Carnatic Music Composers
No other country in the world has produced as many great music composers as India
has, over the centuries. To list all of those composers by itself is a daunting
task and to include within that list, the life history of each composer and the
songs that they had composed would be mindboggling. Therefore,
in this article, I will briefly narrate the contributions of some of the Carnatic music composers and their contributions to
enrichment of our music system.
Until the end of thirteenth century, India
had only one system of music. There was no distinction made among this system
as Hindustani or Carnatic music. It is only around
the fourteenth and fifteenth century, the Indian music system began to
differentiate itself into Northern Indian or Hindustani music and Southern
Indian or Carnatic music. While the Northern Indian
music was enriched by the influence of the Islamic influence, the Carnatic music has retained its age old traditions and
originality.
The Southern Indian music system was believed to have been referred to as Carnatic music by Vidyaranya, one
of the prime ministers of the Vijayanagaram
Kingdom in current day Andhra
Pradesh. Why was this music called Carnatic
music? Several explanations are offered for this terminology, some plausible
while others, not so accurate. The word Carnatic
means ancient or traditional and therefore, the music that is ancient and
followed the traditions were called Carnatic music. Caru or Karu also means black and
since this music was quite prominent among the Dravidian culture of Southern
India, whose people were darker skinned, some say, it was called Carnatic or Karnatic music. It also means the music of the people of
the central parts of India.
Karu also means center and atakam
means place. A few people claim that the music originated from the state of Karnataka.
However, this is not likely to be an origin of the word Carnatic.
First of all, the music had its roots to the Vedic times, thousands of years
ago and second, the State of Karnataka
did not exist in the fiteenth century. It came into
existence, just about forty years ago. I believe that the Carnatic
music belongs to all of the states of Southern India
because great composers and great musicians have originated from each of these
states. It is also important to mention that Carnatic
music has significantly benefited from great Composers from other parts of India.
Although many scholars point out that the golden age of Carnatic
music began in the eighteenth century, when the Trimurthis
of Carnatic music - Saint Thyagaraja,
Muthuswamy Dikshitar, and Swati Thirunal - contributed to
the greatness of the system. However, the contributions of
the Trimurthis itself was made possible only
because of the stalwarts and giants who had lived and contributed to Carnatic music before the Trimurthis
were born. Similarly, the golden age of Carnatic
music has been preserved and embellished only because of the contributions of
great composers who followed them. Therefore, we can look into the history and
contributions of the great composers of Carnatic
music by classifying them into four groups: