© 2018 IJRAR Sep 2018, Volume 5, Issue 3 (E-ISSN 2348

Mrs. Madhavi Mahesh Junior Research Fellow, Department of Music, Potti Sree Ramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad, India

Abstract : Today, the world is in our finger tips and this is because of the internet without which our search would be completely incomplete. This Online Media (OM) in the form of innumerable websites, blogs, forums, Apps etc., and other Social media like Facebook, G-Mail etc., has immense information stored in it on various subjects and has become easily accessible to everybody, at any time and wherever they reside on this earth. As far as Carnatic music (CM) is concerned, there are plenty of Web sources (WS) that provide huge information on various practical, theoretical and technical aspects. But there is also a dilemma in the followers of CM about the selection of a particular online site because there are several WS in the OM where more or less the same information is provided by more than one WS. And this makes it difficult to judge or simply follow or rely on them. Hence, there arises the need to ascertain the specific online site that exactly fulfills the purpose of the viewer better. Through this research paper, I have made an attempt to give a glimpse on few selected CM Online resources based on certain criteria, which every Carnatic person should at least give a glance once, as they aid to serve more than single purpose at a time and are found most reliable too.

Key Words - Online media, Carnatic Music, Online resources/online sites/Web sources related to Carnatic Music, Criteria for selection of a suitable online site.

I. INTRODUCTION

Music is an ocean where we can see the shore but cannot reach it. Indian music system though broadly classified as Hindustani and Carnatic, yet is predominantly based on melody. The South Indian classical Music, popularly called Karnatic/Carnatic Music (CM) has been well protected and continued as a pure tradition from the past and hence named as Carnatic Music. Whereas North Indian classical Music popularly called as Hindustani Music has undergone many changes due to the influence of Islamic and Persian invasions that took place especially in the Northern part of India around 12th century. Even though CM has a traditional, classy touch, filled with spiritual flavor preponderantly, yet it has occupied a very prominent place among the various other systems of world Music due to its overall development practically and theoretically. The knowledge regarding various Sashtrās, Kshetrās, deities, epics and also the customs, tradition and culture etc., followed in the past has been perfectly inscribed in the compositions of various Vaggeyakārās which not only educate but also let us to value the importance of past traditions and thus motivate us to follow and carry them on to the future generations also.

Today’s world cannot be imagined without Internet. Almost every mobile has internet access and its usage has become our daily need. Everybody has their own specific purpose to utilize this Online media (OM) in the way they exactly need. As far as CM is concerned, beginners and students who are mostly the learners use these media for learning and gaining sufficient knowledge regarding their subject (Bindu K, 2018).

For the public who are household or working elsewhere and cannot come to College or University to learn the Course or sometimes not even in a position to afford the Course they need, but have immense interest in pursuing this art, then in such cases, Online approach is the best option that can serve their need better. Learning through Online media (E-learning) is much more beneficial as it not only provides the information but also teach them the syllabus of the course in the form of Web series which are simply the short audio and video uploads by the subject experts for few minutes (Lochana Ashok Kumar, 2011).

Music staff especially music teachers in schools, music lecturers in Govt. and Private diploma and Degree music colleges and other assistant, associate and Professors working in Universities and even the Subject Experts can make use of Online social Apps such as Skype, WhatsApp and Google Hangouts etc., to take music classes for learners which not only provides the messages/chats, photos and recordings sharable but also equipped with the audio and video facility through which, no matter how far the guru and sishya are, can be brought to one place and made to continue as far as they could without any interruption, which is just as similar as a direct interaction between them but through online. This online method of teaching and learning (E-learning) is the need of the hour and has been adopted by various Universities keeping in view to serve the needs of present generation (Rajesh K, 2014).

Researchers who perform Research Projects while pursuing MPhil and PhD Courses gather a lot of information not only from books in the library but also from the Internet predominantly such as dissertations, articles from various online journals, Magazines and even subscribe to E-Book reading too (Dr. Premalata Sharma, 1988).

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Finally the Listeners/audience/music lovers, who are very much interested in listening to good, traditional, classical music concerts performed by well trained Professional Artists, but cannot travel there due to various reasons, primarily depend on the OM/Internet that definitely serves their need much better with less strain and is also cost effective. In this way, the utilization of OM has emerged as an Online resource very rapidly in the past few years in order to meet the demands of current generation.

II. CARNATIC HERITAGE

Carnatic music has a very strong foundation laid by the Father of Carnatic music - Sri Purandara Dasa, who is well known for his compositions “Dasara padagalu or Devaranamas” (Devotional songs in Kannada language). He, for the first time has introduced a systematic approach to this art that starts from sarali, janta, daatu, taggu sthyai, hechhu sthaayi and alankara patterns etc., which altogether come under Basics and this was later followed by many Carnatic musicians and Composers, which even now are the first lessons taught by any Guru to his/her Sishyas especially in 15th melakarta, Maya malava goula.

The prestigious position gained by this traditional art, Carnatic music amongst other world music systems is mainly due to the greater contribution by the musical trinity – Muttuswami Dikshitar, Sri Tyagaraja Swami and Syama sastry, who out of bhakti and scholarliness brought out the most beautiful absolute musical form called “Kriti”. The other sacred forms of South Indian music include Jayadeva’s Ashtapadis, Teertha’s Tarangas, Ramadas, Annamacharya, Sada siva Brahmendra kirtanas, Tyagaraja divya nama and Utsava Sampradaya kirtanas, Kshetrayya padas etc. Javalis, Tillanas and Raga malikas are some of the semi classical items that are chosen as post pallavi pieces sung after the main item of the concert. In this way the compositional wealth of CM is unparallel to any other kind of musical systems throughout the world. I would rather feel that it would not be exaggerating to say that CM is an ocean of musical treasure where no one can carry the complete wealth from it in his entire life time. Later many composers and renowned artists (vocal and instrumental) have followed this tradition that held it in high esteem.

Carnatic Music can generally be classified into two broad categories – Kalpita and Kalpana Sangitam. Kalpita Sangitam is the music that has already been composed (pre-composed). It is further classified into two divisions - Abhyasa gana and Sabha gana. Abhyasa gana is meant for self-practice (Abhyasam) and it includes the basics such as Swara-Laya exercises followed by simple compositions such as Geetams, Swara pallavis/jati swaras, Swara jatis and Varnams etc., which are taught to lay a strong foundation to Carnatic student in all the basic aspects needed. Sabhagana includes the Concert pieces such as Kritis, Kirtanas, Padams, Javalis, Ragamalikas and Tillanas etc., which are meant to be sung in the Sabhas (Concert Halls) or even classical music oriented concerts arranged in Temples on any occasions/Music Festivals.

Kalpana Sangitam also known as Manodharma Sangitam in CM is the improvised music (Music of imagination) that has basically five divisions – Raga alapana, Tanam, Pallavi, Neraval and Swara kalpana. Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi simply called RTP is a composite form of improvisation in long concerts. RTP consists of a Raga alapana (exposition of the raga without rhythm), Tanam (medium paced improvisation of raga) and a Pallavi line, often composed by the performer, initially set to a slow paced tala, later sung in three speeds. This is followed by the neraval through which the performer manipulates the pallavi line in complex melody and rhythmic ways. This neraval is followed by Swara kalpana/Kalpana swarams. Tani avartanam (improvisation in Percussion instruments) refers to an extended solo performed by the percussionists in the concerts after the main concert item that extends nearly upto 20 min (Sambamoorthy P, 1998).

On the other side, comes the theory or science behind music (Musicology) where one has to know the evolution/History of Indian music, basic theoretical concepts related to CM such as Terminology, 72 Melakarta system, Janaka-Janya raga classification, Raga lakshanas, Tala system (Tala dasa pranas), Pancha dasa gamakas, Structure of various compositions, Biographies of Vaggeyakaras and artists, Lakshana granthas, the science of sound and Musical instruments, Notation system, Graha bhedam, Concert format, Contemporary music and so on.

III. ONLINE RESOURCES OF CARNATIC MUSIC

Most of the information in the present era is made available to everyone through internet. Many Online media sources such as websites, blogs, podcasts, discussion forums, mobile Apps etc., contain a lot of useful content on any subject we need. Even the articles in the journals and magazines, dissertations of MPhil and PhD etc., contain valuable information on many subjects regarding the developments occurred from history to the present. All these are made available through Online Web sources where some of them can even be downloaded from specific websites which is very much useful to the scholars and many other enthusiastic researchers to use them in offline also (www.musicresearchlibrary.in and shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in). Thorough study of this further gives an idea or thought on scope of the subject in future (Vijaya Lakshmi V, 2013).

A point to mention is that all Online resources available through internet are not freely accessible to everyone. They provide access to the new visitors only through the users who are already a member of that website. Moreover certain Websites demand to be paid to get access and use any sort of content regarding the subject whether practical or theory related.

3.1 Frequently used Online media sources (Web sources) on the Internet

While browsing Internet for Online resources related to CM, we come across several websites, blogs, Discussion forums, Podcasts, Webpages etc., providing much useful, very rare and essential information in depth that is still unaware of or even

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© 2018 IJRAR September 2018, Volume 5, Issue 3 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138) unnoticed by many Carnatic people. Here, I would like to mention few frequently used different online media sources that have a specific purpose of usage.

Website - It refers to a connected group of pages on the World Wide Web regarded as a single entity, usually maintained by one person or organization and devoted to a single topic or several closely related topics.

Blog - A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

Forum - An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages (Debate or Discussion).

Podcast - A digital recording of music, news or other media that can be downloaded from the internet to a portable media player.

Webpage - A webpage is a document commonly written in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) that is accessible through the Internet or other network using an Internet browser. A web page is accessed by entering a URL address and may contain text, graphics, and hyperlinks to other web pages and files.

3.2 Criteria for the selection of an Online resource related to CM

The ease of availability of internet led to the rapid growth of online trend and has become a part of each and every household. The increasing demand in the public usage of OM, even though has many advantages on one side of the mirror, but unfortunately on the other side, it has its own reasons that puts the viewer in dilemma (and sometimes even deceptive) regarding the selection of specific online resource from several online web sources available on the internet. The selection of specific online resource that can actually serve the specific need of the user much better is very much essential and is the need of the hour as it saves a lot of time, energy and even money too (Najma Perveen Ahmad, 2002). And such selection of it from a handsome number of online sources again depends on certain criteria as follows:

 Purpose of the search  Reliability of the Content  Authenticity of the Online site  Up gradation/ Updates  Public Usage  Comparative Analysis of various Online resources that provide nearly the same relevant information on any topic chosen

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Multi-purpose Web sources

Through the research studies on the various OM Resources related to CM, it has been observed that out of several hundreds of Online resources, only few of them have been found to fulfill the above criteria and serve more than a single purpose (multipurpose). As these sites serve more than single purpose, they can be considered as multipurpose sites. They should definitely be viewed at least once a while by every Carnatic person whether listener, learner, scholar, teacher and performer etc., so that they are well aware of the recent happenings or current affairs and upgrades going on in this field. Hence, they should be given the utmost or first priority before browsing for anything related to CM on the Internet/Online media. For an ease understanding and quick glance of these few best online resources and their purpose of usage, the information has been concised into a table format (Table 1) with necessary abbreviations mentioned below the table.

Table 1: Multipurpose Online resources of CM

A V T EL FM L N S C V AP N/R/I R/A B O L F/P L W U B/M/J S ONLINE SITE (W/B/F/P) U U D W D D C www.carnaticcorner.com (W) The best Online resource of CM that provide links to many online sites www.shivkumar.org (W)  ─   ─   ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─  ─ ─ F www.sangeethapriya.org (W)  ─  ─ ─  ─ ─   ─ ─  ─ ─  F www.karnatik.com (W & F)  ─  ─   ─ ─ ─   N   ─ ─ F www.carnatica.in (W & F)  ─ U ─ ─  ─  ─   N/R     F www.indian-heritage.org (W) ─ ─ U ─   ─     N   ─ ─ F www.youtube.com (W)       ─      ─ ─   F www.guruswara.com (W)     ─   ─ ─ ─  ─ ─  ─ ─ P www.ragasurabhi.com (W) L ─ ─   ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─   ─  F

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www.swarasindhu.in (W)    ─ ─   ─ ─ ─  ─   ─  F acharyanet.com (W)     ─   ─  ─ ─  B    P Carnaticworld.com (W)     ─ ─ ─    ─ ─ B    P www.kutcheribuzz.com (W)   ─ ─ ─ ─ ─  ─ ─ ─   ─ ─  F www.carnaticdarbar.com (W) ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─          F Musicresearchlibrary.net (W)  ─ ─  ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─  B/M/J  ─ ─ F

W/B/F/P – Website/Blog/Forum/Podcast

ALUD – Audio that can be Listened/Uploaded/Downloaded (Practical knowledge related to CM)

VWUD – Video that can be Watched/Uploaded/Downloaded (same as above)

TUD – Theory related Audio or Videos that can be Uploaded or Downloaded

EL – E-learning/Audio or Video lessons pre-recorded

FM – Film Music based on Carnatic music system

L - Lyrics

N - Notations

S - Sabha details

C - Concert Schedule

V - Brief Biographies/memories of Vaggeyakaras

AP - Artist Profiles/Pages

N/R/I - News/Reviews/Interviews

R/A(B/M/J) - Research papers/Articles extracted/already published in various

Books/Magazines/Journals etc.

B - Basic Theoretical concepts related to CM explained through articles that can be read or

copy-pasted

O - Online shopping for albums - CDs, DVDs, Music cards, Books, Musical Instruments etc.

LSWC - Lec-dem’s, Seminars, Workshops, Conferences etc.

F/P - Free or Prepaid Online site

 - Available

─ - Not available

The first online site mentioned in the table – “Carnatic corner” has been considered as the first and the foremost web source that has to be browsed by any Carnatic person regarding any topic related to CM (Mohan Ayyar, 1994). There are several links provided on this online site that can be connected to many web sources based on the purpose of our search. Hence, it has been reckoned to be the best online resource that one can search for many things related to CM. The web sources mentioned in this table are multipurpose sites that can serve more than single purpose.

4.2 Specific purpose Web sources

Apart from them, there are also certain online sites that are specific/focused on a particular aspect of CM. They in general, serve not more than a single purpose but are very helpful to know certain things related to particular aspect/issue/topic that they cover in their online site. For example:-

There are few composer sites that provide information related to a specific composer such as

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. Muttuswami Dikshitar - Guruguha.blogspot.com . Sri Tyagaraja swamy - Tyagaraja-vaibhavam.blogspot.com . Syama satri - Syamakrishnavaibhavam.blogspot.com . Swati thirunal - www.swathithirunal.in . Annamacharya - annamacharya-lyrics.blogspot.com . Bhadrachala Ramadasu - Bhadrachalaramadasu.com

There are also many Online applications (Apps) available for an Android mobiles and iPhones out of which some of them can be installed for free and others have to be subscribed for a monthly or annual plan.

Few examples :-

 Tanpura droid – Shruti App – Various Sruti ranges are made available for both male & females (free)  Carnatic raga – search for the moorchana of any raga or search for raga name with the help of swarastanas (free)  SaReGaMa – A combination of many kinds/varieties/types of Music and latest trends (Paid or subscribed)

Here, I would like to make a note that the list of Online sites mentioned in this research paper is not exhaustive and is just a short list of very important sites that not only provide bulk of information but also impart immense knowledge and update us on various aspects of CM. Through this study it has been observed that these online sites are easily available on the Internet, readily accessible, highly useful to Carnatic people and moreover the content provided through them has been found to be most reliable.

V. CONCLUSION

This research paper concludes that online media serves as the most feasible and the best online resource of CM for today’s generation with huge information stored in it through several online sites, available through specific links. This content can be read, copy-pasted or even downloaded wherever possible. Basic practical and theoretical concepts of CM, Structure of compositions, Raga Lakshanas, Lyrics in different languages with meanings, Lakshana granthas, Biographies of Composers, Artist Profiles, Audio and Video files of Concerts, lec-dems, Seminars, Workshops, Events of past, present and future, Current Affairs, Online purchase of Books and Albums (CDs DVDs), E-Learning and Research etc., constitutes the content present in various online sites related to CM.

The information provided in these online sites not only imparts a great deal of knowledge but also let us utilize them in the best possible way to serve our needs and get upgraded or updated constantly. Therefore, it is much essential to understand the importance of Online media and to know which site is most suitable for our purpose or which site serves our need better. Hence, I have taken an opportunity through this research paper to give an outlook on few selected online sites which are mostly multipurpose and the information provided through them has been presented in a simple, concised and easy understandable manner so that any Carnatic person can have a quick glance of it. Any person who is interested to browse anything related to CM can go through this paper at least once which would definitely save a lot of time, energy, money and even health (reduce stress and strain to mind, eyes and fingers) too, which is much required at the moment, especially for the forthcoming generation.

REFERENCES

[1] Bindu K. 2018. Technology and its advantages in Music. Samakalika Sangeetham, 9(1): 14-20.

[2] Lochana Ashok Kumar. 2011. The influence of Electronic media in the development of Carnatic Music, doctoral diss, Annamalai University, Tamilnadu, India.

[3] Rajesh K. 2014. Technological developments in South Indian Music and Music Education, doctoral diss, Annamalai University, Tamilnadu, India.

[4] Dr. Premalata Sharma. 1988. Research methodology. Problems and areas of research in Music: 1-6.

[5] Sambamoorthy P. 1998. Manodharma Sangita. South Indian Music – IV, Ed.8: 1-19.

[6] Vijaya Lakshmi V. 2013. Globalization of Karnatic Music through Electronic media, doctoral diss, Bangalore University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

[7] Najma Perveen Ahmad. 2002. Research on Internet. Research methods in Indian Music, Ed.2: 118-123.

[8] Mohan Ayyar. 1994. Carnatic Corner. www.carnaticcorner.com.

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