Lec-Dem - Sanskrit compositions in Carnatic music, R Vedaval

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 18 Sep 2008, 23:15

R Vedavalli - V Sumithra - R K Shriram Kumar - Kallidaikurichi V Sivakumar

Lec-Dem on 'Sanskrit compositions in Carnatic music'
Music Academy mini hall
15th Sept 08. 6:30 pm

The lec-dem started off with a brief introduction by Sri Pappu Venugopala Rao.

Smt. Vedavalli began the programme quoting 'yagnavalka' saying sangeetham + samskrutam = amrutam + bhakti = athi amrutam. Smt. Vedavalli gave all the explanations and the commentry, while her disciple Smt. Sumithra sang the compositions.

The language samskrutam exists only in music today was the first observation made.

She gave first credits to Lava & Kucha to have sung the Story of Rama composed by Valmiki. however, she noted that the musical forms of those days were completely different and have undergone a lot of changes to reach the present form of musical compositions.

The programme was split into 3 parts, the pre-trinity, the trinity and the post-trinity.

The first part started with Jayadeva. His Ashtapadis have 8 caraNams or 8 pAdams. They basically deal with the Krishna - Radha relationship and its ups and down. As a example, the ashtapadi 'lalita lavanga' in vasantA was sung.

The next was Narayana Theerathar. The tarangams that he composed used a lot of grammatical usages. The gadyam, padyam were all found in his compositions. He also had used some wordplay. He was credited to be a composer who had a lot of followers and a lot of his compositions seems to be cited. As as example, 'AlOkayE rukmaNi kalyANa gOpAlam' in kIravANi set to misra cApu was rendered. The mention of all the eight consorts of Lord krishna and the description of Krishna and Rukmani sitting in their darbar at dwaraka in this composition was explained.

The third composer was Margadarsi Sesha Iyengar. It was placed on record that he was the one who brought the pallavi - anu pallavi - charanam format for the kritis. His mudra is 'kOsala'. Mention of another Sesha Iyengar who was his contemporary and the confusions which exists between them was also mentioned. Most of his kritis are available but the original tunes have not been traceable. They seemed to have been lost during the trinity period. Mention of a composition 'sEshAnga sAyinam' which seems to have been the basic format for the 'bhOgIndra sAyinam' was made. It was also observed that this person was a staunch vaishnavite and has also composed on Nammalwar and Ramanuja, giving full story of their life and descriptions of their looks and deeds.

Upanishad Brahmam was the next composer to be mentioned. He seems to have lived a little before the Trinity's time. It is also believed that during his later years he taught Thyagaraja and Dikshitar a lot of Vedanta and philosphical stuff. He was a saintly man. A lot of kritis and compositions are attributed to him. Also mentioned was the rAmAshTapadi krits composed by him and tuned by Muthuswami Dikhitar, which are not available to us presently.

Ramaswamy Dikshitar, Muthuswami dikshitar's father could not be forgotten. His gangA taraNgini daru which is palindromic, was cited as the classical example. it goes like 'sArasa nayana sarasA sAratara ratarasA mAratAtatAramA'. This man was credited to have brought in the concept of rAgamAlikA compositions into the carnatic music. A lot of his varnams and kritis are available from the Pradarshini.

The Trinity period.

The discussion on the trinity period was started with the mention of the fact that in those days, a person considered to be a learned or educated or called mahA vidwan, was invariably a sanskrit scholar. Everybody knew the language and had a good command over it. It was but natural for people to compose composition of such high order. On a light note, she said 'making a jumble of various sahasranAma stOtrams will not make a sanskrit composition'.

A mention of Shyama Sastri was made for his 'talking-style' compositions on the goddess. The other fact that was mentioned was the presence of a sanskrit kriti in the same tune as another telugu kriti.

Smt. Vedavalli mentioned that Thyagaraja's kritis are largely ignored when it comes to sanskrit compositions and gave a lot of examples of nice usages and similies. Varied usage of names and terms to mean the same thing to incorporate beauty and prAsam was mentioned. The reference to the Surya vamsa as suryavamsa, raghukula, jalajAptakula, inakula etc was cited. Also cited was reference to the sun god as dinamaNi, dinarAja, jalajApta, dinakarAja etc in various compositions. His usage of rAkA chandra and rAkA sasi in compositions to indicate the moon rising from darkness was mentioned. I was reminded of the sahAnA navAvarNam which also has a similar usage in the anupallavi.

Smt. Vedavalli took up the example of the nATTai pancharatnam and cited phrases that were indicative of the richness in thyagaraja's language. In the 5th caraNam, srushTistityantakAra... the phrase 'anurAga rAga rAjita kathA' which was to mean a story ruled by love and music was cited. In the 6th caraNam, sajjana mAnasAbdi.. 'surasAripu karAbja lAlita caraNA' meaning, the legs which are taken care off by the same hands which killed the monstress surasai. In the 9th caraNam, purANa purusha... refering to rAma as virAvaNa, or the one who killed rAvaNa where are given as examples. The other kriti which was taken up was grahabalamEmi in rEvagupti. Here the various words like nigraha, anugraha, navagraha.. etc used to get the correct prAsam was mentioned. Also mentioned was the usage of the various alankarams available in samskrutam like yati, anuprAsam, yamakam etc, which have all been carefully incorporated into his compositions. The bhairavi kriti 'srI raghuvara suguNAlaya' was taken up to show example of word play with kamalAhita to refer to vishnu and kamala ahita dhara to refer to shiva. The other kritis that were mentioned are rAma ninnE in husEni and rAmam bhajE in sAvEri. Also placed on record were the numerous occasions where Thyagaraja swami has given un-referenced and new facts from unknown sources, which are not found in compositions before him. For starters, he refers to rAvaNa has satavadanA or the one with 100 heads.

Smt. Vedavalli remarked that Dikshitar's compositions form a Samskruta Samudram and we can only stand on its shore and have a look at them. She referred to them as totally divine and the compositions to have the maximum swAdhInam. She observed that the grammar was perfect everywhere.

The speciality of dikshitar, Thematic and Kshetra kritis was mentioned. She mentioned the amount information that he gives about each kshetra and its deity and the temple all the way from the legend of the temple to the kind of flowers that are offered, all of it bundled into one composition with sAhitya suddham, and perfect grammar and some amazing similies was a great thing.

3 kritis were sung as examples. aruNAcala nAtam, jambUpatE and mAmava paTTAbhirAma were taken up. Appropriate usage of smarAmi for aruNAcalanAtam going by the old saying which says that one can attain mOksham thinking of Lord aruNAchalEsvarA was mentioned. The composition on the agni kshEtram, had lots of mentions and indications of words referring agni, and the rather extensive usage of the syllable 'ra' which stands for the Fire god was also mentioned. Similarly in jambUpatE, the composition on the apu kshEtram, the number of words to indicate water was mentioned. In mAmava paTTAbhirAmA, the depiction of the paTTAbhishEkam event, like a painting, on who were all present and where they were present and all that, making the scene come in front of those singing and listening, was elaborated. Also mentioned along was the maximum usage of the syllable 'ksha' in akshaya linga vibhO.

Appropriate usage of words and terms, esp in the vAra kritis was told as well. sUryamUrtE namOstutE, thus appeasing the Sun god who is the namaskAra priyan, and the immediate connection of the Moon god and the mind with chandram bhaja mAnasa satatam we all mentioned.

Next taken up, was the incorporation of rAga mudras in his compositions. srI nAtAdi guruguhO, cintayE mahAlinga mUrtim, hastivadanAya, srI sarasvati namOstutE, guruguhAdanyam, srI guruguha tArayAsumAm, kAmAkshIm varalakshmIm, srI guruguha mUrte were the examples taken up.

The navAvarnams do take a big place in this discussion. However, only the Ahiri navAvarNam and especially the incorporation of all the vibaktis into it, and with a special mention to the sixth vibakti in the line 'prEmAspata siva guruguha jananIm' was mentioned.

Wrapping up this portion were the Note swaram 'santatam pAhimAm' and the thyagaraja kriti 'vara lIla gAna lOla' both sounding similar to the British national anthem.

post trinity:

Swathi thirunal was the first post trinity composer who was mentioned. It was observed that his works in sanskrit stand alone and follow a distinctive style different from all those which exist before. The flow of the language and the music is very distinct and is readily identifiable. The composition 'bhAvayAmi raghurAmam' which is complete rAmAyaNa in one piece, is probably the first of its kind in sanskrit. srI rAmachandra in husEni was also cited for the lyrical beauty.

Krishnaswamy Ayya was next in line. His compositions are not very popular, but they have a lot of lyrical value. In a certain kriti, he explains the position of the tilakam on the forehead of the god, with nice usages. The kriti 'sAradE sadAshrayE' in shankarAbaraNam was also referred. In another kriti in shankarAbaraNam on Lord Vishnu, a certain line goes as 'shankarAbaraNa shankachakra dara shankarAbaraNa sayana shankara'. Smt. Vedavalli had Sri Shriram Kumar explain this line as 'the one who has the conch and wheel which are known to give good boons, the one who sleeps on shiva's ornament, the one who bestows good boons'.

Existance of compositions by Mysore Sadasiva Rao, Mysore King Jayachamraja Wodeyar, Vanamamalai Jeeyar, Papanasam Sivan were all placed on record. Maha Vaidhyanatha Sivan was credited for his intelligent ways of incorporating the rAga names and bhavam within two lines in his mela ragamalika. The third chakram of the composition was presented. Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavathar's sivAshTOthra and chAmuNDAshTOthra kritis were mentioned as well. Mysore Vasudevacharya's compositions were mentioned for their intricate word plays like 'pannakEndra sayanA pannakAdi vAhanA'.

Dr. V. Raghavan of Music Academy was the last composer to be mentioned. His compositions on occasions, people were all mentioned. Placed on record were his compostions on Bharatha matha, Kanchi Paramacharya, Music Trinity amongst others. His composition tuned to nAma nArAyaNi kriti for golden jubilee of Music Academy was also mentioned. Also mentioned was the composition on Kanchi Paramacharya in kIravANi, chandrasEkaram AshrayE for its intricate wordplays. He is also said to have composed note svarams and kavadi chindu like compositions in sanskrit.

It was a very informative lec-dem. Smt. Vedavalli gave a brief overview of all that is available. Smt. Sumithra sang the appropriate compositions in full or in parts. Sri Shriram Kumar and Sri Sivakumar were both very supportive.

bharath

PS: All errors are unintended. I may be forgiven for any errors in reporting and writing the synopsis and also for the size of this post.

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 19 Sep 2008, 00:32

Bharath,
you seem to have had in mind all the rasikas who could not attend this programme- the way you have explained in detail shows that you really wanted everybody to enjoy what you enjoyed.Thanks for the informative and enjoyble post. Those of us who could not attend, are atleast able to visualise the whole thing.Thanks once gain.
Can you kindly elaborate the line 'shankarAbaraNa shankachakra dara shankarAbaraNa sayana shankara'. Smt. Vedavalli had Sri Shriram Kumar explain this line as 'the one who has the conch and wheel which are known to give good boons, the one who sleeps on shiva's ornament, the one who bestows good boons'
I am not able to make out what the first 'shankrAbharaNa' means.
Thanks.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 19 Sep 2008, 01:23

Many many thanks rbharath, you have provided a treasure trove of information. Of course SK Vedavalli is the right person to tackle this subject. Reading your report felt like being there listening to her sans the audio of the songs. I wonder whether a recording will be available from anywhere.

I am curious that she has left out Sadasiva Brahmendra. Did she or did you miss it?

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 19 Sep 2008, 03:01

Bharat,
I was also thinking about Sadashiva Brahmendrar.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 19 Sep 2008, 03:55

Great review Bharath! In addition to Sadasiva Brahmendra, I missed Sri OVK from the list of pre-trinity composers. I do believe his compsitions in sanskrit rival the best of the rest!

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 19 Sep 2008, 04:14

Also placed on record were the numerous occasions where Thyagaraja swami has given un-referenced and new facts from unknown sources, which are not found in compositions before him. For starters, he refers to rAvaNa has satavadanA or the one with 100 heads

I could be wrong but I am not so sure that it means 100 heads or even that it is unreferenced. śaTavadhana means killer of 100 persons. Perhaps the mistake lies in reading it as śaTavadana i.e da instead of dha (which means 100 faces/expressions, not heads). Or perhaps the word referred to was śaTAvadhAna which gives a new meaning altogether.

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 19 Sep 2008, 04:23

like 'ashtAvadhAna- doing 8 things simultaneously'?

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 19 Sep 2008, 05:22

Yes I agree with shankar. The omission of OVK is glaring!

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 19 Sep 2008, 06:42

Yes indeed.. I was also wondering about why OVK did not figure . Thanks bharath for the wonderful write up!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 19 Sep 2008, 07:53

srikris,
The beauty of the sanskrit language: karaNam, karaNam tappinAl maraNam (here, vadanam).
Thanks for making it clear. Since many of rAvaNA's kith and kin were physical oddities, it is easy to see one as a man of hundred faces, I suppose...

ram · Post by **ram** » 19 Sep 2008, 09:01

Punarvasu wrote:Bharath,
Can you kindly elaborate the line 'shankarAbaraNa shankachakra dara shankarAbaraNa sayana shankara'. Smt. Vedavalli had Sri Shriram Kumar explain this line as 'the one who has the conch and wheel which are known to give good boons, the one who sleeps on shiva's ornament, the one who bestows good boons'
I am not able to make out what the first 'shankrAbharaNa' means.
Thanks.

Here is what I understood:

shankarAbaraNa shanka chakra dhara shankarAbaraNa sayana shankara

shankarAbharaNa
shan - auspiciousness
kara - hand
AbharaNa - ornaments

shanka cakra dhara
has shanka and chakra

shankarAbharaNa sayana
shankarAbharaNa - Lord Shiva's (Shankara) ornament i.e., snake - he has it around his neck
sayana - reclining
reclining on a snake

shankara
shan karOti iti shankara - the giver of auspiciousness
he is a giver of auspiciousness

Listeners might think that this is on Lord Shiva, but actually this is describing Lord Vishnu

He whose hand is decorated with many ornaments, whose hand bears the shanka and chakra, whose hand bestows auspiciousness, he who reclines on a snake, he bestows auspiciousness

ram · Post by **ram** » 19 Sep 2008, 09:01

Bharath has captured what was said in the lec dem so beautifully!

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 19 Sep 2008, 09:42

ram,thanks; I am trying to assimilate what you have explained.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 19 Sep 2008, 09:54

The lec-dem was organised to celebrate the centenary of Dr. V. Raghavan and was done from the Dr. V. Raghavan Shastiyapthapoorthi Endownment.

I dont remember her mentioning Oothukadu Venkata Kavi or Sadasiva Brahmendra. There was however mention that the list is not exhaustive.

arunsri · Post by **arunsri** » 19 Sep 2008, 11:00

Was this lec-dem recorded for the wealth of info it provides. If so, can it be uploaded? Thanks

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 19 Sep 2008, 19:02

Bharat ,

Your posts on lecdems are so exhaustive. You seem to cover every minute detail. Thanks a lot for the effort.

s_hari · Post by **s_hari** » 20 Sep 2008, 10:38

ram wrote:shankarAbaraNa shanka chakra dhara shankarAbaraNa sayana shankara

Ram, Bharat

I am curious to know what song is this? What is pallavi line? I don't think i have heard this. Very interesting

-hari

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 20 Sep 2008, 11:22

bharath,
A big thanks. Most interesting to know that "Ramaswamy Dikshitar was credited to have brought in the concept of rAgamAlikA compositions into the carnatic music."

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 20 Sep 2008, 18:48

s_hari wrote:

What is pallavi line? I don't think i have heard this

shankarAbharaNa. rAgA: shankarAbharaNa. Eka tALA. Composr: Krishnasvami Ayya.

P: shankarAbharaNa shankha cakradhara shankarAbharaNa shankarA
A: vEnkaTa varada nA sankaTamulanu vEgamuga dIrpumu vENugOpAla
C: sarasijanAbha nI sarasa guNamu vini hari shrI krSNa nI parama dAsuDaitini
parama dayAkaruDani bhaktavatsaluDani cirakAlamugAnu nI sEva kOritini
(svarasAhitya)
yadukula nrpa madhumura suraripu janaharaNO dadhi jAta guru vibhava
karivaradA kAmajanaka kula giridharaNA nata caraNA vanacaNa

vidya · Post by **vidya** » 20 Sep 2008, 21:29

rajeshnat wrote:bharath,
A big thanks. Most interesting to know that "Ramaswamy Dikshitar was credited to have brought in the concept of rAgamAlikA compositions into the carnatic music."

Well, accurately speaking it should be Virabhadrayya. Ramaswami Dikshitar merely constructed great edifices on the foundation which his preceptor Virabhadrayya laid.
Virabhadrayya should actually be credited with the 'concept of Ragamalika Compositions'. His Pancharagamalika and his Na mohananguni are good examples.
As an aside Virabhadrayya has also to his credit some good sanskrit compositions like karunam kurume, bhavani tava charanam etc. Tiruvarur Ramaswami Pillai,
a contemporary of Ramaswami Dikshitar is also said to have composed a ragamalika Idu nalla samayam in four languages.

I am curious to know if any of the upanishad brahmendra compositions rendered?

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 20 Sep 2008, 22:37

I would have loved to have lyrics of Upanishad Brahmayogi's songs but I guess they lie buried in the Music Academy Archives. I just have a list of his songs.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 21 Sep 2008, 01:48

ram wrote:shankarAbaraNa shanka chakra dhara shankarAbaraNa sayana shankara

This line reminds me of the ganESa slOka that everyone knows, that goes:

agajAnana padmArkaM gajAnanaM aharniSaM |
anEkadaM taM bhaktAnAM EkadantaM upAsmahE ||

If the bolded text is pronounced without splitting, it will sound like the 'devotees with numerous teeth (anEka-dantaM) chose to worship the Lord with one tooth (Eka dantaM)', instead of 'hordes of his devotees worship the Lord with one tooth'!

It is all in the padacchEdam...

"zaM karAbharaNa zaGkha cakra dhara zaMkarAbharaNa zayana zaMkara" to use the annoying Harvard Kyoto scheme where z = श, and G = ञ.

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 21 Sep 2008, 02:05

I feel it should mean
bhaktAnAm anEkadam tam- 'Him who gives all(anEkam- meaning not one) to the bhaktas.

balusatya · Post by **balusatya** » 22 Sep 2008, 22:20

Detailed and informative review.THQ Mr. Bharath

Sangeet Rasik · Post by **Sangeet Rasik** » 23 Sep 2008, 06:23

Bharat,

Great job reporting the proceedings ! I wish I was there.

Regarding the lecture itself and with particular focus on "Sanskrit in CM":

While one can never get enough of M. Dikshitar (overall the #1 Indian composer in my opinion), the best Sanskrit compositions of CM in terms of poetic beauty come from Swati Tirunal (again in my opinion). ST was relatively less constrained by the need to elaborate puranic material in a strict doxological format, and his compositions have a refreshing energy and romantic spirit to them. This is probably reflective of his personal life.

It is therefore surprising that not much time was spent on him, as far as I can see from the report. I have often heard musicologists make the odd remark that "ST's Sanskrit stands apart from the others" but they rarely elaborate, essentially refusing to "unscrew the lid" on a rather different landscape from that represented in compositions of East Coast composers.

ST's forte is in imaginative word play (original similes and metaphors) whereas MD's forte is in some facets of technical wordplay with little originality in simile or metaphor (almost all of which are directly borrowed from existing puranic sources).

It is also important to note that ST is overall more rigorous in following prosodical rules of prasa and yati. MD is more liberal in this respect - in some compositions he sticks to them rigorously whereas in others he is not so rigorous.

Neither ST nor MD much explored the possibilities of alliteration, consonance, and assonance since they both followed a previously laid down style of composition, i.e. a pallavi containing a single verb, followed by anupallavi and charanam containing a number of adjectives. This places some severe limitations in the sense that one cannot exploit the full scope of Sanskrit grammar. In many of my own compositions I depart from this existing style while retaining the MD structure of composition. Even "older" compositions of mine in the existing style have been reworked in order to realize new possibilities.

SR

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 23 Sep 2008, 11:38

rshankar wrote:If the bolded text is pronounced without splitting, it will sound like the 'devotees with numerous teeth (anEka-dantaM) chose to worship the Lord with one tooth (Eka dantaM)', instead of 'hordes of his devotees worship the Lord with one tooth'!

I'm sure you know but for those who dont know - Where danta (franco-english cognate dents) relates to elephants it refers to the tusks and not the teeth.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 23 Sep 2008, 21:06

The tusks of an elephant are its second upper incisors

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant)
hence they are teeth only

SR
I agree with you totally about the superiority of SvAti's sanskrit. OVK's sanskrtit also is almost on a par. But the prolific MD beats them on Music !

I do wonder why svAti while he sent an emissary to invite Thyagaraja to his court did not seek to invite MD who was on a kindred wavelength !

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 24 Sep 2008, 05:22

cmlover wrote:
The tusks of an elephant are its second upper incisors
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant)
hence they are teeth only

Oh ok technically correct!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 24 Sep 2008, 06:02

And this discussion led me to realize the obvious connection between dantam ( commonly used in the elephant context ) and Dental ( as srkris pointed out )

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 24 Sep 2008, 06:07

like 'bhrAta' brother and so many such words.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 24 Sep 2008, 06:50

Right. father, mother and numbers are all pretty close. On numbers, some are quite close like 'two' and 'three' but others seem unrelated. ( 'one' is closer to south indian one and not Sanskrit, of course )

This may be off topic ( we can create a separate thread later on and move there ), but the names of days of the week based on sun, moon and the planets and specifically in the same order are the same. How did that come about? Is that a relatively recent convergence between east and west or that goes a long way back?

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 24 Sep 2008, 08:18

East and West, the twain shall ever meet?