In the beginning there were Australoid and
Vedda people living in this land. Their musical instruments were stones and sticks, which also doubled up as hunting weapons and cooking ware.
Then came the Proto Dravidians from West Asia – some of them got off the caravan at Mohanjedaro and Harappa, while the rest journeyed until they could no longer find land to walk on, having reached the Vivekananda Rock in Kanyakumari.
Tamil language formed. Not to be confused with the Tamil People who, as the legend goes, even predate the earth’s mountains and beaches. (“kal thOnRi maN thOnRu munnE vaaLODu mun thOnRi mUtta tamizh kuDi”).
Then came the vELir kings from North India, who eventually branched off into Chera/ Chola and Pandya Kings. The Kings loved being sung about by Poets while holding court, and rudimentary vocal music forms were born. War drums and bugles provided instrumental music.
Then came the Kalabhra hoardes who held sway between 2nd and 5th centuries, CE. They tried their best to destroy the language, customs and religion of the local people. Somehow Tamil and Tamils survived! Tamil even managed to evolve Panns, a precursor of Ragas. Music was widely prevalent, as evidenced in
Silappathikaram and other sangam literature of the period. Paanar clan with their musical instruments such as
Yaazh,
Murasu and
PaRai were the earliest professional musicians known to society.
Then came the Pallavas from Persia, gifting the Tamils a new script and the art and science of architecture. They managed to hold out against the Chalukyas / Pulakesin. The music got better, adding a huge repertoire in the form of Thevaram and Divyaprabandham hymns; many advances made in musical instrument design and usage.
The Tamils colonized South East Asia, Sri Lanka and the Coromandal coast, gifting their language, script, culture and architecture to all these places. Tanjore and Ankor Wat temples were built by them. Dance poses (Karanas) were etched in stone. Sanskrit had by now crept in, what with Brahmanical culture holding sway under the Cholas. Sama Veda chanting began to be accepted as music by the Tamils. A new practice of musically reciting a
Slokam or
Viruttam, unaccompanied by musical instruments, took shape.
The Western Chalukyas and later the Hoysalas came in and ruled for a while until Mahommedan armies overran the land and spirited away all the wealth. The earliest whispers of
Mlecha influence corrupting the fine native classical music was heard in social gatherings – the most vociferous protests were made by one Arimaa Naayagam. We don’t know if he is a forefather of the present-day Harimau of Rasikas.org fame.
The Sultans’ rule was very short-lived, no more than 60-70 years. The feuding Pandya brothers Veera Pandyan and Sundara Pandyan brought in Visvanatha Nayaka from Vijaya Nagar. The
Vaduga people (predominantly Telugu but including some Kannada speakers) colonised the land, growing to anywhere between one fourth and two-fifths of the total population. Some other ethnic groups like the Saurashtrians also made a beeline to the prosperous South. The Pann based music evolved into karnaataka sangeetam. Compositions in Telugu became the rage! The Flute and Maddalam were the primary accompaniments displacing the
Yaazh,
Melam, etc.
At this point, a certain Venkoji Bhonsle was getting bored of Marathi food, music and dance and decided to go south and set up a Kingdom in Thanjavur. He and his descendant ji’s (with names like Shahu, Serfo, and Shiva –ji) managed to corrupt kuzhambu into Sambhar and Kalyani ragam into Yamuna-Kalyani.
Koothu and
Devaraattam had been turned into
sadir. They decreed that Mrudangam should be the main percussion instrument on the concert stage, since many of their soldiers who used to play the instrument at Shanivar Wada’s weekend Mehfils were without a moonlighting job after moving to Thanjavur.
Somehow the Ji’s developed a liking for Telugu language and encouraged compositions in that language. The Trinity of Carnatic Music came into being! One of them sang in praise of the Mridangam, giving it the much needed
gauravam on the concert stage.
The Europeans came slightly after the Marathas. When one of their bands was playing on the Marina, a certain Baluswami, brother of one of the trinity, overheard them and fell in love with the violin. He acquired a violin for himself, shuddhi-fied it by sprinkling Cauvery water, sanctified with Vedic Mantras and declared that it was Kosher for Brahmins to play the instrument.
And the rest, as you very well know dear Ravi, is history
