Earliest ragamalika compositions

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Rsachi
Posts: 5039
Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by Rsachi »

Dear rasikottamas,
I want some light on this topic. Ragamalikas are the Avial, (or mixed Kosambri or even navratan korma) of CM, delightful in their appeal.

Who composed the earliest ragamalikas?
Were ragamalikas meant for special items like dance, Varnas or some kirthanas (eg Annamacharya, Purandaradasa)with several charanas?
Were songs set to ragamalika tunes in recent decades by people like MV, PSI, HMB, ARI, SSI, TKG, BMK, KVN, PS, LGJ, CRK..?
Was Dikshitar a pioneer in composing his 14 raga opus Srivishwanatham?
Did the Tamil composers specialise in ragamalikas?
Did film music spur ragamalika compositions?
Is ragamalika a unique feature of only recent CM or do you find it also in HM or ancient treatises?
Who sang the earliest ragamalika RTP (I mean like chatur-raga, not just a string of ragas in the end)
Does ragamalika take away some other features of excellence in a composition (eg laya complexity, elegance of Pallavi, anupallavi and charana structure, emotive intensity of the main bhava...)
Are ragamalikas more prominently with chitteswaras?

I tried the search function, without any real success. Please enlighten me. Many questions, and I don't know how important these are to you, please bear with my ignorance.

Thanks
Sachi R
Last edited by Rsachi on 21 Dec 2013, 10:14, edited 1 time in total.

Rsachi
Posts: 5039
Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by Rsachi »

Dr. V.S. Sampathkumaracharya in "Karnataka Sangeetha Vishaya Vishwa Kosha" suggests that Raagakadambika or Raagamaalika was conceived as people sang shlokas and ritualistic prayers at different times/on different occasions in appropriate ragas and gradually they started stringing them together...
Todi Sitaramayya and Muthuswami Dikshitar were the pioneer composers of Ragamalikas...
Swathi Thirunal compositions have been set to ragamalika tunes....

vs_manjunath
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Joined: 29 Sep 2006, 19:37

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by vs_manjunath »

Sri Ramaswamy Dikshitar(F/o MD) is supposed to have composed AshtoTara Shatha Raga Malika.

Rsachi
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by Rsachi »

Thank you! VSM!

http://www.carnatica.net/special/ragamalika.htm
I found a fine article in Carnatica on this subject:
Ramaswami Dikshitar (1735 -1817) could aptly be called a Ragamalika Chakravarti (King of Ragamalika). He was also the inventor of the magnificent pentatonic Raga Hamsadhwani. Ramaswami Dikshitar composed many Tana Varnams and Pada Varnams and he will be remembered for the many lengthy Ragamalikas in which he was very proficient as a composer. All his Ragamalikas were in Telugu language, and every one of them featured the Raga-mudra employed in each segment. One of his Ragamalikas is 'Manasa Verutarula', set in 48 Ragas and in Adi Tala, on Lord Venkateswara. A second one, 'Sivamohanasakti nannu' on Goddess Meenakshi of Madurai is set in 44 Ragas in Roopaka Tala. Yet another one, 'Samajagamana ninnu korinadira' is set in 20 Ragas, Adi Tala, and is dedicated to King Amarasimhan.

vasanthakokilam
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by vasanthakokilam »

Another reference. In the vAggEyakAra Caritram section of SSP, Subbarama Dikshithar writes about the various ragamalikas of Ramaswami Dikshithar as well. http://ibiblio.org/guruguha/ssp_vaggeya.pdf ( page 18, 24th sub-section )

ravir
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Joined: 10 Feb 2010, 11:40

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by ravir »

Apologies for the long post but the following facts deserve mention in the context of ragamalikas:

1. Sangeetha Sarvartha sArasangrahamu of Veena Ramanujacarya- which predates the SSP of Subbarama Dikshitar records atleast two long ragamalikas featuring quite a few known & unknown ragas. They are anonymous & undated and we do not know if they date back to 1800's or earlier.

2. The manuscripts on the Tanjore Sarasvati Mahal Library - documented by Dr B M Sundaram in his work- records a few ragamalikas with the ankita/mudra unnatapuri and is attributed to Melattur Virabadrayya - guru of Ramasvami Dikshitar. It can be thus concluded presently that Virabadrayya was probably the earliest recorded ragamalika composer with the facts available to us. IIRC the test and the cittasvara sections are available but not the notatation & thus the original musical form of the ragamalika is lost forever.

3. The 'longest' one seems to be Ramasvami Dikshitar's raga/tala malika ( 108 talas?) - parts of which have been saved by Subbarama Dikshitar and presented in the anubandha of the SSP. Sermadevi Subramanya Sastrigal, a vaineeka/disciple of the Subbarama Dikshitar, did a lec-dem of this monumental composition, as he had learnt, in the Music academy, circa 1950.

4. 'Longer' ones include Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer's 72 'mela'ragamalika ( Kanakangi to Rasikapriya) composed on Lord Pranatartihara, the original 72 mela ragamalika composed on Sakharam Saheb ( brother in law of the last Tanjore king Shivaji- composed circa 1840's) using which Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer had composed his magnum opus and Subbarama Dikshitar's equivalent 72 'rAgAnga' rAgamalika ( Kanakambari to Rasamanjari) documented in the anubandha to the SSP starting 'E Kanakambari'.

5. The dIkshitar family on the whole have been prolific composers of ragamalikas and so have their sishya parampara- i. e. the Tanjore Quartet.

6. The other type of 'composite raga' compositions include jatisvarams ( Svati's one in Kalyani, Atana, Surati etc), slokamalikas of Svati Tirunal ( e.g : sAnandam kamalamaOhari - in kamalamanohari, hamsadvani, revagupti & tarangini ) & varnas with angAs in different ragas ( e.g : Valaci of Patnam or the ghana raga varna of Kalahasti venkatsvami Raja (in the tAna varna category) & Sumasayaka - Svati- with ragamalika ettugada svaras (in the pada varna category).

7. We do not seem to have any ragamalika prabandhas/gitas ( on the lines of the ones found published in the SSP as a part of the raga definitions) and so from an antiquity perspective ragamalika - composite raga compositions seem to be a post 1700 development.

cmlover
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Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:36

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by cmlover »

Arunacala kavi composed "enakkunnirpadam ninaikka varamarulvaai" in the early part of 18th century which may
predate Ramaswamy Dikshitar....

ravir
Posts: 26
Joined: 10 Feb 2010, 11:40

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by ravir »

cmlover wrote:Arunacala kavi composed "enakkunnirpadam ninaikka varamarulvaai" in the early part of 18th century which may
predate Ramaswamy Dikshitar....
Beg to differ on this. Many of these have been re-tuning efforts and the tunes are not that old IMO. We do have Purandaradasa's ( ChandracUda sivasankara), Narayana tIrthA's compositions in ragamalika formats & the tunes are of 20th century origin only. Much like Svati's Bhavayami originally in Saveri , which was recast in ragamalika format by Sri SSI. Similarly Narayana Tirtha's Jaya jaya gokula bala was originally in Bhairavi ( and the doyenne Dhanammal used to render it so) which was retuned as a medley in Bhairavi, atana, kambhoji, kalyani & Surati. www.karnatik.com/c1257.shtml

rshankar
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Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by rshankar »

aruNAcala kavirAyar was a poet. He had a couple of students (who learnt tamizh from him) who were also students of music, and IIRC, it was these two students of his that set his poems/compositions to music.
By the way, as I understand it, while Sri AK predated the trinity, I think he may have been a contemporary (or at least overlapped to an extent) of Sri Ramaswamy Dikshitar.

Sivaramakrishnan
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Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by Sivaramakrishnan »

'Aarabhimaanam vaithu aadarippaar ennai' is a pioneer raagamaalika. A scintillating one, really!

keerthi
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Joined: 12 Oct 2008, 14:10

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by keerthi »

ravir, you've turned into a rare bird. Maybe a bird that only responds to rAgamalika calls!

A few observations -

1.
Sangeetha Sarvartha sArasangrahamu of Veena Ramanujacarya- which predates the SSP of Subbarama Dikshitar records atleast two long ragamalikas featuring quite a few known & unknown ragas. They are anonymous & undated and we do not know if they date back to 1800's or earlier.
It is maybe important to mention that these are labeled as ragamAlika gIta-s [while not conforming to the caturdaNDi definition of the gItam, as you rightly mention]. Of these two gItams, the former, karnATa-kOnkaNa was prevalent in Mysore, and was known to students of the sadAshiva Rao -> SeshaNNA, Karigiri rao and Vasudevacarya -> Chennakeshavayya lineages. The mudra varada-vEnkaTa in this gitam may gives some clues towards its provenance. Chennakesavayya would quote the respective rAga sections often during ragalakSaNa debates.

2. Add to the list of old rAgamAlikas whose tunes have been lost -at least 2 rAgamAlika sUlAdis of srIpadarAja, one by purandaradAsa, in the manuscript collection of the Mysore University Haridasa project. Also the rAgamAlika slOkas from the SamUdiri king Manaveda's KRSNagIti, with the rAgas listed in the oldest available manuscript, indicates the presence of a rAgamAlikA in the mid 1600s. I recollect that there are more slOkas of Swati Tirunal meant to be sung in a one-rAga per-pAda fashion with the rAga names incorporated [beside sAnandam kamalAmanOharinam and the sankarabharana-kalyani-saranga-mohana ones], including one which uses MangaLakaisika.

There is one rAgamalika padam of sArangapAni with the ragamudra embedded for each khaNdikA.

3. The available portion of rAmaswAmi dIksitar's opus nATakAdi vidyala was taught to the second and third batch of the Central College of carnatic music by the maestro Tiruppamburam Swaminatha Pillai. It was also produced for radio by Prof. SAmbamUrthy, who is said to have had a more complete version of the song.

5. Amen! Particularly Subbarama dIkSitar, whose rAgamalikas are exemplars of poetic and musical excellence, encapsulating the perfume of each rAga in a succinct (one and a)half Avarta of the tAla.

6. The word shlOkamAlikA, while prevalent, is an aberrant label for slOkas with each quarter tuned in a different rAga. Maybe rAgamAlikA slOka is a better moniker.

Rsachi
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by Rsachi »

Make it two rare birds!

varsha
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Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by varsha »

Is ragamalika a unique feature of only recent CM or do you find it also in HM
RSachi had a dream . He was hosting Basavraj Rajguru for dinner and asked him this question .The master was busy enjoying his food and did not reply .
Then the late night singing sessions went on till early morning next day .
And RSachi gets his answer - Gowri - Lalith - Bhairav - Ramkali - Gunakali - Bhibas - Shivmath --Jogiya--

https://archive.org/details/BasavarajRa ... avRagamala

RS Wakes up when the singing suddenly stops - finds that the 90 minute length tape was five minutes shorter and hence misses the climax :(
Decides to go to Dharwar and meet his son Nijaguna to have a look at Rajagurus books . Rajaguru , who was obsessed with collecting cheez's all over India and Pakistan . Though it meant spreading himself thin in public consciousness which remained obsessed (to this day ) with yaman , puriya , bagesree , shudh kalyan ........

Rsachi
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by Rsachi »

Dear Varsha,
It was always a secret wish I had to feature as the protagonist (a la Alchemist) in a music-related narrative...you have fulfilled that wish...God bless you.
I am going to relive that dream you have captured, just after the 100.1FM ends Ravikiran broadcast (Vachaspati). I am listening on headphones to pick up all the fine nuances of his play. (alas the violin is rather screechy, mridangam UKS!)

varsha
Posts: 1978
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Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by varsha »

the protagonist (a la Alchemist) in a music-related narrative
I think of you ( and myself and some others here ) in narratives like Three men in a boat , Pickwick Papers ... narratives which work around the point that Life is beautiful indeed and a primary aim could be to just enjoy it :ymapplause:
Happy listening . Wonder if you were around in Blore a decade ago when he played an extempore pallavi on the sapthaswaras , based on a request of one of my friends (*)

Rsachi
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by Rsachi »

Varsha,
Yes, Three Men in a Boat - I read it in Mysore in 1966. I got the book from the Rotary Children's Library opp. Maharanis College.
If one can live life as a laugh, it is the greatest blessing. Zarathustra was born laughing. The Zen master lives laughing. Ashtavakra dies laughing!

I just heard Rajguru while I was walking in a beautiful treelined park near home. Thank you.
The music ended abruptly... JOGIYA.. I will continue at home with Sayeeduddin!

bhakthim dehi
Posts: 539
Joined: 24 Feb 2014, 21:28

Re: Earliest ragamalika compositions

Post by bhakthim dehi »

Shahaji has composed a chaturdasha ragamaalika ; raga mudra was woven into the text akin to Dikahithars ragamaalika!!!!

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