S. Balachander

Carnatic Musicians
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Rsachi
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

S. Balachander

Post by Rsachi »

Dear rasikas, can anyone please enlighten me on how to get the AIR recording of the Maestro Balachander's rendering of Krishna Nee Begane - Yamunakalyani and Jagadoddharana - Piloo/Kapi that my wife heard on the radio a couple of times (and would dearly like to have the recording of)? She says it was about 30 min. each piece.

baradu2
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Joined: 28 Jun 2009, 09:37

Re: S. Balachander

Post by baradu2 »


baradu2
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by baradu2 »


Rsachi
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by Rsachi »

Sir, a most fantastic video. What music! Thanks a lot for sharing.

varsha
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Joined: 24 Aug 2011, 15:06

Re: S. Balachander

Post by varsha »

http://www.mediafire.com/?3m386rpcl51n9ss

SB breaks ranks with CM in the midst of a Bhairavi RTP - and strays into HM TERRITORY . Starting with kedar and ending with a fine marwa .

varsha
Posts: 1978
Joined: 24 Aug 2011, 15:06

Re: S. Balachander

Post by varsha »

http://www.mediafire.com/?8s8s159cabsm43j

A glimpse into this great mans mindset . After an outstanding opening nata , he is after the mike man . Pointing to the problems and making sure .enna nadendadu ... adu work pannaleya ... Satya pannreya ..... Unna nambi vasikiren .... nee emathiney... naa...
track audible only through headphones .

Ramasubramanian M.K
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Joined: 05 May 2009, 08:33

Re: S. Balachander

Post by Ramasubramanian M.K »

A light one to illustrate SB's "maverick" image:

SB on Critic Subbudu-- 20% CRITIC,30% FANATIC and 50% LUNATIC!!!

venkatakailasam
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by venkatakailasam »

A biagraphy on Shri BalaChandar...
Shri Vikaram Sampath’s book on veen Balachandar..” "Voice of the Veena: S.Balachander" (Rupa & Co), 22 years after the musician`s death in 1990….brings out another face of the veena exponent..
"Balachander was known as a `controversy genuis`. He would often say that controversy came looking for him. Whatever he said about current issues - not personalised attacks - sparked controversy,"
One of Balachander`s famous struggles was against the tradition of "inventing ragas".

"Musician M. Balamuralikrishna had once told the Music Academy - the high seat of Carnatic music in Chennai - that he had invented a new `raga`. Tamil Nadu had a ridiculous scheme that anyone who created a new `raga` would be given an honorarium. Balachander argued that these things had existed in ancient treatises. He took it upon himself to fight the `invention of ragas`,"
" Balachander launched a "media blitz" with the publication of an exhaustive booklet which he read out in press conferences, he says.

"Balachander won the debate and Balamuralikrishna had to bite the dust.
Balachander had also protested the title of Sangeet Kalanidhi that the Tamil Nadu government had conferred on Bharatnatyam danseuse Balasaraswati, saying it had to be changed to Natya Kalanidhi to include theatre and other performing arts artistes.
But the establishment snubbed him," Sampath says..
Balachander remained a "perennial rebel and anti-establishment", the biographer said.

His most talked-about battle was against an erstwhile Maharaja of Travancore, Swati Tirunal, whom the musician sought to remove from the pages of history of south Indian culture and arts.

Balachander alleged in a thesis that the young Travancore "maharaja Swati Tirunal (1813-1846), who was hailed a musical maestro and genius of his time, was born out of a book in 1887".

"The campaign remained his obsession for at least eight years. He wrote to the president and the prime minister of India, screamed and shouted in the press. In his later years, Balachander became a recluse and his family distanced itself from the Tirunal episode...," Sampath says..
Another anecdote from wiki..
In Balachander's last years, he feuded with vocalist Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. Semmangudi had written a book on Maharaja Swathi Thirunal of Travancore (1813–1846), a famous composer. Balachander claimed that Semmangudi was trying to ascribe his own compositions to a king, and to argue this he suggested the maharaja did not compose a note and tried to prove the king had never existed. Balachander loved to stress how this was a much greater outrage than ......

Ramasubramanian M.K
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by Ramasubramanian M.K »

Re: P0st#8--VK--thanks for the excerpts from the book.
Have questions: re: Swathi Thirunal's life dates--my impression was that he died in 1847 @ the age of 34 years---in fact that was the same year that Saint Thyagaraja died and I have heard an anecdote from one of the elders in my family- an amateur musicologist-cum-historian(very finicky about dates and a rigorous fact-checker!!!--the anecdote.

It seems the Maharajah had heard about the Saint's fame and wanted to meet him--but knowing that the Saint would not bend to Royal overtures(apparenty having heard about the Saint's indifference about such gestures) decided to visit him with his entourage --all the way from Trivandrum to tanjore--it appears he had almost reached the destination when he had to turn around because of some disturbances back home and reluctantly did so w/o meeting the Saint. When some of the Saint's disciples brought this to the attention of the Saint, he is purported to have regretted the development and supposedly made an otherwise innocuos remark implying if destiny so wills it we may meet soon and sure enough they died in the same year. I have not seen this anecdote appearing in any of the accounts concerning the Saint and other contemporary composers but I believe it to be true because of the source(mentioned above) is trustworthy.(Unfortunately in all my one-on-one sessions with SSI during the last ten years of his life it never occurred to me about clarifying this anecdote).

Hence my ambivalence about the 1846 date you have mentioned in your note. (is it the author's ?).

Comments from forumites are welcome . This has nothing to do with SB but again I have to live upto my family's assessment about myself as the Master of Obfuscation and irrelevance"!!!

Rsachi
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by Rsachi »

The authenticity of musical authorship is one thing but someone's having been there at all or not is quite another.
I am rather intrigued that in these days of God particles and carbon dating and stuff, a king in an extant kingdom, a contemporary of many musicians and composersand kings, and someone who would have surely kept in touch with the English and the French, could be dismissed as non-existent. Dear, respected, art historians, please throw light on the facts surrounding this allegation bordering- to my mind- on the ludicrous!

venkatakailasam
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by venkatakailasam »

What I posted were only extracts from a review..

An aricle by sriram...
http://sriramv.wordpress.com/2008/12/17 ... i-tirunal/

Music composer A Hindu Review...

by H. RAMAKRISHNAN
http://www.hindu.com/br/2007/03/06/stor ... 121500.htm

A musical prodigy..An Article in statesman...
http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?o ... 3&catid=44

Polymath S. Balachander and his great wars – Madhusree Chatterjee...

http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/captured ... hatterjee/



Some proof about authenticity of compositions of maharaja...

http://www.tmcgulf.com/Dr.r.p.raja.pdf

Pratyaksham Bala
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by Pratyaksham Bala »

Shri Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma "was conversant with use of English, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi and Persian. Of these, he composed in Sanskrit, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada."

Shri Swathi Thirunal died on December 25, 1846 at the age of 33.
Shri Tyagabrahmam passed away on January 6, 1847 at the age of 80.

As for the story, it is a funny attempt to glorify one composer/musician, at the cost of another composer and patron of Carnatic Music.

Rsachi
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: S. Balachander

Post by Rsachi »

Thank you gentlemen, for your immediate responses. From the information in those linked documents it is clear that Swati Tirunal did exist. To such an extent that he seems to have haunted SB! :)

Pratyaksham Bala
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by Pratyaksham Bala »

Both Shri Swathi Thirunal and Shri Tyagabrahmam died in the same year - of Tamil Calendar!

Pratyaksham Bala
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by Pratyaksham Bala »

Shri SB tried to prove that Shri Swati Tirunal had never existed;
and his brother Shri S Rajan painted the portrait of Shri Swati Tirunal!

mahesh3
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Joined: 06 Feb 2010, 21:32

Re: S. Balachander

Post by mahesh3 »

The Bhairavi RTP is staggering - superb! Want more please...oasis in a desert, almost - his excellence and perfection! So much to learn for the intellectually honest -

varsha
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by varsha »

Shri SB tried to prove that Shri Swati Tirunal had never existed;

to the best of my knowledge he objected to treating Swathi on par with trinity . Some thing that I too find unacceptable on the walls of the Music Academy.
btw he has played swathi krithis :) so one cannot dismiss him easily . even after his passing away.

Pratyaksham Bala
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by Pratyaksham Bala »

Extracts from news item "Plea against Swathi Tirunal’s existence" that appeared in the 16.1.1990 issue of The Times of India.
http://www.cscsarchive.org:8081/MediaAr ... 9F00259CE4


"The eminent musician and Padma Bhushan awardee maintains that Swathi Tirunal (1813-1847) never existed and the gifted composer whose songs regularly figure in performances by most leading musicians, was a ‘non-person’ and the product of a ‘manipulative hoax’ created to ‘boost the image of the Travancore royal family’.

"Balachander's latest salvo is in the form of a writ petition admitted in the Madras high court, seeking a direction to the National Book Trust (NBT) to withdraw its 1981 Tamil publication, ‘Maharaja Sri Swathi Tirunal’, authored by the eminent vocalist, Semmangudi R. Srinivas, in the national biography series.

... ...

"Balachander’s main grievance is that Swathi Tirunal’s ability is ‘exaggerated’ in the book which places him on par with the musical trinity of Saint Thyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Sastri.

"Chagrined by the Madras music academy placing at its premises a portrait of Swathi Tirunal alongside those of the trinity, Balachander says he conducted a detailed investigation and what confronted him was ‘a staggering story of fraud and deceit’."
.

venkatakailasam
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by venkatakailasam »

#9..

sir,
The story regarding Swathi Tirunal's aborted meeting with Thyagaraja may perhaps be with reference to another contemporary
of them ..a composer/singer Marar also from Kerala which I have posted at http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=19540

He walked all the way to meet the saint at Thiruvaiaru....

Rsachi
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: S. Balachander

Post by Rsachi »

Dear rasikas,
Eureka moment. THE AIR concert of Vid Balachander playing just two items, viz. Jagadoddharana and Krishna Nee Begane, has been uploaded by TVG at S'Priya. It is the 'Id ka Chand'!!! Thanks for the spirit of sharing, TVG and everyone else.

venkatakailasam
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by venkatakailasam »

SBalachandar-007-Vagaladi Bodanaku-Behag-Rupaka-TirupatiNarayanaswamy


SBalachandar-007-Vagaladi Bodanaku-Behag-Rupaka-TirupatiNarayanaswamy.mp3 - 20.5 Mb

rajeshnat
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by rajeshnat »

thamizh translation of the book written by vikram sampath.
http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday ... 605885.ece

kapali
Posts: 130
Joined: 04 Jun 2009, 20:35

Re: S. Balachander

Post by kapali »

Dear Sachi, Is it possible to upload in this forum SB's wonderful Krishna née Begane as I am unable to download from S'Priya.
I heard this from one of my audio cassettes today but as it is a recording from AIR relay , the quality of reception is poor though it is a great and touching piece. Will be thankful for your help in this.

Rsachi
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: S. Balachander

Post by Rsachi »

Dear Kapali,
here you are!:
http://bit.ly/SBKrishnaNee

I am afraid the recording quality is not all that great but then it is a wonderful rendition. Perhaps the sound quality will help you to relive the original moments again and again...

kapali
Posts: 130
Joined: 04 Jun 2009, 20:35

Re: S. Balachander

Post by kapali »

Dear Sachi, thanks for so promptly uploading a great recording ofBalachandar , reliving memories of the maestro. Especially on today, when I am promptly following the footsteps of Sri Venkatakailasam ,stepping in to the 80's. The comparison ends there as I am only a minuscule and more passive contributor to Rasikas forum compared to the great and stupendous contribution by Sri Venkatakailasam. It was just a week ago that my wife reminded me how I used to travel miles with my blank cassetes just to Besantnagar to get from a particular person to get the cassette recorded from his collection and pay him Rs.50 per cassette recording! And she told me now how just every day Sri Venkatakailasam posting a valuable concert !

Rsachi
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by Rsachi »

Sir
Carnatic music lives and breathes for rasikas like you and Venkatakailasam.
We have to follow in your footsteps.

baradu2
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Joined: 28 Jun 2009, 09:37

Re: S. Balachander

Post by baradu2 »

I think this video will more than make up for the bad audio quality of the other "krishnA nI bEganE"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITAFeuzaIQ4

kapali
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Joined: 04 Jun 2009, 20:35

Re: S. Balachander

Post by kapali »

Thanks Very much for posting the video of S.Balachandar's Krishna Née with good audio quality also!

rajeshnat
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by rajeshnat »

Write up of maestro S Balachander in The Hindu. I wish i was there in the concert in Warsaw when the diplomat was complaining , read on below..
http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday ... 134761.ece

Rsachi
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by Rsachi »

Rajesh,
A touching story. The diplomat's grouse about the overshadowed Kanjeevaram-clad tambura artiste is hilarious! No wonder veena artistes have long given up on tambura accompaniment. Too many strings attached.

varsha
Posts: 1978
Joined: 24 Aug 2011, 15:06

Re: S. Balachander

Post by varsha »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHolDU-rxYo
on conjuring up clouds at will
the image
Image
and...
http://www.mediafire.com/listen/1m330ci ... alyani.mp3
Fron his weekly yagam series
SB talks about clouds again :P

shankarank
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by shankarank »

I have never felt a more sincere applause and a more sincere acknowledgement of the same than what happens at the end of this
- a first hit that turned up on Googling his name

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My9VUKzssp0

A friend of mine once recalled: Once he was referred to as Dr Balachander by a local official ( a Mayor or someone) on an U.S Tour. After the speech - he could not resist correcting that : " I have not been awarded a Doctorate Honorary or Otherwise by anybody - even though it would be a well deserved honor".

vasanthakokilam
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by vasanthakokilam »

shankarank, That is funny and profound at the same time. Only SB can pull that off.

What SB does between 38:10 to 38:50 in the above link is just too good. Same melodic line, same position in the string and small but progressive changes in what he does at that position in the string is all it takes to animate the raga. One does not need to invoke swaras, swarasthanas, frequencies gamaka etc. That is the most direct way to relate to a raga "he does THAT, you feel THIS'. If you like something, you can say 'do THAT again'.

shankarank
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by shankarank »


varsha
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Joined: 24 Aug 2011, 15:06

Re: S. Balachander

Post by varsha »

a first hit that turned up on Googling his name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My9VUKzssp0
genius !!!!
adorable genius

Sachi_R
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Joined: 31 Jan 2017, 20:20

Re: S. Balachander

Post by Sachi_R »

Folks, I found out that SB has played Swathi Thirunal's Smarajanaka Behag in an album.
I was under the impression SB had as much love for Swathi as VHP had for Babri Masjid.
Any explanation? Has SB played/recorded other Swathi songs as well?

http://gaana.com/share/titemI60292

rajeshnat
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by rajeshnat »

Sachi_R wrote: 01 Mar 2017, 00:45 Folks, I found out that SB has played Swathi Thirunal's Smarajanaka Behag in an album.
I was under the impression SB had as much love for Swathi as VHP had for Babri Masjid.
Any explanation? Has SB played/recorded other Swathi songs as well?

http://gaana.com/share/titemI60292
SB views where that Swathi Tirunal was more of a hoax. He meant the actual composers were all part of trivandrum tunesmiths and composers like Tanjore Quartet etc who actually composed those numbers.

Sachi_R
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by Sachi_R »

Yes, Rajesh, just wondering if that didn't stop him from performing ST songs. I also heard this record was before he waded into the ST debate.
Do you know of any other ST songs rendered by SB?

CRama
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by CRama »

Before SB started the attack on ST, he had also played Kripaya palaya sowre, Viharamanasa (Kapi) in a live concert in Sree Swati Tirunal Sangeeta sabha, Trivandrum.

Sachi_R
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by Sachi_R »

Thanks CRama!

shankarank
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by shankarank »

If only he had looked at it with the concept of rishi mUlam, nadhi mUlam, apauruShEya - he might have avoided this. I don't think SSI owed any explanation for his questions. I say it with lot of heavy heart, thinking as to how our intellectuals have turned out in many cases! They have become so obsessed with historicity! Ours is one civilization which did not think of intellectual as property!

shankarank
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by shankarank »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5FlXcpclCA - Sri Ravikiran's speech on SB.

thanjavooran
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Re: S. Balachander

Post by thanjavooran »

Arasiji/ r shankar or any of our elite forumite kindly translate

A share from Janakalyan saidhi madal

ஜன கல்யாண் செய்தி மடல் மார்ச் 2018

காஞ்சி மகானும் கர்நாடக சங்கீதமும்
கலபாரதி ஜி . ராமகிருஷ்ணன்

ஒரு சமயம் காஞ்சி பராமாச்சாரியார் முன் வீணை இசை மேதை எஸ். பாலசந்தர் சாமகானம் வாசித்துக் கொண்டிருந்த போது ஒருகட்டத்தில் சிறு நெருடல் அவரை அறியாமலேயே ஏற்பட்டு விட்டது. அதனை சமாளித்துக் கச்சேரியை நிறைவு செய்து வீணையை உறையில் போடப் போகும் போது பரமாச்சார்யாள் வீணையை கேட்டுப் பெற்று, தானே சாமகானத்தை வீணையில் வாசிக்கத் தொடங்கி, பாலச்சந்தர் வாசிப்பில் ஏற்பட்ட நெருடலை சரிசெய்த வண்ணம் தான் மீட்டிய இசை மூலம் அவருக்கு உணர்த்தினார்.
பாலச்சந்தர் அப்படியே அசந்துபோய் ஆனந்தக் கண்ணீர் மல்க, நெடுஞ்சாண் கிடையாக கூப்பியக் கரங்களுடன் ஸ்வாமிகளின் பாதங்களில் விழுந்து வணங்கினார்.
வீணை வாத்தியம், மோக்ஷ சாதனம் என்று யாக்ஞவல்கிய ஸ்ம்ருதியில் கூறி இருப்பதாக காஞ்சி மகான் சொல்வதுண்டு.
சம்ஸ்க்ருதத்தில் மைத்ரீம் பஜத என்ற க்ருதியை பரமாச்சார்யாள், இயற்றி எம். எஸ். சுப்புலக்ஷ்மி மெட்டுப் போட்டுப் பாடி பயிற்சி செய்து, ஐ . நா சபை கச்சேரியில் அந்த பாடலை அனைவரையும் கேட்கச் செய்து அதிசயிக்க வைத்தது அபார சாதனை.
மைசூர் வாசுதேவாச்சாரியார் அவர்களும் டாக்டர் வே இராகவனும் பரமாச்சார்யரை தரிசனம் செய்ய வந்திருந்தனர். அப்போது காஞ்சி மகான் தியாகையருடைய நாத தனுமனிசம் க்ருதியில் ஸத்யோஜாதாதி பஞ்ச வக்த்ர ..... சரிகமபதநி ஸப்தஸ்வர என்று சரணத்தில் வரும் அடிகளின் அர்த்தப்படி, சிவபெருமானின் ஐந்து முகங் களிலிருந்து ஸப்த ஸ்வரங்கள் வந்ததாகச் சொல்லப்படுகிறது. எப்படி வந்தது என்று உங்களால் விளக்கி சொல்லமுடியுமா ? என்று அவ்விருவருவரையும் பார்த்துக் கேட்டார். அவர்களால் பதில் கூற இயலாலதால் மௌனமாக இருந்தனர்.
' ஸ ' - ' ப ' என்ற ஸட்ஜம், பஞ்சமம் என்ற இரண்டும் ஸ்வயம்புவான ப்ரக்ருதி ஸ்வரங்கள் அதனால் அவை பரமசிவன் முகத்திலிருந்து தோன்றியதாகக் கொள்ளக் கூடாது . மீது ஐந்து ஸ்வரங்களும் விக்ருதி ஸ்வரங்கள் எனப்படும். அந்த ஸ்வரங்கள் மட்டும் தான் ஐந்து முகங்களில் தோன்றியதாக வைத்துக் கொள்ளலாம் என்று ஸ்வாமிகள் சொன்ன விளக்கத்தைக் கேட்க வந்திருந்த இரு இசைவல்லுநர்களும் காஞ்சி மகானின் சங்கீத மேதாவிலாசத்தை வியந்து மகிழ்ந்தனர். சங்கீத ஞானத்தை வேத ஞானத்தோடு இனணந்து விளக்கம் கூறுவது எத்தகைய சாதனை?

நன்றி . மணிமேகலை பிரசுரம்

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