, I look at the processes, which brought my experience further than having a mere technical learning period to the profound changes in my “body-mind” (Rahaim, 2012). The musical ideas consist of the technical exercises, the rendition of ragas, the rhythmical understanding in Indian music, and the vocal and instrumental rendering of compositions and improvisations. I argue that the transmission of these musical ideas from Dr. Balaji to me occurred mainly through my ‘being in the space of Dr. V. Balaji’, referring to Csordas’ (1993) concept of defining embodiment as “being-in-the-world” from a phenomenological point of view.

Reviewing the valuable works about Asian music and embodiment until now, with my research I hope to fill the gap of an elaborate up-to-date study focusing on the transmission of musical knowledge as a case study with an embodiment approach.

The questions that triggered my research process are: How did the embodiment happen? Which techniques and pedagogical tools my guru used to accomplish the musical and socio-cultural states I experienced? What was the contribution of my background and work in that? How was my connection with the guru established? What were the factors that prepared the space for embodiment? Which processes were at work to accomplish this change in the state of my body-mind? I will look at these questions in the light of the theoretical background provided by the literature about embodiment, Indian classical music and pedagogy, the spiritual/religious elements in Indian philosophy and musicology, my fieldwork conducted during our

2 study period with Dr. V. Balaji, and the interviews I made with his former foreign students/disciples.

My research question is:

What are the aspects of embodiment in the transmission process of musical knowledge by Prof. Dr. V. Balaji?

The sub-questions are:

How are the relations of the teaching methodology, the pedagogical tools, the spiritual/religious, and the socio-cultural settings to the embodiment process?

1.2 Motivation

My motivation to conduct this research project is related to my wish to learn Indian music in its own sociocultural context. Not having attended a formal music school, I learned to play the violin in varying settings, both in Western and traditional music contexts. To summarize, I started as a student of a western classical teacher and as a performer in a western classical orchestra, moved to learning various folk musics; such as, Balkan and Klezmer by ear without a formal instructor, then moved to maqam music in Turkey, which can be described as a mix of both, namely, a strong reinforcement of oral transmission techniques accompanied by various instructors. In maqam music education in Turkey, the authority of the conservatory has long replaced the deep-rooted tradition of master-disciple but this tradition is frequently mentioned, idealized and referred to as the core technique to learn maqam music and described in a highly romanticized way. Apart from my long time interest in Indian music, I was attracted to master-disciple relationship in particular. As my quest for an alternative methodology and pedagogy of teaching and learning continued, I started to gain more knowledge about the guru-shishya—or ustad-shagird in the Muslim context—relationship in Indian context which resulted in a journey to India, with the motivation to experience it first-hand to be able to explore its qualities. My study period with Dr. V. Balaji in India revealed the inherent embodiment processes in the teaching of Indian classical music and was emphasized by one of his former students, Perrine Vincent, in the interviews with her over Skype, Internet. Finally, the embodiment processes in transmission of musical knowledge as a case study of Dr. V. Balaji formed the focus in this thesis.

1.3 Methodology

This research is based on the fieldwork conducted in Varanasi, India throughout my study period with Dr. V. Balaji and the interviews I have made with four of his former foreign students via Internet. This period encompasses not only the durations of our lessons but the whole time we spent together; namely, our long conversations about music and life, having meals together with his wife and his disciples, listening to music, watching the videos or the film Apap Masala (2002) by Gilles Apap in which Dr. V. Balaji appears as one of the featured musicians, visiting the Banaras Hindu university where he teaches, and spending time in his workshop where he builds his self-designed violins, and even playing one time an iPad game together.

The definition of field research by Goffman (1989) corresponds to my focus on embodiment:

Subjecting yourself, your own body and your own personality, and your own social situation, to the set of contingencies that play upon a set of individuals, so that you can physically and ecologically penetrate their circle of response to their social situation, or their work situation, or the ethnic situation. (1989, as cited in Emerson et al., 1995)

The methods I used in the fieldwork are the participant-observation, the audio and video recordings of our lessons, and the interviews I have made with Dr. V. Balaji. Writing the thesis, I made extensive use of the fieldnotes and a diary I kept during the one-and-a-half-month period, which helped me to build an autoethnographical approach in the course of writing.

In addition, I have made the journey to India together with my husband Ertuğrul, him being a musician as well, so that we both became students of Dr. V. Balaji and he was included in fieldwork setting. That is also the reason why I use we and I alternately in the coming chapters.

1.3.1 Doing ethnography as a disciple

My study period with Dr. Balaji can still be defined in guru-shishya system, which roughly translates as master-disciple system to English, although we could stay only short time in Varanasi and there were also distinct characteristics than the traditional bond present in our relationship. Different than a fieldwork setting, where the researcher has to define her identity and/or role in a new environment, my identity was clear from the first day on, as I e-mailed Dr. Balaji before, explaining him that in

4 order to realize my research project, I wished to take violin lessons from him. Dr. Balaji accepted Ertuğrul and me as his students provided a fixed tuition. In the traditional sense, discipleship carries the meaning of a life-long bond and the disciple is dependent on the master not only musically but financially as well, which is a very rare situation now in contemporary India. Still, our relationship revealed the other features of guru-shishya institution that it demanded the devotion, dedication, and discipline from both parties. Qureshi (2009) talks about her experience of learning sarangi with Ustad Sabri Khan as “discipular ethnography”, saying “the discipular way of learning a music culture marks ethnomusicology as an inclusive cross- cultural practice because it counterposes the student's submission to scholar's entitlement to know” (Qureshi, 2009, p. 168). I had a parallel experience of trying to incorporate these two stances in my fieldwork. Dr. Balaji was a verbal person, he liked to converse, tell stories, and make explanations about the theory of music. Though when we were actually playing, the nonverbality was dominant and my questions were out of the role of the shishya, who should traditionally submit to the process and follow the guru. My scholarly questions acted like interruptions in the transmission as well. Gradually, I tried to find a balance and reserved my questions when he himself opened up the verbal space.

Weidman (2012) suggest the concept of “ethnographic apprenticeship” instead of participant observation, where the “nonverbal channels” are at work and not necessarily the verbal explanations of an informant, saying “Apprentices learn by imitation or “body-modeling”: watching, and oftentimes feeling, how their master’s body engages in the task at hand” (Weidman, 2012, p. 217). She argues the emphasis on sight in participant observation technique falls short of understanding the apprenticeship process in its all aspects. She points out that her argument is not only about physicality and quotes Bryant (2005), saying: “Apprenticeship, although it may work through the gradual acquisition of unarticulated bodily-sensorial knowledge, is a deliberate process of self-making that entails becoming a person embedded in a hierarchy of values” (2005, as cited in Weidman, 2012, p. 217). Her suggestion of ethnographic apprenticeship corresponds to my state in the fieldwork where also the other senses were at work apart from sight and a bodily attention was required along with the visual and cognitive ones. In addition, there were both explicit and implicit conveying of socio-cultural meanings and ethical concerns

5 through the explanations and presence of the guru, placed in an omnipresent spiritual/religious setting, which was an actor itself in the embodiment processes.

1.3.2 The autoethnographical approach

As my research topic is about the profound changes in the states of my body-mind and the underlying processes, which caused the embodiment of musical ideas, I utilized autoethnographical writing in interpretation of the fieldnotes and in making sense of the processes in our relationship with Dr. V. Balaji. The phenomenological nature of the research necessitated the use of self-reflexivity and autoethnography, so that they became useful tools in order to make meaningful interpretations of my experience during and after the fieldwork.

My fieldnotes already contained self-reflexive passages where I investigated my learning process, the effective methods that I discovered during the course of practice and the lessons, which were also implied by Dr. Balaji, and the impressions of our meetings. In addition, I kept a diary, where I felt free to write about the living conditions in Varanasi, the impressions of the life on the street, and the stages of my evolving relationship with the guru. According to Cooley (1997), “By creating a reflexive image of ourselves as ethnographers and the nature of our “being-in-the- world”, we believe we stand to achieve better intercultural understanding as we begin to recognize our shadows among those we strive to understand” (Cooley, 1997, p. 4). Kisliuk (1997) states in a parallel fashion that the shift of emphasis on experience brought the ethnomusicologists to a “reflexive, nonobjectivist scholarship” (Kisliuk, 1997, p. 23) Furthermore, she states:

In any role or profession, in order to act upon the world we need to continually re-express our identities; we get to know other people by making ourselves known to them, and through them to know ourselves again, in a continuous cycle. (Kisliuk, 1997, p. 27)

Cooley (1997) argues that the reflexivity changes “two related aspects of our ethnomusicological heritage” (Cooley, 1997, p. 16) and quotes Clifford (1986b): “First, it works to redress colonial ethnography, that positions the ethnographer outside the culture in an Archimedian [Archimedean] vantage point … Second, reflexive ethnography rejects the science paradigm that conceives of human culture as objectively observable” (1986b, as cited in Cooley, 1997, p. 16-17).

6 Ellis et al. state, citing Ellis (2004) and Holman Jones (2005): “Autoethnography is an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze (graphy) personal experience (auto) in order to understand cultural experience (ethno)” (as cited in Ellis et al., 2011, p. 273]. The self-reflexive writing method during the fieldwork helped me to realize the milestones in my learning period, the changes I observed in my playing the violin and myself overall. To analyze these in relation to my socio-cultural and musical background, including my cultural and musical patterns from previous experiences provided me a clearer understanding about the nature of my relationship to Dr. Balaji. Which motivations brought me to learn Indian music in India? How were my previous experiences of learning music and how do they affect the ongoing learning process? Which relation do I have to the spiritual/religious setting and how it is affected by my belief systems? Dunbar-Hall (2010) in his article about his reflections on learning music in Bali states:

… it [autoethnography] exposes one’s insecurities, forces questioning of assumptions, and requires re-assessment of ways of thinking and believing. For me it created large amounts of knowledge to be learnt and assimilated, not only about music, but also about pedagogy, music as cultural practice, research, and personal interaction. (Dunbar-Hall, 2010, p. 154)

While writing the thesis, looking at the personal turning points in my study period placed beside the deciphered recordings of the conversations and the lessons with Dr. Balaji revealing his acts and views on music, and the interviews with his former students gave me a better insight of which underlying mechanisms, belief and ideational systems were at work, both on a personal and socio-cultural level. I used autobiographical information to provide background for the reader and myself, layered accounts to make sense of the data and literature provided, personal narratives and thick description for the sake of a lively description of experiences.

1.3.3 Interviews

In the course of the fieldwork, I conducted various audio and video interviews with Dr. Balaji. The audio interviews were where I asked questions about his experiences in and thoughts on teaching. In the video interviews, his self-designed and self-made violins, his workshop and his collection of instruments were documented. Although he was very willing to document his violins and his work as a maker, he had been hesitant to do the audio interview where I would ask him questions, still, he accepted to do that, too. Looking back to his hesitation, I realized two important ‘mistakes’ I made in the process. First, Dr. Balaji’s and my thought patterns worked differently.

As I had explicit goals in my mind, he liked to integrate stories in his talking, being swept away to the mood of the story in an associative way and maybe returning to the point I had asked about in the particular question. Though when he wanted to make a point himself, he was definitely hitting that point. Finally, the interview concept was not very meaningful in his universe and I decided to gather the information I needed during the course of our regular conversations. Second, the understanding of what an interview is turned out to be culture-specific. Although I summarized him the topic of the interview as his experiences of teaching, he was suspicious that it was like a test about the limits of his musical knowledge. While I had the expectation of having a conversation-like communication, he saw it like an interrogation. In this case, I should have given him the questions in print or told him beforehand. Both shortcomings were in my responsibility to realize, which I remarked as that the culture blindness is a trap one should be aware of in every step of the research.

I had better results from the interviews done with his former foreign students over Skype and e-mail. I could reach four of his students; Gabriele Politi from Italy, Perrine Vincent, Arnoud Bourdonnay, and Marie-Line Aubry from France. Dr. Balaji kept a diary where his students would write their impressions and contact details after their study periods. As I asked how I could contact his former students, he shared this diary with me and gave his reference. All of the interviewees were violinists and they had various backgrounds of learning and playing, varying from classical training to traditional musics.

My interview questions were:

1. Would you please introduce yourself?

2. How would you name your relationship with music; i.e. professional, amateur, music lover, other than that?

3. What were your motivations to travel India to learn music?

4. How did your perception of music and playing change after your travel?

5. What kind of teaching methods Dr. V. Balaji used?

6. How was your experience about his methods; the effects of the methods, your perception of them?

8 7. Can you make a short comparison with the music education you had before?

8. How would you describe the musical and cultural aspects of your study period with Dr. V. Balaji? Originating from different cultural and musical backgrounds, which kind of influences had your study period on you and on him?

Three interviewees preferred to answer via e-mail, whereas we had two Skype sessions with one interviewee from France, Perrine Vincent. The Skype interview turned to be more fruitful as the setting is closer to face-to-face interaction and makes in-depth conversation possible. Therefore, I refer mostly to the answers of Ms. Vincent in the main text, whereas I summarize the other interviewees’ answers at times.

1.4 Literature Review

The writings of music in India reach from the late Vedic times (c. 1100 BCE) until today. The researches on Indian music by the Western scholarship have just started compared to this vast accumulation of knowledge. Keeping this panorama in mind, the literature review moves along the focus of the thesis. Amanda Weidman (2012) refers to Bourdieu, saying, “it is in those things that remain unspoken that the most powerful lessons are embedded” (Weidman, 2012, p. 229). The mechanisms at work throughout the embodiment process happen in a non-articulated, unconscious, nonverbal level. Dard Neuman mentions this in the context of practice demands: “Hindustani music practice demands do not work to burn musical patterns into the mind (...) but rather onto the hands or throat” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 446). Moreover, the posture while playing, the enactment of the rituals, such as showing respect for the guru, nonverbality during playing, and the dress codes are some of the things that are not instructed explicitly. On the contrary, the student’s body is expected to adapt through ‘being in the space of the guru’. Here, nonverbality needs clarification as I use it as a concept. On the one hand, nonverbality implies simply not having talks, discussions, or even elaborate directions given by the teacher while playing. On the other hand, it encompasses the transmission of musical knowledge through nonverbal channels, such as directing the student with a blink of an eye, with an exaggeration of a bow movement, or clarifying student’s confusion by playing a musical phrase. Related to these, my goal in this thesis is to reveal the ‘unspoken’ in

9 the teaching of Dr. V. Balaji, which led me through the intricate ways to become a musician in Indian classical music context.

In this literature review, I discuss the two main components of the thesis, namely the concept of embodiment and the context for spiritual/religious setting of the transmission of musical knowledge in relation to the relevant literature.

1.4.1 Embodiment

As Clayton and Leante (2013) state, the embodiment concept is well established in the disciplines of cognitive science, philosophy and linguistics (Clayton and Leante, 2013, p. 188). There has been an ongoing discourse of embodiment in the disciplines of phenomenology, sociology, anthropology and ethnomusicology, too. One closely related example is the remarkable contribution of the discipline of somaesthetics, which was proposed as a subdiscipline of aesthetics by Richard Shusterman in 1999. Below is a rough definition:

Somaesthetics, roughly defined, concerns the body as a locus of sensory-aesthetic appreciation (aiesthesis) and creative self-fashioning. … It seeks to enhance the meaning, understanding, efficacy, and beauty of our movements and of the environments to which our movements contribute and from which they also draw their energies and significance. … Recognizing that body, mind, and culture are deeply codependent, somaesthetics comprises an interdisciplinary research program to integrate their study. (Shusterman, 2006, p. 2)

Besides valuable contributions in various disciplines, as the scope of the discourse is way beyond the scope of my thesis, I discuss the following approaches below, in relation to the issues I investigate in the next chapters. First, I look at the definitions of embodiment by discussing the works of three groundbreaking scholars cited by the prominent authors in the embodiment issue, namely, Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1962, 1964), Marcel Mauss (1973), and Pierre Bourdieu (1977, 1984). In this part, I discuss the issues of agency of the body, its centrality in our perception of the world, and the concept of habitus, proven to be one of the most useful concepts despite its various shortcomings. Second, I continue with the discussion of two main approaches in anthropology, namely, the semiotic/textual and the phenomenological/embodiment standpoints. At that point, I discuss the concept of being-in-the-world related to the scope of my thesis. Third, I will present the main questions in the fields of phenomenology, anthropology, and ethnomusicology, which are the body-mind-world unity, agency of the body, and embedded social

10 meanings in bodily practices. Furthermore, I discuss the former presented three questions in the frame of the ethnomusicologists’ works and present how the scholars deal with them.

When we look for definitions of embodiment, we encounter various suggestions developed in the disciplines of phenomenology, anthropology, and sociology. Merleau-Ponty is one of the first scholars in phenomenology who assigned the role of being the primary site to know the world to the body. Opposed to the Cartesian tradition of mind-body dualism, where the consciousness is defined as the source of knowledge, he discussed the unity of the consciousness, the world and the human body. Deschênes and Eguchi (2018) sum up Merleau-Ponty's view as that the body provides the mind with “what is necessary to make sense of what is experienced” (Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 63). Merleau-Ponty (1962) argued that the human body and that which it perceived are intricately intertwined: “We do not have a body; we are the body” (as cited in Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 63). As Csordas (1993) state:

For Merleau-Ponty, perception began in the body and, through reflective thinking, ends in objects. On the level of perception there is not yet a subject-object distinction–we are simply in the world. Merleau-Ponty proposed that analysis begin with the pre-objective act of perception rather than with already constituted objects. He recognized that perception was always embedded in a cultural world, such that the pre-objective in no way implies a “pre- cultural”. (1964, as cited in Csordas, 1993, p. 137)

According to Merleau-Ponty, the human body acts as the means by which the mind subjectively experiences a shared world. He proposes that it is not an object that thinks but an animate and living form that is shaped by experiences, hoping to reach equilibrium (1962, as cited in Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 63). Merleau-Ponty’s work remains important as it provided strong arguments about the unity of body and mind. Though Merleau-Ponty himself acknowledged that he didn’t put his theory into the socio-cultural and historical context. As it is recognized in social sciences, the phenomenon of culture wraps the perceptional and experiential processes of human life in every step. Without the cultural analysis, the arguments fall short of revealing the underlying mechanisms in the perception of the individuals as the members of societies.

At this point, Marcel Mauss’ (1973) work comes forward where he placed the embodiment in the context of sociology and anthropology. He argued that in order to develop an understanding of the facts about the bodily practices, we need to understand them from the viewpoints of physiology, psychology, and sociology: “We need a triple viewpoint, that of the 'total man' that is needed” (Mauss, 1973, p. 73). He talked about the techniques of the body as the “physio-psycho-sociological assemblages of series of actions” that are passed on through apprenticeship (Mauss, 1935, p. 85). Furthermore, he is the one who elaborated extensively on the concept of habitus and stated that the 'habits' “vary especially between societies, educations, proprieties and fashions, prestiges” (Mauss, 1973, p. 73).

Habitus has been a concept with a long history in social sciences. According to Bennett (2010), it is one of the key aspects in Max Weber’s (1864-1920) works. Mauss (1973) utilized it as a tool in his research on cultures of colonized peoples. Pierre Bourdieu (1977, 1984) made an influential move, expanded habitus’s definition, and put it into work in his analysis of the French society in 1960s. Tony Bennett (2010) states in the introduction to Bourdieu’s (1984) work Distinction:

The habitus, for Bourdieu, consists in the set of unifying principles which underlie such tastes and give them a particular social logic which derives from, while also organizing and articulating, the position which a particular group occupies in social space. But this, of course, is always a position that is relative to the positions occupied by other social groups. (Bourdieu, [1984] 2010, p. xix)

Bourdieu suggested that it consists of both the physical aspects like posture and accents, and mental aspects like schemes of perception (Bourdieu, 1977). These are determined by the socio-cultural and collective mechanisms “without going through discourse or consciousness” (Bourdieu, 1977, p. 87). He defined embodiment as “a process by which historically emergent and socially embedded practices are turned into “second nature’” (as cited in Weidman, 2012, p. 218). According to Weidman (2012), habitus is “a constellation of variously acquired habits and experiences that produces certain results while itself remaining unnoticed, invisible, and difficult to define or articulate” (Weidman, 2012, p. 229).

Although Bourdieu’s work had been certainly groundbreaking and continues to be influential in social sciences, the recognition of its shortcomings is important. In the overall schemata he built, the possible choices the individual would make, hardly

12 finds a place. Given the exceptions, the processes and mechanisms shaping the habitus in the society are seen as the ultimate structures where the free will or deliberate actions are rarely talked about. Bourdieu himself recognized this as the “dilemmas of determinism and freedom, conditioning and creativity” (as cited in Csordas, 1993, p. 152). Despite his main arguments’ call for a keen awareness of existing structures, the phenomena such as pioneering, innovation, and creativity present in social life are hardly revealed. Csordas (1993) claimed, “these are perhaps dualities he was too quick to collapse, however, unless the “conditioned and conditional freedom” of the habitus’s “endless capacity to engender products” includes capacity for its own transformation” (1997, Csordas, 1993, p. 152). Rahaim (2012) points out the same issue: “Bourdieu’s approach tends to focus on unconscious, coercive constraints on the body from above. He rather understates its dialectical counterpart: the deliberate choice of bodily discipline in accord with what one wants to be” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 118). Despite its shortcomings, habitus is one of the key concepts in my research on embodiment, too. Taking it as a concept to understand the underlying mechanisms that shaped my experience and the acquisition of the bodily dispositions, I added the aspect of volition in my research. Here I use the word volition referring to Rahaim (2012), where he underlines the volition of both master and disciple stepping on the path of mutual dedication and close bond. Related to this aspect, I chose deliberately to submit to the unconscious and invisible processes in the establishment of and participation in the habitus in Varanasi, India, in order to reveal and understand how the embodiment of musical ideas works in the context of teaching by Prof. Dr. V. Balaji.

In the next part, I discuss the two main standpoints in anthropological discourse and the concept of being-in-the-world, referring to Csordas, to contextualize the concept of embodiment.

As Winkler-Reid (2014) cites Mascia-Lees (2012) in her review of A Companion to the Anthropology of the Body and Embodiment, two insights have become central in the 'anthropology of the body'. The first one treats the body “as object or concept of study to be specified, or pluralized” (Winkler-Reid, 2014, 389). The second insight is relational and defines the stance of the body not separate from the “lived experiences” (Winkler-Reid, 2014, 389). The standpoint of the semiotic/textual

13 approach of the former is criticized by the phenomenological/embodiment standpoint of the latter, mainly because of the rejection of agency of the body in the world.

David Howes (2003) discusses this point by citing Michael Jackson (1983a), that “by taking what is done with the body as the touchstone of anthropological knowledge we can access that meaning in its integrity” (as cited in Howes, 2003, p. 50). Thomas Csordas (1993), on the other hand, elaborates on this point by presenting the problem of the two approaches as the semiotic/textual standpoint of the body as representation and the phenomenological/embodiment standpoint of the body as “being-in-the-world” (Csordas, 1993, p. 136). Csordas draws a distinction between the body and embodiment. He supports his argument on the analogy by Barthes (1986) who drew a distinction between the work and the text: “In parallel fashion, the body is a biological, material entity, while embodiment can be understood as an indeterminate methodological field defined by perceptual experience and the mode of presence and engagement in the world” (Csordas, 1993, p. 135). Csordas argues that both the semiotic and embodiment approaches should be taken as complementary and not mutually exclusive (Csordas, 1993, p. 136-137). Nevertheless, his argument of understanding embodiment through the concept of being-in-the-world remains strong; he acknowledged that his approach demonstrates a blurred conceptualization of the intersubjective milieu of bodily attention, which he describes as “attending to and with the body” (Csordas, 1993, p. 139). Stating that the act of attending is always culturally constituted, there is ambiguity in the categorization of different kinds of attention. In the scope of my thesis, I adapted the concept of being-in-the-world as ‘being in the space of the guru’, as the main tool through which the transmission of musical knowledge happened. The more I was informed of the bodily dispositions of Dr. V. Balaji and exposed to the elements in his space; such as, the centrality of music in designation of his daily life and the spiritual/religious acts inherent in the music and its transmission, the more fluid and transparent the transmission of musical ideas became. Michael Jackson (1989) describes it as the shared ground of bodies, where we are informed about our own bodies through others’ bodies:

To recognize the embodiedness of our being-in-the-world is to discover ground where self and other are one, for by using one's body in the same way in the same environment one finds oneself informed by an understanding then be interpreted according to one's own custom or bent, yet which remains grounded in a field of practical activity and thereby remains

14 consonant with the experience of those among whom one has lived. (1989, as cited in Csordas, 1993, p. 151)

Looking at the main questions in the literature of anthropological and phenomenological discourse about embodiment, we see that they revolve around the body-mind-world unity (the integration of sensational, visceral, kinesthetic and verbal layers of knowledge), the agency of the body, and the interpretation of embedded social meanings in bodily practices. In the part below, I look at these three questions through the works of scholars in the discipline of ethnomusicology.

What are the ethnomusicologists' perspectives on the three issues, namely the body- mind-world unity, agency of the body, and the embedded social meanings in the bodily practices? In the area of embodiment, particularly about the music of Asia, we encounter numerous scholars who elaborated on these issues. Among them, I refer to David Henderson (2009), Amanda Weidman (2012), Clayton and Leante (2013), Dard Neuman (2012), Tomie Hahn (2007), Bruno Deschênes and Yuko Eguchi (2018), and Matthew Rahaim (2012) for the sake of relevancy of their researches, discussions, and perspectives. They build their arguments predominantly on the phenomenological/embodiment standpoint of the body; obtain a relational stance, linking it to music scholarship. To address these three questions, scholars such as Henderson, Clayton and Leante take into account the physio-biological side and talk about the developments in neurology and cognition, on the other hand, scholars such as Weidman, D. A. Neuman and Rahaim make analysis in socio-cultural context and additionally, support/base their arguments on the concepts borrowed from the very traditions they study.

One of the important questions the scholars deal with is the mind-body dualism. This dualism as the heritage of Plato and Rene Descartes still continues to haunt the Western tradition of thought. Clayton and Leante (2013) refer to Raymond Gibbs (2005) to demonstrate how far the effects of the dualism worked into the perception in the Western thought:

[The] bifurcation of the person into mind and body has subsequently given rise to many other dualisms, including subjective as opposed to objective, knowledge as opposed to experience, reason as opposed to feeling, theory as opposed to practice, and verbal as opposed to nonverbal. Cartesianism has also led to the romantic view of the body as the last bastion of what is natural, unspoiled, preconceptual, and primitive in experience. Bodily movement is

viewed as behavior, with little relevance to language, thought, or consciousness, and not as meaningful action. (2005, as cited in Clayton and Leante, 2013, p. 189)

Opposed to this division, Gibbs (2005) argues that language and thought are direct products of “recurring patterns of embodied activity” and cognition shouldn’t be seen as “purely internal, symbolic, computational, and disembodied” (as cited in Clayton and Leante, 2013, p. 189). Linking it to musical performance, Clayton and Leante (2013) draw examples to singing, where we experience “a direct and embodied knowledge of the relationship between physical tension and musical pitch” through the vocal chords (Clayton and Leante, 2013, p. 195). David Henderson (2009) in his article about the Nepali drumming links the question of mind and body to sensations. He refers to Damasio's (1994) neurological work in that memory preserves not only what happened, but also the basic neural and chemical effects of what happened: “We know something makes “sense” in part because of how it feels” (Henderson, 2009, p. 187). Taking Damasio's hypothesis further, he suggests “in learning how to make musically sound decisions, one draws simultaneously on sensation, emotion, and reason” (Henderson, 2009, p. 187).

Tomie Hahn (2007) suggests that embodiment paves the way for self-understanding of the person: “Since we cannot engage solely our mind in life, it is through our body that the mind makes sense of the world” (2007, as cited in Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 66). Furthermore, she argues that as the dance movements become “natural, effortless, and spontaneous”, it leads to “self-freedom and self-realization” (2007, as cited in Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 66).

In the question of body-mind, Rahaim (2012) investigates the acting out of embodiment in the course of performance and the transmission of embodied musical knowledge through generations. In his book (2012) Musicking bodies: Gesture and voice in Hindustani music, we are introduced to two concepts: musicking body and paramparic body. The word musicking is actually first introduced by Christopher Small (1998) as “the present participle, or gerund, of the verb to music” and as a useful conceptual tool (Small, 1998, p. 9). He proposed a new definition for the verb to music: “To music is to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing or practicing, by providing material for performance (what is called composing), or by dancing” (Small, 1998, p. 9). Rahaim doesn’t really make use of the broad definition as proposed in Small but

16 confines the concept of musicking to the bodily dispositions and gestures related to the performance practice. He defines the musicking body “as the body that comes alive in the moment of musical performance” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 22). The chain of the teaching lineages carrying the musical knowledge through generations, reaching from the past to the present, is called parampara in the Indian music context (for Dr. Balaji’s predecessors and descendants in V. K. V. Parampara, see Appendix B, figures B.4, B.5, B.6, B.7, and B.8). Coming to the definition of paramparic body, it is “the disciplined disposition of a particular singer's musicking body, developed over many years of training and practice” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 22). According to Rahaim, these concepts cannot be reduced to the flesh-body as an object in the branch of biology but a knowledge accumulated through years of practice in the body. Furthermore, he examines the question of mind and body in the register of Hindi-Urdu language, elaborating on the concepts of dimagh and man, which are used relating to the musical performance practice.

Dimagh is located in the head, is the faculty that analyzes, conflates, distinguishes, and reproduces for evaluation. Man, by contrast, is typically located in the chest, receives and cultivates aesthetic impressions, imagines, and is the seat of more or less permanent effect, particularly enchantment and devotion. (Rahaim, 2012, p. 25)

In my thesis, I refer to the concept of gatra veena in a parallel fashion. Dr. V. Balaji brought it up in one of our conversations to point out that the human body is seen as the singing instrument of god as mentioned in the Vedas. The mind-body unity seems to be present already in the very traditions we study, in the Indian tradition of thought in this case, enacted through music, dance, and theater and articulated in the scriptures since ancient times. Referring to the definitions of dimagh and man, Rahaim comments that these and other “liminal body-mind” activities cannot be divided into mutually exhaustive categories of “subjective mental noumena” and “objective physiological phenomena” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 25-26). He points out that he could call the concept easily as the musicking body-mind: “Musicking, perhaps more than any other familiar activity, defies the handy distinctions between subject and object, mind and body, matters of concern and matters of fact” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 25- 26). Rahaim states that he tried to find a balance between the physical aspects of performance and the “musical metaphysics” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 25-26), which rely on the local descriptions, and experiences of the musical universe.

While Rahaim sets his goal for a balance of two approaches, Dard Neuman argues that the “creativity starts apart from a directing mind” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 427). His research is noteworthy in the sense to understand the underlying reasoning of traditional practice demands of Hindustani music. Though his approach to overcome the duality problem seems to be trapped in the use of the language at times. He tries to avoid this, by saying that his argument is not a positivist one about the neurological processes but an ethnographic one about the pedagogical practice:

That is, I am not suggesting that the cognitive process—or the brain—is inoperative in these preparatory exercises. I am instead suggesting that the cultural sense of the “I that thinks” is kept in check until the “thing that thinks”—the body instrument—is properly trained to direct musical ideas. (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 427)

Coming to the second main question about the agency of the body, we enter the discipline of phenomenology and the cultural analysis in context. One of the pioneering works about this issue in phenomenology is the Ways of the hand by Sudnow (1978). Henderson (2009) connects his arguments to Sudnow's work where he mentions the “sense of detachment” of his body that he experienced during his learning process of jazz piano (as cited in Henderson, 2009, p. 195). Sudnow states that his hands seemed to take over in the process, acting independently of the forced will of the brain. In his descriptions, the agency of the body is represented as independent of the mind’s control mechanisms. Although Sudnow made an important contribution to the phenomenological approach, he falls in the trap of the divisive language use by allocating keen edged different roles to body and mind. Henderson (2009) brought a more clear approach, saying, the bodily knowledge has a procedural nature “that is knowing how to do something rather than knowing something” as opposed to declarative knowledge (Henderson, 2009). He labels it as “thoughtless thought”, as in the quotation below:

My hands became more and more able to produce sounds seemingly on their own, without my having to pay attention to what they are doing. But clearly I must have been thinking about them in some way, and this chapter is in part an exploration of what my teachers did to inculcate in me this capacity of thoughtless thought. (Henderson, 2009, p. 185)

Another argument in the issue of body’s agency during transmission process is presented in Dard Neuman's (2012) work with the focus on the embodiment in pedagogy and creativity in Hindustani music. He referred to the Hindustani instrumentalists that they say “musical knowledge occurs when the fingers can see”

18 and supports his idea with quotations from masters, especially from his master Vilayat Khan, such as; “where the hand is moving should not be decided by you” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 438). Neuman stresses the body autonomy, distinct from the automaticity, where the hands “do not just move on their own according to habit; they rather walk and travel (chalan and barhat) into the spaces (jagah) of a rag with an independent agency” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 447).

Neuman proposes that there are three levels in the acquisition of this knowledge. First level is body habits or automaticity, where “the fingers move according to prescription without constant mental directive” (Neuman D. A., 2012). Second level moves into the category of body sight: learning to play without physically looking at the instrument. It is assumed that it just comes through practice. Third level body sight happens when “the fingers and/or throat learn to explore on their own” (Neuman D. A, 2012), meaning that the body gains agency.

Amanda Weidman (2012) argues in a parallel fashion, utilizing the Tamil-Sanskrit concept of gnanam in her work about the learning process of South Indian classical violin (Weidman, 2012, p. 221). Gnanam literally means “wisdom” or “knowledge”, practically defines the bodily disposition showing the mastery of the musician, and is often used by musicians in relation to musicianship. In South Indian classical music culture, the approach to musical competence is less about “willful agency” and more about “making oneself receptive through listening” (Weidman, 2012, p. 221). Weidman's teacher gave an example of a flutist with the habit of sleeping with an electronic sruti box turned on under his pillow. Therefore, gnanam is a bodily disposition to be invited to enter the body by preparing the bodily conditions so that it can be hosted.

In the arguments of Henderson, Rahaim, D. A. Neuman, and Weidman so far, the agency of the body is seen apart from deliberation and willfulness, due to unconscious and invisible processes that shape the body. In other words, that the body can gain agency, it is supposed to be exposed to and immersed in the repetitive bodily practices and in a way to be reserved from the detached perspective of mental activity about these practices. In the thesis, I look at the mechanisms, processes, and settings that make it possible, paving the way for embodiment of musical ideas.

The third predominant question in the embodiment literature is about the embedded socio-cultural meanings inherent in the bodily practices. Clayton and Leante (2013) refers to Barsalou et al. (2003) in the context of social dimensions of embodiment:

First, perceived social stimuli do not just produce cognitive states, they produce bodily states as well. Second, perceiving bodily states in others produces bodily mimicry in the self. Third, bodily states in the self produce affective states. Fourth, the compatibility of bodily and cognitive states modulates performance effectiveness. (2003, as cited in Clayton and Leante, 2013, p. 193)

On the issue of social embodiment, Clayton and Leante refer to Tomie Hahn’s (2007) work on Japanese dance nihon buyo, pointing out that the issues of awareness and attention are cultural and psychological: “different musical practices invite and afford different attentional behaviors and heighten awareness of some aspects of our environments at the expense of others, achieving these effects by means of embodied practices” (Clayton and Leante, 2013, p. 197). Hahn suggests “the meanings that are shared through embodiment are not only movements, gestures, moods, emotions, and beliefs but also sensibilities grounded in shared intentions and cultural experiences” (2007, as cited in Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 66)

Here I would like to bring out Csordas’ (1993) concept of "somatic modes of attention" (Csordas, 1993). He defines the somatic modes of attention as "culturally elaborated ways of attending to and with one's body in surroundings that include the embodied presence of others” (Csordas, 1993, p. 138). In particular, he gives examples, such as; “the imaginal [imaginary] rehearsal of bodily movements by athletes”, or “the sense of somatic contingency and transcendence associated with meditation and mystic states“ (Csordas, 1993, p. 139). Weidman (2012) relates to this concept when she talks about the learning process of the ragas (Weidman, 2012). She mentions that two different modes of attention possibilities can be at work in the learning process. Whereas the first one focuses on “recognizing individual notes and their presence or absence", the latter one focuses on "grasping the taste [rasa, Sanskrit; cuvai, Tamil], mood, or impression of the phrases" (Weidman, 2012, p. 222). She relates the second one to the somatic mode of attention. To be able to perform the raga alapana accordingly, which is an improvisational elaboration of the raga section with no reliance on notation; one needs a kind of knowledge more than the conventional one, employing the scale and the important individual notes. The

20 performer has to depend on her/his "store of embodied experience listening to and playing music" (Weidman, 2012, p. 222).

Throughout this chapter, I have examined main concepts in the embodiment literature relating them to my thesis. First, I looked at the central role of the body in perceiving, becoming aware of, and attending to the world where I discussed this role in the physiological, psychological, and sociological context, bringing out the concept of habitus. This I did through presenting the arguments of three prominent scholars, namely, Merleau-Ponty, Mauss, and Bourdieu. Second, I mentioned the two main standpoints about embodiment in anthropology, namely the semiotic/textual and phenomenological/embodiment. Moving from there, I discussed the concept of being-in-the-world based on the arguments of Csordas and Jackson linking it to my adapted version of ‘being in the space of the guru’ in the context of this thesis. Third, I presented the three main questions concerning the scope of my thesis about the body-mind-world unity, agency of the body, and the sociality of embodiment. Finally, I discussed these three issues in light of the arguments by ethnomusicologists, namely, Henderson, Weidman, D. A. Neuman, Hahn, Deschênes and Eguchi, Rahaim, and Clayton and Leante. Throughout the thesis, I continue to be in dialogue with the literature while presenting my arguments about the embodiment processes in the transmission of musical knowledge by Dr. V. Balaji.

In the next section, I would like to contextualize the spiritual/religious setting in which the transmission of musical knowledge in India takes place referring to the literature about the spiritual/religious elements inherent in the performance practice and the transmission phase.

1.4.2 Spiritual/religious setting

In the transmission of musical knowledge in Indian music tradition, the traditional system has been the gurukul. Gurukul literally means "living with the guru" (Weidman, 2001, p. 222). "The long years in which the shishya, or disciple, lives with the guru, learning music by a process of absorption, serving the guru, and learning humility before the guru, are considered the classic form of gurukulavasam” (Weidman, 2001, p. 222-3). Although the necessities of the modern life has affected the practice of it, as there is a heavy reinforcement for the present-day musicians to

21 get a university degree in music, the underlying ideas of the gurukul still dominate the music education scene. It is valued as the highest possibility to learn music.

The Indian classical music is seen predominantly as a tool to reach the divine. This statement is not to confine the assigned sacredness only to the classical music area, as there are genres such as bhajan, kirtan, and qawwali both in Hindu and Muslim traditions (See Qureshi on qawwali, 1995). The emphasis on Indian classical music here is just because my learning process focused on the Indian classical music with Dr. V. Balaji.

Though I had limited time with my guru, still I can say that I had a taste of gurukul, where as a disciple/student I had the chance to attend the whole existence of the master with my body-mind. The spirituality and religion was omnipresent in the guru's space, both in verbal and non-verbal ways. In this section, I will provide the context for understanding the links between guru-shishya (master-disciple) relationship and the spiritual/religious setting by referring to the relevant literature.

The guru-shishya relationship has strong spiritual/religious connotations in itself. Be it Hindu or Muslim, which is one of the main divisions in the music scene, the music platform is seen as where the divine speaks through the musician. This understanding had been articulated since ancient times in treatises in music: "...explanations of Indian musical spirituality... are quite clear that God dwells in sound (Nada Brahma) and that the guru is a kind of priest or conduit through which humans can connect with God" (as cited in Keister, 2005, p. 44). According to Regula Qureshi (2009), we see the concept of spiritual guidance also in Islam as in the piri-muridi relationship so that both traditions pave the way to “spiritual validation for discipleship” (Qureshi, 2009, p. 170).

In addition, Rahaim (2012) refers to Slawek (1996) that although there are not so many musicians who are also "authoritative spiritual masters", many of them make use of the concepts such as; "contemplation and devotion" in relation to music (Rahaim, 2012, p. 25). Gharana literally means "of the house" and signifies the family tradition of music; a stylistic school and/or members of that school (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 272). Gharana has uttermost importance in musicians' training and in establishment of their identity. As Rahaim points out, the structure of the gharana is "similar to Bhakti sampradayas or Sufi silsilas who trace their present-day spiritual authority to an originary saint" (Rahaim, 2012, p. 106). Mostly, the founder of the

22 gharana is often accepted as a "spiritual adept" as well and the teaching passed down through generations is thought to “contain esoteric knowledge” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 106-107). In the Hindi-Urdu register we encounter many common words about the musical and spiritual process, such as; chilla, khalifa, and guru, indicating that the horizon of music shares the same sphere of the horizon of spirituality.

To nurture the context with the understanding of ancient texts, I will bring out the concepts from Lewis Rowell's (1992) book Music and musical thought in early India. Rowell comments that his research is an investigation of the past from ancient times until the middle of 13th century, which informs the present-day situation of musical understanding. In Hindu mythology, the sound is revered as sacred. The sacred syllable om (or aum) is said to be intoned so that the universe was created. Rowell talks about om as "the eternal syllable that contains in itself the entire phenomenal universe, and as the nucleus from which all audible sounds proceed and to which all such sounds must ultimately return” (Rowell, 1992, p. 36). According to him, when we analyze the Sanskrit word for music, sangita, gita forms the core as the song and indicates the “quintessential humanism” in the ancient Indian understanding. The sound is seen as primarily vocal and the profound cultural metaphor about sound implies that “the emanation of vocal sound from deep within the human body has been linked with the process of creation as a “bringing forth” of the divine substance that lies at the heart of our innermost being” (Rowell, 1992, p, 5-6). Rowell points out the dominant “anthropomorphic imagery” (Rowell, 1992, p. 232) in Hinduism as well, where the inner mechanisms of the body-mind-soul is seen in direct relationship as the microcosm with the macrocosm, i.e., the universe.

In this subchapter, I provided a context for the spiritual/religious setting in the transmission of musical knowledge, nurtured by the works of Weidman, Keister, Qureshi, Rahaim, Slawek, and Rowell. In the fifth chapter of thesis, I will return to this issue, providing detailed accounts of my experiences about the spiritual/religious setting in dialogue with a deeper look into its literature.

1.5 Overview

The second chapter carries the title ‘Guru-Shishya Relationship’, consisting of two subchapters. First is the introduction to the guru-shishya system as I experienced it

23 and second includes the thick description of our first lesson with Dr. V. Balaji along with transcriptions of the technical exercises he taught. Third chapter is titled ‘Teaching Methodology’ and consists of two main subchapters. In the first subchapter, I look in the technical transmission process and the mechanisms related to embodiment. In the second one, I investigate the concept of immersion in music through looking at cyclicity, continuity, nonverbal space, focus on music, riaz, and the drone. Fourth chapter is ‘Pedagogy’. Here I take a closer look at the pedagogical features in the teaching of Dr. V. Balaji. Fifth chapter is titled ‘The Spiritual/Religious Setting’ and talks about the omnipresent spiritual/religious elements, which, I argue, fulfilled an important role in the embodiment process. Sixth chapter’s title is ‘Engagement’ where I focus on the socio-cultural engagement, including the discussion of the issues such as being part of the family, the close bond in the guru-shishya relationship, the aspect of submission, and being engaged in the riaz and music making. Finally, in the sixth chapter where I present conclusions and recommendations, I summarize the findings of my thesis and provide suggestions for further research.

24 2. THE GURU-SHISHYA RELATIONSHIP

2.1 Introduction

When we talk about the learning process in the guru-shishya relationship, we cannot talk about “a lesson” in the eurocentric sense, where you meet with the teacher in a designated hour for a limited time on a weekly basis. In the traditional sense, guru- shisya system is the time you spend with the guru or ustad including the practice (riaz) done in his house—together with him or by the disciple alone—, eating, listening to music together, joining the puja (prayer ritual) if invited, and helping out in daily chores. Weidman comments on the ‘interruptions’ that happened during the 'lesson time' she had with her guru, such as; a sari salesman would drop by and her guru would choose some to buy. Her conception changed over time, realizing that they were necessary intervals as “learning music is integrated into the rhythms of everyday life” (Weidman, 2012, p. 220).

The learning happens throughout the time of being in the space of the guru, as one joins the manifold aspects of his existence. Daniel Neuman (1990) describes this space as: “… in addition to perpetuating the tradition through time, the guru embodies in his “space” an identity which his disciples will assume and transmit to their disciples” (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 31). The teacher's existence is not seen as separate from the music. Qureshi (2009) states: “There is no separation between music and music maker –the Musician Is the Music. Or, as Shujaat Khan, the illustrious offspring of India’s most venerable sitar lineage, responded to Canadian students: “I am Indian culture”’ (Qureshi, 2009, p. 166). In Dr. V. Balaji's house, the main room is the music room, which I used to call “music temple”, as I had the impression of entering a temple, coming face-to-face with a fairly big Lord Balaji statue nested in an exhaustive altar. It was a place where the guests were welcomed, Dr. Balaji played, practiced, and finally, where the music lessons were held. Weidman (2012) notes that “Musical competence is assumed to flow from the guru’s embodied practice to that of the disciple” and this process is “aural, visual as well as kinesthetic” (Weidman, 2012, p. 220). Through all means of guru’s existence, the 25 disciple is responsible to observe and take on guru's stance, bodily disposition and expression.

In the following subchapter, I investigate the space of Dr. V. Balaji, looking at it through the window of my edited fieldnotes of our first lesson. The chapter starts with background information on Varanasi and its music traditions and continues with the depiction of our first meeting and lesson with Dr. V. Balaji.

2.2 The ‘Lesson’

2.2.1 The setting

Varanasi—or Banaras—is situated in the banks of the Ganges in state of Uttar Pradesh in North India. There are other common used names for Varanasi; such as, Benares and Kashi. Figure 2.1 shows the map of South Asia and Figure 2.2 shows the map of North India where Banaras is located.

Figure 2.1: Map of South Asia (Arnold A., Garland Encyclopedia, 1999).

Figure 2.2: Map of North India (Arnold A., Garland Encyclopedia, 1999).

Varanasi is seen as one the holiest city for Hinduism and Jainism, while being home for a big Muslim population, too. It is a colorful and busy pilgrimage destination primarily for Hindus and claimed to be one of the oldest cities in the world. Besides being a religious center, Varanasi has been a cultural and musical center as well. Many renowned musicians such as, Bismillah Khan and Ravi Shankar originated from here. Banaras Hindu University has a high impact on the musical life in the city. Varanasi is also known as the musical learning center for the foreigners, which have multi-sided effects on the ever-changing music scene. One example is that the foreigners bring along their music and fusion music is widely practiced. Another would be that there are many centers and teachers where short time courses are available, advertising for instant education, whereas to learn Indian classical music in the ongoing guru-shishya system, traditionally a life-long devotion is demanded.

The classical music tradition in India with its vast diversity can be understood in one major division, namely, the North and South Indian music—or the Hindustani and Carnatic music. Despite Varanasi’s location in the North, Carnatic (South Indian) music is also performed and taught in the city, mainly because of the impact of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), where there is a Carnatic music section as well. It

27 was established by the father of Dr. V. Balaji, Dr. Venkataramanujam with the request by Pandit Omkarnath Thakur, the founder of the music college in BHU (Dr. V. Balaji still teaches in the same room as his father did to this day. Appendix B, Figure B.2). Besides Varanasi is home to many gharanas, including the Banaras gharana. The Banaras gharana is one of the biggest music traditions in India, especially in the vocal genres of thumri and khyal, in the instrumental music lineages like tabla, and in the dance genre of kathak. Moreover, Dr. Balaji’s guru Smt. N. Rajam is known as one of the instrumentalists who brought the style of gayaki ang (singing style) in violin to high levels of mastery.

It was on December 20th when I first met with Prof. Dr. Balaji, in his house near Hanuman Ghat, in Varanasi. He had given me an appointment at 7 pm, the time when he returns from the Banaras Hindu University where he teaches as the Professor of violin.

Our guesthouse seemed not very far from the Hanuman Ghat but as I was new in Varanasi and didn't know yet about the safety conditions especially after sunset, my husband Ertuğrul came along with me. We walked there through the narrow and busy streets, trying to avoid the cow dung basically everywhere. The Ghats and the neighborhoods around them form a diverging layer of the city, the oldest buildings remain there, untouched by any restoration. The car noise from the main street hardly penetrates inside, which creates a relatively calm atmosphere, which is cut through by shrill motorbike horns. While it is still very busy with tiny shops selling almost everything, tuk-tuks that can hardly go through the streets, along with the people, cows, buffalos, and monkeys.

Although I was imagining that Dr. Balaji as an old man, calm and slow, it turned out to be the opposite, when he came out to the gate of the community—a group of two- story houses—where he lived. A lively man, tall, white hair and a short beard with glittering, wide-open eyes waited for us, in traditional skirt-like orange down part and a shirt top, wearing a shiny drop earring. He welcomed us energetically and seemed in total control of the situation with his presence.

After that, Ertuğrul and me went to Dr. Balaji's house on a daily basis except his concert dates in Madras. As I introduced Ertuğrul to Dr. Balaji, as he was a musician as well, he invited him insistently to join the lessons, so that both of us became students of Dr. Balaji, except the few days when Ertuğrul was sick. Our meetings

28 took place usually in the evenings, mainly because of his duties in the university. The 'lesson's lasted for two to five hours. Frequently, we spent lot of 'informal time' together, varying from having late-night dinners after the lesson to spending time in his violin workshop where he builds his self-designed violins with added resonance strings.

The below depicted lesson in the sections 2.2.2 and 2.2.3 is our first one, along with one of his disciples, Sushil, joining. Our time together lasted around four hours in total. During this time, we played various exercises together in three different ragas, he showed us a composition, and how to play the improvisational parts in the particular ragas. Explanations and stories were woven into this process, where Dr. Balaji talked about some characteristics of Indian music and his approach using life metaphors. In between, he had phone calls, and a group of men from the nearby temple visited him, who sang a Vedic chant together along with Dr. Balaji playing. His disciple Sushil’s presence was very important. Where Dr. Balaji started to do advanced practices and I couldn't follow anymore, Sushil could continue, so that it created an opportunity for me to watch how the advanced stages of teaching would flourish. Ertuğrul didn't join the playing on this first day as his participation was spontaneously decided and he didn't bring his instrument (Turkish tanbur) with him (For a dialogue excerpt of Dr. V. Balaji and Ertuğrul, see CD 1, track 4).

The episode consists of two parts, contains the exercises and their transcriptions, at the same time, reveals some of the common characteristics of our lesson time, such as; imitation, continuity, Dr. V. Balaji’s overall leading and controlling presence, and the non-verbal space.

2.2.2 First part

Saying that it's not necessary to teach me about bowing, Dr. Balaji declared that we will start with the scale that I just played before, though he didn't name it. The method was that he played slowly one measure phrase so Sushil and me would repeat after him. The imitation of the teacher and the repetition the phrases were the main techniques used throughout the lesson.

The first practice constituted going up and down the scale in a slow tempo with little ornamentation added. Table 2.1 shows the transcription of the first

29 exercise and it is in Indian notation system in Latin letters2. The Sa in the upper octave is indicated as ´Sa:

Table 2.1: The transcription of the first exercise.

Sa–Ri–Ga–Ma Pa–Da–Ni-´Sa ´Sa–Ni–Da–Pa Ma–Ga–Ri–Sa

The ornamentations added were two types. Going up the scale, they were placed on Ga and Ni, such as: 1. Ga-Ri-Ga, and 2. Ni-Da-Ni. Going down the scale they were placed on Da and Ri, such as: 1. Shifting from Da until Pa, and 2. Ga-Ri-Ga-Ri-Sa. Indicating that my sound was weak, he told me to play with the full bow consistently. Thanks to my prior practices, I felt familiar with the concept and followed the process. Playing along his disciple encouraged me; he acted as an anchor for me. After some minutes, he stopped to show me two fingering possibilities to use for shifting, which were:

1. The second finger is used to go all the way up the scale on one string.

2. The first finger is used to go to the high Sa; third position in Western system.

We started to play the second exercise. Dr. Balaji sang the phrases in Indian notation and then played along with us on the bass strings of his violin. First, he sang them without gamaka (ornamentation), over time adding gamakas lightly. One example of the gamakas was utilized in the fifth column of transcription below (Table 2.2), employed on the note Ni, such as: Ni-Da-Ni. Dr. Balaji occasionally sang adding gamakas but most of the time he preferred to sing plain notes, probably for the sake of my understanding. Merely the tanpura machine was on (CD 1, track 1); there was no aid for the rhythm and no use of the tabla machine.

The second exercise started in slow tempo (72 beats per minute). He pointed out this particular exercise was a very difficult one, which until this day he also have been practicing. Table 2.2 shows the transcription of the second exercise and it is in Indian notation system in Latin letters. The notes are indicated in short with their first letter, i.e. S instead of Sa. The high Sa in the octave is indicated as ´S.

2 In Indian music Sa-Ri-Ga-Ma-Pa-Da-Ni-‘Sa corresponds to Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si-(high)Do and/or C-D-E-F-G-A-B-(high)C in Western notation.

30 Table 2.2: The transcription of the second exercise. The audio recording of this exercise can be listened from the attached CD 1, track 3.

S – R – G – M – G – R S – R – G – R S – R – G – M

R – G – M – P – M – G R – G – M – G R – G – M – P

G – M – P – D – P – M G – M – P – M G – M – P – D

M – P – D – N – D – P M – P – D – P M – P – D – N

P – D – N - ´S – N – D P – D – N – D P – D – N - ´S

´S – N – D – P – D – N ´S – N – D – N ´S – N – D – P

N – D – P – M – P – D N – D – P – D N – D – P – M

D – P – M – G – M – P D – P – M – P D – P – M – G

P – M – G – R – G – M P – M – G – M P – M – G – R

M – G – R – S – R – G M – G – R – G M – G – R – S

We continued without a break for verbal explanations. The continuity of the musical space was created with the aid of the non-verbal space. Long time we remained in the same speed. The repetition had a cyclic nature; the phrases formed a composition, and we kept coming back to the start. There was nearly no talking involved, apart from Dr. Balaji's one word instructions like “Start!” and “Full bow!”. His overall leading presence and control was emphasized with these short verbal exclamations. My mind chatter vanished gradually in the repetitions as I focused on imitating his musical gestures, timbre and technique as precise as possible. After around eight minutes, Balaji increased the speed to (126 beats per minute) without giving a verbal hint or making a break in between. This part lasted around 6 minutes. Suddenly, he increased the tempo again to more than (208 beats per minute). We played two and a half minutes in what he called the third speed before changing to the fourth. Our playing in the fourth speed resolved just after one minute, which felt like longer, and we finished altogether.

In the fourth speed, it was hard for me to play the notes clearly. I continuously tried my best, getting out a blur of notes mostly. Dr. Balaji didn't stop for our mistakes but as we repeated the phrases in a cycle, there was always the chance to get into the flow again. I felt that the space he was holding and the atmosphere we created together as a group, working nearly as an organism, was pushing me to play beyond my limits. No time was left for the mind to create borders and think about the possible limitations, such as the level of my agility. None of us gave up playing until Dr. Balaji signaled us to stop. I was pretty surprised at how fast I was able to play in a pretty new position on the instrument. Actually, that there was no time left for the mind to analyze the phrases and to be sure of the general structure. Indeed, this was one of the main conditions why I could continue to play. My inner voice got silenced which would otherwise give a constant report of what is possible and what is not. Dr. Balaji was always in a leading position and in total control of the situation. Every time, he sang or played the phrases ahead, while we got ready to imitate. He assured his control with his loud, dominant singing, with short, effective instructions in between, and with the dominant sound of the Rajam Bela, a violin of his invention with added resonance strings, a double-body, and double-neck. All these moments, he generated the feeling that he was totally aware of what everybody was doing. Figure 2.3 shows him playing the Rajam Bela.

Figure 2.3: Dr. Balaji playing the Rajam Bela. It is a violin-viola of his invention with double-body, double-neck, 4 main and 11 resonance strings. He brought two viola bodies together and built it for the 75th birthday of his guru, N. Rajam. The double-body represents that N. Rajam plays both North and South Indian styles. The front part represents the students and the back, the guru, holding them together. (Büyükköksal, 2018)

32 2.2.3 Second part

Dr. Balaji started to show raga Bhairavi by playing the ascending-descending of the scale. He switched to alap, Sushil accompanying him (For a teaching excerpt in raga Bhairavi on 13th January, see CD 1, track 5). Then we did an exercise together on the first and second strings. We did this exercise using the shifting technique, where Sa is open string and the rest of the notes in the scale are played with the second finger, shifting continuously. Table 2.3 shows the transcription of the exercise in raga Bhairavi.

Table 2.3: Transcription of the exercise in raga Bhairavi.

S–R–G–M R–G–M–P G–M–P–D M–P–D–N P–D–N-´S

´S–N–D–P N–D–P–M D–P–M–G P–M–G–R M–G–R–S

After that Dr. Balaji turned on the tabla machine on teental and said, “Are you ready to fight?” We worked on the exercise in 3 speeds. Then Dr. Balaji started to play different variations of phrases in raga Bhairavi, syncopating some. As the phrases got harder, containing various gamakas rendered with shifting technique, I rather watched Sushil and Dr. Balaji having 'a fight'. In this musical fight, Dr. Balaji was improvising in raga Bhairavi, demonstrating various gamakas and Sushil was imitating his phrases. He didn’t wait or repeat for Sushil if he didn’t get out the phrase correctly in that instant but would moved on to even harder phrases, pushing Sushil consistently beyond his limits. Without a break, Dr. Balaji passed on to a composition in raga Bhairavi, the accentuation in the gamakas reinforced with his extensive bodily and facial gestures. Then he gave an explanation about the aesthetic elements:

This part is improvisation. The way of alap is smooth and you should feel that each note behind and above, they are all friends. How you go along with your friends, kicking, cooking, ... It [the lyrics] says to Lord Krishna, the composer, “Hey my lover, get up!” So how to reproduce the love, the affection through the violin? It should come through the bow with the help of the tension and the intervals. Notes are there, which are not visible but you can feel. (Personal communication, 20 December 2017)

I was feeling already overwhelmed with the practices, his dominant musical presence supported by strong voice, the highly resonant sound of his violin, Rajam Bela, and the ongoing tanpura sound in the background. It felt like being under a waterfall of

33 music, while Dr. Balaji said that it was just a 'warm-up'. Everything was new and fast. Taking just short breaks, Dr. Balaji seemed totally fit but I started to lose my concentration. Naturally, I started to watch them while trying to join at times. He was encouraging me to play along but also didn't intervene when I preferred to watch. When our time together came to an end and we stepped out into the foggy Varanasi night, I felt drunk with the impressions of our meeting and the continuous flow of his strong musical and emotional presence.

In the next chapter I discuss Dr. V. Balaji’s teaching methodology in two parts. The first part is about the technical transmission of musical knowledge and investigates the exercises, linking the exercises to the performance-related material, the priority of left hand’s fluent movement, the role of rote repetition, the importance of continuing with the same teacher, the use of language, and the notation. In the second part, I explore the concept of immersion in music through the issues of the cyclical nature of Indian classical music, the emphasis on continuity and nonverbality throughout the lesson, the focus on music in life, the meaning and implications of riaz, and the effects of the continuous drone sound.

34 3. TEACHING METHODOLOGY

The path Dr. Balaji followed in his teaching constituted of the exercises for playing technique, aesthetic elements, performance-related material, explanations about the apprehension of Indian classical music and the role of the artist, and the observational and recording sessions, which can be classified as the accumulation of practice material for the future. As I tried to display in the thick description of our first 'lesson', Dr. Balaji combined these five elements in the actual 'lesson' times. The technical exercises aimed to free the hand and prepare the student for the various renditions in performance. The aesthetic elements showed the way to convey the musical ideas and feeling. The performance-related material included the teaching of ragas, compositions, and improvisation. The explanations and stories were woven through our time together, providing examples and role models how the artist should feel and behave. Ethical considerations were often attached to the stories revolving around music. As Dr. Balaji was very fond of the technological facilities, such as; video and audio recording, he wanted us to record our sessions and many times played exclusively for the video recordings. All these present just a rough plan with set goals inside but the tools to reach the goals were adjusted according to our needs at the moment, often spontaneously improvised.

In this chapter, I discuss Dr. Balaji’s methodology in two sections. The first section investigates the technical side of the transmission process in relation to embodiment through the titles of the technical exercises, linking the exercises to the performance- related material, 'First the movement!' (about the priority given to the movement of the hands), rote repetition, 'You can't change the teacher' (about the lack of standardization and its effects), the language, and the notation. The second section looks deeper in immersion in music through the titles of the cyclicity, ‘Take your violin in hand, don't stop, work!' (about continuity and non-verbal space), focus on music, the riaz, and the use of the drone.

3.1 The Technical Transmission

In this section, I look at the technical exercises, how Dr. Balaji linked the exercises to the performance-related material, the priority given to the movement of the hands, the lack of standardization in the teaching process, the importance given to observation and recording, the use of the language, and the notation.

3.1.1 Technical exercises

Dr. Balaji put a strong emphasis on technical exercises. He has written a book as his PhD dissertation, including the presentation of the parts of the violin, the accomplishments of violinists in South and North India, and a textbook of technical exercises. He used the book as a mnemonic device when he couldn't remember an exercise, so that he could look it up. Although he presented it to me as a gift at the end because of my research project, he taught the exercises through imitation by ear, followed by endless repetitions and renditions in what he called the first, second, third, and fourth speeds. He found it crucial that we recorded the exercises in audio and sometimes video format, as we had just one month to spend together. Many times he pointed out that it's a very short time to internalize the exercises and the other material, which he wanted us to take home with us. One time, Dr. Balaji talked about his way of teaching in the university, where it is usually in the form of group lessons for twelve students. He said that he dwelled only with two-three different ragas throughout the year and underlined that the exercises were the foremost important elements he emphasized.

3.1.2 Linking the exercises to the performance-related material

The interesting feature of Dr. Balaji's understanding and utilizing the technique was that it was not seen as separate from the performance practice. First, the exercises carried the seed information how to carry out phrases in elaborations of ragas. After focusing extensively on the exercises for the first three days, Dr. Balaji slowly started to introduce performance material, such as; various ragas, elaborating on their important phrases, compositions in these ragas and the ornamentations belonging to them. For instance, in the course of showing the phrases, he was often linking this performance material to the exercise material. He was playing or singing the phrase for us to imitate right after him. If we wouldn't render it appropriately, he was

36 reminding us which particular exercise established the basis to render the phrase, even pointing out, on which day he taught it to us. Then he would take us back to the exercise so that we would practice it together until he felt we were ready to go back to the phrase in the particular raga.

Second, the exercises were seen as the fundamental practices to 'free the hand'. To 'free the hand' meant that the necessary shifting movement and places of the notes in the particular raga were to be internalized in the body, embodied in the fingers and the left hand. Dr. Balaji used many times the expression of 'freeing the hand', in the contexts of the exercises and in the execution of the improvisational parts as well.

3.1.3 ‘First the movement!’

The expression of 'free the hand' has a strong connection to Vilayat Khan's expression, quoted by Dard Neuman (2012): “This is not a matter of the ear, this is a matter of the hands” (as cited in Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 440).

One of the most important characteristics of Indian classical music is shifting. As Hutchison (2014) mentions this in her dissertation about her learning process of North Indian classical violin coming from the Western classical tradition: “While there are many techniques to learn, learning to shift with the left hand is the most basic and important step” (Hutchison, 2014, p. 43). To ease the shifting, extra oil is applied to the fingers of the left hand as well, before and during playing.

The striking part of practicing the shifting exercises with my guruji was that he primarily focused on the movement of the hands and fingers, rather than the right intonation. This is not to say that he didn't pay any attention to intonation. On the contrary, he was explicitly warning me about intoning the right sounds during the course of his teaching. Though when it came down to shifting exercises, which are necessary prerequisites to execute the ornaments, he encouraged me to repeat the shifting movement, regardless of my bad intonation. At times, I was literally lost on the keyboard and tried to focus my mind where the accurate places of the new positions are, which seemed to keep changing. This approach borrowed from the Western methodology didn't help me much as “Hindustani violin does not include the concept of positions on the fingerboard” (Hutchison, 2014, p. 60). I realized that my experience of traditional Western method blocked me out with the idea that new positions are ‘difficult to play’. In Indian methodology, the students are expected to

37 learn shifting in very early stages. Opposed to my blockage about shifting, my guruji insisted that I continued, saying, “The intonation will come”. He stated countless times that freeing the hand and the fluent movement should be my primary aims. My body searched for new anchor points. At this point, new hand memory was required. He used get angry when I didn't pay enough attention to the bowing, right fingerings and had weak sound but it was not the case when I had bad intonation. Finally, I realized that watching the guru’s movements attentively without trying to analyze them was a more effective method. Along with my acquisition of a more fluent movement, my intonation got better in the same process.

The special kind of attention that I experienced in this process corresponds to what Csordas (1993) called “somatic modes of attention” (Csordas, 1993). Before Csordas, Mauss (1950) had argued that there is "what we are calling a somatic mode of attention is associated with the acquisition of any technique of the body, but this mode of attention recedes into the horizon once the technique is mastered" (Mauss, 1950, p. 139). To elaborate on the concept of attention, Csordas quotes Merleau- Ponty (1962), saying “attention actually brings the object into being for perceptual consciousness" (Csordas, 1993, p. 138). Merleau-Ponty argues that the attention works to make new connections in and between the pre-existing data by taking them as figures rather than elucidating it. The process of building new connections opens new horizons in our perception. Attention is "the active constitution of a new object which makes clear what was until then presented as an indeterminate horizon" (1962, as cited in Csordas, 1993, p. 138). Csordas points out that we "attend to and with one's body in surroundings" (Csordas, 1993, p. 140). Furthermore, he emphasizes on the intersubjectivity of the process, including the attention to the bodies of others: "Our concern is the cultural elaboration of sensory engagement, not preoccupation with one's own body as an isolated phenomenon” (Csordas, 1993, p. 138-9).

Another implication of 'freeing the hand' is that each note should be on each finger. This issue came up two times when I asked Dr. Balaji about the fingerings. In one session, while he played, I named the fingerings aside for the audio recording. Puzzled by frequent changes and blocked again by my former idea of Western positions on the violin, I asked him for a clearer approach. Guruji assured me that I would gain an understanding of it if I practiced with the recording and if I watched him closer. Just after that, he showed another possibility to play the same phrase.

38 Another time was when I tried to make a chart of fingerings. He accepted to help me with that but during the process, it turned out that the fingerings change not only due to the technical necessities but also due to varying aesthetic expressions of different styles of Indian music. Finally, he ended up the process by saying, the ultimate aim is to free the hand, to be able to play any finger on any note. He commented that the accumulation of musical knowledge and time is needed to know when to use which finger. The method he proposed was to listen and watch attentively not only his playing but also other players’ renditions, using sources, such as; the live concerts and the videos in the Internet.

3.1.4 Rote repetition

In India, rote repetition lies in the core of the 'lesson'. The method to remain on one type of exercise for a long time is a common practice and it is done with the teacher, either in her/his presence or directly playing along with her/him. Weidman (2012) mentions the same characteristic that came up in her apprenticeship period with her guru. Even when her teacher was satisfied with her interpretation of a phrase, she made her continue to repeat: ‘”Memorizing” implies actively working to keep something in one’s memory, “by-hearting” is, as the phrase implies, a process of making something in the body, and this is achieved through repeating it until it becomes effortless" (Weidman, 2012, p. 220). Weidman comments that this process creates a strong bond between the guru and shishya, which is a prerequisite so that the transmission of musical knowledge succeeds, mainly through bodily courses:

In contrast to Western classical musical pedagogy in which the student is not supposed to “waste time” practicing in the company of her teacher or endlessly going over something that the student has not yet mastered through diligent practice at home, here it is assumed that the student learns “in real time” with the teacher. Time spent this way with the guru is not “wasted” but, rather, accumulated in the body, where it becomes the physical evidence of the disciple’s bond with the guru. (Weidman, 2012, p. 220-221)

Oppenheim (2012) brings out the importance of the guru's presence in the learning, referring to the interviews he conducted with the foreigner students of Indian music:

When learning Western classical music, PE describes feeling as if she were getting information from the book instead of the teacher, who served more as a coach. In contrast, she feels that in her Hindustani music lessons information comes directly from the teacher. (Oppenheim, 2012, p. 105)

Our repetition phase with Dr. Balaji was especially throughout the technical exercises, which formed an important part of our period together. Our special case was the short time we had in Varanasi, so that he also focused on recording as much information about ragas, talas and compositions as possible to provide us practice material for future. Despite this time limit, his master plan included the repetition done with the guru. During the course of our practices, I have observed myself, how I learned the phrases without necessarily analyzing their structures while we endlessly went over them. Usually, he would start an exercise very slow, him playing the phrase ahead and we imitating, he would remain on the same speed for enough time until we would render it effortlessly. Without giving a break, he would go to the second speed, giving sharp verbal instructions about the bow strokes or ornamentations and again we would repeat it until we found our way through it. When he would switch to the third speed, I would realize that the more I let my fingers do without the intervention of a mental process, surprisingly, the easier it became to render the phrase. The fourth speed would be where he would demonstrate how it should be played in that speed but many times I was also able follow him even if in a clumsy way. One of his former students, Perrine, described this process as finding your way through repetition with your body:

… You know where you are. Not with your mind but with your body actually. And you change fingers for the same note, and you come back, ... it's ... useless, you cannot note it [down], you can just experiment it, repeat it and slowly you find the correct way of doing. There are many things that you learn, but you are not able to explain what you are doing. (Interview, 27 February 2018)

During the course of learning, rather than analytically investigating the exercises, our rote repetition together with Dr. Balaji resulted in the internalization of the sounds, their places on the keyboard and their timbre executed by the bow in my body. When the fingers moved independently, without a decision-making process, it was only then that the exercises got settled in me.

3.1.5 ‘You can’t change the teacher!’

In the playing and teaching of Indian classical violin, there is hardly any standardization. Therefore, the teaching is highly personalized so that the guruji and the gharana s/he belongs determine the way and style to perform. Dr. Balaji

40 mentioned this issue in the context that it's not possible to change the teacher in the Indian classical music context:

Western techniques you have to learn from a teacher. Then compositions are written so everybody can play. When you learn Indian music, you can't change the teacher. Here I play according to me, my way, now you're learning from me. The fingerings are different. Gharana; certain schools are there; we need to keep them. One teacher inside, you follow one style and hear also so many others, you adapt one style and your own style comes like this. I follow the school V. K. V. Parampara. My father's and grand-grand-'s. Now my granddaughter is 7th generation and learning the violin. Because we don't live together, the generation line broke down. She learns vocal from her mother and have a violin teacher there, also takes Skype lessons from me. Recently, I told her that we will [would] not continue our lessons. And she gets tears “Why papaji, I want to be with you.” But she learns from another teacher and she sees something else [another technique] with me; it will make her confuse. In Western technique, everything is written; up-bow, down-bow, … etc. 7 years old boy along with the 70 years old man, they can play together. Here [in India] is freedom. Our music depends on improvisations. (Interview, 27 February 2018)

Slawek (1999) and Weidman (2001) mention the same issue, talking about their own periods of being a shishya (disciple). Slawek had studied sitar already seven years under Dr. Lalmani Mishra, when he started learning from Ravi Shankar. As Shankar's approach to technique was fundamentally different, so that Slawek “needed to return the basic exercises” (Slawek, 1999, p. 464). Weidman had to make compromises when she found her guru, having already taken lessons in Indian style of playing the violin. They agreed that she would do the basic exercises from the start on along with the performance-related material. The techniques and playing styles, such as; gayaki ang (singing violin), gatkari (a North Indian style in violin introduced by V. G. Jog) differ according to gharanas and even to individual performers and teachers, whose transmission necessitates and creates an organic life- long bond between the shishya and the guru.

Furthermore, the individualized styles imply and shape one of the basic characteristics in the nature of Indian classical music, which is the constant change and adaptation of the tradition. The tradition is alive, indeed, regenerating and adapting itself to the evolving conditions of the modern world. Daniel Neuman (1990) approaches it “as a species, which had continued to adapt to a world very much changed from the one into which it had been born” (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 6). He contextualizes it in an ecological model and wows its adaptation skills to

“environmental exigencies” (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 6). Oppenheim (2012) argues that the traditional system of guru-shishya is the very reason of the “musical object” that comes out. As the teacher transmits her/his knowledge relying on the gathered and refined tradition at hand, “in these processes there is room for reinterpretation, even error” (Oppenheim, 2012, p. 61). He quotes Raja (2005), saying, ‘“Imperfect perception, imperfect retention, and imperfect reproduction” were the means by which “the traditional system became an effective instrument of continuity within change”’ (2005, as cited in Oppenheim, 2012, p. 61-62).

Although the institutionalization of the musical education had gained importance, especially in the last two centuries, “the notion of the ideal guru-shishya relationship remains, students often spend long evenings at their guru's house, or learn in small groups that receive instruction for several hours at a time” (Slawek, 1999, p. 464).

In a system where the processes of reinterpretation, creativity and improvisation are at work, there is the need to stress the importance of the embodied knowledge. Where there is no standardization possible, the transmission happens mainly throughout the long hours of sitting face-to-face of the disciple and the guru. Rahaim (2012), investigating how singers in Indian classical music can learn “such complex bodily-vocal dispositions without deliberate imitation”, cites Tomasello (1993) and suggests that the process is related to learning “not from another but through another” (1993, as cited in Rahaim, 2012, p. 111). He refers to Thioux et al.’s (2008) concept of “action understanding”, defining it as “the empathetic apprehension of the purpose of another's action as though it were one's own” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 111). For the singing student, to approach her/his teacher's gesture as “tracing a melodic loop rather than merely moving the hand in the air” creates an identification of the student with the teacher, resulting in the learning through another's body (Rahaim, 2012, p. 111). Noel Carroll and William P. Seeley (2013) mentioned action understanding in relation to kinesthesia3 and dance studies under the title of the “very possibility of kinesthesis”:

The net result is that action understanding is an embodied cognitive response—we use our own bodies to kinesthetically model diagnostic features critical for understanding and

3 The definition of kinesthesia is given in Merriam & Websters dictionary as follows: a sense mediated by receptors located in muscles, tendons, and joints, stimulated by bodily movements and tensions.

42 responding to perceived actions. We argue that these same crossmodal sensorimotor processes, contrary to skeptical challenges, facilitate an embodied projective perceptual understanding of the kinesthetic and expressive qualities of choreographed movements in the more abstract context of dance. (Carroll and Seeley, 2013, p. 179)

In a parallel fashion, Deschênes and Eguchi (2018) talk about three notions raised in the transmission of traditional Japanese arts: “minarai, learning by looking, implying the ability to imitate the teacher through looking; mitori geiko, learning by looking but in more practical terms (more commonly used in martial arts); and karada de oboeru, remembering and knowing with the body” (Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 73). They point out that the types of looking underlined in the concepts of minarai and mitori geiko is different than the Western approach where looking functions with a detached attitude of the mind. In contrast, the terms imply a type where “the attentive and intentional body-mind directs the eyes to look and pay close attention to what is to be learned, the body tries to reproduce or embody it” (Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 73). In one of our lessons, Dr. Balaji emphasized that what we were learning from him was not only music but also the ‘aesthetic essence’:

You learn from me. What you are going to take with you? Not only music. The feeling; the aesthetic essence of mine. That is what you take with you. … When I will miss you and I conduct another class then I'll have the feeling, the same feeling. (Personal communication, 30.12.2017)

As we have examined, face-to-face interaction is the necessary setting for the transmission in Indian classical music context so that the disciple unintentionally learns through the guru’s presence and integrates “the several elements of excellence into a whole...sub-conscious synthesis” (2008, as cited in Oppenheim, 2012, p. 61).

3.1.6 The language

Dr. Balaji's explanations about the historical and theoretical aspects of Indian classical music, its aesthetic approach, his understanding and interpretation of music, the Indian culture, the discussions of belief and religion, and stories from his life and teaching past carried inherent ethical messages and formed an important part of our lessons. Although the non-verbal space was dominant while we actually played, he steered the flow of the lessons in a spontaneous and dynamic way, using exclamations about our technique and warning us to gather our focus, switching to a basic theoretical explanation to establish the context, and occasionally, translating

43 the lyrics for the sake of the musical expressions if we were to play a bandish with lyrics. In his talks, there were directions about how to perform, metaphors of life in music and the meanings attached to the lyrics. In addition, in the 'informal' time we spent together in his violin workshop, having dinners and listening to his recordings, our conversations revolved around the music, culture and our lives in Turkey.

David Henderson (2009) explores the role of language along with the transmission processes of the bodily knowledge in his work about his apprenticeship of Nepali drumming. He points out that the language acted as an anchor while his body “struggled to repeat, to imitate, to learn, to know” (Henderson, 2009, p. 186). He remarks that his two teachers' verbal instructions were of two sorts: “They provided directions on how to reproduce their own body movements, and they trained me in the arts of expectation, in knowing where to go next within the course of performance” (Henderson, 2009, p. 188). Henderson describes the use of language as ”verbal scaffolding” which held the structure of the lesson together (Henderson, 2009, p. 193). One of his teachers, Hari Govinda, used often the word man, “associated both with emotion (often linked to the heart in English-language contexts) and with thought and memory (usually located in the mind in the English- language contexts)” (Henderson, 2009, p. 197). Henderson translates it as ‘heart- mind’. His teacher Govinda was guiding him to inscribe the strokes of the drum in his ‘heart-mind’ instead of his notebook and see the movements of the strokes in there, which Henderson defined as the difference between declarative and procedural knowledge. “His [Govinda's] hands often helped his man remember, and mine gradually became adept at reminding my man of things it knew too” (Henderson, 2009, p. 198).

As Dr. Balaji maintained a very good level of English, he would give us long talks about his ideas and feelings in music and tell stories about his past experiences and the mythical occurrences from the history of Indian classical music. He also preferred to transmit the theoretical basics by characterization of musical elements. In one lesson, after starting to show us how to play duet, he talked about the important notes in ragas as a family:

V. B.: The important thing in the Indian music, which makes difference between other musics, the name that's called, va-di, repeat.

A. B. & Ertuğrul Küçükbayraktar.: Va-di

44 V. B.: Samavadi, anuvadi, vivadi. Now the practical example. This is your house. Your husband , vadi is king, samavadi is queen, anuvadi is follower, vivadi is enemy. Like in the court or house, naturally, male, father, mother, and then children. What the father, the king is saying, the queen is supporting. And your children follow both of you. What is enemy in the music? Out of tune. What is out of tune? Now, [for instance] raga Kafi. And the important notes are ri-pa, sa-ma. Sa and pa are the most important notes. Come back to raga Yaman. Ga and ni are very important [he sings phrases shortly]. You will start and end on ga and ni. ri, ma, da, ni. The others. [Sings phrases] focus on ga and ni with the help of ma but sliding. [Sings] Re mi fa si laaaa ... da, you cannot stress. You make potato sabji [a dish with potato and vegetables]. You have 1 kg of potato, you won't put 1 kg salt. Little bit. Not one kg of chilli. Little bit. Mainly potato. Bit of oil. Same thing, there are the important two notes, the other notes will just help you. [Singing]. Ok? Now the question you should ask. Anuvadi. The children, are not as strong as you, they are followers. They cannot make rule, you will make them to follow the rule. But you cannot ask them to be the same level as you. Now vivadi, the enemy. [singing another note out of the scale of raga Yaman] The notes which you should not use in the particular raga, enemy notes. (Audio recording by the author, 30 December 2017)

The analogies Dr. Balaji used in his explanations conveyed his cultural understanding as well, like the allocation of the roles in the family in this example. The ethical concerns of how the artist should behave were another upcoming topic, conveyed explicitly in the stories from his past experiences. In one of our first lessons, he told the story of how he helped a Muslim man, who was trapped in a financial difficulty and wanted to sell his violin to Dr. Balaji to be able to return to his country:

V. B.: Did I tell you about the Muslim story? He came along with the violin. He wanted to sell it. All his money was stolen in Delhi and he was cheated in Varanasi, too. He wanted to sell his superb violin to be able to fly back home. He played it for me; it [the violin and also his playing] was amazing. His father gave him the violin as a present. I cannot separate the father and son. I gave him the money and didn't want it back. But I told him that I borrowed him the money. He said, “I'm Muslim, in our country we kiss the hand. Can I kiss your hand?” He was crying, me too. And he had written [in Dr. Balaji's diary where the students write about their impressions]: “Around the world people say the god is there. But I have seen the god in front me in India. You did what my father wouldn't do”. Every time he makes a call. He asks to send my account number and I say, “Yes, I will send”. But I don't send it of course. We are artists, teachers. I am costly in playing and teaching but we shouldn't separate the father and the son, we shouldn't do these things. (Audio recording by the author, 22 December 2017)

Apart from the explanations and stories, his usage of exclamations was of primary importance during the course of playing. Dr. Balaji steered the lessons according to our needs in the present moment whilst keeping up with the plan he had about the whole duration of our stay. He demanded our active participation and attention through the lesson, even if we were 'merely' observing him or it was a recording session of his rendition of a particular raga. During the exercises, he was shouting exclamations like “Full bow!”, “Repeat!”, “Use the second finger!”, “Try! Do the mistake!” over the sound of our violins and the tanpura machine. His shouting was a clear sign of Dr. Balaji's attentiveness and his demand from us for the same level of focus. As I will elaborate in the pedagogy section, this ‘scolding’ had a psychological as well as a physical effect on us, resulting immediately in more determined bow strokes or a recollected state of concentration. They acted as encouraging nudges to participate more and engage with our whole ‘being-in-the-world’.

As Ertuğrul and me were declared as the part of the family, we shared also some of our privacy mutually, such as thoughts and events in our families and his personal experiences and thoughts about his students and life. These conversations created an intimate space and mutual trust. Although we had a limited and short time, it was intense period; I recall how our intimacy grew day by day. As I will explore in the section of the engagement later, this sharing gave the transmission process a unique characteristic and created a feeling of close bond. As one of the informants says in Oppenheim (2012), “You don’t just have a teacher, you have the essence of the whole being” (as cited in Oppenheim, 2012, p. 113). The intimacy created the space where the guru would open himself to “communicate something of his being” (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 48) and we would open ourselves “to receive what is being given, to have that empty cup” (Oppenheim, 2012, p. 114).

Dr. Balaji wanted me to record not only when he played but also some of his talks, especially his ideas about Indian classical music. Many times he mentioned his idea that music is already present in the nature. He argued that in the ancient texts, Vedas just inscribed observing the nature. Below is one of the numerous talks where he argued for his idea:

V. B: Music is a part, you should know, the culture of our India. How to receive the energy; this [the music] is one of the ways, one of the methods with which you can reach up to him [god, pointing with the head to the statue of Lord Balaji]. In my concept, it is totally wrong

46 about the music what they say, “This is from this Veda, that is from that veda.” No, you're wrong. Music was in the nature. The person who has started to write the book [the Vedas], the first person ... Just such as, you entered my room, you switched on the light. Already it [the room] was there. But only the thing, once you show the light, immediately it has come to you “Ooh, this is Balaji, this is the way he lives.” So you start writing. “Ooh, this is the way he teaches, the way he shouts” ... I'm sorry sir we're all foolish. Humans are foolish in my view. Because it [the music] is provided by the greatest God. … This why in the Veda it is mentioned ... you know veena?

A. B.: Yes.

V. B.: In the Veda, it is clearly mentioned; this is called [showing the body] Gatra veena. Gatra means singing. The whole body is singing veena. Once it comes from the hand, what you are playing? What the heart is allowing you. You're keeping the picture in front of me. This is what we need. So the music is one of the sources to reach up [god] … (Audio recording by the author, 20 December 2017)

The language became one of the primary retaining walls in our learning process with Dr. Balaji, which held the information flow together. The explanations and stories created room for mutual understanding, trust and sharing where embodiment could take place. As my fingers struggled to find their ways through the radical shifting movements on the keyboard, my legs and neck were in vain with the new posture to endure the long sitting hours and my right (bow) hand was trying to hold the right pressure for the strings, the language, woven through our lessons worked for giving us a purpose to remain in the process and opening ourselves for the new bodily dispositions, necessary for internalizing the music.

3.1.7 Notation/textbook

Dr. Balaji used the notation in the lesson mostly as a mnemonic device, to remember the compositions correctly and/or to remind them to us. As an academic in the Banaras Hindu University, he is familiar with the written sources and he produces them as well. He wrote a book as his PhD, including a textbook of exercises, a part about the accomplishments of violinists in India, and a chapter about the parts of the violin and their functions. The book opens up with depictions of god Ganesh, believed to be the remover of the barriers and goddess Saraswati, believed to be the goddess of art, music, and knowledge. Another book he used was handwritten by him, included the compositions in various ragas.

In just one incident, he used notation in the prescriptive sense, when he was teaching me a composition. That day I was not able to follow him by imitation properly, so that he took out his book of compositions and made me read the notes in sargam as bona while hitting the teental rhythm on my knee. As there is no staff used in Indian notation system, I found it difficult to understand the beats and the intervals at first, until he led me through the composition. After reading, he instructed me to watch him playing the phrase and watch the notation when I repeated the phrase, so that he integrated the use of notes into the imitation/repetition system. Figure 3.1 shows the first page of one of the South Indian compositions Dr. Balaji taught us. It is taken from his notebook, where he notated the compositions by hand. Figure 3.2 shows the first page of his published textbook for the technical exercises.

Figure 3.1: A page from Dr. Balaji’s notebook. He handwrote this South Indian composition. We worked on this composition, first using the technique of bono reading. He wanted me to rely on the notes while playing with the condition that I should by-heart it later. (Büyükköksal, 2018)

Figure 3.2: The first page of the textbook written by Dr. Balaji. Originally written in Sanskrit, Dr. Balaji added the note names in Latin alphabet, to make it understandable for his foreigner students, too. (Büyükköksal, 2018)

Dr. Balaji made us copy some of the notations of compositions but gave higher value to audio/video recordings for future practice.

48 In this section, I demonstrated the tools and techniques Dr. Balaji used during the course of transmission, affective in the embodiment processes of musical ideas. In the next section, I discuss the concept of immersion in music by demonstrating the importance and roles of the inherent elements in Indian classical music.

3.2 Immersion In Music

One of my questions in the interview with Perrine was about her comparison of the Western and Indian methodology. In her answer, she commented on the importance of the repetition and the cyclical nature of the music. She experienced that these features led to trance, immersion in music, and embodiment of the musical ideas:

Western is more sober. … As I mainly played alone, I was not aware how deep I was influenced [by the Indian methodology]. Now that I play with people here who are in the western system, I realize the Indian way. In Indian style, you have the trance, you repeat and repeat and you come in trance. You repeat, but not because you want it to be better, you just repeat it and it turns, it turns and it turns and you go on. And you improvise in this sense. You need this kind of immersion in music to develop something. Also when you play with somebody, with a tabla player, you don't fix anything before but you know each other because you repeat together and go in the trance. I face some problems with the percussion player I play now, he's not like this and I did not understand that. When he faces a problem in music, he just wants to work it on his side, alone. I have the habit to repeat it and it comes by itself. In the beginning, it comes from mind, but slowly it comes by itself, by the body. It becomes embodied. And when it's embodied, then it's fine. But you need to repeat it in a trance spirit. I think it's such a big difference. You use your mind of course but in cyclical way, the aim is to go beyond that. Once it's embodied, then the heart can open, then you can have a musical message. (Interview, 27 February 2018)

My experience of being an apprentice of V. Balaji had profoundly changed my perception of playing music, in the sense that I felt I could immerse myself in the music making process more than in my past experiences. Taking embodiment from a sensational perspective as well, my fingers, posture of the body and finally, the way I musically expressed myself were affected.

Interestingly enough, I realized this change when I returned to my previous style of playing. Even though I played the repertoire I was familiar with, I rendered the phrases in different ways and saw other possible renditions ahead. Many barriers in the technique and expression with which I was working since a while such as; the fourth finger problem, the distance of the fingers from the keyboard, the accuracy in 49 the fast passages, some intonation problems and dynamics seemed to be mainly solved through my practices in the Indian style and my being together with the guruji. Hutchison (2014) talks about her experience of learning the North Indian violin with her guru, Kala Ramnath in a parallel fashion. She points out that the microtonal character and the different system of tonality present in the North Indian classical music had widened her understanding of intonation. “It has taught me to listen to my instrument and my performance of it in new ways” (Hutchison, 2014, p. 62). She was learning mainly through Skype lessons on the Internet but had an intense guru-shishya period in Kala Ramnath's house for two weeks as well. “I learned more in that two weeks of complete immersion about Hindustani music than I had in all of my previous lessons combined” (Hutchison, 2014, p. 62). Furthermore, Hutchison mentions the desired “artistic spontaneity” in music performance and argues that the Indian way of learning is uttermost helpful to achieve this state:

Authors like Barry Green (1986) and Eloise Ristad (1982) have written extensively on how to abate performance anxiety and achieve this artistic spontaneity in music performance, often referred to as a state of flow. I have found through studying and performing Hindustani music that the improvisatory style and requirement of spontaneity from the performer are significant in achieving a state of flow in any performance. (Hutchison, 2014, p. 64)

This phenomenon is related to Dard Neuman's (2012) argument as I mentioned in the literature review before: That is, I am not suggesting that the cognitive process—or the brain—is inoperative in these preparatory exercises. I am instead suggesting that the cultural sense of the “I that thinks” is kept in check until the “thing that thinks”—the body instrument—is properly trained to direct musical ideas.” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 427)

During our practices with Dr. Balaji when we worked on shifting with the left hand and I struggled with the intonation, he used to say: “It [the intonation] will come”. This simple sentence implies a basic approach, which is also bound to the concept of gnanam, a Sanskrit word meaning wisdom in the playing but particularly a bodily disposition. The simplicity of the sentence deceives us and triggers many questions in the mind. When will it come? How will it come? What should I do that it comes? The last question becomes relevant in this context because it is seen as the only area we can have control of; the exercises to change bodily conditions and to prepare the student to carry out the gnanam. The other questions might hinder the process of ‘be-coming’. One invites gnanam through the devoted and engaged practice rather than pushing the process. There is a connection of this understanding to the approach

50 of “de-subjectified states in the context of creativity and musical knowledge” by Dard Neuman (2012): I would like to suggest that in Hindustani music certain moments of creativity are utterly unremarkable, resting on the opposite end of the spectrum from inspiration or epiphany. The idea that “something is bound to happen” stands in contrast to more commonplace notions of creativity, which are profoundly endowed with that paradoxical quality of being quintessentially individualistic and divinely inspired, rigorously original and heavenly ordered; the creative “artist” is both an autonomous individual and a vessel for divine illumination. Hindustani notions of personal creativity are differently ordered, presented as either haphazard surprises or passive occurrences (“it just happened”) that emerge through the revelations of bodily instruments. Musical knowledge and creativity occur initially through de-subjectifed states. (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 440-441)

In this part, I investigate the concepts of cyclicity in Indian classical music, the continuity and non-verbal space in the course of transmission, focus on music, the riaz, and the drone as elements of immersion in music in relation to embodiment.

3.2.1 Cyclicity

Martin Clayton (2000) extensively discussed the concept of cyclicity in his book Time in Indian music: Rhythm, metre, and form in North Indian rag performance. His main argument was that “Indian music is linear and progressive at a local level, while non-linear features predominate at higher levels; tonal music extends the principle of linearity to control the hierarchical organization of pieces as a whole” (Clayton, 2000, p. 25-26).

He provides an explanation of the sam (the first—and the last—beat) and how it functions in the rhythmic structure of the raga:

In Indian tals the most important beat, sam, is both first and last; it is usually written as first, but more often than not functions as last in that it is the beat upon which rhythmic tensions are resolved. It is this ambiguity of the function of sam and the cadence-oriented improvisatory style, which are practical manifestations of this preference for cyclicity. (Clayton, 2000, p. 71)

Clayton relates the different emphases on the cyclicity and linearity to the differences in cultural ideologies: “where Western thought since the Enlightenment has valued progress and development … Indian theorists have sought to emphasize music's value as a state” (Clayton, 2000, p. 26). He quotes Rowell (1992), Such and Jairazbhoy (1982), and B. C. Deva (1974), saying that there is an innate “connection

51 between the cyclic tal structures and cyclic time in Hindu thought” (Clayton, 2000, p. 15). Clayton points out that the cyclic understanding extends to “lunar, stellar, and solar cycles up to the world cycles” (Clayton, 2000, p. 16) in Hindu cosmology. He referred to Clothey, who argued that, this particularity does not imply an exact repetition in the details but bears in itself the “world's eternal renewability” (1983, as cited in Clayton, 2000, p. 16). This kind of understanding of time corresponds to the aspects of tala and raga in Indian classical music, “the continuous process of rag development, and the recurrent temporal substructure of tal” (Clayton, 2000, p. 16). Clayton refers to Rowell (1992), saying that this characteristic had only came up from 13th century onwards. The 13th century is the date of Muslim conquests in India, namely, the time when the Muslim culture had been sinking into all fields of life. At this point, he links the change in the performance practice to the influence of Sufi thought, whereas in the ancient Indian musical system the performance should actually regulate cosmic time, as opposed to representing cyclic time (Clayton, 2000, p. 17). Relying on Hazrat Inayat Khan and Qureshi and regarding the mutual influence of the Hindu and Sufi thoughts, he argues that we should take both traditions into account. To exemplify “the images of cyclicity and circularity in Sufi thought”, Clayton quotes Hazrat Inayat Khan:

The tradition of the Sufis Raqs, the sacred dance of spiritual ecstasy … is traced to the time when contemplation of the Creator impressed the wonderful reality of His vision so deeply on the heart of [thirteenth-century mystic] Jelal-un-Din [Celaleddin] Rumi that he became entirely absorbed in the whole and single immanence of nature, and took a rhythmic turn which caused the skirt of his garment to form a circle, and the movements of his hands and neck made a circle. It is the memory of this moment of vision, which is celebrated in the dance of dervishes. (1991, as cited in Clayton, 2000, p. 17)

Dr. Balaji’s former student Perrine put a strong emphasis on the cyclic nature of her practice with Dr. Balaji, too. In the quotation below, she touches the subjects of involvement, trance state, the continuity of the practice, and the non-verbal space as well:

Once he [Dr. Balaji] starts, you have to follow, you improve because of that. It's a way of repeating. There are many stuff, which helps in this music. Tanpura helps to be in a trance state of being. Tabla also. Everything is in cycles, you think in cycles, you are in cycles. Teaching is also like that. For the tans also. Let's say, we have a composition in 16 beats. We will play together 8 beats of the composition. He will play alone the second part where he improvises. Again we play together and it's my turn to improvise. If I manage to repeat what

52 he did in improvisation it's ok, if I play just something similar it's also ok. And we repeat, repeat, and repeat. This is one kind of repeating stuff, which makes you being in trance in a sense. (Interview, 27 February 2018)

The cyclical understanding of music prevails in Indian classical music practices and performance. It is one of the important elements creating a meditative state in the riaz, which is an affective state for immersion in music.

3.2.2 ‘Take your violin in hand, don’t stop, work!’

The continuity and non-verbal space were other important features in our 'lesson's with Dr. Balaji. He used to warn us that we shouldn't stop to play even when he gave a break.

Please kindly don't stop because I'm hearing from there [the kitchen] and please don't, because this will make some habit. You should continue for two hours, three hours. (Personal communication, 26 December 2017)

The raga performances of Indian music can last one to two hours, depending on the concert's arrangement, on the mutual affection between the expectations of the audience and on the performer's mood. Related to the performance practice, the riaz is thought that it should have the same a continuous character, so that the students can practice according to the conditions of performance time and develop their endurance. Dr. Balaji taught us in a parallel fashion. Whenever I gave short but frequent breaks to relax my sleeping legs and to get some blood circulation down in my body, he would warn me that I have to exercise to be able to sit for long time.

You have to practice for your legs. You have sit at least for one hour, one-and-a-half hour. That has to make a habit. (Personal communication, 28 December 2017)

Weidman (2012) gives a parallel account about her learning period of playing the South Indian violin:

Just as my training in Western classical violin demanded the straight back and upright posture identified with “good technique” and “proper sound” in the West, so my training in Karnatic violin involved this ability to sit, cross-legged, for long periods of time, demanding a whole reeducation of my lower body. As Wacquant states, following Bourdieu, “‘the function of pedagogical work is to replace the savage body with a body habituated—that is, temporally structured’ and kinetically remodeled according to the specific demands of the field.” (2004, as cited in Weidman, 2012, p. 223]

Hutchison (2014) indicates that her guru, Kala Ramnath advised “that the scales are played over and over (100 times in a row for each string and each fingering) in a continuous cycle, accelerating in speed until the player “tops out’” (Hutchison, 2014, p. 45).

Perrine pointed out that in her 'lesson's with Dr. Balaji, they would continuously play, opposed to 'breaking things' in Western methodology:

He's going, you are going. Endless. He won't stop at the end of the 16 beats, he would go for one cycle more. And then it's my turn. He will never cut to explain what we are going to do. He's doing, I'm doing. If I don't understand, next time I will understand but he won't stop. He will never stop to tell “Ok, we will start at this point”. In Europe, it's like that. You talk together to decide when you start and you break the things. He just plays, you understand. If you don't understand its your problem, next time you understand maybe. He goes on and you have to follow. For everything, exercises and alap. Alap, we don't have cycles but its the same. He will play one phrase, I will do, he's doing another one, I'm doing. Same principle. (Interview, 27 February 2018)

The fact that Dr. Balaji was not in favor of giving breaks for verbal communication and physical relaxation had two important implications. First, as I mentioned above, the riaz should carry the same nature as the performance where the performer plays on without any interruption for one to two hours. Second, once we started to play and go into the repetitive loop structure, the bodily faculties were at work rather than the faculties of the mind. Whenever I attempted to cut the process with my questions as a habit I carried from the Western methodology, he would either answer me very shortly over the sound of our violins or played indicatively as a musical answer to my question. My questions were the callings of my mind to grasp the process in a declarative way while my body had struggled to understand the new information in procedural way. Deschênes and Eguchi (2018) talk about this phenomenon in their research about the embodiment processes in Japanese music and dance.

... Teachers give very few instructions during classes while, paradoxically, the pupils must not ask questions. When they do, the answer might be vague, short, or refer to something that does not have much to do with the question; ... . The reason the pupils should not ask questions is not solely for reasons of discipline or conformity, but it has to do with looking and paying attention, considering that the questions being asked and the presuppositions one might then have can interfere with how a pupil is attentive to what is being taught. (Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 73-74)

54 This kind of attention corresponds the somatic mode of attention, introduced by Mauss (1950) and Csordas (1993), too (look at the section 3.1.3 ('First the movement') above for a detailed investigation of the concept). In Turkish music, in the tradition of meşk, there is a similar saying: 'Demini almak'. When the music starts to 'cook' once, the space opens to go deeper in the music and the musicians prefer to go on playing rather than stopping to talk about what to play next.

The continuity and the non-verbal space opened during our course of 'lesson's with Dr. Balaji paved the way to embodiment of the transmitted musical ideas in the sense that these elements provided the continuity of musical sphere and bodily, somatic attentiveness needed for embodiment of the musical information.

3.2.3 Focus on music

One of the most prominent features I observed during my fieldwork was how the music occupied the central place in Dr. Balaji's life and how he demanded the same level of focus from his students. In our conversations, he argued that we, the musicians, regardless of where we are, form as a distinct caste; the musician caste. He introduced this explanation not as a formal and technical one rather to reinforce the desired concentration on music in a musician's life. We see the same idea echoing in Daniel Neuman (1990), where he refers to an Indian musician, saying, “all musicians have one religion, music” (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 60). Many times, when we talked about politics or any other engagements in life with Dr. Balaji, he brought the issue down to, that as musicians, our primary mission to fulfill in life is to make music. This level of focus implied a devotional aspect. In one lesson, he made the remark that the first condition was to love the instrument:

First you should love him [the violin]. One day, he will love you [back]. When he will love you, then you will enjoy. Your motive of life will be to enjoy, once you become beloved. (Personal communication, 1 January 2018)

In the interviews I conducted, his former students mentioned his passion about music. One of his former long-time students, Marie-Line Aubry said:

I think he has a very personal way to approach music, very original, [different] even from other Indian musicians. I used to be fascinated seeing his passion for music, seeing his creativity. He could spend nights in the music room. He was completely into his music. That had for sure a great impact on me, and how to consider music in one’s life. (Interview, 11 March 2018)

Besides Dr. Balaji's explanations, the focus on music was omnipresent in his life and even in the setting of his house. The main room in the house was the music room. Although they used this room for some other doings, too, it was obviously designed primarily for music. Apart from the tall Lord Balaji statue, covering one wall and many other items, such as pictures, paintings, awards, and statues of various gods on the other walls, there was no furniture in the room. They used chairs in the other rooms of the house but the only chair in the music room was designed as an altar where his father's garlanded photograph sat along with the father's violin and other items that were put there as offerings. Guruji's place was set and respected with a little carpet on a green mattress, covering the whole ground. Perrine described the effect of the music room as:

What I really liked was that it [the music room] was empty, no furniture. You arrive. You have the violin. The main thing is the violin and nothing else. It's full on the walls but the room is almost empty. (Interview, 1 March 2018)

That Dr. Balaji's life revolved around music was expressed in his bodily dispositions as well. In daily life, he experienced difficulties to move due to health problems. Although he was a very active man both at work and in the house, he used to have pain in his hands and sometimes difficulties to stand up after long time sitting and playing with us. Which amazed me was that it was a turning point when he started to play. He would render the complex phrases and fast bow changes with ease, as if he had none of these problems. Immediately, he would transform into a performer/guru, his bodily dispositions would change and form that of a fluent player. At times when he said that he's very tired, sick or had a minor accident, we asked him if it is ok to have the lesson under this conditions and he would always answer “For playing, I'm always ok”. In our numerous conversations, Dr. Balaji accounted: “Music is my best medicine for everything”.

Rahaim (2012) talks about the same phenomenon by referring to the Indic term sanskar. Its meanings vary from “an inborn disposition” to “an early family influence, or even a retained habitus from a past incarnation” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 177). He argues that it's about “adopting “situated perspectives”’ rather than “mimicking behaviors” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 177). Rahaim quotes Sameer Duplay talking about his guru Jitendra Abhisheki, saying:

56 Teaching bandish [compositions] was just one very tiny part of his entire being. And he used to say, “If you want to really, really learn music, just be with me.” And he really had the ability to … communicate many things without saying a word. (as cited in Rahaim, 2012, p. 117)

Referring to Duplay, Rahaim passes on to another Indic term, mudra. Having various meanings, Duplay used it in the sense of “a complete presence”: “There is an aphorism: 'Pure voice, pure mudra.' He [his guru Abhisheki] was unsurpassed in keeping his mudra pure. So his mudra was such that when he sat down to sing, it seemed as though some entirely different person was sitting there” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 117-118). Finally, Rahaim makes a reference to Tomie Hahn's (2007) book Sensational Knowledge: Embodying Culture Through Japanese Dance. Hahn remarks that her teacher's “presence as a performer differed so radically from her quotidian presence that she had to remind herself that it was the same person” (2007, as cited in Rahaim, 2012, p. 118).

To sum up, the focus on music the guru’s life reinforces the idea that the guru’s presence itself is music and emphasizes the role of bodily dispositions. As the guru demonstrates the features in her/his dispositions, the disciple is expected to acquire these dispositions during the course of face-to-face sessions and through sharing daily life with her/his guru. Furthermore, the focus on music establishes the space suitable for immersion in music, as music is seen as the primary occupation in the guru’s and disciple’s life. The material space and the overall organization of life are designed according to this idea. In order to immerse in music, the necessary seclusion from daily duties is echoed in the architecture of Dr. V. Balaji’s house as well. Moreover, we can observe in the decoration of the music room how music sank into every little detail. On the stairs around the altar of Lord Balaji, dancers performing various figures were depicted. Beside the paintings of Hindu deities on the walls, Dr. Balaji’s awards for his music, photographs of his family, all of them being performers, were hung. The paintings depicting the Trinity of South Indian music were placed on a high shelf as a sign of respect. Even on the ceiling, Indian classical music instruments were painted as decorative figures. Figure 3.3 shows the music room in Dr. Balaji’s house. For details of the music room, selected and photographed by me, see Appendix B, figures B.3, B.10, B.11, and B.12.

Figure 3.3: The music room in Dr. Balaji's house. A tall statue of Lord Balaji is situated on the wall across, and many awards, family photographs mainly taken during the concerts, and more depictions of various gods hung on the walls. The rug on the right is designated as the space of the guru, where Dr. Balaji always sat, taught, and played. We used to sit just across, in the place where Ertuğrul is seen on the left, playing the Turkish tanbur. (Büyükköksal, 2018)

In conclusion, the organization of the material space and the daily life, and the bodily dispositions of the guru are the elements helping to focus on music and therefore, creating a space for immersion in music.

3.2.4 Riaz

According to Daniel Neuman (1990) “the concept of riaz encompasses more than its translation as “practice” would suggest” (Neuman D. M., 1990, 34). He argues that the long durations of riaz symbolically equals to the level of musicianship in Indian classical music context. “It is not only a preparation for performance, but also a preparation for an unattainable perfection” (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 34). A dedicated riaz results inevitably in a high level of learning. Furthermore, related to

58 the dedication and devotion it requires, the concept “symbolizes a certain accomplishment of one's inner development” (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 34).

Although it's can be a years-long process to find the right way to do riaz individually, there were basic rules which Dr. Balaji have mentioned during our 'lesson's. There was no upper limit in duration but there should be a minimum of four hours reserved to riaz daily. The instructions how to execute it were related to the particular raga we worked on at times and he also mentioned the exercises which should be practiced life-long. In riaz, continuity and the meditative state were aimed. This process necessitates patience and endurance, inviting the 'right' dispositions of the body to come, rather than pushing oneself towards the goal of 'becoming better'. Endurance was an important component emphasized by Dr. Balaji. He recommended keeping sitting as long as possible and extend the duration gradually. Breaks were not favored apart from essential bodily needs. Furthermore, the focus time on one type of exercise was longer, related to the technique of rote repetition. Dr. Balaji suggested that just in the course of playing the ascending-descending of the scale, there were endless variations possible, both in the left and right hand. The suggested route was that the student should explore the variations in the light of observations she made during the 'lesson's. Another goal of riaz is to ‘free the hand’, the fluent movement of the left hand. As the positions in Indian style are not fixed in the sense of Western style, freeing is preeminent. The flexibility of the left hand is foremost important to be able to adapt itself to the musical necessities at hand. In addition to Dr. Balaji, his wife Shanti Balaji gave us accounts of how he practiced:

He stays up all night and he plays always. I tell you, always. He always practices. He never gives up practice. He practices before the student arrives, with the student, after the student leaves. Now that you go, he will stay awake and play. You should also practice like this. (Personal communication, 29 December 2017)

His two disciples, Sushil and Nuan—Wijekoon Bandara—asked us many times about how many hours a day we practiced. They had the college and household to take care of so it surprised me that they were practicing at least six hours a day. When I complained about the weather conditions that it was so cold in Varanasi and that made it hard to practice, Nuan suggested us to prepare hot water with salt and keep our hands in it for a while to be able to do our riaz. This conversation shows the level of importance put in riaz and there were no valid excuses to avoid it.

As Daniel Neuman (1990) suggests the English translation of 'practice' doesn't meet the implications of riaz. Rather than practicing to become better and improve your playing, the riaz process is not separated from the very act of playing music and it is also done for the sake of doing music. Of course, the inevitable result is that the one's playing improves but even after the rendition of a particular phrase sounds 'good', the student continues to render it to reach the “unattainable perfection” (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 34). This mechanism is related to what Dard Neuman (2012) calls as the “creativity beyond boredom” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 436). He says that the same phrase is repeated over and over, crossing far the frontiers of the boredom. He refers to khandani (the name for the family lineage specializing in music) practice rituals where “the student is made to grind over a musical sentence”: “The advantage of “grinding the same tana a thousand times”—until it begins to open up and break down into discrete musical places (jagah), into analytical phrase-bits that can be expanded in different ways” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 437). Neuman argues that the student in a modern context, such as; in the university, practice “toward perfection but merely mimicked that thing which they perfected”, whereas the student in the more traditional context practice went “beyond boredom and traveled toward innovation through independent explorations of their body-instruments” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 437).

In this sense, there is a strong relation of immersion in music to how the riaz should be done. Immersion in music starts already in riaz, as the student immerses her/himself in the meditative state of the practice. Perrine pointed out the meditative nature of her practice as well:

Indian music, I practiced ... it was like a kind of meditation. Really personal thing. I was really closed to people. I did not like to play for other people. I would like to play just for myself. In a vertical way. (Interview, 1 March 2018)

The dedication and devotion required for the process brings us to the issue of surrendering. Although improvement is expected as an inevitable result of the proper riaz, the approach to practice is more process-oriented rather than goal-oriented. The student is expected to surrender to the process of the practice with patience and endurance rather than aiming levels of improvement deliberately. In this sense, riaz has strong relation to the immersion in music in Indian classical music context.

60 3.2.5 The drone

Bonnie C. Wade (1999) defines the drone in her book Music in India: The Classical Traditions as “the sounding of a constant melodic pitch or pitch sequence that undergirds elaborate melodic improvisation; it adds a “harmonic” element to the music, … ” (Wade, 1999, p. 48). As the Indian music performance relies on one raga at a time, the drone holds the space by resounding the important pitches in this particular mood. Wade refers to Shri Chaitanya Deva (1967), who did an extensive research on the drone, who suggested that the drone became a definite component as late as the seventeenth century (as cited in Wade, 1999, p. 49). Clayton (2000) marks the drone as the potentiality bearing the raga and the melody inside in his description of a raga performance:

But the drone itself has, by this point, already become thoroughly fixed in the listener's mind, since it has sounded throughout the tuning process—not just the Sa, and one or two other important pitches such as (the fifth) Pa and (the leading note) Ni, but a dense cloud of harmonics produced by the tanpuras which seems to envelop performers and audience alike. At this moment I sense that the melody is already present in the drone, … and feel that I know which rag is to be performed, … And even when I'm wrong, it seems as though the rag actually presented was merely another of several possibilities, all latent, all potential. (Clayton, 2000, p. 1-2)

Strangways (1994) argues in a parallel fashion that the drone consolidates the melody and adds an expression by a Banaras musician, that without it the musician would feel “like a ship without a rudder” (Strangways, 1994, p. 171). Jairazbhoy (1995) agrees, saying that the drone acts like an anchor, “the ground-note is at rest and needs no contemplation” (Jairazbhoy, 1995, p. 65). Pesch (1999) links the effect of the drone to meditation, quotes Max Müller (1879-1910), in the foreword to the Sacred Books of the East, saying:

Our minds are like Kaleidoscopes of thoughts in constant motion; and to shut our inner eyes to everything else, while dwelling on one thought only, has become to most of us as impossible as to appreciate one musical note without harmonies.” (as cited in Pesch, 1999, p. 26)

Pesch argues that the basic note can pave the way to “luminosity or depth to every other note that follows …” (Pesch, 1999, p. 25). In addition, he provides a stave, presenting the flow of overtones in tanpura.

In my case, the drone was, first of all, a subtle marker of the non-verbal space in our 'lessons'. As the harmonics were enveloping us, the created space reminded us to remain in the music and leave out the interruptions for later, such as; asking questions. It was not a strict regulation—and I overrode it often with my questions motivated by the fieldwork—, we were just invited to act that way. Overall, when Dr. Balaji turned the tanpura machine on, it was the sign to start the tuning and when it was turned off for a longer period, our 'lesson' time was ending (CD 1, track 1). Figure 3.4 shows a tanpura machine, the same brand Dr. Balaji was using. It usually continued to sound all through the breaks we made during the 'lesson'. Guruji occasionally turned it down when he prepared to make a long explanation or to tell a story. In addition, to tune according to the tanpura machine was a different experience, regarding the harmonics at work, and it took time to adjust our ears. Once Dr. Balaji warned Ertuğrul to tune each string separately when tuning to the sound of the drone. I agree with Clayton in the sense that the sound of the tanpura bears the potentials of the raga and helps to reveal it. It had a surrounding effect as a bodily sensation as well, having the quality to carry and elevate the melody in the particular mood we played. The resonance of the particular pitches sank in gradually, which helped the process of immersion in the mood and the embodiment of the raga

Figure 3.4: A tanpura machine of Raagini brand. It works with battery or electricity. The switch in the front is for turning it on and off. The two knobs on the top adjust the volume and the pitch for the note Sa. The push buttons on the top are for regulating the pitches in the particular raga and the tempo of how they will be played. In some ragas only Sa-Pa-Sa-Pa is used, whereas in others Sa, Ma, Pa, and Ni are necessary to be included. (http://www.indianmusicalinstruments.com/raaginidigitaltanpura.htm, retrieved in 29 June 2018) through the hands and fingers. Finally, the drone played an important role in creating the space for the raga to reveal itself through us and in playing 'in tune' with the mood.

62 In this chapter, I investigated the teaching methodology in Indian classical music context, drawing on the examples from my experience with Prof. Dr. V. Balaji. In the first section, I looked on the technical side of transmission and the affective processes of embodiment through exploring the tools and techniques Dr. Balaji used. In the second section, I discussed the concept of immersion in music through the cyclical nature of Indian music, the continuity and nonverbality, the focus on music, the necessities in riaz, and the drone. In the next chapter titled ‘Pedagogy’, I talk about the three main pedagogical features in Dr. V. Balaji’s teaching, such as his usage of exclamations, his technique of pushing the student beyond her limits, and his dominating attentiveness.

4. PEDAGOGY

Relating to the thesis, I define pedagogy as a socio-cultural construction nurtured on the traditional understanding of transmission of musical knowledge in the Indian context. To start with a provocative statement, Dr. Balaji's main pedagogical features were to shout, to push and to be attentive. At first, these words might sound scary, especially for the ones with a background of Western pedagogy but opposed to their negative associations, Dr. Balaji used them to encourage the students in order to reveal their true potential. I argue that these features are intricately linked with the three basic elements in the transmission of Indian classical music, namely; discipline, dedication, and devotion as Daniel Neuman (1990) stated:

… There are three elements required to become a performer of art music in India: (1) one's will or discipline (riaz), (2) one's teacher or perhaps—more properly—one's guide (the guru- shishya institution), (3) one's spiritual status or divine intercession or grace (the world of Supreme Being). (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 30)

In addition, these features are seen more like familial characteristics or like in a friendship relation in the intimacy of the guru-shishya relationship. First, Dr. Balaji's shouting was not intended to shy the student away about her mistakes or to silence the student if she played out of tune. On the contrary, his shouting worked to encourage the student to try more, not to be afraid to make mistakes and to make strong sound. Second, pushing the student beyond her limits is another main trend in his teaching. For instance, he constantly demanded that I should play stronger and didn't give up until I achieved the strong sound that he wanted. Dr. Balaji described it as 'fighting' in one of our conversations, as I depicted before in the thick description, presented in the second chapter. His former students in the interviews I conducted also supported his expression of ‘fighting’. Third, his attentive presence about the execution of the fingering, bowing, timbre, and phrasing demanded constant concentration from the student. This feature corresponds also to the issue of focus on music, not constrained to the duration of the lessons. These characteristics of Dr. Balaji's teaching triggered effective processes in the embodiment of musical ideas.

4.1 ‘You Know Friends Kick Each Other. It’s Like a Friendship.’

Our guru presented himself as 'the shouting teacher' already in our first days. Despite his mighty, controlling presence, for me, his 'shouting' didn't imply the emotion of ‘anger’; rather I experienced it as a sign of his attentiveness. In Indian context, the behaviors of teachers may seem harsh at times but in fact they are signs of the level how serious the teacher takes the student. Finally, I was not even aware of his shouting as an 'issue'. It attracted my attention when he spoke of it as a difference between the Western and Indian pedagogy. He spoke of incidents when some foreigner students didn't like the element of shouting in his teaching:

The person who has come to my house and digests my shouting, he never leaves my house. Because he understands what I am. Sometimes when I'm teaching, I can get irritating, also to you, I shout “Hey, what you're doing?!” Some foreigners, they don't like this. I say, “Namasthe” [goodbye]. But this is the way [to teach]. (Personal communication, 27 December 2017)

Dr. Balaji gave an example of a professor of piano coming from Europe, who watched his class, appreciated his teaching very much and likened it to the way how it was two hundred years ago in Europe. Afterwards she became his long-time student and a family member. The first time they met, she expressed her approach as below:

The way you are shouting, you are asking them [the students] to play, make them repeat again and again and again and how you ask the students to sing: this is what we lost about two hundred years ago in Europe, in our country. (Personal communication, 27 December 2017)

His exclamations over the sound of our violins and tanbur, such as; “Two notes in a bow!”, “Strong bow!”, or “Repeat!”, acted as strong reminders for me to recollect the concentrated state necessary to play. They also triggered the awareness of the self, pushed me to pay more attention, and brought me back to the rendition of the particular phrase at hand, immediately. Dr. Balaji explicitly expressed himself on the importance he placed in teaching and explained that the meaning of his shouting equals to the relation in a friendship:

Tomorrow I will not be alive maybe but I will be there in your playing. This is your responsibility. Sometimes I'm shouting in my flow of teaching, don't take it personal. You know friends kick each other; it's like a friendship. (Personal communication, 26 December 2017)

66 4.2 ‘Try, Do the Mistake!’

One of his former foreign students, Perrine, originally came for her engineering studies to India and decided to learn Indian classical music. She went back to India many times after that. First time in 2001, she had a guruji in Delhi, Joy Srivastava, who occupied a very special place in her life. It was her third time in India when she met Dr. Balaji. Their first period together lasted for six months, and she had an intense learning duration with him. Besides talking about the issues of nonverbality and imitation, she described the lessons as 'fighting' musically.

He [Dr. Balaji] was not saying much, more than Nanaji [Joy Srivastava] but still. He was mainly pushing me; we were fighting actually. He was doing something, I was doing, he was doing something harder, and I was trying. But even if I had some difficulties, I was continuing anyway, we were fighting like that. And it was going on, on, on, ... I remember once, we were together doing a scale from the lower string, I think it was 3 octaves. Going up, going down, really quickly, he was increasing the beat in the tabla box. [After that] he looked at the clock, it turned out that we played like that half an hour without stopping. It was a fight! The first, who was giving up, was losing it. This kind of learning. (Interview, 27 February 2018)

Dr. Balaji many times used the expression I quoted in the title of the section: “Try! Do the mistake!” We also had conversations about it in which he argued the lesson is the time where the student should try to follow the guru whatever it takes and not be afraid to do mistakes. On the contrary, the guru’s presence is the most appropriate place to do mistakes so that the guru can act on them and lead the student to the right path in the exercise: “In my teaching, you should try” (Personal communication, 26 December 2017). As the teacher practices with the student regardless of the simplicity of the exercise, this practice phase is seen where the transmission of musical knowledge is directly coming from the source, the teacher. The student’s bodily dispositions are shaped in these sessions by observation and imitation of the teacher. Another stress he put in the lessons was on the issue of confidence. Dr. Balaji woke me up with his often-repeated exclamation: “With full confidence!” In that way, he was pushing me to realize the expressive element in the particular phrase and to manifest it in my playing.

The feature which displayed a striking difference between my past experiences and Dr. Balaji’s teaching was expressed in his question, asked on a daily basis: “Do you enjoy it?” It was not about if I was content with his teaching but if I was really 67 enjoying to practice, to play, and to intensively work on music. This attitude opened up for me a different understanding of the ‘work’. The working is seen no different than music making, as the practice is not separated from the performance-related aspects of music. Instead of an approach that divides the preparation for music and the very act of doing music, the process was seen as a whole where the student was expected to enjoy all of its phases. In Oppenheim (2012), there are parallel accounts by foreigner students in the interviews: “It doesn’t matter what [one’s] skill level is, it’s important to have fun and to improvise, even if [one] can’t do it, [they should] just try” (as cited in Oppenheim, 2012, p. 108). Finally, ‘to have fun’ implies to be engaged actively in the process, including its sensational aspects. A second possible implication is that instead of loading an emotional weight on the question of which level one has to attain, the desired state of the student is that she continues to practice and let the development happen.

4.3 Attentiveness

Throughout our lessons, one of the important features was Dr. Balaji’s attentive presence about the execution of the fingering, bowing, timbre, and phrasing, which demanded constant concentration from the student. The overall lesson plan seemed to be spontaneous and improvised while Dr. Balaji had a clear structure and memory about what he planned to teach and which elements he already taught. The paragraph below exemplifies his attentiveness about our level of learning and playing, and his communication about the learning material.

In the last lessons, he wanted mostly that we just watch, listen and record him, to collect enough material aimed for future practice. Although Ertuğrul and me enjoyed the music, at the same time we became impatient to play with Dr. Balaji. In one of the last lessons, I finally brought it up, said that we really enjoyed to play together, and asked him why we didn’t do it anymore. It sounded like a reproach, too. Dr. Balaji explained that if we just continued to play now like in the first half of our learning period; going back home, we wouldn’t remember what we have done. He argued that taking the video recording is like taking him back home with us, pointing out that our time span together is very short. Two days later, he implicitly showed in practice what he meant. He invited a tabla player to the lesson so that we can learn the rhythmical structure of Indian classical music and have a real-time experience

68 instead of having the tabla machine (a video excerpt of this lesson can be watched in the attached CD 2, track 1). Before the start, he declared that we would play the compositions together we learned so far. During the course of our playing, it turned out that we didn’t remember all the compositions, having been overloaded with the information flow. He demonstrated that he had a clear-cut plan and was aware the process, saying, “You may not remember what I taught you, but I remember”. He was attentive about our reproach and in addition to explaining us the reason he emphasized recordings, he showed us in a practice that we were not ready, yet, and that we should follow him.

Dr. Balaji was not only attentive to the lesson process but also to our states of health and/or mood. When we went to our tenth lesson, I was feeling tired, which he immediately noticed and act on it:

V. B.: Asli, today you look different, so … serious. Everything is ok, something happened?

A. B.: No, I think I’m just tired. … Music will do well to me.

After we finished tuning, I asked him if we could do video recording of the bow exercises he showed one day ago. When I started to record, he stopped and just gave a big smile to the camera, looking like a child. I was surprised and started to smile back.

V. B.: Please smile, not so serious!

Finally, Dr. Balaji’s attentiveness had two main components; first, to our musical development and second to our general state. In this way, he was shaping our time together, communicating effectively about music and our presence.

In this chapter, I demonstrated the links between the three main pedagogical characteristics of Dr. Balaji’s teaching and the embodiment processes, namely the ‘shouting’ and usage of exclamations, pushing the student beyond her borders, and the guru’s attentive presence and acting in the lessons. I argued that the pedagogical techniques used by Dr. Balaji are in accord with the nature of the transmission of Indian music and result in the embodiment of musical ideas, through investigating how the bond between the guru and the shishya was established in the course of the long hours spent together.

5. THE SPIRITUALITY - THE SPIRITUAL/RELIGIOUS SETTING

The first two paragraphs below are edited fieldnotes of our first meeting, depict our first entrance to Dr. Balaji's house and highlight some of the spiritual/religious elements omnipresent in his space.

After removing our shoes outside of an iron gate, we passed a well lighted outside hall decorated with many depictions of the god Hanuman and other gods. From there, we entered a big room with no furniture inside, again well-lighted and shiny, fully decorated with pictures of the family, with more depictions of Hanuman, other gods, and the Trinity of South Indian music. Many awards of various competitions and ranks were hanging on the walls. An impressive statue of Lord Balaji with his black face, covering nearly all the wall across, dominated the ambiance of the room. It felt like we were entering a temple of music.

When V. Balaji went to the kitchen, his disciple, Sushil showed his respect for Lord Balaji, going down on his knees facing the statue, hands together in a gesture of prayer. He repeated the same moves for the pictures of gurus V. K. Venkataramanujam—Dr. V. Balaji's father—, V. N. Krishnan Iyengar—his grandfather—, and Smt. N. Rajam—his guru—which hung all over the right wall. The pictures of the gurus served like an altar to show respect. The spiritual and religious atmosphere was omnipresent in the Dr. Balaji's space, reinforced by the continuous Vedic chant coming out of a recorder in the kitchen. (Fieldnote, 20 December 2017)

Because I focus on Dr. Balaji as a case study, who is a Brahman and a practitioner of Hinduism, I mainly discuss the Hindu elements present in the music but also add the ideas from Islamic Sufism as the both traditions mutually influence each other. In the first section, I try to provide a picture of the overall context in India, in relation to my field experiences with Dr. Balaji and the reflections of his former foreign students based on the interviews I conducted. In the second section, I discuss my fluid stance engaging in the spiritual/religious setting as a foreign student and a participant observer. I focus on how I related to the setting and how this relational stance acted on my behavior and playing in relation to embodiment. At this point, I utilize the tool of autoethnographical writing to inform the reader about the socio-cultural background of the researcher. I discuss these elements by looking into my past experiences as an individual, expectations as a student and a researcher, referring to

71 the discussion about Westerner’s experiences of spirituality in Asian musics, and analyzing an excerpt from our sixth lesson where the spiritual elements were explicitly shown in practice by Dr. Balaji.

5.1 Dr. Balaji’s Teaching in Relation to Hinduism and Islamic Sufism in India

In Indian classical music scene, the spiritual aspects are seen as inherent in musical practice. The reinforcement of these elements is especially in the guru-shishya relationship but also in the institutionalized education system of universities. The Saraswati statue, which is believed to be the goddess of music, art, and wisdom, welcomes the one who enters Banaras Hindu University’s music department to this day (Appendix B, Figure B.1). The depictions of various gods and goddesses are hung on the walls in teachers' rooms as well. Daniel Neuman (1990) commented on the shared belief that:

Slawek (1999) has also noted that the link between the music and spirituality have existed since the ancient times in Hindu culture: “Philosophers and aestheticians alike within the Hindu tradition have attributed mystical powers to music; thus those who are capable of performing music are likewise invested with spiritual powers” (Slawek, 1999, p. 458).

Dr. Balaji expressed his ideas about music in a parallel fashion in our numerous personal conversations. Below is one excerpt where he talks about the concept of gatra veena:

How to receive the energy; this [the music] is one of the ways, one of the methods with which you can reach up to him [god. He points with the head to the statue of Lord Balaji]. ... Because it [the music] is provided by the greatest God. … In the Veda, it is clearly mentioned; this is called [showing the body] gatra veena. Gatra means singing. The whole body is singing veena. Once it comes from the hand, what you are playing? What the heart is allowing you. ... This is what we need. So the music is one of the sources to reach up [god] … (Personal communication, 20 December 2017)

The concept of gatra veena, introduced in Natyasastra, implies that the human body itself is seen as the primary instrument linked to the divine realm. The focus in music

72 making process is on the vocal sound, or expressed in bodily means, the vocal chords. Dr. Balaji talked about the pulse of the heart as the source of the laya (tempo) and he exemplified rasa (taste) with the taste of the mother's milk in accord with the doctrine of microcosm and macrocosm as I discuss referring to Rowell (1992) below.

The innate mechanisms and sounds of the body Dr. Balaji referred to as the basic sources of music.

There are three things important in music. One is higher note and lower note [swara], number one. Number two, they said the rasa, that is called taste, timbre. And third, that is the laya, laya is tempo. … Because not a single child will cry like this [imitates a bird sound, talks about the swara]. Mother gives milk, there is the taste, rasa. Laya is provided in the nature. If you are angry at me, you won't say: [with a plain voice and in slow tempo] “Gu-ru-ji-I-am- ve-ry-an-gry-on-you”. No, no one has taught you, it is already there, provided by nature to the body. That's why each person knows; this is something no one teaches. (Personal communication, 20 December 2017)

Rowell (1992) comments that the “anthropomorphic imagery” (Rowell, 1992, p. 232) has been present in Indian philosophies since ancient times. He refers to Kapila Vatsyayan (1983), talking about the “Man-Body symbolism”:

Briefly, these [the paradigmatic models] add up to conceiving human body as a living vital symbol of the macrocosm with many inbuilt systems of organic relationships of the parts to the whole and to each other. The unity of life, the interdependence and interconnectedness of all manifestations is at the core of this vision. … This Man-Body is placed in an eternal cosmic rhythm (Rta) of the universe. (as cited in Rowell, 1992, p. 232-233)

Rowell explores the understanding of music's sacredness, by relying on the doctrine of microcosm and macrocosm. The doctrine is built upon the idea that “the entire universe could be compressed into a drop of water [or] a grain of sand” and “the innermost center of human existence, which is the source of all sound, has the potential to encompass all worlds that can be imagined” (Rowell, 1992, p. 16). The doctrine prevailed in Indian musical ideology and was a cause of “constant tension … in that music is valued not only for the delight that it brings through sensory experience but also because it provides a glimpse of the reality that is to be sought beyond the reach of the senses” (Rowell, 1992, p. 18). Rowell argues that the central idea of sound in Indian philosophies indicates the concept of akasa, “the audible space that fills the universe”, surrounding everything that exists.

It is one, universal, eternal, causal (but not caused), permeating both personal and transpersonal consciousness, and manifested along the human pathway from inner to outer space. Its discharge in the form of vital breath is both an act of worship and an affirmation of universal process. (Rowell, 1992, p. 41)

Not only in Hindu tradition but also in Islamic Sufism in India, we can trace this connection. Qureshi (2009) argues “Both Hinduism and Islam offer spiritual validation for discipleship through the paradigm of spiritual guidance, through the Hindu concept of gurukul” (Qureshi, 2009, p. 170). The guru – shishya relationship resembles strongly the piri–muridi (the spiritual guide and her/his follower) commitment in the Sufi discipleship. Qureshi claims “the general Sufi interpretation … is to accord special significance to music as a means for giving a more universal reach to Islam” (Qureshi, 1995, p. 83). Relying on my personal experiences in the practice of Sufism in Turkey—excluding the orthodox Sufi sects which either take a distanced stance from especially instrumental music or prohibit it altogether— Islamic mysticism places the mystical music and the practice of sama (the whirling dervishes' prayer in the form of dance) at its core as an expression of the divine love and as a tool to achieve the ecstatic state where this divine love can be experienced mentally and bodily. According to Qureshi (1995), the Chishtiya tradition and qawwali music are two major expressions of Indic Sufism, where we can observe the focus on music as a vehicle to reach the divine. David Roche (1999) cites one of the sheikhs (mystic guide) of Chishtiya sect, Nizamuddin Auliya (1242-1325) of Delhi, describing the sama' ritual and the role of devotional music in this assembly:

In listening, the devotee experiences a sense of spiritual bliss, which may be manifest as celestial lights, mystical states, and physical effects. Each of these derives from three worlds: the present world, the angelic sphere, and the potential realm, this last being intermediate between the first two. And these three manifestations of spiritual bliss may occur in one of three places: the spirits, the hearts, or the bodily limbs. At first, celestial lights descend from the angelic sphere on the spirits, then mystical states descend from the potential realm on the hearts, and finally physical effects from the physical world alight on the bodily limbs. In other words, during the state induced by listening to music, celestial lights descend from the angelic sphere upon the spirits. What subsequently appear in the heart are called mystical states, because it is from the potential realm that they descend on the hearts. Next, crying, movement, and agitation appear, and they are called physical effects because they alight from the present world on the bodily limbs. (1992, as cited in Roche, 1999, p. 320]

74 This quote from Nizamuddin Auliya, who was one of the most influential religious leaders of Chishtiya sect in India, explicitly displays the relationship between the Chishtiya tradition as a sect of Islamic Sufism in India and the understanding of music as a tool to reach divine states. When we come back to the Hindu tradition, Lewis Rowell (1992) gives a detailed account about the sacred status of the music and particularly sound, investigating the ancient texts until the middle of 13th century in his book Music and musical thought in early India. Referring to a statue of the god Shiva, he indicates the primary importance of sound in the Hindu cosmology:

The small hourglass drum in Shiva's uplifted right hand represents the akasa (atmosphere)— the “audible space that fills the universe”—which according to the Taittiriya Upanişad is the first [to] evolute from the universal soul, the atman (3.6), which causes sound to issue forth at the first moment of creation. (Rowell, 1992, p. 3)

Coming to the issue of embodiment in guru-shishya relationship, Rahaim (2012) explores the intense, mutual devotion between the two parties through the perspective of embodiment. “The relationship between teacher and student is marked through various bodily disciplines” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 112). When the student encounters her/his guru, the convention to show respect is to touch the feet, as we were also instructed to do so by Dr. Balaji. In return, Dr. Balaji would place his hand on our heads as a blessing. As I described in the above sections, he also led us through various rituals, such as; the kneeling down in front of Lord Balaji's statue, his father's and Dr. N. Rajam's pictures. The pictures were treated as being far more than merely photographs. They carried the symbolic meaning of the gurus' presence. Dr. Balaji also instructed us that we should do the kneeling down in a particular row, according to the hierarchy of the gurus; Lord Balaji was the first, then came his father V. K. Venkataramanujam, and after him Dr. Balaji's guru, Dr. N. Rajam. After them was the turn for Dr. Balaji. Far more being just a ritual, these moves were enacted in the sense that the gurus were present in the room. Dr. Balaji did the same row of rituals like us before starting and ending his lessons. Rahaim (2012) describes the same situation in Shaunak Abhisheki's house:

… Jitendra Abhisheki's son, Shaunak Abhisheki, lives and teaches in the same house his father did, and his father is palpable presence—but not only as intangible memory. A photograph of his father, draped with cloth and a garland of flowers, is displayed prominently in the music room. Before Shaunak teaches a lesson, he touches the ground in front of the chair, as he might if Abhisheki were sitting there in the flesh. … Nor this is a matter of dry

ritual—as one of his students was recalling his teaching methods to me, he suddenly broke down in tears of grief of his late teacher. (Rahaim, 2012, p. 112)

Weidman (2012) mentions the same ritual is enacted in South India. Her guru's father whom her guru referred as “my mother, my father, and my guru” hung in an angle “so that it looked down on anyone who looked at it and compelled them to look up” (Weidman, 2012, p. 225).

Figure 5.1 shows the garlanded photograph of Dr. Balaji’s father, the late violin vidwan and ex-reader of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Dr. Venkataramanujam (for detailed information on Dr. Venkataramanujam, see Appendix D). Figure 5.2 shows Dr. Balaji’s guru, Dr. N. Rajam.

Figure 5.1: The garlanded photograph of Dr. Balaji’s father, Dr. V. K. Venkataramanujam (for detailed information see Appendix D). Behind the photograph, the father’s violin rests. The picture is set on the chair and with the added effect of the clothing; the setting shows him in a near-real presence, sitting on the chair. (Büyükköksal, 2018)

Figure 5.2: Dr. N. Rajam’s picture. Dr. N. Rajam is Dr. Balaji’s guru in Banaras Hindu University. The picture was hung above the human height on the wall of the music room, possibly out of respect. (Büyükköksal, 2018)

76 There was other various rituals done regularly and explicitly in Dr. Balaji's house. Nearly everyday when we arrived, we would hear Vedic chant (attached CD 1, track 2) coming from the kitchen out of a special machine designed to play it. Dr. Balaji's wife would do a blessing tour in the house on a daily basis at the same times, carrying around a flame in a steel bowl of oil. She would enter the music room and regardless of the situation we were at hand—playing or having a conversation—she would slowly present the fire with minimal circular moves to the deities' presence in the room and would go out to the outside hall to continue where there were more depictions of the deities. Because a small temple was situated in the kitchen, the plates were first washed in a separate washroom and then brought to the kitchen. The innate spirituality was also present in Dr. Balaji's routines in the lessons. Every time when we would exchange instruments, for instance, when I would give my violin to him to look at it, we enacted the gesture of holding the instrument to our heads as a sign of respect. The instruments were seen part of the sacred world and we were explicitly led to behave accordingly. When we would walk across the room, it was inappropriate to jump over the instruments that were usually laid down on the ground; instead one should walk around them. It was also required to use the right hand for everything, especially giving and taking things. Another common gesture was to pull on one ear with the hand when talking about a respected elder or gods.

During our time in Varanasi, Ertuğrul hurt his knee in a minor accident and he was not able join the lessons for a while. When he was able to come back after three days, it was still painful for him to sit long time on the ground. Dr. Balaji offered him to sit on the chair and brought a chair from another room, but Ertuğrul hesitated and finally preferred the ground. Dr. Balaji interpreted his preference that it was a sign that he is a good musician:

Dr. V. Balaji: You see Madame; I think his consciousness doesn’t allow him to sit on the chair.

Aslı Büyükköksal: Maybe, he didn’t feel connected like this.

V. B.: No no, you know what I think. When his teacher is sitting on the ground his consciousness was not ok to sit higher. It’s a good sign; it shows that he’s a good musician. (Personal communication, 29 December 2017)

In this excerpt, we see that the respect for the guru is seen as essential for the establishment of musicianship. As the guru is seen as a representative of god, this

77 respect is connected to the respects for gods. Weidman (2012) points out the same idea behind sitting cross-legged on the floor in South India: “During concerts, in which―as the dominant ideology of South Indian “classical” music would have it―musicians are projecting the personae of devotees worshipping and showing their humility toward god through music, musicians sit on the floor ” (Weidman, 2012, p. 224).

Apart from the existence of the rituals, the spirituality was also integrated in Dr. Balaji’s playing during the 'lesson's, especially in his gestural expressions. When he played and sang to exemplify a raga or to show the possible aesthetic elements in the rendition of a composition, his facial expressions and gestures would hint the deities in the room. At times, he would turn his face and open his palms to Lord Balaji, in gratitude, offering him the particular ornamentation in the phrase or looking at him in search of inspiration. He would point to the Krishna statue with a nod of his head or with the eyes, when the lyrics in the song were about Lord Krishna. Sometimes, turning to his father's photograph, he would play the alap as if taking his consent about it.

In one lesson, when I could do the shifting with the second finger all through the scale accurately, he turned to Lord Balaji and thanked him for this explicitly. Dr. Balaji’s behavior accords with the understanding that the music is seen as the gods' doing rather than the musicians'; the human body, i.e., the vocal chords and/or fingers, and the musical instruments are seen as the tools used by the ‘Divine Will’ (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 43) so that the music is created. Daniel Neuman (1990) points out this approach as below:

The musician often describes himself as merely the instrument for what is in essence the will and thereby the music of God. Without riaz the instrument is itself incapable of expressing everything. … Of course, given Divine Will anything is possible... (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 43)

This understanding relates also to the concept of “de-subjectified states” in Dard Neuman’s (2012) article about the creativity and pedagogy. Opposed to the Western approach that the artist plays central role in the creative process, the creativity is “presented as either haphazard surprises or passive occurrences” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 441).

78 When I asked Perrine what kept her connected to Indian classical music as she continues to play in this style to this day, she described her connection had been personal and used the word “verticality”:

I practiced and played it like a meditation. Really personal thing. … I cannot say divine or anything but vertical thing. I was playing for I don't know who or what but this [pointing up]. Playing Irish music is horizontal; it’s for other people, to be together in the humans’ world. Indian music, it was vertical for me. … I was not at all in a mood of playing with other people, meeting, ... Really inside thing. (Interview, 1 March 2018)

When I asked how she related to the spiritual/religious setting in Dr. Balaji’s house, she preferred to talk about her experience of India before meeting Dr. Balaji, saying that she’s not bound with an institutionalized religion and she liked the connection she felt:

Ok, I'm French, I'm not Christian by birth, I'm nothing officially lets say. But I believe in something, I don't need to call it with any special word, I don't care about it actually. So I was quite young, 21, when I first went there. It was really strong. In music, but also in all India. I really like the connection that I had in this context. Its not a question of Hindu, I don't care about that, it's not the important thing. With music also it’s very present. (Interview, 1 March 2018)

Later on, she also described how it felt for her in Dr. Balaji’s house:

Ok, with my first guruji ... there were no questions like that [touching the feet to show respect]. But when I met Balaji, it's really present. First, he's Brahman first and my first guruji was not. And Balaji is from the South [of India] that makes also a difference. I think, it [the spirituality] is more present in the South. ... So he's asking explicitly to do it. I was quite young and really flexible on these things. ... But he didn't ask me to do it with N. Rajam or with his own father. ... I was “Ok, let's do that.” I was not totally comfortable with that. I had no problem but I was just doing. (Interview, 1 March 2018)

As we see in this excerpt, the rituals in particular had no effect on Perrine’s learning and/or playing, since she didn’t internalize them. When I explicitly asked if it contributed in the learning process, she answered: “Not the external things”. She elaborated on the special connection with her first guruji, calling it “from the heart”. Another feature we can observe is that although the underlying spirituality had been present, the rituals enacted or expected from the students to be acted differ also according to the person or time. There are no strict rules; in the meanwhile the main idea seems to remain the same. In the other interviews I conducted with former foreign students of Dr. Balaji, there were no explicit details given but the spiritual

79 aspect was a frequent topic mentioned. As an answer to my question about his experiences of Dr. Balaji’s methods, Gabriele Politi said: “An absolutely new feature for me, assimilated from his lessons, consists of a spiritual, mystical approach to music, an approach that the master also demanded in our relationship” (Interview, 3 April 2018). Arnaud Bourdonnay answered the question about how his perception of music and playing changed after he travelled to India, saying:

India added a spiritual side to music I suppose, like something sacred, partly due to their culture and conception of music, with gods etc. They really respect music and their instrument and really take it seriously to another level. This was new for me. … culture and values infused in me later on. And the respect for teachers in general. (Interview, 5 March 2018)

Another former student of Dr. Balaji, Marie-Line Aubry, made a short comparison between the music education she had before, saying: “In France, I used to go for regular classes, individual or collective, with a strong frame, exams, step by step, very organized. There was no dimension of the sacred power of music, which I discovered in India” (Interview, 11 March 2018).

5.2 An autoethnographical approach

Spirituality has been a problematic concept both hard to discuss and define in an academic context. Jay Keister (2005) brings it up in relation to the investigation of the issues of “authenticity” and the “other” in his article “Seeking Authentic Experience: Spirituality in the Western Appropriation of Asian Music”. He argues that “the latest self-reflexive move in ethnomusicology calls for an examination of an important discourse about music in which “authenticity” and the “other” play significant roles: the discourse of spirituality” (Keister, 2005, p. 36). Although the definition of spirituality is problematic, especially cross-culturally, he claims an “experience-centered approach” can be useful in the context of ethnomusicology and refers to Ho (2001) who presented four categories of “spiritual sensitivity” and adds that this categorization is in accord how the music performance is experienced both by the performer and the audience:

1. The here-and-now experience: a complete immersion into the experience of the present moment, being intensely committed to the immediacy of the here-and-now in its full concreteness; 2. Tuning: a complete “resonance” or “being in tune” with something outside of oneself, such as a musical performance and nature; 3. Flow: a total absorption in the

80 performance of a task, with the feeling that the activity, rather than the performer, is managing itself; 4. Focusing: the “bodily felt sense” of any experience ... an expression of the wisdom of the body.” (2001, as cited in Keister, 2005, p. 37)

As a foreign researcher and student in Indian classical music context, how was my relation to the spiritual/religious setting in Dr. Balaji’s space? I will try to take my experience under focus as a subject matter, to clarify the process of the selection and interpretation of the data, and to investigate my individual experience as a source for understanding the socio-cultural phenomenon of spirituality. To start with, I will give background information about my relation with the concept of spirituality in the past.

As an inborn in Turkey and raised in a secular family context, I have had merely a common-sense knowledge about the institutionalized Islam and its practices in the Turkish society, feeling distanced to them. My concrete connection with Sufism— the mystical Islamic tradition in Turkey with its various branches, carrying distinct characteristics—started through music. Five years ago, I had joined an international sama gathering held in Turkey, open to everybody regardless of their age, gender, and belief. By that time, I already had other experiences with spiritual disciplines, such as the Native American practices, and read books about various other spiritual traditions, but had not experienced them in their original context. As a work of literature, I was familiar with Mesnevi, the work of Rumi, who was one of the most influential Sufi mystics in Anatolia and the Middle East. Originally going to the sama gathering ‘just to play music’, I became involved in sama, semah and zikr practices based mostly on Mevlevi, Chishtiya and Anatolian Alaoite (Alevi) teachings throughout the time. Though I haven’t been defining myself with an institutionalized religion so far. In summary, I had been familiar with comprehensive and well-rooted spiritual/religious traditions since a while when I arrived in India. According to Fuller’s (2001) categorization, as quoted in Keister (2005), I seem to fit into the category of “seeker spirituality”. Fuller introduces the concepts of “habitation spirituality” and “seeker spirituality”, whereas the first one refers to the bond with institutionalized religions, the individuals who tend to the latter one “resist settling with any particular church community and choose to follow their own individualistic path, which they feel is a more authentically spiritual way of life” (as cited in Keister, 2005, p. 39).

Coming back to the fieldwork process, there were three main relational aspects of my ‘being in Dr. Balaji’s space’ with the background I had. First, as a researcher, I carried a responsibility to the research, which required that I participated in the local acts to gain an understanding of how ‘it feels’, and at the same time, preserve my stance to inquire the hidden meanings through the researcher’s eye.

Second, again with my identity as a researcher, I was having anxiety about the appropriation of the “other’s musics” and their attached meanings. Keister (2005) argues that the widespread enactment of the spirituality by the Westerners has multiple implications and one of them is the problem of “spiritual commodity” (Keister, 2005, p. 38). Referring to Bohlman (1997) who talks about Sufism, saying that musics originating from various Sufi traditions are introduced into world music market as a broad category for the sake of marketing strategies: “Bohlman clarifies that this move is less about classification of music than it is about ownership of musical and religious practice as “ownership has passed to the consumer of music with the transformation of religious music to spiritual music”’ (1997, as cited in Keister, 2005, p. 38). Bruno Nettl (2005) discusses this issue around the question “who owns this music, and what may someone who does not own it do with it” (Nettl, 2005, p. 198). Nettl points out that the idea of ownership is a culture-specific issue and it is in the researcher’s responsibility to behave according to the specific culture’s values. In the age of Internet, the ownership becomes a more complex issue and additional regulations are needed to adapt to the mechanisms of the virtual world. In my case, Dr. Balaji, being himself a professor of violin in Banaras Hindu University, was involved in the research idea. For instance, he willingly agreed that I made recordings of him playing certain ragas aimed especially for the project.

Third, as an individual coming to the field, loaded with past experiences of Sufism in Turkey and my familiarity with its practices, such as; respecting the masters and the enactment of various rituals, I had the experience that I enacted them not only to adapt to the situation but also along with an internalization of their implied meanings. This situation brought up the discussion of emic/etic approaches and the insider/outsider interface. I had to be aware about my classifications and interpretations of Dr. Balaji’s enactment of Hinduism as a religion, so that they should be analyzed in the right context and not according to my previous experiences in Sufism. Moreover, I had to pay more attention to preserve my critical stance and

82 to step back at times for a broader understanding of the issues. On the other side of the coin was that I could become aware of the commonalities and general tendencies in the rituals of both traditions, which helped me not to confine Dr. Balaji’s presence in the ‘other’ness. Alaghband-Zadeh (2013) points out that the innate connection between religious devotion and Indian classical music was present also before the twentieth century. Though to understand the up-to-date situation, we need to take into account “the transformation, inflected by the Hindu nationalist rhetoric of the music reformers as well as the New Age spirituality that came into prominence in Indian music’s encounter with Western audiences in the 1960s” (Alaghband-Zadeh, 2013, p. 145). Analyzing the thumri style of music in India “in relation to issues of transmission, prestige, respectability, connoisseurship, spirituality and gender” (Alaghband-Zadeh, 2013, p. 3), she argues that the devotional aspect is advocated as inherent and emphasized as a survival strategy by the performers and teachers in the music scene of India. Finally, the issues of religious devotion and spirituality certainly have socio-political implications, which had also effects in my ‘being in the space of the guru’.

Which connotations have the title of spiritual/religious setting and why did I prefer to use both of them? First, to mark the difference between Dr. Balaji’s stance and mine, as a person from the Brahman caste, belonging to Hindu religion, he was inclined to act various rituals as religious, which echoed as spiritual elements in my universe of meaning. He enacted the rituals not devoid from their meanings but also as prerequisites of Hinduism. Opposed to that, I was choosing to enact them with various motivations, such as; the respect I felt for him, the research process, and/or because they suited my preferences. Second, in our numerous conversations, Dr. Balaji mentioned his idea of unity of beliefs. For him, it was a given that we were Muslim. In one of these conversations, he sang us one of his compositions and translated its lyrics, which were about the unity of gods and religions. Another incident was when he recited an Islamic prayer in Arabic with melody, said that he was curious about cultures and learned that prayer from his Muslim friends. When we were talking about politics, he commented on the division of Muslims and Hindus in India, said that the Muslims fought for independence along the Hindus and that he didn’t agree with the idea of division. Finally, although Dr. Balaji’s belief in divinity was expressed in Hindu elements in his life, he underlined the idea of the

83 unity of beliefs, not necessarily bound to a specific religion. In this context, where Dr. Balaji himself built explicit connections with other traditions of belief, the usage of both concepts, spiritual/religious setting becomes meaningful.

I find it valuable to mention Keister’s (2005) approach to the discussion of appropriation in linking the discussion to embodiment. He argues it is important to ask “what is the motivation behind the desire of spiritual ownership by the consumers”, referring to Bohlman’s (1997) concept of “spiritual commodity” (Keister, 2005, p. 48). Keister quotes David Hay (2001), who links this phenomenon to “the drive for “relational consciousness”’ (as cited in Keister, 2005, p. 38). Hay’s approach corresponds to the relational stance I acquired in experiencing spirituality, “in which human beings can feel a connectedness to God, other human beings, and nature” and uses the spiritual practice as a means “to overcome the alienation brought on by modern life” (as cited in Keister, 2005, p. 38). The pre-acceptance of the ‘alienation under the conditions of modern life’ is an issue to be investigated further, along with the phenomenon of the growing demand for non-Western spiritual practices by the Westerners, though far out of the focus in this thesis. Still, the one dealing with the issue of spirituality in the Western world has to take into account when and how the beliefs and practices of ancient civilizations and traditions are taken out of their contexts, how are the implications of this process, the possible harms to the traditions themselves, and the changes in the perception of the particular traditions and beliefs, both by the interpreters in the West and the native practitioners. Korpela (2010) in her article about the “Westerners searching for authenticity” (Korpela, 2010) in Varanasi warns us about the implications of this quest. Based on her fieldwork conducted for her PhD, she observed that the Westerners in Varanasi tend to live in local neighborhoods without socializing with the local people, imposing a “postcolonial imagination” (Korpela, 2010, p. 1299). She argues that the quest for authenticity by the Westerners confines itself to a frozen past understanding of India; a process which devoid the Indians the voice of their own in the contemporary context and have a strong influence on the ongoing process of their definition of identity. Having stayed in Varanasi for one-and-a-half months, I argue that this was merely one of the relationship types I observed. I encountered and participated in various other types of relationships as well, where the contemporary context was integrated within the traditional one. There were many Westerners who

84 were coming to Varanasi since long years and adapted into long-time friendships with the Indians.

Moreover, when we look at various applications of the values that come through the spread of spiritual ideas and beliefs, there is another important point that needs to be mentioned. According to King (1996), as a rejection of the authoritarian side of the religion as an institution, the spiritual approach’s “use is about “creativity and engagement within and outside religious traditions” and is often applied in psychotherapy, movements for social justice and peace, and the arts” (1996, as cited in Keister, 2005, p. 37). Bearing in mind the possibility of appropriation in the application process, this perspective shows that the spiritual approach has also the potential and inherent quality of creating bonds, paving the way for collectivity, and engagement. It is valuable not to distance oneself to this issue just because it’s problematic with possible problematic outcomes at times but instead to find ways in dialogue and respect to reveal these issues along with the inherent possibilities to enrich the societies’ understanding in socio-cultural milieu.

I will investigate in the following paragraphs below, how the relational aspect I had acquired through my past experiences acting together with the spiritual/religious setting in Dr. Balaji’s space paved the way for embodiment processes in the transmission of musical knowledge. I analyze an excerpt from our sixth lesson, regarding the spiritual/religious practices integrated into transmission.

On 27th of December it was our sixth lesson. Ertuğrul was not able to join because of his knee problem so that we had a one-by-one lesson time. As we were nearing the end, I expressed my concern about if I will succeed to learn what Dr. Balaji was teaching me.

A.B.: So much information. I really hope to be able to learn to play the Indian violin.

V. B.: Don't take the negative energy. You can do it, that's why you have come all this way to India. One thing I'll ask you [to do] today and we will finish the class like this. See, god has provided you extra special energy. Try to understand.

At this point, he made a talk about the five senses in the body, declaring that in his view there were six senses and the first sense was actually sound. He went on with the explanation of the approach in Indian musicology that there were two types of sound: ahata naad (the sound we can hear) and anahata naad (the sound we cannot

85 hear, reserved for gods). Saying that he didn’t agree with this division, he argued that humans could hear both types of sound. Finally, he told two stories about the Mishra brothers and Tansen, about Mishra’s strong voice that broke the glass and Tansen’s rendition of raga Dipak, which is believed to have the power to create fire, and the burning of the court4.

Daniel Neuman (1990) comments on the stories told by the masters to the students that they refer to a common past:

The remembered past which contemporary musicians evoke is not the immediate past but a world that to the modern sensibility seems like something from the Arabian Nights. ... If all this seems a trifle romanticized, it is nevertheless what the musician wistfully imagines and is probably truer as an affective reality than our contemporary skeptical sensibilities would allow us to believe. (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 21)

Dr. Balaji used the stories in a parallel fashion here, to elaborate on the power of sound and the ragas. Then he pointed out that the power of the sound was also present in the air.

V. B.: See the power of the raga. The power of the sound. Same power of the sound is in the bomb. You cannot hear but feel. So many, they are dying. So the sound is the first indra, sense. In the air also some sound is there which you can feel but not hear, because there is a lot of energy in the air. In between these [showing his hands], you can feel it.

After this explanation he commanded me through a set of movements to show his ideas in practice:

V. B.: Sit properly. Make your hands like this [shows me that I should hold my hands in the shoulder level, my palms open, facing each other]. Close your eyes. Make a prayer, pray god, say, “I want to know my energy in my body”. [I repeat after him]. Now open the eyes. This is the fifth chakra, press it nicely, the thumb should be in the palm [shows how to press the thumb on a particular point in the palm]. Now you should release the right hand only. This is how to do it. This [energy] you should feel in between the two [consecutive] notes while you are playing. First of all, you should feel it with your violin. Then, while you are playing, you

4 There are many versions of Tansen’s story of raga Dipak. In Dr. Balaji’s rendition, it depicts the moment when Tansen was forced to play the raga Dipak by the raja Akbhar as the court musician Raga Dipak is believed to cause fire, both inside the performer and in his environment when properly rendered. Tansen was worried about the consequences. Though his sister said that at the same time he would start to play in the court, she would sing raga Malhar at home, which is believed to bring rain. Tansen told her that she should start after him, giving him some time to elaborate the raga. When he started to play, the whole court went in fire but her sister’s singing was effective and brought rain after some minutes. That’s how Tansen could fulfill the mission he was appointed by the raja without the fire taking the control. Though, according to Dr. Balaji’s version of the story, Tansen’s body was burnt totally and he passed away after three – four months.

86 should feel the sound around, with your fingers. The important part is the improvisation. Think for the best to play the violin. [Think about] Music. Sound.

With this practice and its underlying meanings, we see how Dr. Balaji linked the bodily sensations and practice explicitly to the transmission of musical knowledge in the spiritual/religious context. He described the mechanism of music making as the energy present in the air functioning through the body.

After he introduced me to the set of movements, he wanted me to repeat the same row of the prayer and the moves:

V. B.: Now you remember how I showed you to do? Start. Press the thumb. Push. Let me see how much you can push. How much you can take. You can release your left hand now. Stay there. Now I'll ask something. You feel something in between these two palms?

A. B.: [My palms facing each other] Yes.

V. B.: That’s what I told you, this is the sound, which you will make without clapping also. When they will get together, this energy is there. See me, and you do it, watch. You will feel [the energy] from me [coming] to you.

He turned on the tanpura machine. My palms stayed as he instructed. He started to sing phrases in raga Yaman.

V. B.: You are feeling the energy from me. You will feel [it] like a balloon. Press in the hand, this is the energy from the music we can make.

He sang the phrases in sargam and wanted me to imitate him. I followed him, singing. He warned me to sing stronger. As I tried to sing stronger and hold long notes like he did he approved in Hindi: “Sa bash”. I was taking deep breaths and trying to imitate how he rendered the phrases. Stopping after about three minutes, he explained the characteristics of the phrases in raga Yaman.

V. B.: This is Yaman. In this raga, try to avoid finishing in the Sa. You end it [the phrase] in the Ga or Ni then go back to Sa.

We continued, him singing, me repeating after him. After about three minutes again, he switched to a-kar; singing without the note names and with the ornaments. Dr. Balaji was controlling the flow with the exclamations in between, such as; “Don’t shake the head!”, “Open the mouth!”, and “Powerful voice!”. He guided me to use the uvula for the shifting gamakas, referring to it as ‘the other tongue’. I was imitating his hand gestures as well, to be able to catch the right intonation and accents.

We can observe how Dr. Balaji linked the understanding of musical ideas to the body. When he said, “Sit properly”, he referred to the right posture needed to sing, cross-legged with an open chest. The body is directly involved with the vocal chords, the lungs, the breath, the diaphragm, the larynx, the soft palate, and the uvula. The hand and facial gestures are an important component of singing in India, providing guidance through the dynamics and intonation.

When I didn’t render the phrases appropriately, he led me to the right note by giving the note names in sargam or in Western solfege (do-re-mi). After about ten minutes, he went up to the higher octave and instructed me to follow in the lower octave. When I coughed in between and stopped, he encouraged me to continue: “Go, go for it!”. We remained about five minutes in the higher octave and finished the practice.

Singing is one of the primary components in Indian classical music lessons, present in teaching of instrumental music. Oppenheim (2012) refers to the interviews he conducted with foreign students of Indian music about the importance of singing: “[the teacher was] singing to illustrate that the mechanism of music is the voice and that it is central to internalizing the material” (Oppenheim, 2012, p. 113). In addition, it is used to show the possibilities in the particular raga at hand: “He will also occasionally sing passages beyond her ability to reproduce. This is intended to encourage creativity and monitor her understanding of the grammar and limitations of the raga being sung” (Oppenheim, 2012, p. 105).

In the excerpt from our sixth lesson above, Dr. Balaji taught raga Yaman through singing along with the practice of what we can summarize as ‘feeling the energy’, using his words. He incorporated the element of belief in two ways; as the belief in god, when he wanted us make a prayer before starting the practice and the belief in the presence of chakras, an common tradition in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, present since ancient times. Along with the prayer and pressing the special points corresponding the chakras, he also introduced the phenomenon of ‘feeling the energy of the guru’, which had the implications of bodily sensations and the changes I experienced in my singing. Although Dr. Balaji seemingly merges the physical and metaphysical understanding in this practice, my argument is not a metaphysical one. My focus is not on the question if the mechanisms he introduced wrapped in belief issues existed in reality or not. My approach is rather an experience-based one, presenting my interpretation of the experience and the mechanisms of embodiment in

88 his practice, whereas the reader should take my background information into account as well, as I presented above in the autoethnographical part.

The affective embodiment processes I experienced were: First, the prayer acted as a tool to define our shared intention and to focus on the singing and sound intensively. Second, Dr. Balaji’s dominating presence in the practice emphasized his responsibility as the master to make me succeed, and his role of being the mediator of the tradition. His bodily presence became an actor of the transmission in this sense. Third, the implied meditative character of the practice created a space where we could ensure a high level of concentration. Fourth, his exclamations about the posture, the use of the uvula, and the vocal chords; about the use of the whole body, in short, worked in a way that the possibly detached attitude of my mental processes was by-passed by the bodily transmission. Fifth, reserving the necessity that we should do our best that the transmission is successful; i.e., teaching effectively on the side of the teacher and being open to learn on the side of the student, he was letting the responsibility over to the element of divine will, establishing the trust that if it is meant to be, it will happen. Finally, Dr. Balaji used the practice to design a space as such where he would encourage me in rendering the phrases of raga Yaman and push me beyond my limitations, relying on the spiritual/religious elements at hand.

As I demonstrated in the excerpt taken from our sixth lesson, the realization of embodiment of musical ideas is possible with the contribution of the two parties, namely, the guru and the disciple. As my socio-cultural background and approach provided a suitable platform for internalization of the spiritual/religious elements in guru’s space, Dr. Balaji and me, we agreed on the basic assumptions of this setting. Finally, the necessary space for the transmission through embodiment processes was created in the context of the spiritual/religious setting.

In this chapter, I demonstrated the role of the spiritual/religious setting in the process of embodiment during the transmission of musical knowledge, using autoethnographical writing and referring to our conversations with Dr. Balaji. I discussed this issue both in Western and Indian context, based on the researches about the encounter of both cultures and on the sources about the spiritual/religious elements in Indian classical music nurtured by the Hindu and Islamic Sufi traditions. Figure 5.3 shows Dr. V. Balaji, Ertuğrul and me together after our last—not least— lesson. 89

Figure 5.3: Together with Dr. Balaji in our last lesson. After we finished playing, he blessed us by painting teeka (kumkum) made out of turmeric and natural dye on our foreheads and presented us the shawls in the picture as a gift. He recommended that we should use the shawls when we have a concert to accompany us as the reminder of our guruji.

The next chapter is about the mutual engagement of the guru and the shishya in the course of transmission. I discuss the role of the close bond between them related to embodiment processes.

6. THE ENGAGEMENT – THE SOCIO-CULTURAL SETTING

“Teaching teaches me a lot. Students coming and going, it gives me good energy. My stage days are there and I enjoy that, too. Now, when I leave the world, my music will remain in the students.” (Dr. V. Balaji, Personal communication, 23 December 2017)

In this chapter, I explore the issue of engagement in the contexts of dedication and submission, and the transmission of ethics. The first section is about the issues of dedication and submission, which are prerequisites in creation of the strong bond between the guru and the shishya. In the second section, I look at the ethical messages transmitted during the lessons and investigate their role in the embodiment processes.

6.1 Dedication and Submission

Our meetings with Dr. Balaji took always place in his house, in the music room that was the central space in the house. We met on a daily basis during a one-month period. It was an intense time, filled with music and practice, regulated usually according to Dr. Balaji's concert arrangements and university duties. Saying that one month is a very short period to teach the elements he had in mind, he decided himself to quit some of his Indian students for the while and even refused a foreigner student who called him to learn in the same period as us. These implied an intense engagement and put us in a situation of high responsibility to continue the lessons regularly and do riaz to be prepared for the lessons.

In the excerpt below, I described the first time, in the morning of our fourth lesson, when I felt engagement as an issue related to dedication and submission.

When I woke up in the morning of our fourth lesson, I felt uttermost tired and sick. That day, as Dr. Balaji had the day off, we set up to meet in the noontime. I decided to call it off and phoned him to tell him about it:

A. B.: Guruji, I feel sick. Is it ok to call it off today?

V. B.: You know actually I called my students off to teach you. I think it's good not to waste my time.

A. B.: So you say even I feel sick, I should come to the lesson?

V. B.: I'm just telling you [the situation], you can decide [though he doesn't sound as it is up to my choice]. I will leave you from 6th to 12th [of January] because I go to concerts anyway. So we are trying to finish here the exercises and recordings. Did you take your breakfast?

A. B.: No, because my throat is hurting.

V. B.: So you can eat your breakfast now and come also at 12:30, no problem. Are you coming?

A. B.: Yes Dr. Balaji, I'm coming. See you then.

After the conversation, I had mixed feelings of having lost the control and being directed. As I was shocked about how different our relationship with Dr. Balaji was from my past experiences of having a teacher, I started to realize that it was more than 'a lesson'; the gesture of declaring ourselves as his students and he declaring himself as our teacher meant a bundle of commitments and promises. Even though, we didn't ask that he called his other students off and it was his decision, it affected us, too and certainly, it was not open to discussion. Finally, I had to go to the lesson for several reasons; such as to keep our relationship in good terms and to be able to continue my fieldwork.

On the way to his house, I decided to surrender to the situation. In the end, I had accepted to go to the lesson so there was no need to bring up the issue again. When we arrived, he welcomed us energetically and immediately asked if we wanted coffee. His wife wasn't at home so he went to kitchen to prepare and came back with masala chai. He said:

Because you were telling me that you like masala chai, I immediately crashed ginger. It's also good for your health.

Giving me a homemade tiger balm for the knocking sickness along with the chai, he was behaving compassionate and caring, almost like a father.

Eventually, our lesson has lasted more than four hours and it was one of the most effective lessons filled with technical exercises, learning raga Kalyani, its phrases and a composition in the same raga. I had decided to come even though I felt sick so that I had the motivation to do my best. Dr. Balaji's energy was very high and he just gave a break for ten minutes to take his breakfast. At the end, I was surprised that my

92 sickness weakened and that I came out of his house feeling energized with the effect of the rewarding lesson time.

Returning home, I realized our relationship was explicitly different than a tutor- student relationship, it certainly became more than a formal one. It was more like a family bond; familiar to me from the Turkish culture I live in, in the sense that the respect for the elders can take priority than the individual wishes. The guru acted as the authority figure, took the lead of the situation and we submitted his decision. Where did the borders started to remain as an individual and how far the individual wishes were ‘right’ for the situation? In this case, my surrender resulted well for me as I had a good lesson and felt healthy again. I was left wondering what it means really to be a disciple and how is the essence of submission.

Another question mingling my mind was the future of my “discipular ethnography” where “the student's submission is counterposed to scholar's entitlement to know, which marks ethnomusicology as an inclusive cross-cultural practice” (Qureshi, 2009, p. 168).

As I depicted above, the nature of the bond between Dr. Balaji and us revealed itself as completely distinct from my previous experiences. It was already in the first lesson, that Dr. Balaji declared Ertuğrul and me as the son and the daughter of the family. In his words it was: “You should call me guruji [master] and my wife mataji [mother].” (Personal communication, 20 December 2017)

This familial bond declared, he had instructed us to bow to the statue of Lord Balaji, the pictures of Dr. V. K. Venkataramanujam and Dr. N. Rajam. He had indicated that we should touch his and his wife's feet to show respect. Although I had been familiar with the concepts of bowing and touching from the concerts and daily life, practicing them had felt like an overwhelming submission at first.

During my time with Dr. Balaji, I observed how his fellow disciples brought him paan every time they came by, handled his various tasks, such as shopping, dealing with the bank issues, and helping him prepare his luggage for the concert journey, … etc. When I conversed with them about it, they smiled, said that the guruji was the best and talked about his mastery in violin playing and teaching. They didn’t show a glimpse of complaint about the tasks even though some seemed pretty demanding.

On the contrary, there was an ongoing acceptance for their role, a silent and subtle exhibition of their high respect for Dr. Balaji.

In my case that I stayed in Varanasi for one month only, I experienced the gurukul in an adapted sense to my situation. My husband and me didn't live in Dr. Balaji's house; he also didn't want to ask our help for the daily chores. Though when I asked him and his wife if we can help with anything, he pointed out that if I would be staying for a longer period, of course he would ask me to do things. Dr. Balaji also occasionally insisted that we should live nearer to his house when we come back to learn. He exemplified some of his former students who came and lived with him during their stay.

As Daniel Neuman (1990) states in his book, being devoted to the guru means primarily being devoted to the music. Furthermore, it implies obedience not only in the matters regarding music, but also in life style. That means “the disciple considers it is his duty to provide services for his guru and make life generally as comfortable as possible for him” (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 46).

Figure 6.1 shows a plate presented to Dr. Balaji by his students from Sri Lanka.

Figure 6.1: A plate presented to Dr. Balaji by his students from Sri Lanka. In the plate, there is a detailed description of the structures how to show respect for the guruji. In addition, his father Dr. Venkataramanujam is also mentioned and been given credit as occupying a rank higher in the V. K. V. Parampara. (Büyükköksal, 2018)

94 Perrine depicted her first meeting with Dr. Balaji and commented on the issue of engagement:

I went to his place with papaji [a friend's father]. At that time, we fixed a certain amount. I told him, I want to stay few weeks, he said ok, it is this amount [of money], I don't remember exactly how much … We fixed three classes a week. He said “If I tell you to come more, you're invited.” He asked me to play something, then gave me some South Indian exercises. He was notating them. Next time, I came back having practiced, so we play together. After that time, I went daily. If one day was off, it was because I said that I'm going to the family of my friend. On Sundays, I used to go to the family. Otherwise, it would have been daily all the time. I was going at 18:00 or 19:00 in the evening, eating there, Shanti [Dr. Balaji's wife] was giving me meal. We were practicing in the night, daily. It was just crazy. And I stayed until the end finally, 6 months. (Interview, 27 February 2018)

Perrine described her experience with the issue of engagement relating it to the different understandings of distance:

[The idea of distance is] totally different. Here [in France] with the teacher, you meet him, then you go back, that's all. If a guruji opens his heart then he can give a lot, everything. You are supposed to give as much as they give. It's not that easy. (Interview, 27 February 2018)

She pointed out that the workload was a lot but good at the same time and that she really liked it.

But it was total engagement from his part and from my part. It was full. (Interview, 27 February 2018)

Daniel Neuman (1990) mentions the same issue, referring to his own ustad, Ustad Sabri Khan:

... I don't know whether we reciprocate the same way, but if I love one of them [disciples] and he loves me the same way, I think he is good and I can give him everything if he lives with me. I can tell him as much as I know. Why? Because I love him. (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 47-48)

The guru-shishya relationship has distinct characteristics than a regular teacher- student relationship. The definition of borders may vary, especially across the cultures. Perrine mentioned, as there was a big expectation of involvement from guruji's side; she found it difficult to define the borders.

I feel he is sometimes showing a lot emotions, ... It was so huge what he was saying sometimes, it was a bit incredible. I was thinking maybe it's too much. ... Sometimes I feel really not comfortable because it's a lot. It's also difficult to receive it and to give back as much as he expects. The involvement in music and in life. The whole life, because everything 95

is linked. There is no limit like in western learning. Limits are difficult to see. It requires a lot of involvement. (Interview, 1 March 2018)

Daniel Neuman (1990) states:

In addition to guiding his disciple in his musical training, the guru guides his disciple in learning the role of the musician. As important as his function of teaching is his function as a model for his disciples. And in addition to perpetuating the tradition through time, the guru embodies in his “space” an identity, which his disciples will assume and transmit to their disciples. (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 31)

Rahaim (2012) in his book about gesture and voice in Hindustani music, argues that to understand the construction of the “musicking body”, we should take volition into account as well as inheritance. He uses the word volition, to indicate the vital necessity of the close bond between teacher and student. Rahaim refers to the vocalist Sameer Dublay, that he “emphasizes that the full reception of Jitendra Abhisheki's gestural knowledge was possible only within the context of a dedicated, long-term guru-shishya relationship” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 111) Sameer Duplay said about his guru Abhisheki: “You only know these gestures if you live with him” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 111-2). The conscious imitation of the teacher is seen as acceptable only in the beginners' level. The desired transmission happens when the disciple attend the teacher's lessons on an unintentional way. The volition functions for the guru and the disciple when they step on the path of mutual devotion. According to Rahaim, disciple's respect, “spontaneous affection”, and commitment to the guru, and guru's love for the disciple and his engagement in teaching play crucial roles in the transmission. “Face-to-face learning is a capacity for encountering music through the body and voice of a beloved teacher, rather than merely a process of passive reception” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 112).

Daniel Neuman (1990) argues in a parallel fashion that the communication of the tradition echoes itself in the guru-shishya relationship. He notes that without love and devotion there is no communication, which is a fundamental requisite of the guru- shishya institution (Neuman D. M., 1990).

6.2 The Transmission of Ethics

The whole setting of the being together with Balaji, including not only the lessons but also the informal times where we ate together, had conversations, and when he

96 was showing his workshop to build violins, implied the ethical behaviors and manners as well, which we were constantly invited to take into consideration. The transmission of these ethical values happened mostly through his presence and attitude. His disciples used to join us in the lessons, mostly Sushil or Nuan Wijekoon Bandara. I felt that Dr. Balaji especially wanted their presence, as they were representing role models, both in music and manners. If they were to do something, it was implied that we should follow them. All that happened usually on a nonverbal level.

One incident happened on 1st of January, which was accepted to be a special day by Dr. Balaji and his family; the first day of the year. Guruji had invited us for a special summoning up of his disciples, to have lunch together with our lesson as a follow-up. After we had eaten, all disciples including us were called to the music room. Dr. Balaji sat on his guruji place on the rug. His wife stood beside him, holding hundred rupee banknotes. The disciples started to go to him, one by one, bowed to his feet. He blessed them placing his hand on their heads and said personal greetings about the New Year and music. The disciples did the same gesture for his wife, Shanti. She reached the banknotes over to Dr. Balaji to distribute everybody. When it was our turn, it was already clear that we should follow the same row of the moves as the other disciples did. He called us together as husband and wife and reached our hundred rupees as a new year's blessing.

In this example, in addition to the disciples being role models, we see that the guru affirms his authoritative role as a father by distributing money as a blessing. In the old practice when the shishya lived with the guru, he was not only musically but also economically dependent on the guru.

Though when we didn't realize the manners at hand by ourselves, we were given explicit instructions about how to behave according to his tradition, too. One time, when we were sitting after a lesson together with Ertuğrul, he told me that my husband understood one rule correctly and he waited for me to understand it by myself but because it didn't happen he needed to tell me.

It doesn't matter for me on a personal level but as you should learn the Indian manners, you shouldn't call me by my name. Even my wife doesn't call me by the name when other people are around. You should call me guruji, as you call my wife mataji. We don't talk about our gurujis by their names. (Personal communication, 29 December 2017)

Rahaim (2012) brings up the issue of ethical transmission along with the “paramparic body”. He claims that ethics are transmitted “at the level of affective stances” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 119), rather than the level of explicit moral reasoning or conventional emotion. He exemplifies the effective stances as humility, calmness, and openness. “It is in this sense that paramparic bodies are ethical: a student is disciplines not only to perform beautifully, but also to perform virtuously” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 119). After leaving India, during one of our phone talks with Dr. Balaji, he brought up the ethical issue of being honest. I was telling him that one friend borrowed me a second violin as a surprise so that I can play in Indian tuning, he said: “We should be honest to our music and to ourselves. When we are honest, then everything what is needed comes” (Personal communication, 15 February 2018).

In this chapter, I demonstrated the characteristics of traditional guru-shishya relationship in the sense of creating a close bond between the master and the student. I explored this under the title of the engagement. In the first section, I discussed the dedication of both parties and the submission of the student and investigated how they serve to embodiment processes. In the second section, I looked at the ethical transmission and explored how they are employed in the transmission of bodily dispositions.

In the next chapter, I summarize the findings of my research and give recommendations for further research as conclusion.

7. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

7.1 A Brief Summary

In this thesis, I demonstrated how Prof Dr. V. Balaji’s teaching methodology, pedagogical approach, the spiritual/religious setting in his space, and the phenomenon of mutual engagement led to embodiment of the musical ideas, consisting of the technical capabilities and performance-related material. During the course of the research, I explored the embodiment processes in the transmission of musical knowledge in Indian classical music, in the context of a case study about Dr. V. Balaji, through examining his teaching along with the tools of analysis in-context, thick description, and autoethnographical approach. As a detailed, up-to-date study, I tried to textualize and represent the inherent mechanisms, ideational and belief systems at work.

In the first chapter, I presented the purpose of the thesis, my motivation to conduct the research, the methodological approach, and the discussion of the literature on embodiment and the spiritual/religious setting.

In the second chapter, I demonstrated the basic elements of the guru-shishya relationship through the thick description of our first lesson with Dr. V. Balaji. Along with presenting the exercises and their transcriptions, I talked about the basic elements; such as, imitation, continuity, Dr. V. Balaji’s overall leading and controlling presence, and the non-verbal space.

In the third chapter, titled “Teaching Methodology”, I demonstrated the embodiment processes in the two sections; namely, the technical transmission and immersion in music. In the first section, I investigated the bodily transmission through the teaching of techniques. As the technical exercises were innately linked to the performance practice, the observation and imitation were the tools to acquire the dispositions of an artist. The movement and the flexibility of the left hand were prioritized so that the work was on the body, in order to acquire the desired bodily movement drawing on the playing of the guru. The rote repetition was another platform where the student is

99 exposed to the guru’s presence and playing during the long hours of repeating the same exercises and/or phrases. The lack of standardization is another factor in the embodiment process where the disciple establishes a life-long bond to the guru an therefore, the transmission of his bodily dispositions were possible through the devotion. Furthermore, I discussed the role of the explanations and stories in the transmission process, which acted as an anchor while the body searched its way to acquire the new dispositions. Finally, I talk about the usage of notation, which was used mostly as a mnemonic device. The second section was about the immersion in music. I elaborated on the concept of immersion through the issues of the cyclical nature of Indian music—both in riaz and performance—, the emphasis on the continuity and nonverbal space during the lessons, the focus on music, the riaz, and the drone. The cyclicity in Indian classical music paves the way for a meditative state, where the acquisition of the technique occurs through bodily transmission. The continuity and nonverbality throughout the lessons is an effective tool to bypass the detached attitude of the mind and helps to maintain the musical space. The focus on music as implied in guru’s life prepared a suitable space for embodiment. I discussed this issue by bringing up the concepts of sanskar and mudra related to the presence of the guru. In riaz section, I demonstrated that the meaning of riaz encompasses more than its English translation practice through investigating the concepts of ‘creativity beyond boredom’ and jagah (Neuman D. A., 2012). Through dedicated practice, where the student plays endless repetitions of the same phrase, she is immersed in music through the movement of the fingers and arms. Finally, I talked about the drone, its peculiar characteristics of employing the overtones and continuity. These features play an important role in the immersion, in establishing the mood of the raga by sounding the emphasized notes in the rendition.

The fourth chapter was about the pedagogical approach of Dr. V. Balaji. First, I talked about his shouting, which had a physical effect on my body and how it helped to recollect the necessary concentrated state. Second, I explored how he pushed the students beyond their limits. In this course of being pushed, the student engages with her whole body in the process to meet the demands and it results in the embodiment of musical ideas. Third, his attentiveness worked as feedback both on our musical development and our general state. The continuous attention of the guru pushed the

100 student to develop a heightened awareness of the self, which is an important element of the embodiment processes.

In the fifth chapter, I explored the spiritual/religious setting through the investigation of the Hindu and Islamic Sufi elements in Dr. Balaji’s teaching, and an autoethnographical approach. First, I mentioned the concept of gatra veena in relation to anthropomorphic imagery and sacredness of sound in Hinduism. Then I commented on the use of mystic music and sama in Islamic Sufism to reach an understanding of the divine through trance states. Furthermore, I argued that the rituals to show respect for the late gurus initiate the disciple in the tradition of the gharana and fosters the bond with the guru. This process results in the affective transmission of bodily dispositions of the guru. In the second section, I investigated the concept of spirituality and its echoes in the West through the writings of Keister (2005) and Korpela (2010). Then, I gave information about my background in spiritual/religious understanding to reveal my identity as a researcher. I demonstrated the three stances I had throughout the fieldwork, namely my responsibility to the research, the anxiety I experienced about the trap of appropriation, and my internalization of the rituals with a background of Sufism and the resulting questions of emic/etic approaches. In relation to my approach, I referred to Hay’s (2001) concept of “relational consciousness” (Hay, 2001). Finally I presented a thick description of our sixth lesson with Dr. V. Balaji as a concrete example of my experience of embodiment of musical ideas, aided by the spiritual/religious setting.

The sixth chapter was about the high level of engagement in our relationship with Dr. Balaji, both by the guru and shishya. I explored it through the issues of dedication, submission, and the transmission of ethics to become an artist. I argued that the definitions of distance and the borders are culture-specific. Furthermore, I demonstrated how the mutual close bond between the master and disciple contributed the embodiment process, referring to Rahaim’s (2012) concepts of unconscious imitation and “spontaneous affection” (Rahaim, 2012). As the living guru is seen as the embodiment of the tradition in both musical and spiritual/religious sense, the disciple’s respect and love for the guru, and his devotion to him results in the acquisition of the bodily dispositions to become a musician. Finally, in the second section, I investigated the transmission of ethics, drawing on examples from my own experience and referring to Rahaim (2012) who argued that along with the musical

101 knowledge, the virtues of “humility, calmness, and openness” are transmitted as well through the guru’s presence.

In the next subchapter, I discuss the concepts of preservation, memorialization, and mediation, in relation to ethnomusicological approach, the context of Indian classical music, and embodiment.

7.2 Preservation, Memorialization, and Mediation

While writing the thesis, one question kept coming to my mind: What are my responsibilities to the research and to Dr. V. Balaji? At this point, I would like to refer to Shelemay (1997) who brings up the three implications of the fieldwork in the area of the transmission of tradition; namely preserving, memorializing, and mediating tradition, saying:

Almost without an exception, these situations inevitably arise at the point of intersection of life and scholarship –they begin at moments when the study of a tradition becomes part of the life of the tradition itself and relationships in the field deepen to a more interactional level. (Shelemay, 1997, p. 197)

These implications have been discussed in the history of ethnomusicology through the question if they have an inherent hegemonic and/or imperial quality. On the contrary, Shelemay talks about these implications in dialogue with studied cultures’ members. Dr. Balaji implied the same three aspects, declaring his expectations from my musical development and the research. He was certainly willing to be recorded in audio and video, having the vision of conveying his musical message through that, while reserving some secret information inherited from his gharana.

Along with the dominating institutionalized music education in the universities and music schools, and the survival strategies utilized by the musicians in the contemporary setting of India, still, the way to musicianship mainly goes through the face-to-face or body-to-body interaction in the guru-shishya parampara. The embodiment of musical ideas depends on the interaction of bodies in this system. Dr. V. Balaji mentioned its importance in our numerous conversations:

[Meaning the technique he previously demonstrated] This is presence of mine. This cannot be taught. This can be learned only while you are watching and listening more. In fact, I prefer this. It's my experience. One of my students plays really superb, I love his playing, and he’s hardly 30 years old, an assistant professor. He would come on Saturdays at 18:30. He used to

102 say: “Please sir. Play.” I would play for 4-5 hours. And I asked him: “You don't play?” He answered: “No no, please sir.” After that, we would have night dinner together, then we would discuss [some issues], and at 6:00 in the morning he would go. He won't record. He won't write composition. But [he would] just copy my playing. That is concentration, brain. He was playing less. Watching more. Hearing more. I asked him to play, he answered: “Sir, same thing I want to play but maybe something I will do here and there, so that you will also lose your mood, so it's better to watch. I will practice the same thing by myself, then I show it to you after couple of classes”. (Personal communication, 1 January 2018)

Though preservation in Indian classical music context is an issue to be discussed. Daniel Neuman (1990) talks about its adaptation capabilities to the ever-changing world in relation to the appreciation of Indian classical music in the West:

This spread of Indian music beyond its cultural boundaries suggests that, as with biological species, the ability to thrive in an expanded ecological niche is a positive adaptive response; … the question here, … how such a characteristic, yet elusive and ephemeral, cultural phenomenon continues to maintain its integrity and autonomy in a world so vastly changed from that which gave it birth. (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 17-18)

One of the key figures in this spread is undoubtedly Ravi Shankar, the renowned sitarist both in India and the West. According to Farrell (2010), “He has become a symbol of the bridge between tradition and change in Indian music, no Indian musician has ever had such a lasting impact in the West, before or since (Farrell, 2010, p. 493). Another impact was his association with George Harrison from the Beatles, which paved the way for Westerners coming to India to learn music. In the wake of the tradition, change and the mutual influence, my observation was although the past represents a romanticized, idealized state of music and musicians, there are ever-adapting survival strategies of musicians in a tradition constantly renewing itself. Dr. Balaji talked about this issue in one of our conversations:

The change is not only in human body, also in the nature. Because music is part of the nature, naturally it is changing, too. The purity is going away. Now others take the classical music’s part away. Like Khyal. I also play. Now ghazal is trying to take more place for itself in the music. Also the folk tradition is on top. I also play, according to the audience and place. Finally, I play one piece of folk. Now you are not getting the support from the audience you used to get before. They are divided in two. Some they go for blues, jazz. The others go for classical. You should think about your music also. It's good also one way it is bad. (Personal communication, 14 January 2018)

When I asked him in which way it was good he said we met because of the technology and we wouldn’t be able to find him without it. He also listed the 103 advantages of audio and video recordings in the transmission process and talked about the young generation:

There was a time if you want to learn from Balaji, you have to come, they wouldn't allow you to write, or to record. Normally, they don't allow. But I allow them. Because it's not only music, they should know the personality. Behind that, the music is there. In which personality the music flourishes. In media, some little boys are coming up, sometimes playing better than us. I agree. But the conditions they have, we didn't have in our time. The teacher wouldn't write down the composition for me. Now the recording is available. Also on the laptop, he can slow down the melody and follow. Why you take the video, because you keep all your memories in the machine, you will have all the information. (Personal communication, 14 January 2018)

Talking about the good and bad sides of the advancements in technology, he still emphasized there is no replacement to face-to-face interaction by talking about a secret strategy in his playing and related it to the story of a former student who would come just to listen to and observe him:

As a researcher and student who joined this system, regardless of being a foreigner in the culture, Dr. Balaji assigned me the roles of carrying the tradition on, both in the sense of research and music. When I said that I feel responsible to do more riaz because he called some of his students off to teach us, he answered:

If you feel responsibility then you should work. You should promise. You should play. You should promise me. When you go back to your country, they should feel that India is very rich, mentally, and in the heart also. That's what I want. If you play, the people will ask from whom you learned. And I won't be there, but I will be there, in your fingers, in your playing. Tomorrow I will not be alive maybe but I will be there in your playing. This is your responsibility. (Personal communication, 26 December 2017)

Finally, to mention the issue of mediation, Shelemay (1997) refers to researchers, such as, Alan Lomax, Frisbie and McAllester, and Hawes, defining themselves as mediators (Shelemay, 1997, p. 199). One example for mediation is the adaptation of the methodology and pedagogy learned in the field to the Western transmission of musical knowledge. Peter Dunbar-Hall (2010) gives an autoethnographical account of his experience, learning Balinese music, which led him “to refashioning of my ideas on music as a pedagogic undertaking, subsequently influencing my professional role as a university teacher in both ideological and practical ways” (Dunbar-Hall, 2010, 154).

104 In the following subchapter, I talk about the consent process and the approach of dialogic editing.

7.3 The Consent Process and Dialogic Editing

To finalize the thesis, one of the most important works was to take the consent of Dr. V. Balaji about the final outcome and to edit it in dialogue with him. Although he was informed about the research and gave his consent about it beforehand, it was necessary to take his consent about the finished work, too. As it was a long text in English, containing terminology of social sciences, I was worried if it would be asking too much from him to read it all, even though he has a good command of English language. In the version I sent him, I marked the parts in case, which I thought would be the most important parts of his concerns. Finally, I contacted him through Whatsapp and let him know that I finished writing the thesis. Simultaneously, I sent the marked text via e-mail. In fact, his daughter attends his e- mails, receiving and answering them. After I sent the thesis, Dr. Balaji and his daughter Bharavi Balaji contacted me in a very short time and informed me that they will give me feedback, which happened very soon—in a day—as well. Below is an excerpt of our talk with Dr. Balaji during this process:

V. B.: I’m reading all. Some spelling mistakes are there, kindly check for the correct word.

A. B.: This is the first draft. It will be checked many times more.

V. B.: Go for the best. I am with you. I am in you. So be with me.

A. B.: Thank you guruji.

V. B.: One day, I’ll come to Turkey. Surely, I’ll come. You have returned something [the thesis], which is making me very emotional. [For instance] the shouting matter, you understand me. I said to my wife: “She is not my wife. She is not my daughter. She is not my sister. But she understands me, what I am and what these things mean.” My daughter started crying, you know. She is very happy. She is also reading. So somehow we are all working with you.

A. B.: Thank you so much, guruji. I’m very happy that you like what I wrote.

V. B.: I will be happy the day when I will play with you.

A. B.: Yes, me too.

V. B.: I am very happy about your work. You have selected very nicely. It made me very emotional. I am honored. You come, I will teach you. Bless you.

105

After finishing the thesis, I was speculating to myself about possible problematic parts and expected the refusal of some of them. To my surprise, Dr. Balaji was very happy about the work in general and even ‘touched’, saying that I developed a keen understanding of his presence and teaching. We had the advantage of technology to communicate aurally and visually, which made the process much easier than only writing to each other. Regarding the edits Dr. Balaji returned, he put strong emphasis on that explicit information should be given about his family, sustaining V. K. V. Parampara with seven generations of musicians. He was keen about to credit them all so that he was sending me photographs of his family. Moreover, he added a photograph of his award of “Doyen of the Music World”, which was important for him to be mentioned (Appendix B, figure B.9). Another emphasis was on the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), which he described as one of the best music colleges in the world, teaching North and South Indian classical music, vocal and instrumental, specializing in dhrupad, mridangam, violin, sitar, bansuri, and tabla. He also corrected some of the terms in Hindi, such as Bela (violin), and the appropriate titles for the artists, mentioned in the text.

Although Dr. V. Balaji and I didn’t have a meeting face-to-face after finishing the thesis, we could have a dialogic editing process together with the help of technology. Steven Feld (2012) talks about the dialogic editing experience he had with the Kaluli in his book Sound and sentiment: Birds, weeping, poetics, and song in Kaluli expression and mentions the values the ethnographer carries to the field:

Every ethnographer carries a cultural background that includes a set of behaviors and values surrounding interpersonal style. These involve both conscious and out-of-awareness attitudes, conventionalized into a subjective palette that colors the intertwined empirical and interpretive dimensions of an ethnographic report. (Feld, 2012, p. 250-251)

Taking the ethnographer’s stance into account, it is an important part of the publishing process to edit the final text in dialogue in order to gain a deeper understanding of both the local and ethnographer’s interpretations. Through dialogic editing, I became more aware of Dr. V. Balaji’s emphases, what mattered to him most, and how was his approach to the research. Writing an ethnographic account has been a multi-layered work as the ethnographer works to reflect the locals’ interpretation of events and the meanings they attached to them but still she is the one who selects, interprets, and compresses the findings to turn it into the writing.

106 Additionally, the abstraction and theorizing process is where the stance of the ethnographer plays a major role. Finally, the knowledge in the writing comes refined through the paradigms, stances, and backgrounds of the agents present in the field, including the locals and the ethnographer. It seems that the emphasis should be put on revealing the approaches of all the parties involved as clearly as possible so that the reader can gain a better insight of the selection and interpretation process. Feld (2012) refers to Clifford Geertz (1976) about the ethnographer’s role and remarks:

Clifford Geertz’s (1976) assertion “that ethnographies are supposed to be what we ethnographers think about things as much as they are supposed to be accounts of what we think the locals think they are doing” (Feld, 2012, p. 253).

In my own case, regarding Dr. V. Balaji’s edits, he emphasized two major points. First, it was important how accurately the values of Indian classical music were transmitted in the text, and second, how the identity of Dr. V. Balaji as a musician and the identity of V. K. V. Parampara was presented. As English is a frequently used language in India, especially in the Brahman caste, and as being a professor in BHU, Dr. V. Balaji already carried an academic identity and was familiar with the necessities so that I didn’t have to make en extra work for him to read the writing, such as translating. Finally, it turned out that sending the final text was necessary and important, both for the sake of ethnomusicological approach and the consent given by Dr. V. Balaji.

In the next subchapter, I bring up the research question and provide answers in the light of the findings of my research.

7.4 The Research Question and Answers

My research question was “What are the aspects of embodiment in the transmission process of musical knowledge by Prof. Dr. V. Balaji. My sub-questions were “How are the relations of the teaching methodology, the pedagogical tools, the spiritual/religious, and sociocultural settings to the embodiment process?”

Referring to these questions, I demonstrated the mechanisms effective in the embodiment of musical ideas in an interrelated, organic, and indivisible framework, while presenting them in division of analytical categories for the sake of better understanding and analyzing. In the light of the findings of the research, I define

107 embodiment as the transmission of the musical ideas through deliberate acts of dedication, devotion, and discipline, where the volition of the two parties, master and disciple is at work and through undeliberate acts of imitation, repetition, acting out of the rituals, and engaging in the daily life of the master which are the organic results of the guru-shishya system, caused by its necessary elements of love, respect, and dedication, happening in a setting of face-to-face interaction, long hours spent with the guru. This paves the way to that the states, moods, postures, kinesthetic, kinematic, and aural— which have physical effects on the body—expressions of the master are transmitted to the student whereas the master’s presence itself is seen and acted out as ‘the music’, the carrier of the tradition, and the bearer of the potentiality of innovation. That the master’s musical presence is embodied in the disciple implies the disciple’s unique musical expression and presence, resulting from a “sub- conscious synthesis” (2008, as cited in Oppenheim, 2012, p. 61). Thus, the final outcome of the embodiment in the transmission process is a synthesis of the master’s musical presence transmitted to the student through oral tradition, and the disciple’s musical presence that is formed by her/his past experiences and her/his impressions from other artists of Indian classical music. The ideal situation seems to be to ‘have an empty cup’ to be filled in by the new information, to absorb it, and to devote oneself exclusively to riaz in the internalization process. Finally, the world in practice is never an ideal space and the ‘humanistic error’ and ‘individual’s deviation’ is inevitable. Though as I referred to Oppenheim (2012) and Raja (2005) (as cited in Büyükköksal, 2018, p. 40), this ‘error’ quota is embraced by the guru- shishya system as an effective element paving the way to creativity and innovation. Therefore the disciples as the outcome of the embodiment process of the musical tradition are more than merely clones of their masters but promising the change and unique contribution within the continuity of the tradition. In other words, the tradition remains to be a breathing entity, alive with new ideas, approaches, and styles, through the embodiment process in the guru-shishya parampara.

In the final subchapter, I talk about the recommendations for future research. Furthermore, I discuss the implied meanings and possible benefits of my own transformation through the embodiment processes during the research, in the academy and music education in general.

108 7.5 Recommendations for Future Research

The embodiment processes in the transmission of musical knowledge is a vast research area and a fruitful issue to be explored further. A further step would be to make an in-depth analysis of musical examples to be audio- and video-recorded in the lessons in guru-shishya system from an embodiment approach. Here acoustemology (Feld, 1982) and somaesthetics can contribute to aural and visual analysis of the transmission process. Moreover, taking neurological approach and cognitive sciences into account, the kinesthetic transmission of musical knowledge is an interesting topic to be investigated. Understanding the sensorimotor processes of the body has the potential to tell us more about the biological mechanisms at work, in relation to the socio-cultural context. In addition, a deeper exploration of the impact of mutual affection between the master and the disciple, and the role of spiritual/religious setting in dialogue with the researches on spirituality are issues for further investigation. From a cross-cultural approach, another research would be to track the ties between the transmission traditions in the world, revealing the resemblances and differences in theory and practice.

Finally, I hope to bring up two main issues with the account of my own transformation and the exploration of the underlying embodiment mechanisms. First, the demonstration of how this transformation happened implies that other than the Western transmission traditions can be cross-culturally valid in the establishment of musicianship. This is not to undermine the validity of Western methodology in its own socio-cultural context. On the contrary, the elaboration and multiplicity of the researches on various traditions would enrich the transmission experiences overall and bring a cross-cultural insight in a world where worldwide interaction of musics became our everyday reality. At this point, I would like to refer to Regula Qureshi (2009) where she talks about the next steps after her work of textualizing the hereditary sarangi musicians’ tradition. First was to let the agents of the culture speak in their own words, which was realized in her book Master musicians of India: Hereditary sarangi players speak (2007), and second is to bring them together with their Western disciples in the universities. She argues that by presenting different discipleship concepts, other than the “Western intellectual/artistic concept for teaching and learning music”, bears the potential of different ways for teaching and learning of music. This can change the acceptance of the Western approach as the 109 only tool to learn and teach and show that the Western way is not “universally valid”, but rather culture-specific (Qureshi, 2009, p. 183).

Second, the embodiment approach emphasizes the role of the body in the transmission, the importance of somatic understanding, and the body-mind-world unity. As the traces of the heritage of Cartesian approach still remain behind the scenes of the Western tradition of thought, the further exploration of embodiment is a necessity in establishing the unity of body, mind, and the world.

In summary, the ethnomusicological work on transmission processes in various cultures can open the way to a critical perspective on the Western notions of transmission of musical knowledge in a constructive way. The embodiment approach investigating the transmission processes would give us a deeper, unified insight about the nature of teaching and learning. Although the globalization dominates the world heavily with its postcolonial implications, ethnomusicologists can use its tools in different means and try to create a balance with cultural dialogue and interaction aspects in their works. I tried to highlight the embodiment processes in the transmission of musical knowledge in India, with the guidance of Dr. V. Balaji and ethnomusicology as a discipline. I hope future research will contribute in deepening our understanding and expanding our borders as individuals and societies.

110

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114 APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY APPENDIX B: PHOTOGRAPHS APPENDIX C: CURRICULUM VITAE OF DR. V. BALAJI APPENDIX D: BIO DATA OF V. K. VENKATARAMANUJAM APPENDIX E: THE CONTENT OF THE CDS APPENDIX F: TWO DATA CDS WITH AUDIO & VIDEO FILES

115

APPENDIX A a-kar singing or doing solfege in Indian music with an ‘aah’ sound, without the note names. alankar ornament in Indian classical music. alap the improvisatory part in the introduction of the raga performance without meter. antara the second or third part of a vocal or instrumental composition, following the asthai. asthai the first part of a composition, preceding the antara. bandish The general term for a composition in Hindustani music. bansuri side-blown, bamboo flute, typically used in North Indian classical music. bhajan devotional song in the context of Hinduism. bol literally, word. “Lyric-based articulations for vocalists and plucking techniques for instrumentalists” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 438). brahman member of highest caste in the caste system in India. chakra various focal points in the subtle body used in a variety of ancient meditation practices. chilla “The state of pursuing a strict regimen during a period of forty days” (Neuman D. M., 1990, p. 271). cuvai taste in South Indian classical music context. dhrupad the most ancient vocal genre in Indian classical music. gamaka ornamentation, embellishment of a note. Ganesh one of the principal deities in Hinduism, revered as the remover of obstacles. gatkari (in instrumental music) an idiomatic style in North Indian (Hindustani) music (not imitating vocal style). gayaki ang The term gāyakī an.g (literally ‘singing style’) generally refers to the elements of vocal music incorporated in instrumental practice (Arnold A, Garland Encyclopedia, 1999). gharana literally, ‘of the house’. A stylistic school in music, mostly hereditary. gnanam “Tamil– Sanskrit concept; a word musicians often use in relation to musicianship. Glossed as “wisdom” or “knowledge,” gnanam sediments in one’s body over time, acquired less by actively practicing than by making oneself receptive through listening” (Weidman, 2012, p. 221). guru master, teacher. guruji the master with the added extension of –ji to show respect. gurukul “[The] system where the student became part of the guru’s household, living in their home and helping with chores” (Unnikrishnan 2006; Pesch 2009 pp. 149-150). Hanuman one of the principal deities in Hinduism, depicted as a monkey-face human. Hinduism “A major world religion originating on the Indian subcontinent and comprising several and varied systems of philosophy, belief, and ritual. Although the name Hinduism is relatively new, having been coined by British writers in the first decades of the 19th century, it refers to a rich cumulative tradition of texts and practices, some of which date to the 2nd millennium BCE or possibly earlier. If the Indus valley civilization (3rd–2nd millennium BCE) was the earliest source of

116 these traditions, as some scholars hold, then Hinduism is the oldest living religion on Earth.” (www.britannica.com, accessed on 26 June 2018) jagah “Musical places” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 441). “The work and technique of riyaz [riaz], of physically grinding a taan or a bandish for hours, weeks and years is specifically organized to become familiar with spaces, to unravel different spaces and open new places. … Hindustani musicians emphasize an architecture of exploration for an explicitly tactile and aural march.” (Neuman D. A., 2004, p. 208) Jainism “Along with Hinduism and Buddhism, Jainism is one of the three most ancient Indian religious traditions still in existence and an integral part of South Asian religious belief and practice. While often employing concepts shared with Hinduism and Buddhism, the result of a common cultural and linguistic background, the Jain tradition must be regarded as an independent phenomenon rather than as a Hindu sect or a Buddhist heresy, as some earlier Western scholars believed.” (www.britannica.com, accessed on 26 June 2018) khalifa the common word in Urdu language, both used for the leader of the Islam world and the master of the musician lineage. khandani belonging to the musical family lineage. kathak one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. khyal a semi-classical vocal form in North Indian (Hindustani) music. kirtan a sing-along of devotional ancient chants, popularized by the bhakti movement in India. kyā bat hai! a typical exclamation of praise meaning “What a thing this is!” Musician praise each other in the concert at time with this exclamation. laya rhythm, tempo. maqam the mode in Turkish and Arabic music. Though the name is shared, the designations of modes are different. mataji mata means mother in Hindi and the extension –ji is added to show respect. mela parent scales. Mesnevi the great work of poetry by Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, originally written in Persian language in Konya, Turkey. Originating from 13th century and consisting of six books, it is seen as one of the guiding literature in the Islamic Sufi sect of Mevlevi. mridangam wooden, double-headed drum of South India. namasthe greeting in Hindu tradition. Natyasastra “The detailed treatise and handbook on dramatic art that deals with all aspects of classical Sanskrit theatre. It is believed to have been written by the mythic Brahman sage and priest Bharata (1st century BCE–3rd century CE)”. (Encyclopedia Britannica) paan a widespread chewed preparation with betel leaf, areca nut, and various other ingredients. It is used also commonly with tobacco. Varanasi is paan is especially famous with its special paan. It has a stimulant effect. palta introductory exercises focusing on a set of scalar exercises. In Hindustani music they are known as paltas and bols. Note-pattern techniques for both vocal and instrumental traditions. (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 438) parampara lineage of teachers and their disciples. puja a prayer ritual, ceremonial worship in Hinduism. qawwali devotional song in Islamic Sufi context. raga mode in Indian classical music. raga alapana the improvisatory part in the raga performance without meter in South Indian (Carnatic) music context.

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Rajam Bela a violin of Prof. Dr. V. Balaji’s invention with added resonance strings, a double-body, and double-neck. rasa the affective state generated by an aesthetic performance. In classical theory each rag (sometimes each tone) is thought to characterize, embody, and generate particular emotional states (Neuman D. M., 1990, 275). riaz (literally) practice. Rumi known as Mevlana Jalaluddin (Celaleddin) Rumi, he was an influential leader of Sufism in 13th century and is seen as the originating saint of the Sufi sect Mevlevi. sam the first and last beat of a rhythmic cycle. sama the ritual of the whirling, practiced mainly by the dervishes (devotees) of Islamic Sufism as an act of prayer. samprayada spiritual lineage in Hinduism. sangita dance, vocal and instrumental music. sarangi the Indian bowed fiddle. Saraswati the goddess of learning and music. sargam the Hindustani equivalent of solfege; Sa-Ri-Ga-Ma-Pa-Da-Ni-(high) Sa. shagird the Urdu-Persian word for disciple. sheikh in the context of the thesis, the religious leader in the tariqat that are sects Sufism. Shiva one of the principal deities in Hinduism, who creates, protects, and transforms the universe. silsila spiritual lineage in Sufism. sitar a plucked stringed instrument in North Indian classical music with sympathetic strings. swara musical pitch. tala rhythmic cycle. tan a musical phrase. tana a type of musical pattern in Indian classical music embellishing or exposing a raga. tanbur (Turkish) a plucked stringed instrument with a very long, thin neck and a resonant sound with six strings, four of them employed as sympathetic ones. teental one of the most frequently used rhythmic cycles, comprised of sixteen beats. Thumri a semi-classical vocal genre in Norht Indian (Hindustani) music. tuk-tuk also called auto rickshaw, a motorized version of traditional pulled or cycle rickshaw. ustad master in Muslim musician context. Vedas known as the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, Vedas date to 1100 BCE. vidwan a person who has vidya (knowledge) of scholarship and performance practices in Indian classical music context.

118 APPENDIX B

Figure B.1: The Saraswati statue, situated at the entrance of Faculty of Performing Arts in Banaras Hindu university (BHU) Varanasi. [p. 70] (Büyükköksal, Varanasi, 5 January 2018)

Figure B.2: Dr. V. Balaji in his room in BHU with his students. He teaches in the same room where his father Dr. V. K. V. Venkataramanujam taught so that the father and the son taught there for thirty- five years in total. (Büyükköksal, Varanasi, 5 January 2018)

Figure B. 3: Three generations playing together. On the left is Dr. V. Balaji, at the center is his father Dr. V. K. V. Venkataramanujam, and on the right is Dr. Balaji’s son, B. Anantha Raman. [p. 58] (Dr. Balaji’s personal archive) 119

Figure B.4: Dr. V. Balaji’s daughter, Bhairavi Balaji, an outstanding vocalist in North Indian style. [p. 16] (Dr. Balaji’s personal archive)

Figure B.5: Dr. V. Balaji’s father, Dr. V. K. Venkataramanujam playing with Dr. Balaji on the right. [p. 16] (Dr. Balaji’s personal archive)

Figure B.6: V. K. V. Venkataramanujam together with Ravi Shankar. [p. 16] (Dr. Balaji’s personal archive)

120

Figure B.7: Dr. V. Balaji with some of his family members. On the far left is Dr. Balaji’s elder son B. Anantha Krishnan, an outstanding artist of South Indian (Carnatic) violin, beside him Dr. Balaji, his daughter-in-law, his wife Shanti Balaji, his younger son, B. Anantha Raman, an outstanding artist of North Indian violin and his granddaughter, Shreeya Krishnan, vocal and violin. Three generations of violin players are together as his sons and granddaughter are performers. [p. 16] (Dr. Balaji’s personal archive)

Figure B.8: Dr. V. Balaji playing with his son B. Anantha Raman in a raga performance. [p. 16] (Dr. Balaji’s personal archive)

Figure B.9: The award of “Doyen of the Music World”, presented to Dr. V. Balaji in Sri Lanka. It is seen as one of the most important awards in India. (V. Balaji, Varanasi, 28 May 2018)

121

Figure B.10: Picture of a statue of Lord Balaji, hanging on Dr. Balaji’s music room’s wall. [p. 58] (Büyükköksal, Varanasi, 15 January 2018)

Figure B.11: The statue of Lord Shiva, situated in the music room of Dr. Balaji. (Büyükköksal, Varanasi, 15 January 2018)

Figure B.12: A painting of Lord Hanuman, hanging on Dr. Balaji’s music room’s wall. [p. 58] (Büyükköksal, Varanasi, 15 January 2018)

122 APPENDIX C

The Curriculum Vitae below was e-mailed to me by Dr. V. Balaji.

CURRICULUM VITAE Dr. V. Balaji “Violin” Mob: +919455005059, Landline: +915422275077 Mail: [email protected] Dr. V. Balaji is a well-known artist of violin & vocal, belonging to the fifth generation of a renowned family of musician. His training in Carnatic music began when he was only five years old under the watchful supervision of his grandfather Late Sri. V. N. Krishna Iyengar and his father Late Sri V. K. Venkata Ramanujam. In 1975, Balaji began to study Hindustani Music at Banaras Hindu University under the tutelage of Padma Bhushan Dr. (Smt) N. Rajam and received his doctoral degree in 1986. He is the recipient of many awards, former dean and presently professor of violin in the Instrumental Department, Faculty of Performing Arts, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi. Dr. Balaji’s technique and innovations reflect near perfection. His musical expressions have the power to transport his listeners to a realm far beyond everyday consciousness. While developing ragas on his instrument, he embellishes his deft melodic nuances with crisp rhythmic designs making a deep impression by his rich and novel variety of musical ideas. Endowed with a creative faculty, he has also developed an interesting technique of holding the bow, which gives a lift that, makes the pass as soft as pulling out a hair from a proud of butter. Besides music performances, Dr. Balaji has developed violins with sympathetic strings and named them as: Bala Bela (named by Padmavibhushan Late. Pt. Kishan Maharaj), Rajam Bela (Double Ribs), Shanti Bela (Triple Ribs), Malviya Bela, Shringara Bela, and Triveni Bela. Dr. V. Balaji has given performances at different cities in India as well as in foreign countries. Apart from solo and duet performances, he has had the honor of accompanying almost every living legend in the field including Late. Sri. V.K.Venkata Ramanujam, Padma Bhushan, Dr. Smt. N. Rajam, Padma Vibhushan Pt. Kishan Maharaj, Padma Vibhushan, Late. Smt. Girija Devi, Late Pt. Mahadev Prasad Mishra, Padmashri Pt. Balwant Rai Bhatt and so many to pen down. Important Awards/Honors: His performances have been greatly appreciated and he earned many awards and applauds on various occasions. To name a few: Doyen of Music World by “The Honorable President of Srilanka”, U.P. Sangeet Natak Academy Award, Chhatrapati Shivaji Award, I.S.C.L.O. Award, City Pushpa Award and so on. Some Important Titles: Violin Chakravarthy (given in Sri Lanka), Kashi Kala Ratna, Kashi Ratna Alankarna, Sangeeta Sri Ratnam, Sangeeta Bhushanam, Life Time Achievement Award, Sangeeta Vibhuti, Sangeeta Sudhakara, Navarasa Vachaspati, Sangeeta Ratna. The Documentary Films On His Music and Life: 123

“Renegade Fiddler - Apap Masala” A documentary Film on his teaching method of Indian Classical music as well as Western music to my friend cum disciple Gilles Apap; directed by Max Jourdan, produced by Ideal Audience, Paris, 2002. (language: French) “Raga – Ranga” Surabhi – National Tele – Cast – T.V. Serial – Mumbai. The Book Chapters and Magazines About His Work: * Kashi ki Sangeet- Parampara Sangeet Jagat Ko Kashi Ka Yogdaan— Pt . Kameshwarnath Mishra * Bhartiya Saangeetik Jagat Mein Varanasi Ka Yogdaan— Dr. Renu Johari * Pt. Omkarnath ji Thakur Evam Unki Shishya Parampara— Dr. Lavanya Kirti Singh ‘Kavya’ * Mr.James Wimmer— Strings Mazine, U.S.A. - * Prof. Karen Schlimp– Vienna University, Austria. * Henrik Anderson– Denmark. * Krishna Tiwari– Switzerland. CD’s:  Comparative Playing (Violin) of North & South Indian Classical Music – C.D. Produced Kavi Alexander, Water Lily Acoustics.  Madurai, Multan, Morrocco (Middle Eastern Music) - (Trio Vocal & Violin Recording of C.D.) Produce by Kavi Alexander, Water Lily Acoustics – California.  “Raga” – Cassettes – Violin Solo in North Indian Style of Indian Music – California.  Rereleased in CD of Raga Yaman 2010  VCD of Raga Bhimpalasi (Dedicated to Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya Ji on the occasion of 150th Malviya Jayanti 2010. Performances:  Violin duet along with his father and guru late V.K. Venkata Ramanujam.  Violin Support to Padmabhushan Dr. (Smt). N. Rajam.  Smt. Jaya Biswas, Sri. Abba Sahib Jalgoankar, Late. Pt. Jagannath, Sri. Partho Das, Ustad Zakir Hussein, Sri. T.V. Gopala Krishnan, Late Hari Shankar & Sri. Vikku Vinayaka Ram (in the Taalvadaya Kacheri composed by Bharat Ratna Late Pt. Ravi Shankar). Inventions:  15 Stringed Viola with Double Ribs – Rajam Bela  13 Stringed Violin with Triple Ribs – Shanti Bela  13 Stringed Violin – Malviya Bela  11 Stringed Violin – Bala Bela (Named by Padmavibhushan Late. Pt. Kishan Maharaj).

124  25 Stringed Viola – Triveni Bela.  30 Stringed Viola – Shringara Bela.

Figure C.1: Rajam Bela

Figure C.2: Malviya Bela

125

Figure C.3: Bala Bela

Figure C.4: Triveni Bela

126 APPENDIX D

The text below is a transcription of a typed manuscript, provided by Dr. V. Balaji. V. K. Venkataramanujam, born in the year 1931, comes from a family of musicians and had his initial training from his father Sri V. N. Krishna Iyengar and his brother- in-law Sri R. S. Gopala Krishnan, All India Radio, Madras. He had his further training from Sri P. Krishnaswamy Doss, Thennamadam Sri Varadachariyar and Veenai Sri Krishnamachariyar. Venkataramanujam had given his first performance at the age of 13. He is also a vocalist as well as a composer. In 1950 he was attached to All India Radio, Delhi, where he had great opportunity to work with Sangeetha Kalanidhi Late T. K. Jayarama Iyer and Pt. Ravi Shankar. He is also a vocalist as well as a composer. In 1952 he had the privilege to participate in the first National Programme which was featured by late Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri T. K. Jayarama Iter with whom he played the role of supporting violinist. In the same year was arranged the first National Programme of Vocal (South Indian music) by Sangeetha Kalanidhi late G. N. Balasubrahmaniam whom he accompanied on violin. Thereafter he has given a number of accompaniments to prominent and eminent musicians like late Flute Palladam Sanjeeva Rao, late T. R. Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer, late Madurai Mani Iyer, late M. M. Dandapani Dikshitar, late Chittor Subrahmani Pillai, late Madurai Srirangam Uyengar, late M. Somasundaram, late Balachandar, Semangudi Srivanasa Iyer, M. S. Subbalakshmi, D. K. Pattammal, late M. L. Vasantha Kumari, Balamurali Krishna, D. K. Jarayaman, Maharajapuram Santhanam, … etc. He was a reader in Violin, Department of Instrumental Music, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He is also founder of Sri Tyaga-Brahma Gurukulam, Varanasi. In the year 1947 he was awarded Sangeetha Sudhakar by the Bangalore Mahajan Sabha, Bangalore. In 1984 the Music Academy, Madras gave a “Senior Violinist” award to Mr. Venkataramanujam. He has published a booklet on Sri Tyagaraja in Hindi in the year 1969 and written an article in Aj Daily Newspaper of Varanasi on Sri Muthuswamy Dikhsithar in 1970. On the suggestion of Maharaja of Benares, he tuned and demonstrated Tulsidasa’s compositions into Carnatic (South Indian) ragas and the Banaras Hindu University published this in the year 1974. The book is entitled Tulsi Sangita Manimala.

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APPENDIX E

CD 1 1. Tanpura machine in D sharp, Sa-Pa-Sa-Pa. Audio file. (p. 30, 62) [00:49] 2. Excerpt of the Vedic chant played back from the kitchen of Dr. Balaji’s house. Audio file. Recorded by Dr. V. Balaji, sent to me on 7 May 2018. (p. 67, 73) [01:01] 3. Exercise – Table 2.2. Audio file. Recorded on 20 December 2017. (p. 29) [09:09] 4. Dr. Balaji teaching Ertuğrul in Turkish tanbur. Video file. Recorded on 1 January 2018. (p. 29) [01:35] 5. Dr. Balaji, teaching raga Bhairavi to Sushil, Ertuğrul and me. Video file. Recorded on 13 January 2018. (p. 33) [25:32]

CD 2 1. Teaching Ertuğrul and me along a tabla player-live. Video file. Recorded on 14 January 2018. (p. 69) [07:44]

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CURRICULUM VITAE

Name, Surname: Aslı Büyükköksal Place and Date of Birth: Istanbul, 12.10.1980 E-mail: [email protected]

Education M. Sc. İstanbul Technical University, Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM) –Ethnomusicology Program B. Sc. Middle East Technical University – Sociology - 1999-2005 High school Istanbul Alman Lisesi 1991-1999

Music Projects

2017-... Baciyan (Ethnic music band) 2016- ... Seyir (Ethnic music band) 2014 MIAM Improvisation Ensemble (free improvisation) 2014-2015 Fezaya Firar (live electronics) 2013-2015 Vassiliki Papageorgiou (1920-1950s Istanbul and Izmir repertoire) 2013- 2016 SFK Women's Collective 2013-2015 Üniversite Korosu _chief: Elif Ahıs (Ottoman maqam music)

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2012-2015 Burgaz'dan Sonra Heybeli ( traditional music from Rumelia, Aegean, and Mediterranean ) 2012-2017 Ümmi Sinan Meşk (Sufi Music) 2011-2013 Dehr-i Guş (ethnic fusion)

Music & Performance Art & Installation

2014, Istanbul Divan Project _by Josef Trattner 2014-2015 International Istanbul Silent Cinema Days 2011, Istanbul Su Boşa Akar mı (Exhibition & Performance) 2009, Berlin International Performer Festival DIVERSE UNIVERSE 2009, Rumania Sinti Festival, joint act with circus De Splittergale 2009, Hungary International Roma Festival 2006 & 2009, Berlin Go Go Thrash performance group (Exhibition Openings) 2007, Berlin Clown A.R.T. -Street Performance 2006, Vevey HYPOCRITE 2005, Berlin Nisi Masa Script Contest Short Film Competition Jury

Workshops & Seminars

2015, Agios Lavrentios, Greece Music Village 2015, Ikaria, Greece Musical Yards 2012- … Music Therapy Seminars by Tümata 2010, 2016, Crete, Greece Musical Workshop Labyrinth 2003 & 2004 & 2005, Ecotopia Ukraine & Holland & Moldavia 2003, Paris II. European Social Forum (member & videoactivist) 2003- 2005 ODTÜ GİSAM (Editing & film history & video-art education under guidance of Ulus Baker)

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