Review of Lec Dem on "Music & Sanskrit" by Dr T S Satyavati

[samskrtasangitam]

Dear Rasikas

It was an enlightening lecture demonstration on "Music and Sanskrit" by Dr T S Satyavati for Sringeri Sadhana Centre, Stroudsburg, PA last month. Though it was a very short lecture for about an hour it made everyone think about the necessity to learn the language to understand the nuances of the sahityam.

After an invocation, she commenced with a sloka signifying the characteristic of Sangitam and Sahityam respectively as "एकदापातामृतं अन्यदालोचनामृतं" meaning the the result of the former(amrtam) is instantaneous while the latter gives pleasure with a little amount thinking.

Then the fact that vyanjanas(consonants) cannot live without svaras(vowels) was brought out relating it to the musical notes(svaras). She mentioned that all the svaras can be traced to a dhatu(verbal root) according to her own interpretation. Accordingly Sa - सृ गतौ, Ga- गम्, Pa- पत्, Ni- नी etc. All of these verbal forms have something to do with the action 'movement'

She also mentioned how important it is to say or pronounce a letter or word perfectly. A slokam from Kavyadarsha of Dandin goes as

"एक: शब्द: सुष्टु प्रयुक्त: सम्यक् ज्ञात: ॥
स्वर्गे लोके कामधुक् भवति || "

The importance of knowing the sahityam along with sangitam was stressed using another beautiful slokam which says "one who composes the dhatu(tune) and matu(sahityam) is the most excellent

उत्तमो धतुकार: मध्यमो मातुकार: ॥
धातुमातुक्रियाकारी प्रवर: प्रकीर्तित:॥

which was followed by a sweet analogy "अक्षरे निक्षिप्तं अक्षरं भवति"

The rasas from Natyasastra of Bharata were also touched upon. धृति was mentioned as tears of joy, दीप्ति as enthusiasm, कान्ति brilliance, and finally विकासं as santam(serene and calm) where all the rasas culminate. She also demostrated how ragam Hamsadhvani can be sung to evoke धृति as well as दीप्ति/ कान्ति। The mood of a raga can be changed by the wise usage of gamakas.

The composers who have dwelt with Samskrtam starting with Jayadeva, the Trinity etc were quickly remembered. Even though Sri Tyagaraja Swami has composed mostly in telugu there are many compositions fully in Samskrtam( we all know his Jagadanandakaraka, Samaja vara gamana, Nada tanum, Niravadhi sukhada, Varashikhi vahana, etc. which are fully in Samskrtam. Even in his Telugu sahityam we could see a major influence of the Devabhasha. For eg in Bale balendu bhushani, only towards the end of charanam we see Telugu being used

Quoting Dikshitar who was a great scholar in Samskrtam, she refered to a few kritis where he has intelligently woven the raga mudra into the sahityam without making it sound deliberate.

eg. In श्री पार्वतीपरमेश्वरौ वन्दे - चिद्बिम्बौ लीलाविग्रहौ ममाभीष्टसिद्धये, the raga name Bauli has been beautifully coined.
eg In पञ्चमातङ्गमुख गणपतिना - कलिमल हरण चतुरेण, Malahari raga name occurs similarly.

Dikshitar has employed many अन्त्याक्षरप्रसं, द्वितीयाक्षरप्रासं etc the demonstration of which was restricted by time.

The lec dem was concluded with yet another interesting sloka.

यथा नयति कैलासं नगं गानसरस्वती।
तथा नयति कैलासं न गंगा न सरस्वती॥

"Even the rivers Ganga and Sarasvati do not reach up to Kailasam as Music does"

We all look forward to attending more of Dr T S Satyavati's full fledged lectures in future.

Thank you,
Samskrtasangitam

[gardabha_gana]

If someone knows Dr. TS Satyavathi - can you request her to give LecDems in Bangalore ?

[PUNARVASU]

Samskrtasangitam-what an apt name for the topic!

[arasi]

Dr. Satyavathi, every time I've heard her sing or speak, has delivered her music or talk with such clarity and seriousness. I'm all admiration for her.

samskrtasangitam,
I had something to learn today. Thanks for your post.
Welcome to Rasikas.org!

[samskrtasangitam]

Thanks Arasi.

[mahesh3]

I had attended this lecture demo. Was very instructive, my minor gripe was that the lecture and points were long-winded, and the song portion was limited to just a couple of phrases in a 45=min lecture. Became more of a lecture, as opposed to a lec demo.....that being said, it was obvious that Dr. S brought seriousness, knowledge and sincere intent to her topic of choice! Sorry, just making my views known so that there can be more traction for such programs with rasikas...the pronunciations, and linguistic pointers she provided made me think that even established musicians could benefit by brushing up on these techniques.

The lec demo was followed by a concert by TMK. The highlight of the concert to me was "Sharadhe Karunanidhe" song in Hameerkalyani that he sang, and the shankarabharana opener (Dakshinamurthe).

[satyabalu]

"Sharadhe Karunanidhe-Composer?

[mahavishnu]

"Sharadhe Karunanidhe-Composer?

Sri Chandrasekhara Bharathi swamigal of the Sringeri Peetam. It was tuned by RK Sriram Kumar in Hameer kalyani.

[vasanthakokilam]

samskrtasangitam, Thanks very much for your report. Will it be possible for you to provide transliteration of the devanagari for the benefit of those who can not read devanagari. You can edit your post and provide the transliterated text in parenthesis. Thanks.

Welcome to the forum.

[PUNARVASU]

Acouple of more examples of rAga mudrA beautifully embedded in MSD kritis:
"sAkEta nagarE ni'vasanta'm"-rAmachandram bhAvayAmi in vasantA

"satgati dAya'kAmbhOja' caraNEna"-kailAsa nAthEna in kAmbhOji.
MSD krits have an abundance of this!

[samskrtasangitam]

Namaste Vasanthakokilam,

Where can I edit my post? Could see only 'report' and 'quote' icons near my post! Pl advise

Thanks

[vasanthakokilam]

samskrtasangitam, it is possible that the editing window has gone by. Please copy your post, add the transliteration and post it as a new message in this thread. I will incorporate the edits to your first post and restore the flow. Thanks.