The Hindu's Chennai season coverage

[critiquing-the-media]

A couple of days ago, I read a self-congratulatory item in The Hindu about its coverage of the Chennai music season, with kind quotes by obliging artistes - http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article2768791.ece. So I really, really want to pen down a corrective angle to this. And I know everybody involved in C music out there reads Rasikas, so her goes. I don't know about the print version of the newspaper, perhaps it was all nice and glossy. But the online coverage at The Hindu's website has left much to be desired and has been very frustrating to read. I could not go this year to attend the season in person, so I had to put greater reliance on online reports to get my jollies. Sometimes I've been ready to go aaaaarrrrrgh and tear out my hair when reading the Hindu.

1. Indexing is very sloppy. There is a list of critics on the right, but if you click on a name, it is hit or miss, whehter the list of writeups that you get is actually by that author or not.

2. Content wise, reviews have many mistakes. Example - http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article2777569.ece - When did Rishabhapriya become the last Melakarta? And seriously, one huge pic and only one para about Revathy Krishna? The bulk of the review is about B Kannan and his picture goes on "Related photos"? Come on, where is the much talked about Carnatic music sense of proportion? And isn't The Hindu sexist about both men and women in Carnatic music? The woman's pic is good to look at, but her review needs only a small para, and the man's pic is relegated to the sideline, but his concert needs a long review!

And why can't reviewers find better ways to express themselves about our music and dance? The next time I read that someone created an "essay" in a Raga or "passages" in swaras, I am going to barf. I have lost count of the number of times reviewers have talked of Raga essays and Swara passages. What is this, performance music or high school English composition? Another overdone term is permutation-combination in Tani Avartanams. Excuse me, any 15 year old will tell you that permutation is different from combination. You either permute or you combine, can you do both at the same time? And why is the public performance of Carnatic music called a "field"? And enough already with using the word great as a noun, instead of an adjective. It is way overdone. The killer is adequate - "the percussion accompaniment was adequate", "the variety of concert list selection was adequate", blah blah blah adequate... It always leaves me with a sneaking suspicion that the reviewer really meant to say that there was something lacking!

As for spelling, forget it. Since when did Kambhoji become Khambodi? Not once, not twice, the pages of The Hindu are littered with Khambodi-s all through the December season. What are the writers and copy editors doing? I hope the numerology bug has not bit the Raga or the newspaper. And did Muthukumar really sing Mathura puri nilaye - http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article2777429.ece

3. A lot of the writing is very moTTai. If you go and read older reviews on the site, good luck trying to figure out which Sabha, what day, what slot etc. Some reviews give the Sabha name on top, next to the date and some mention the Sabha name in the body of the review, while others are totally devoid of any of this information. Same goes for recordings and for book reviews too. You get no idea from reading the review of the what, where, when, how. No consistency in formating the review.

Example - http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article2777395.ece - no Sabha name for Sanjay's concert, till you read through more than half of the review and get a headache before discovering it was Tamil Isai. And if others have also been rendering Kanakangi in the season, why is Sanjay's choice of Kanakangi laudable? Is Kanakangi the new Narayanagawlai?!!

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article2777563.ece - where did Rama and Geetha sing? Not that I would have necessarily gone to the concert if I was in Chennai, lol, but reading a review that lacks details is frustrating.

4. Apart from reviews, there is the occasional article about music and musicians, written by a variety of people with varying results. One wonders how and why people who are obviously not journalists or music critics are asked to write and the topic on which they write is chosen.

V Sriram has obliged as usual, with his snippets focusing on the mundane. A few articles like the one by Spencer Venugopal - http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article2715249.ece - were interesting to read. http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article2742366.ece, by Savita Narasimhan, has an entire para quoting Spencer. As it turns out, that is the most interesting part, and everything else could have been put together by anyone with a few old issues of Sruti magazine and Google at their disposal. Even there, details are left out. No mention of a number of other Brindamma's disciples alive and well today, and nothing about books that have already appeared on her. A simple Google search on Brindamma or Brinda as a keyword reveals a lot more information.

I could go on, but ranting is exhausting business. Overall, my experience with The Hindu's reporting has been disappointing. I expected a lot more ...

[critiquing-the-media]

And isn't The Hindu censored word about both men and women in Carnatic music?

Wow, rasikas.org has censorship! I meant *s*e*x*i*s*t* , lol.

[vasanthakokilam]

Yes, that substitution is done by the forum software itself with occasional humorous results.

I could go on, but ranting is exhausting business.

Yes, indeed.

Good critique!

[mahavishnu]

c-t-m, Critiquing can be equally exhausting.
Thanks for your post. You raise some important points.

I thought the reviews in the Hindu were more balanced this season, compared to some of the stuff published in the past. Errors in content, poor writing style and lack of basic proofing are not new in the Hindu.

The articles by Uday Shankar (from this forum) were a welcome change in this regard. Some of Viswanath Parasuram's articles were quite reasonable as well. SVK was his usual verbose self. At least people didn't review their own disciple's concert this year The Hindu does not seem to understand the concept of "conflict of interest" very well.

But, I TOTALLY agree that the Hindu website is terrible. I do not read much Indian media, but I don't find TOI, Indian Express or any other national newspaper to have a good web presence as well. Why is it that with all the IT resources available in India that none of the papers can provide even basic online content?

W.r.t music season coverage, the older version of the Hindu had a static but reliable online presence. For example you could go to hindu.com/ms/2010/12/29 and you can see all the articles listed there. Articles were relatively easy to catalog. Even search engines found these articles with greater ease. It is impossible to search for a review with any level of accuracy any more.

I did not see the print version this year since I wasn't in India, but it appears from the reports (in the Hindu) that atleast the layout and graphics were well received.

That said, no other major newspaper even covers the music season in such detail. The Hindu has the largest reach for the demographic that follows Carnatic Music.

[balakk]

I tried to read the Hindu online, but ended up totally distracted by the following picture
http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dyna ... 63363g.jpg
:$

This appeared on every review during December ]

[fuddyduddy]

There was also a mistake in schedules.. Maybe just accidental typos and I dont know if its a frequent issue but I did find it once and was confused as on 2 consecutive days the word 'Tomorrow' was added for a certain concert. Maybe they should put 'todays' and 'tomorrows' schedules in different columns so it wont be as confusing.

[critiquing-the-media]

I thought the reviews in the Hindu were more balanced this season, compared to some of the stuff published in the past. Errors in content, poor writing style and lack of basic proofing are not new in the Hindu.

The articles by Uday Shankar (from this forum) were a welcome change in this regard. Some of Viswanath Parasuram's articles were quite reasonable as well. SVK was his usual verbose self. At least people didn't review their own disciple's concert this year The Hindu does not seem to understand the concept of "conflict of interest" very well.

Yes, I agree partly. Some articles were well written, others were pedestrian. SVK's output was only 4-5 reviews though! He didn't get much of a chance to be old-world style verbose this time.

Balance is overrated. I think the quest for balance in reviewing is what leads to the essays, the passages and the adequates. In the end, everybody sounds the same!

[mahavishnu]

C-i-m: "Balance" is also misunderstood as in Faux news, which claims to be fair and balanced. IMO it is neither.

I use the term more in the context of fairness, presenting the good and bad sides. I am not a fan of the Subbudu style where one questions/attacks the sincerity of a artiste's intention and integrity of his/her bhavam, which one famed Hindu reviewer did not long ago. Some of this person's reviews included apocryphal facts (not just typos) masquerading as authoritative opinion. He did not write this year. These reviews are more dangerous than the innocuous ones where someone misspells khambodi (sic), while being aware that the /d/ and /j/ phonemic distinction in colloquial tamizh is slippery.

Many of the pedestrian reviews will be forgotten and thanks to the wonderful Hindu website, will never be found again by the likes of Google.

[rajeshnat]

All
1. I think some time till third quarter of 2011 the indexing was easy. Some time bit later, The Hindu has made it difficult to get their online Friday Reviews . I think indexing is generally not done for business reasons is my best guess . I only look at free online , is there any one in this forum who has subscribed to their paid online subscription , may be you can share how index is organized ?

2.If you could recollect till last year from say 2008 to 2010 , for margazhi season there was seperate supplements that was exclusively for margazhi , I am talking about not the full size paper , but one which was 3/4th the size , which came twice or thrice a week other than usual sized Friday Review supplement. As such I surely missed that extra exclusive supplement . I dont know why they discontinued that. My gut feel since that was only published in metro , they decided to do without it.Overall I think no of reviews have come down this year(talking about count due to absence of that exclusive 3/4th size supplement)

3. we have new 2nd page addition coverage of margazhi , I am assuming that 2nd page article goes beyond Chennai Metro to atleast few southern zones , Not sure if it was available in Bangalgore ,Delhi , Bombay etc , can some body confirm . This 2nd page is kind of good and bad , good that a new additional page is given , at times I feel there is more bigger photographs and few things like a small advertisement (over and above the events that is in 4th page), where they put today's concert which is a subset , infact few is also there with photographs , one can see to an extent how few musicians are quite connected to the hindu.

4. One thing that is very laudable is more reviewers are into the Hindu now . That is really good , we cant hang with too much of old reviewers. To an extent that only shows it is preparing very well into its future. In online you can also see there is filter for every reviewer like links for swaminathan ,Charukesi etal.

5. In general if you want to read online reviews you only have a week of buffer time before the next week rolls on , that link is this one , so I think we have to grab it quickly. This link is the best and only starting point to go into other concerts in other cities and you can go from here to all concerts for that week.

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/

CTM
You make few great points and there are few that are bit hyper critical like Khambodi(not kAmbOji) and kanakAngi . Kanakangi is performed by both sanjay and B kannan(who has played an exclusive RTP) that centainly has to be appreciated , and certainly nothing wrong in people getting that appreciation . Both nArayanagowlai and KanakAngi are very rare.

One has to remember unlike writing reviews here , where no of words can be unlimited , when there is limited words sometimes to fit it with right precise choice of words is only a problem of constraint of what can be printed within a limited space vs what kind of review a reviewer can write? With that constraint it always has an intrinsic incomplete status?

[Nick H]

1. The Hindu's standard of language has fallen drastically in approximately two years. Change of staff? Retirement of a generation of sub-editors? Or a commercial decision to dumb down rather like UK's BBC has done. Perhaps they feel the need to compete with The New Indian Express in mixed metaphors, wrong idioms and incorrect word usage. For all this, the New Indian Express is now way ahead on reporting social issues and challenging the establishment (V Sainath's rural/agriculture articles are an honourable exception, probably The Hindu has one or two others, but if I am being unfair it really is only a little unfair!). The Hindu is now about selling its front page as advertising space as often as it can. Perhaps I'm being unfair again: the commercial realities of the newspaper word are hard ones.

2. The Hindu's website has been entirely rewritten within the past couple of years. Others will remember the old site, with the articles in a blue rectangle in the centre of the screen. It is fine for seeing today's headlines, or even tomorrow's when impatient, in the early hours of the morning, to read the latest on some breaking news item. Smarter and better presented, it certainly is, but does it work better? I frequently need links to articles published within the past day or two, and the site's own search facility frequently fails to return a result for the headline I am copying for the newspaper itself! Google saves the day. This should embarrass them.

3. I was reading a site reviewing recordings of the symphonies of a classical Western composer recently. Having not seen any such thing for years, I was really struck by the difference. Instead of verbosity and hyperbole leavened with the occasional personal swipe --- there was real information, about the music, about the musicians, about the conductors. Wow! Can't The Hindu, if it is to honour its interest in Carnatic music, take a leaf out of this sort of book? That is not to say, of course, that there is not heaps of intellectual verbosity and boredom to be found in artistic criticism the world over: but it does not have to be like that. We can find far better criticism on this site than in the pages of The Hindu.

4. The paper is extremely partisan. Whilst sabhas have to pay Rs.1000-plus even for a small entry in the listings for today's concerts, any even in which The Hindu itself is involved will get editorial coverage like it is the only cultural event in the city for the whole year.

4. Even if the reviews are complete rubbish, I am glad that the paper does remind the world that carnatic music exists. I like the p.2 coverage of the season, in principle, if not in all details. It is great to see that the occasional forumite has found a way in to having their writing accepted and published.

[uday_shankar]

As I was given to understand, the page 2 effort was something new this year, quite apart from the regular coverage and reviews.

Nick, I did not make an effort to get my writing "accepted and published" . It was in response to a specific request and I made a little extra bit of effort over a rasikas forum post to cross the t's and dot the i's, that's it. As for playing music critic, it is not an activity I enjoy at all. Every single concert musician, regardless of age or experience, is far more accomplished than I will ever be. Therefore, any criticism should be marked by utmost deference for that sadhana, if you will. All in all, it sucks .

[ramanathan]

As for playing music critic, it is not an activity I enjoy at all. Every single concert musician, regardless of age or experience, is far more accomplished than I will ever be. Therefore, any criticism should be marked by utmost deference for that sadhana, if you will. All in all, it sucks .

Exactly my feelings too, uday. I was roped in pretty much the same way as you, btw

[uday_shankar]

Well, I wasn't "roped in"...I accepted so I have to take responsibility for my actions ! I guess in the end somebody has to play the role of the critic...

As for the articles, I even tried to get them critiqued by our very own "fair and balanced" vasanthakolilam before submitting them. It turned out I wasn't able to reach him, so off they went anyways.

I thought the page 2 productions and visuals were quite good.

[Nick H]

Either way, well done to you guys who wrote, and I still say well-done to The Hindu for publishing.

Uday, point taken about being a critic. Don't think I'd care for it either.

[Ranganayaki]

I could go on, but ranting is exhausting business.

Enjoyed your write-up.. especially loved this line, and the one about barfing over some cliches . Please write more.

[rajeshnat]

Uday and Ramanathan
Liked your writeups , particularly liked uday's review of amrutha venkatesh and ramanathan's review of Ramakrishnan murthy. By any chance do you know if those page 2 articles that you wrote is published in all southern cities or is it only restricted to chennai edition

[padavarnam]

Dear all
I have been an ardent music rasika for the last 4 decades or so and am very happy to join this forum.
The Hindu efforts to have a page 2 coverage for the music season is laudable. But, apart from a few articles and may be a few reviews, it has all been seemingly mediocre stuff. Mostly the focus is on reasonable language skills rather than any serious musical content. The knowledge of some of the critics seems very shallow since I attended some of these over hyped up concerts. But what to do. In the days of mediocrity even in the musical standards, we cannot expect more. The best of today's musicians would have struggled to make an impression even to the second string or third string of musicians of the past. I might sound very critical, but I am not commenting on the body language and presentation skills of this generation artists, which is their core strength, but just go by the musical standards and we will have the real answers. The hype over average is just way too much and some of them get 2 or 3 reviews. Several committed artistes and even senior pros have been totally neglected for several years even in the friday's review section. All in all, the lucky bunch can ride on a false success run. Hope they feel more committed by the hype they are receiving and atleast try to live up to this and not assume they are actually that good. I am hopeful of a few who are promising, but most of them are average at their best.

[ajsriram]

The killer is adequate - "the percussion accompaniment was adequate", "the variety of concert list selection was adequate", blah blah blah adequate...

The critics are biased to the core. They always give THIER views about the people who occupy the centre stage and completely neglect about others who shares the stage.

I still have a strong feeling that either Hindu or Rasika.org or any other newspaper s never taken any steps to improve this particular section for a long long time.

Some of Viswanath Parasuram's articles were quite reasonable as well

Just to make the review spicy in one of his reviews he used the famous anecdote of MVI “Avan Thaniya thana vasindrunthan”. It was about B.sivaraman’s mridangam accompaniment for Bharat Sudar. It was really painful to read such reviews about siva. Comparing siva with the current generation youngsters, he stands top and it will take many many years for others to get close to him. To me siva is the only person who does not follow “NaMiTha” style of playing (Nam-dhin-tha). To make it clear, Siva doesn’t play the mridangam to showcase it as a groove playing rhythm instrument unlike other mediocre artists. On top of it many vocalists prefer "Nam-dhin-Tha" style because of their complete disability in tala & layam!

Inspite of Bharat sudar being very happy that day and was very comfortable on stage with siva, the reviewers point-of-view was completely different. When the artists on the stage are comfortable and happy with each other, I don’t know what makes the critic to write like this.
Moreover it requires very good amount “gyanam” to understand this kind of playing and good “rasanai” to feel the intricacies, and Mr.viswanathan lacks “gyanam” and doesn’t have a good “rasanai”.

Note to critics: The critics should keep in mind that the article will be read by thousands and thousands of people living all over the world. Friends of the victim (in this case siva) will surely talk to him personally and will also speak/write to the reviewer (We have done in this case) and can encourage the victim saying that critics doesn’t have knowledge to gauge others skills and it is just 5% of the total count. The rest 95% of the readers/viewers will take whatever written on the magazines or on the web without knowing what exactly happened on the concert dais. The review will be in the memory of the readers for a long time and it really takes strenuous effort to erase unless otherwise they attend the concert live again.

It is really important for the critics/writers to bring out the complete essence of the concert rather using mixed-metaphors and examples to increase their own TRP ratings. It is highly impossible to have a guideline or to frame rules for a carnatic music reviewers/critic s. On the other hand the critics have the highest responsibility in their hands also to improve the quality and showcase our music to readers and the next generation musicians (both with their positive and negative reviews).

In the current situation, I personally feel that there is not even one reviewer available to participate in the growth of carnatic music.

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Carnatic Music Turns Me On

[chitravina ravikiran]

>>Kambhoji become Khambodi

Sanskrit scholars have opined that kAmbOdhi = ka+ambodhi (Ocean of joy, happiness etc) is a correct name for this raga. (ka has numerous meanings in Sanskrit which are appropriate for this raga). There is no historical evidence of it being connected to kAmbOja desha, modern day Kampuchia.

[srikant1987]

Just to make the review spicy in one of his reviews he used the famous anecdote of MVI “Avan Thaniya thana vasindrunthan”. It was about B.sivaraman’s mridangam accompaniment for Bharat Sudar.

It is really sad that someone should write about Sivaraman's accompaniment like that. What is sadder is that such crass writing often looks authoritative and a less knowledgeable reader may be really taken by the apparent command the reviewer possesses ...

To me siva is the only person who does not follow “NaMiTha” style of playing (Nam-dhin-tha).

But now, ajsriram, not the ONLY person, surely?

[ajsriram]

But now, ajsriram, not the ONLY person, surely?

I have to agree with you. I am sorry, I attend only very very very few concerts and i decide them based on who plays the Laya Vadhyam. I am sure that there are many many many "ABLE" mridangists but sadly running in "DISABLED" mode because many vocalists prefer "Nam-dhin-Tha" style.

I still feel that siva stands out among the rest in his category.

P.S: With reference to this context, Please Please Please do not bring the "Soul full" & "Sollu Full" anecdote by Prof. Trichy Sri.Sankaran.

[MaamiAtHeart]

How about the review for Sumitra Vasudev's concert? The reviewed gave a bad review, for no good reason, just that the "wow" factor was missing. That was truly a head scratcher. Anyway, I am glad she was recognized for her talent

[Nick H]

There was a big difference between Sumithra's Naada Inbam concert and her Academy concert. The first was full of energy and very punchy; the second was laid back. Was this planned? Or had she simply run out of energy by the time of the Academy concert. I chose to believe the former, that it was a purposely laid back and "stately" concert for the Academy occasion. To know, I suppose we have to ask the lady herself.

In the same review, the violinist was accused of not being able to do his job. I am partisan: he is a friend of mine, but I was astonished to see the reviewer take the talam from the morsing player, who made lots of mistakes, and who I didn't think ought to have been on the Academy-Season stage, and blame the violinist for not maintaining the correct tempo. I feel sure I would have concluded the same, even without knowing Balu, because the morsing player is completely unknown to me, so I have no feelings for and against, except always being glad to see a morsing, and being disappointed if it is not up to scratch. Or twang.

Anyway, all that led me to not rating the reviewer very highly...

[ajsriram]

Anyway, all that led me to not rating the reviewer very highly...

Nick H, This is not the first instance. There are many more instances. In another review he has written complete non-sense about "ALL"the
upa-pakkavandhyams artists.

There is an increasing tendency of upapakavadya percussionists to be lazy most of the concert and show up only during the tani. K.V. Gopalakrishnan on the kanjira did just that.

I am not quoting this just because KV Gopalakrishnan is a close friend of mine and he surely he doesnt belong to that category.

I don't know what Mr.viswanathan is having in mind really. I think he belongs to the "Vasichaa thappu" & "Vasikalennalum thappu" group. According to Mr.Viswanathan, the upapakkavadyam should start along with the Mridangam from the word Go!, which will be really a pain in the wrong place.

From these reviews three things are very clear. He doesnt have sound knowledge on the intricacies of music, doesnt know the role of the artists on stage & purely biased.

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Carnatic Music Turns Me On

[mahavishnu]

He doesnt have sound knowledge on the intricacies of music, doesnt know the role of the artists on stage & purely biased.

Utter nonsense. I don't mind if you have difference of opinion with this person or disagree with the nature or content of his reviews. You have every right to. In fact, some of the points you bring up seem quite reasonable.

But Viswanath Parasuram is a very talented musician in his own right. He (and Sriram Parasuram) are extremely well trained musicians of excellent musical pedigree. So saying that he does not have knowledge of music or know what artistes are supposed to do etc. is unfortunate.

Here is an audio clip of him singing Bala vinave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPzxnxiNDyc
and here is a videoclip of his gowrimanohari: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEVL3IKWEIo
and an excellent rendition of Nee matale in purvikalyani: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRX--0vw1x4

[ajsriram]

@Mahavishnu:
As i already said, i listen only to very very selected "VIDWANS", sorry i am not clicking on the links.

Yes, I agree with you! it is really unfortunate and pathetic to see such an "extremely well trained musician of excellent musical pedigree", to write such "utter nonsense" is an unpardonable sin. It just reflects his knowledge and nothing else and i still feel the same.

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Carnatic Music Turns Me On

[kamavardhani]

Irrespective of what you and your fellow percussion teamsters think, Viswanath Parasuram's observations about Sivaraman's playing (in that particular concert) were spot on. There's a fine middle path between playing passive nam-dhin-tha and playing harsh sollus that do not gel with the flow of music. On that day Sivaraman tended to do the latter and it was correctly pointed out.

[Nick H]

I don't know what Mr.viswanathan is having in mind really.

... ... ...

From these reviews three things are very clear. He doesnt have sound knowledge on the intricacies of music, doesnt know the role of the artists on stage & purely biased.

ajsriram, thanks... to be honest, I don't read that many newspaper concert reports, but it is hard to resist sometimes when I have been to the concert and know the artists (or when I know the artists but missed the concert). Consequently, I don't much notice the names of the reviewers.

Your additional quote from this writer shows that he may be able to use a technical term or two to look as if he knows enough about music to write about it, but has no idea whatsoever what actually goes on on stage and how it is controlled, firstly by the main artist, and then by the mridangist.

I did comment, online, that he was quite mistaken, and, even in the unlikely event of an experienced musician not keeping the tempo, it is actually the job of the accompanists to follow.

It is strange, given that interest in, and support for, carnatic music in The Hindu comes from the very top, that higher standards are not encouraged or even enforced. But then, I have to refer myself back to my own previous post on falling standards! Nobody makes me buy the paper...

[ajsriram]

@Kamavardhini :

you mean sivaraman played harsh sollus! Nobody will believe. Moreover

At the end of the concert, a foreigner in the auditorium asked if most people in the audience were deaf. He was referring to the loud and unbalanced audio. It is time that artistes and audiences demand a higher level of sophistication from the sound systems and operators.

This is what mr.Viswanathan has written at the end of the review. Now i really want to know where the problem was. The "soft sollus" became "harsh" because of the unbalanced "Sound Service" and finally siva's playing got a review of such kind ? If that is the case, he should have not used the anecdote "thaniya".

With in a gap of two immediate paragraph there are so much discrepancies, I don't want to dig deep into the reviews.

Moreover, There are different ways of playing for Song (compiosition).

Play for the Song (Composition) - Most of the people follow this or try maximum to follow this path. This comes only when the percussionists by-heart the composition and should possess sound knowledge on the keerthanai.

Play for the song (Composition sung by a particular Vocalist) - This comes only through experience and gyaanam. Many vocalist have their own method singing sangathis and have a specific Padanthram and "keerthanai Pankeedu" (dont know the exact english word for this). In this case percussionist should play for the keerthanai and also should gel with the corresponding singer. Sivaraman falls under this category and on that particular day he did exactly that. When Bharat was happy and comfortable with the kind of percussion accompaniment he got on that "particular day" and explained to the reviewer that the "review about sivas performance" is not correct, the reviewer should have written a apology letter in next edition of "Hindu" rather setting an example for "Nan pudicha muyalkku moonu Kaal".

Code: Select all

if you really want to understand what it is all about you must listen to Ranganayakam (Nayaki) sung by Sri D.K.Jayaraman and by Sri T.N.Seshagopalan accompanied by Mani sir & Sri T.K.Murthy. I think they should be available in the download section. This is one such example and there are many more, you can explore it.

c. Play for the Groove - No Explanations needed.


@Nick : You are correct, its the fact and fate and still there are people who buy hindu just for the Friday Review :0) Btw, My comment is still not approved

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Carnatic Music Turns Me On

[sureshvv]

Sanskrit scholars have opined that kAmbOdhi = ka+ambodhi (Ocean of joy, happiness etc) is a correct name for this raga. (ka has numerous meanings in Sanskrit which are appropriate for this raga). There is no historical evidence of it being connected to kAmbOja desha, modern day Kampuchia.

Doesn't some Dikshitar kriti use Khamboja as raga mudra?

[mahavishnu]

He doesnt have sound knowledge on the intricacies of music

But Viswanath Parasuram is a very talented musician in his own right...an excellent rendition of Nee matale in purvikalyani: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRX--0vw1x4

i listen only to very very selected "VIDWANS", sorry i am not clicking on the links.

...(Vishwanath is) setting an example for "Nan pudicha muyalkku moonu Kaal".

I am done catching rabbits.

[PUNARVASU]

"sureshvv" wrote:

Doesn't some Dikshitar kriti use Khamboja as raga mudra?[/quote]
KailAsa nAtEna is the kriti where he uses the word kAmbhOja: 'satgati dAyakAmbhOja charaNEna'
satgati dAyaka ambhOja charaNEna

[vasanthakokilam]

c. Play for the Groove - No Explanations needed.

I do not know what Groove means in the CM context. Is it along the lines explained here?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groove_%28music%29

[ajsriram]

@Vasanthakokilam : Wiki gives the correct meaning.

What i meant was, Percussionist while playing for Varnam, Keerthanai, Thillana ,Swaram, Neraval etc they tend to play only for the "TALAM" and not the song.

There can be many reasons for this. It might be, they understand the swaras or dont know the keerthanais/varnams By-heart or they have only very limited knowledge.

For good things, i can give web links. For this, i don't want to hurt artists by bringing in the names or giving the links.

-
Carnatic Music Turns Me On

[sureshvv]

KailAsa nAtEna is the kriti where he uses the word kAmbhOja:

satgati dAyakAmbhOja charaNEna'
satgati dAyaka ambhOja charaNEna

Thank you. Hard to believe that Dikshitar had it wrong too!

[uday_shankar]

Hard to believe that Dikshitar had it wrong too!

There's nothing "wrong" with that...Dikshitar was using the prevailing wisdom of raga nomenclature. Modern historiographical research is new to Indian culture, even in present times. Hence so many controversies. That said, just because somebody got some "fact" wrong, it doesn't negate their musicality or spirituality, which alone matter.

[sureshvv]

<snip>musicality or spirituality, which alone matter.

Are you sure? Then why are we arguing?

[harimau]

KailAsa nAtEna is the kriti where he uses the word kAmbhOja: 'satgati dAyakAmbhOja charaNEna'

In fact Sri Deekshithar uses the word in several of his Kambodhi compositions.

Kasi Visweswara - Bhadra dayakambhoja kara
Sri Viswanatham - Sadgathi dayakambhoja charanam
Kamalambikayai - Sakala saubhagya dayakambhoja charanayai
Sri Valimika Lingam - Soma kulambikambhoja madhukaram
Samba Sadasivaya - Sadgati pradayakambhoja padaya

The two krithis in Kambodhi that don't use the raga mudra are " Marakathavallim" and "Sri Subrahmanyaya Namasthe".

Sometimes you hear some people saying that Sri Deekshithar used the raga mudra only in his first composition in any raga and his later compositions in the same raga wouldn't have the raga mudra.

This list ought to prove them wrong!

[rshankar]

dAyaka ambhOja charaNEna

Punarvasu, I have some issues with this split...if the reference is to the lotus-like feet, it has to be ambOja caraNEna, and not ambhOja caraNEna... unless the rAga is kAmbOji/kAmbOdhi.

[sridhar_ranga]

Ravi, ambhoja does seem to mean Lotus, please see these:

Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon: Search Results
1 ambhoja n. (ifc. f. (%{A}) `" water-born "' , the day lotus ; (as) "' n. the plant Calamus Rotang L. , the Sa1rasa or Indian crane L. -j a-khan2d2a n. a group of lotus flowers Pa1n2. 4-2 , 5 i Ka1s3. -ja-janman m. N. of Brahma (born in a lotus).

3 ambhojanman n. (= %{-ja}) `" water-born "' , the Iotus BhP.

5 ambhojinI f. the lotus plant Katha1s. &c. ; an assemblage of lotus flowers or a place where they abound , (g. %{puS@karA7di} q.v.) %{-da} m. a cloud MBh. &c. , the plant Cyperus Hexastychius Commnnis Nees.

On a separate note, in south Indian languages (at least Tamil and Kannada AFAIK), the ragam is referred to as kAmbOdhi, and surely that must make it as acceptable as kAmbhOji? We also have other ragas with multiple name-variants (SuraTi, SuruTTi, etc.)

[vidya]

Many raga names are empirical. Etymological definitions are more often than not provided ex post facto. I am sure most sanskrit scholars can come up with plausible vigraha vakya-s for any raga name ( except may be the likes of jingla) but such coinages do not make it 'correct'.

Dikshitar had a strong precedent for calling the raga name 'Kambhoji'. Ramamatya, Venkatamakhin, Mudduvenkatamakhin all use the word Kambhoji  only. However the variant kambhodi has also been around and seen in some texts such as Raga Vibodha. The raga is also known colloquially as Kambhodi in the Tamil land and in some of the Tamil padam traditions. I have also seen Tamil etymologists provide their own interpretations for Kambhodi with kombu + oodhi and what not. Further Brhaddesi includes Kambhoja in the list of regions. In any case Kambhoji and the connotation to a regional term is not incorrect per se. What is disputed is the identification of the said region Kambhoja with Cambodia.This is  because Kambhoja has been applied to regions surrounding Gandhara, the present day Afghanistan based on other literary and supporting textual evidence.

All this does not make Kambhodi any more correct or Kambhoji any less correct or vice versa.

[mahesh3]

There's nothing "wrong" with that...Dikshitar was using the prevailing wisdom of raga nomenclature.

What crap!

[mahesh3]

Modern historiographical research is new to Indian culture, even in present times.

More of the same...

[uday_shankar]

Dikshitar was using the prevailing wisdom of raga nomenclature.

What crap!

Dikshitar had a strong precedent for calling the raga name 'Kambhoji'. Ramamatya, Venkatamakhin, Mudduvenkatamakhin all refer to it as Kambhoji only.

We should pray that reason always prevails over hate . Hate is not a rasikas value !

[mahesh3]

Has nothing to do with hate...what you say and claim is absolute nonsense! Your characterization and rationalization of Dikshithar's reasons and precedent of India's "historiographical research" is myth, and just plain wrong.

[rshankar]

Ravi, ambhoja does seem to mean Lotus, please see these:

Thanks, Sridhar....

[sureshvv]

There's nothing "wrong" with that...Dikshitar was using the prevailing wisdom of raga nomenclature.

What crap!

Mahesh.. I am almost sure you realize this now but such outbursts do not add anything to further the discussion. It will be nice to tone down the thunder and counter with some lightning to drive home your take on the matter. Or you run the risk of readers assuming that harimau is your role model here!

[shashikiran]

What Vidya has stated is absolutely right as per historical sources and there are references to both versions- Kambhoji and Kambhodhi. Such differences in nomenclature have existed for a few other ragas too and also some of our instruments like nagaswaram or nadaswaram.

[critiquing-the-media]

Guys, my problem with spelling was not Kambhoji versus Kambodhi. I couldn't care less which is so-called correct, because either seems okay. My issue with The Hindu reviews this year is its widespread use of the spelling *Kh*amboji. The *h* after the K is totally meaningless. Ergo, my dig about a possible numerology bug that may have bit the Raga this season.

Glad I am not the only one nit-picking, but after starting this thread, I think the new nits I pick should take priority 8) Why should this disappear in the endless debates over really really old nitpicks?

[arasi]

One picks nit-picking because it feels like picnicking?