Blasphemy in Music Academy

[Nick H]

Sridhar's verse is reminding me now of the great thousand-year-old Anglo-saxon poem Beowulf!

[sridhar_ranga]

Thanks Nick and indeed my inspiration was a 1000 year old verse by Kavi Chakravarti Kamban, Tamil poet extraordinaire, who made this verse in praise of Hanuman in his Kamba Ramayanam.

Thanks a lot for the encouragement CML and Arasi. Indeed CML's Sanskrit verse paraphrasing the Hanuman Slokam yatra yatra Raghunatha KIrtanam was one more inspiration for me to choose a Tamil verse on Hanuman.

In the abhang bhUt mOThE there is one bhUta being referred, this verse refers to five bhUtas - not ghosts but the five elements, or pancha bhUtas, without even naming one of them explicitly but the context absolutely making it clear which one is being referred. Such a beautiful poem that can evoke pure magic if rendered as a viruttam, something R & G sisters are extremely good at.

Here it is:

anjilE onRu peRRAn anjilE onRait tAvi
anjilE onR(u) ARAga AriyarkkAga Egi
anjilE onRu tanda aNangai kanDu ayalAr Uril
anjilE onRai vaittAn avan emmai aLittuk kAppAn

Meaning:

he who was born to one of the five ( hanuman, son of wind), crossed one of the five (the ocean i.e. water)
with one of the five as his medium/ way (sky/ space) he travelled for the sake of the Arya (Lord Rama)
he met the daughter of one of the five (sItA, who came off the earth), in the foreigner's city (Lanka)
he spread one of the five (set on fire), he will protect us all

[arasi]

Sridhar,
Yes, a beautiful verse!

I think it's time we adjourned to the kavidaigaL thread before taking over this concert-review thread

[srutibedam]

Dhanurasi writes a miserable apology for a review, apologises for the so-called sarcasm and some people greatly appreciate him. This is great fun. If Dhanurasi should be appreciated it must be for giving others the joy of laughing - laughing at him, not with him.

He is a self-claimed puritan who can excuse lapses in sruti, sowkyam, bhavam and layam. But he cannot excuse a four minute abhang.

I do most certainly see the sarcasm in his review, particularly in the word 'sooothing', because he wants to 'teach the mob a lesson' by taking them to Sanjay's or TMK's concert, as if it were a punishment. I wonder what Sanjay or TMK would have to say about that.

If he does not like female singers, it begs the question why he went to Ranjani Gayathri's concert in the first place. He calls the MA audience 'ever stupid'. I think we now know who was the stupidest of them all in that particular concert.

Dhanurasi did the right thing by hiding his face in a shawl. My advice to Dhanurasi is that he must continue to hide his face in a shawl, not only in concerts but in all public places after writing a review like that.

[squims]

The review isn't meant to be taken seriously. It's just poking fun at how people take offence to abhangs etc. being sung in concerts.

[Nick H]

... and, perhaps, at how a short post can make our blood boil!

[cmlover]

That is the power of harimau! Like hanuman he is a 'Sollin chelvan'. He with his power of expresssion makes our blood boil and also sets our mind furiously thinking! I love the writings of MKR which stimulate my intellect, but when harimau or Uday write my brain-cells throb pierced by the cold logic and sarcasm! It is a pity many miss his message deceived by the granite outer. He is indeed the 'naaLigeeram' which has to be broken with tenderness to relish the juicy inner sap...

[vasanthakokilam]

srutibedam did not get Dhanurasi's sarcasa bedam

[Ranganayaki]

Dhanurasi writes a miserable apology for a review,

If he does not like female singers, ...

Dhanurasi did the right thing by hiding his face in a shawl. My advice to Dhanurasi is that he must continue to hide his face in a shawl, not only in concerts but in all public places after writing a review like that.

I must agree this is a difficult thread to keep track of, for me at least.. sometimes it's hard to tell who is on whose side here, with a lot of the writing happening in poetry..

But Srutibedam, to me it seems you are in fact in complete agreeement with Dhanurasi, the entire review is a parody of the abhang naysayers and the detractors of those who sing them. Dhanurasi has adopted a persona here, a little in the style of Steven Colbert of Comedy Central.

This thread is entertaining, but also keeps me edgy, almost as if relaxing while visiting this thread will have me jumping up in pain from the exposed pushpin that was left there just for me to sit on. So if I have not noticed that you or anyone else is also "in character", then - Oops!

[VK RAMAN]

Is abhang sung after taking bhaang

[Ranganayaki]

All the heat generated this season reminds me of the TITLE, which I find brilliant, of this book by Amartya Sen called "The Argumentative Indian". Haven't read the book, and I am not aware of what positions are discussed, but it's a great title. Don't we all love to argue! And we HAVE to convert the other, scold them into agreeing with us, tweak them, fix them a little, yeah, straighten them out. How many get togethers have we all been to where the discussions turn into a high-decibel cacophony? We just have so MUCH fun arguing. I'm reminded of a line I saw long ago, here on rasikas, and enjoyed the image it evoked, about some of us rasikas loving "a periodic roll in the mud". I used to hate the arguments, but I'm lightening up too . No sarcasm intended, I'm all straight here.

Did the Madras crowd love Jon Higgins for learning "our" music? Do we welcome those from the North and from the West who love Carnatic Music? Or do we own Carnatic Music? Have we loaned it to the westerners who come to India and enjoy listening to it? Should they join in our Carnatic life, or should they look at it without touching? Should their western friends look condescendingly upon them as traitors to the cause of the music (which one - classical? rock? jazzz?...) that sprang up in their countries? Should the European music lover be angered at the choice of musicians who perform American pieces? Is that a tacit admission of inferiority?

The languages and cultures that have evolved and thrived the most are those that welcomed outside influences. Regulate language and you will be killing it. Today's French is full of international expressions, mainly English, starting with the resented "bug" and including expressions like "lol". Tamil has been there too and we all know how clumsy and heavy as tanks we could be if we were forced to use the pure Tamil words for new everyday objects and ideas that did not exist 20 years ago. Art is like language. It is born in a geographical location, but it feeds the local culture and draws from it at the same time. It is free and needs to grow and always develop, or it dies. It feeds on and grows from positive love, and not from imprisonment in the hard plastic of codified boundaries. Raga lakshana itself is not codified, not set in stone, but is amorphous and only lives in convention and is learned by listening to and praciticing multiple examples.. Create new convention and the raga adopts a new facet to its lakshana (yikes!! , yes, I said that).

Harimau, : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tdYY6lUw9g .

[harimau]

Harimau, : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tdYY6lUw9g .

One good turn deserves another.

So, here it goes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xam01uaj ... re=related

[Ranganayaki]

Thanks .. Now you're being silly but thanks, I enjoyed it (a little, as I am not really into talking and singing animal videos).

Loved the bass dog. He sounded cute and huggable

[srutibedam]

Ranganayaki,

I am not in agreement with Dhanurasi and my earlier post was a criticism, straight and simple. He too, I believe, has made his views very clear not only in his first post but also in his replies. You could have asked me if I am on his side, rather than try to read too much between the lines, because only when you do that, the pushpin you mentioned will pierce where it will hurt most...ha ha

[Ranganayaki]

srutibedam did not get Dhanurasi's sarcasa bedam

Srutibedam,
Your post certainly was a criticism, no doubt about that. I had no need to ask you about your views. You were pretty clear. But the fact is that Dhanurasi's point has escaped you. So unless Dhanurasi comes up to clarify in your favor, and correct the perception of most of us following this thread, I can't agree with you. You ARE apparently in agreement with him/her. But I won't argue with you over this.

[srutibedam]

for one moment there I thought you were the 'argumentative indian' who loves to argue... ...Dhanurasi has said much more than abhang and his reply in Post 35 makes categorical assertions, which cannot be interpreted as sarcasm at any stretch of imagination...

[Ranganayaki]

And this is from Vasanthakokilam, post 37. I think he's right - not arguing over this, just trying to make you see.. but I'm REALLY done now, because I have nothing more to draw your attention to, to support my words.

btw, just so people do not get confused again, dhanurasi is still in 'character'.

[srutibedam]

yes, I am not surprised that you don't have anything more to draw my attention to...and even the one you have quoted do not seem to be Dhanurasi's own words...

[arasi]

Ranganayaki,
I really liked your statement about language--"like art, it feeds on and grows from positive love".

Yes, thanks to Harimau and a few others, we do see some action (rolling in the mud and fighting an argument out)--in instances when it strictly feeds on and grows from positive love for CM

Wonder what Harimau has to say about the one bhajan in my new CD

[clmweb]

...
I believe there is going to be an all abhang-and-bhajan concert by a musician who has embarked on a musical journey. I recommend that heartily to Dhanurasi. Rather than sit through reasonable music for 2 hours just to listen to one abhang, he could drink deep from the firehose directly.

I believe this is a mistaken reference to a new album, compiled from various concerts.
Now playing at a firehose near you :
http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18325

-Karthik

[dhanurasi]

Thank you all for the humorous comments and the serious ones, for the relevant points and the irrelevant ones.

Wish you all a Happy New Year!

See you at the next release

[arasi]

dhanurasi,
I join you in wishing everyone a happy and musically rich year!
Next release, eh? Were you there at the recent one? If there's going to be another (ugh!), have to make sure, no bhajans
Wish we had met...