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Indian Music
– Unity in Diversity
by Ram S. Sriram
May 25, 2009
"While it is complex in theory and practice, Indian music is not
just an art but description of life itself." (William Butler
Yeats, Irish Poet).
Indian classical music had its origins in Samaveda, one of the four ancient Vedas that dates back
to 1,500 B.C – 1,000 B.C. The word Sama
originated from the Sanskrit word, sam or
“harmony.” Sam also means a song. Surprisingly, the word Sam or Sama is also used to refer to music and songs in other
languages such as Hebrew (Sama), Arabic (Sama), Greek (Sama), and
English (Psalm). In the Samaveda period, the
music began as a single note. During religious rituals, a group of
individuals chanted the syllable Om,
stressing the note Sa. With the passage of time, the group modified the
chant to include two notes, Sa and Ri and later
to Sa, Ri, and Ga and
eventually to even more notes. The notes were also chanted in ascending and
descending orders to form a musical scale.
With several notes and with ascending and descending
orders in which these notes must be sung, it became necessary for the group
to find a way to keep track of the notes, so that they can sing the notes
in the right order. Therefore, the members of the group started using the fingers
of their hands to denote each note and the order in which the notes must be
sung during a chant. Thus, the group created the earliest notational system
in the world. With the development of a musical scale and tonal shift, the
rudimentary concepts of raga also began to emerge. Although Samaveda did not create a well-formed tala system, the participants did have an understanding
of laya or balanced tempo. The impressive
contributions to the development of music make Samaveda,
one of the earliest recorded literatures of the world, the mother of not
only Indian music but also of the world.
While the contributions of Samaveda
to the development of Indian music is indisputable, Indian music progressed
extensively also during the post-Samaveda period.
For example, there are several references to attributes of raga and tonal
systems in the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. The Silapathikaram,
Tamil epic written during 1st Century A.D., elaborately discusses the
attributes of pann (the Tamil equivalent of the
word raga). The period had also produced musicologists, composers, and
performers of eminence and scholarliness. In the interest of brevity, I
would mention a few names: Bharatha, author of Natyasastra, Kalidasa, poet
and musical scholar, Matanga Muni,
author of Brahadesi, a text on music, Sarangadeva, the author of Sangitaratnakara
and Venkatamukhi, who codified the ragas and
produced the Melakarta scheme. Great composers
and musicologists of the period include Purandaradasa,
Syama Sastri, Thyagaraja, and Muthuswamy Dikshitar from Southern India and Amir
Khusro, Tansen, Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande,
and Paluskar from Northern India, to name a few.
Although Indian music began as a single note, Om, chanted during religious rituals, we
cannot characterize the music as religious music. The music had always been
secular and independent. But this claim often raises skeptical questions,
not only in the minds of Western audiences, but also in the minds of people
of Indian origin. If indeed Indian music is secular and independent of
religion, why should the compositions contain so many references to Hindu
gods and mythological characters? It is a fair question. However, the
answer to the question is quite simple. What better way to make people
understand and appreciate a composition than through characters that are
part of the Indian consciousness - gods and other heroes and villains from
epics and mythological stories. These characters inspire reverence and awe
in a Hindu’s mind. Consequently, Indian music composers found the epics and
mythological stories to be a never ending source, not only as a context for
their lyrics, but also to highlight moral, ethics, and philosophical
values. The composers believed that music should not be just a source of
aesthetic pleasures but also a catalyst that encourages the listener to
ponder over social and spiritual issues. They were certain that using
characters and stories from epics and mythology as a background would be an
effective approach to communicate messages of wisdom to the ordinary
individual. An individual is more likely to relate to the messages when
they are conveyed through characters or contexts that he is familiar with.
The twin path followed by the composers, offering the
listener an aesthetic experience while expecting the listener to reflect on
social, moral, and spiritual values, is not antagonistic to the Hindu way
of life. In the everyday life, a Hindu traverses in parallel domains -
concrete and abstract and rational and intuitive. A Hindu must unquestionably
conform to strict rituals, social norms, and even beliefs that are imposed
on him by his society. Yet, he also has enormous freedom to contemplate on
metaphysical subjects that transcend mundane rules and rituals. This
analogy is also true for Indian music where, the intuitive and intellectual
domains coexist. To illustrate, a raga’s structure is conditioned by the
logical arrangement of swaras. A raga is either a
Janaka raga (parent raga) or a Janya raga (Child raga). Each raga is assigned a place
within a Melakarta classification scheme. And
yet, knowing the array of rules does not by help a listener in
understanding the aesthetics of a raga. Such an understanding evolves only
when a listener intuitively feels the emotions generated by a raga within
him. This subjective and emotional experience is unique to each listener
and no two listeners, listening to the rendering of the same raga, feel the
same emotions. Why should this be so? After all, should not a raga, with
pre-defined set of swaras and rules, evoke the
same emotions in all listeners? A raga is an expression of feelings that
lie deep within a human being and they are personal and unique; rules and
classifications are inadequate to define the intangible outcomes.
Like a Hindu’s life, the music also has an
intellectual dimension. This intellectual component is more evident in Carnatic music, where the composers use their lyrics as
subtle means to encourage the listener to contemplate on personal values
and social responsibilities. To the composers, the lyrics are not only
useful to convey messages of wisdom, but also to reprimand the listeners
for their prejudices and discriminatory social behaviors. In this
emotional-intellectual duality, Carnatic music
compositions are expressions of the evolution of a nation, its peoples’
beliefs, and moral and ethical dilemmas. Like a Hindu who willingly accepts
the rituals and beliefs of his caste and community, Indian music conforms
to the prescribed rules and processes. But, like a Hindu goes beyond the rituals
and questions the inherent value in the rituals and socially-imposed norms,
the music also expects the listener to go beyond the emotional experiences
and engage in an intellectual discourse over the content of the lyrics. The
emotional and intellectual aspects of the music appear to blend seamlessly,
without being antithetical to each other. This unity in diversity is what
makes the music unique.
Ram S. Sriram
lives in Atlanta.
He serves as Controllers’ Roundtable Distinguished Professor at the Robinson
College of
Business, Georgia State
University. He is
also a Mridangist and
routinely accompanies professional musicians visiting from India.
He learnt Mridangam from two illustrious gurus,
Sri T. V. Gopalkrishnan and Srimushnam
Raja Rao. He writes on music philosophy and his articles on music and other
topics are available at the website www.vidyarthi.org.
     
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