The Unifying Role of Indian Music
by Sangita Kala Acharya T. S. Parthasarathy

[Editor's Note: Sangita Kala Acharya Sri. T. S. Parthasarathy, eminent musicologist, researcher and writer is one of the senior most scholars in the field of Music and related arts. He was also the Secretary of the Music Academy, Chennai for many years. He is a source of guidance to all musicians and a respected authority on music theory and history. Carnatica is deeply honored to have his permission to reproduce a selection of his scholarly articles on Music and Dance published over the years in various journals]

The endless diversity in the Indian subcontinent has been the subject of many trite remarks. But no other country of the world, with such a vast extent of area, offers so much unity in diversity as India does. This unity transcends the innumerable diversities of blood, colour, language and sect.

Among the factors that account for this unique type of unity are the use of Sanskrit as a cultural link language and the existence of a single system of classical music throughout the country. It was only after the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries that regional differences developed even within the sphere of classical music but this was reflected only in the practical side of the music. The ‘Natya Shastra’ of Bharata and the ‘Sangita Ratnakara’ of Sarngadeva still continue as authorities for the theory of Indian music and commentators on these and other treatises hailed from Kashmir in the North to Tamil Nadu in the South and from Gujarat and Rajasthan in the West to Mithila and Bengal in the East. The theory part remained surprisingly intact which made the continuity of Indian music possible. Every treatise on music written before the twentieth century mentions only one variety of classical music.

It was only in the early years of this century that Pandit Kashinath Appa Tulasi, a musicologist from Hyderabad, mentioned in his work ‘Sangita Sudhakara’ that there were two varieties of Indian music – Carnatic, prevalent in South India and Hindustani, prevalent in the North.

“Tadapi dvividham jneyam Dakshinottara bhedatah
Karnatakam dakshine syad Hindustani tathottare”

But even this writer calls them only as two variations of the same system and not as two different systems of music. The oldest detailed exposition of Indian dance, musical theory and theatrical art, which has survived the ravages of time, is the Natya Shastra of Bharata Muni. We do not know which part of India Bharata hailed from, but by the 2nd century A.D. his Natya Shastra appears to have become familiar in the Tamil country down south. Poet Ilango Adigal, the author of the ‘Silappadhikaram’, one of the five Tamil Sangam classics gives ample evidence that he was acquainted with Bharata’s treatise. A number of Tamil works on music, extant in his time and quoted by his later commentator Adiyarkunallar show that the Tamil musicologists of the Sangam period were fully conversant with Sanskrit works on music written by authors who obviously lived in the Northern part of India. Even the names of several Tamil treatises on music like ‘Bharatam’, ‘Panchabharatiyam’ and ‘Bharata Senapatiyam’ show the influence of Bharat on Tamil Music in those remote days. The authors of these Tamil works have acknowledged in their works, their indebtedness to Bharata. No further testimony of the cultural unity of India is needed when we remember that travel in those days was primitive and facilities for copying and transporting manuscripts were meager.

It is well-known that Tamil Nadu is the only part of India that has a contemporary style of dance called ‘Bharata Natya’ while in other parts of the country, classical dance is called by various names like ‘Kathak’, ‘Odissi’, ‘Manipuri’ and ‘Kathakali’ which do not suggest any direct connection with Bharata’s treatise. The chief aspects of dramaturgy according to Indian rhetoricians are natya or dance, rupa or scenic presentation and rupaka or regular play. The ancient Tamils achieved the first two aspects of dramaturgy to a large extent.

Dattila is another ancient writer on music who has been named as a son of Bharata and as one of the five Bharatas, the other four being Bharata, Kohala, Nandi and Matanga. All these names are familiar to the authors of music treatises in South India. In fact, the only manuscript of Dattila’s treatise called ‘Dattilam’ was discovered at Trivandrum in Kerala and was published in the Trivandrum series.

Between the ninth and the twelfth centuries A.D., a number of works on music were written in Sanskrit n various parts of India. South India accounts for a sizeable number among them. North Indian writers appear to have visited South India; Haripala )c 1175) was a Chalukya King who ruled from Navanagar in Gujarat and strangely enough wrote his ‘Sangita Sudhakara’ at Srirangam on the banks of the river Kaveri in South India.

Sarngadeva, the author of the ‘Sangita Ratnakara’, was a colourful personality and a true symbol of the cultural unity of India. According to the details of his genealogy, furnished by himself in his work, Sarngadeva belonged to Kashmiri stock. His grandfather migrated from Kashmir to the south and his father attached himself to the court of King Sighana Deva who ruled from Devagiri, now called Daulatabad, from 1210 to 1247. Later Sarngadeva himself was employed under the King in the role of an accountant.

The ‘Sangita Ratnakara’ is the epitome of all the current musical knowledge of Sarngadeva’s time. Many commentaries were written on it by later writers who belonged to different parts of India including the south. The best commentary seems to be the ‘Kalanidhi’ of Chatura Kallinatha who was the court Pandit of Deva Raya II (1446 – 1465) of the Vijayanagar empire who ruled from Hampi in Karnataka. Sarngadeva appears to have visited the Tamil country as he mentions certain Ragas as ‘Tevara Vardhani’, Tevaram being the collective name for hundreds of verses composed by three Shaivite saints of Tamil Nadu (5th to 8th century). The Tamil term ‘Pann’ is synonymous with the Sanskrit term ‘Raga’ and researchers in the ancient Tamil music have identified all the Panns used in the music of the Tevaram and equated them with the Ragas of the present day Carnatic music.

There is a Tamil metrical version of the ‘Sangita Ratnakara’ preserved in the Saraswati Mahal Library at Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu. There are also two commentaries in Telugu, one of them written by Hamsa Bhupala.

The grass roots of what is now called Carnatic Music are to be sought in the music of the ancient Tamils. The Tamils did not give any specific name to the music obtaining during the Sangam age and called it merely as ‘Isai’ or music. The term ‘Carnatic Music’ came into currency only recently. According to Chatura Kallinatha mentioned earlier, the areas lying between the rivers Krishna in the north and Kaveri in the south were known as the ‘Karnataka Desa’ after they came under the sovereignty of the Vijayanagar empire. This demarcation included almost the whole of Tamil Nadu and large portions of Kannada and Telugu speaking areas. The music of South India is the common property of all the four states now called Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra.

The most ancient literature describing South Indian music is, however, to be found in Tamil, particularly the Tolkappiam, Silappadikaram and Kallidam and their commentaries. These show that the Tamils were a highly musical people, had a well developed system of music and were familiar with the sol-fa method, concordant and discordant notes and other acoustic phenomena. They knew that new musical scales could be produced by a modal shift of tonic note and without the help of any gadgets, they had discovered that there are 22 Srutis in an octave.

The early classical music of the Tamils was essentially devotional and consisted of the Tevaram hymns composed by Nayanmars (Shaivites) and Alvars (Vaishnavites). The Ragas to which these hymns had been set were called ‘Panns’ in Tamil but strangely enough many of them had Sanskrit names like Gandharam, kaushikam, Megharagam and Panchamam. The Tevaram music is still being sung in temples in Tamil Nadu while in other parts of India no records are available to show which songs were being sung and in which Ragas, till we come to the twelfth century when Jayadeva composed his ‘Gita Govinda’.


Although the Tamils had their own names for the seven notes of the gamut, the Kudimiyamalai inscription of the 7th century A.D. on a rock face near Pudukottai has established that the Sanskrit sol-fa names sa, ri, ga, ma , pa dha, ni were in active use in that century. It was inscribed by a Pallava king who ruled from Kanchipuram and is in a script called the Pallava Grantha. The inscription, which is the only one of its kind in Iindia, was edited and published by Dr.Bhandarkar in the Epigraphia Indica and is of great interest to both Hindustani and Carnatic musicians and scholars. Excepting for two or three words in Tamil, the inscription is in Sanskrit and gives the sancharas of seven ragas intended to be played on a Vina of the time called Parivadini.

Owing to some unknown reason there is a long interregnum in the history of South Indian music between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries and no details of any musical treatise or compositions written during this period are available. The only exception is the collection and setting to music of the nearly 4000 verses of the Divya Prabandham, the hymns of the Alvars, by Nathamuni (C.823) a Vaishnavite preceptor. A similar service was done to the Tevaram by Nambi Andar Nambi two centuries later. The South Indian temples resounded with the sacred music of the Alvars and the Nayanmars and in the Vaishnavite shrines like Srirangam, temple dancers called ‘Arayars’ performed dances based on the hymns.

But from the 13th century onwards the Indian music scene shifted to South India, the part of Bharat lies south of the Vindhya Mountains. The fact that there was only one system of classical music throughout India and Sanskrit was the link language is nowhere more evident than in the numerous works on music written in Sanskrit by South Indian authors. The first of these was Jaaya Senapati (C.1249), the master of the elephant forces under Ganapathi, the King of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh. His ‘Nritta Ratnavali’, in eight sections, has been written in a powerful and florid style and shows that he was a profound scholar and master of rhetoric.

Gopala Nayaka (c. 1300) is another colorful musical giant and perhaps a musicologist also, who figures in some South Indian works of music. He is stated to be a South Indian himself although this is a controversial point. He was taken along by Allauddin Khilji to the North and is said to have had frequent discussions on music with Amir Khusrau, poet and musician. Writers never fail to describe how Gopala Nayaka was asked by his patron to sing the Raga Dipak and how, while singing it standing neck-deep in the waters of the Yamuna, he was consumed by the flames that shot up.

Gopala Nayaka’s name was quite familiar to South Indian writers of music. Kallinatha (c. 1450) mentions that the Nayaka was not only unrivalled in the practice of music but was also the writer of some treatises. Venkatamakhi (c. 1620) in his ‘Chaturdandi Prakashika’ pays a tribute to Gopala Nayaka as a renowned singer of the ‘Chaturdandi’, namely Geetha, Prabandha, Thaya and Alapa.

Sage Vidyaranya (c. 1330) is a well-known figure in the Advaitic literature of South India and played an important part in the establishment of the Vijayanagar Empire. His ‘Sangita Sara’ in Sanskrit is one of the earliest South Indian treatises on music. Although the original of this text is not available, Govinda Dikshita (c. 1600) from Tanjore quotes extensively from Vidyaranya’s work in his own ‘Sangita Sudha’.

A succession of rulers of the Vijayanagar Empire proved to be munificent patrons of music and encouraged scholars to write books on the theory of music. During the reign of Rama Raja, son-in-law of the great Krishna Devaraya, musicologist Ramamatya was commissioned to write a work on Indian music reconciling the different schools then existing. Ramamatya completed his ‘Swaramela Kalanidhi’ in 1550. It is noteworthy that when V. N. Bhatkhande, the renowned scholar of Maharashtra toured the Tamil Nadu area in search of manuscripts on music, he was able to secure a copy of this work and he later published it in Bombay with notes in Marathi.


Seventy years after the completion of Ramamatya's work came Venkatamakhin, a great luminary in Carnatic Music, whose work called "Chaturdandi Prakashika" revolutionized the very nature of South Indian music. He calls himself the disciple of Tanapparya who is believed to be a Hindustani musician from the North. It is noteworthy that the list of Desi ragas mentioned by Venkatamakhi includes Vibhas, Hamvir, Bilaval, Dhanashri and Malhar which are now in vogue only in the Hindustani system.

Venkatamakhi was the first Indian musicologist who based his system of music classification on a scientific platform. He classified Melas according to their svaras or notes and determined their ultimate number by all possible combinations of svaras, subject to certain limitations. He arrived at a total of 72 Melas or scales (called thAT) in Hindustani Music) and then grouped the various derivative ragas under the parent scales. Simple as it might now appear, it was left to Venkatamakhi to work out an ingenious scheme like this for the first time in the history of Carnatic Music. This scheme has ruled unchallenged for the past 350 years and has been accepted as fait accompli by great masters such as Tyagaraja.

When Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande undertook a tour of South India in 1904 in search of manuscripts, he visited Ettayapuram, met the celebrated Subbarama Dikshitar and was greatly inspired by the pioneering contributions of that savant. Dikshitar had just completed his colossal work "Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini" in Telugu, of more than 2000 pages. Bhatkhande got such useful information from Dikshitar on Indian musical theory and also the "Chaturdandi Prakashika" of Venkatamakhi. He took it to Bombay and published it there, marking it "For Private Circulation Only". The Madras Music Academy published it only in 1934.

Bhatkhande, who adopted the pseudonyms of Chatura Pandita and Vishnu Sharma in his works, realized the aesthetic basis of the Janaka-Janya system of Raga classification current in the South and tried to introduce it in Hindustani Music. He arranged most of the ragas of that system under ten thATs and named them after the best known ragas. These ten parental scales are:



Hindustani Thats Carnatic Melas
Bilaval Shankarabharanam
Kalyan or Yaman Kalyani
Khamaj Harikambhoji
Bhairava Mayamalavagaula
Poorvi Kamavardhani
Marawa Gamanashrama
Kaphi Kharaharapriya
Asavari Natabhairavi
Bhairavi Hanumatodi
Todi Shubhapantuvarali

It is necessary to mention at this stage that interest in Indian music transcended caste and communal barriers and a number of Muslim rulers were generous patrons of Hindu musicians. It is well known that the early Mogul rulers displayed religious tolerance and revived the ancient arts of their Hindu subjects. Akbar, the Great Mogul is mentioned in several Sanskrit works as a patron of music and other arts and the illustrious singer Tansen was one of his court musicians. Akbar is even stated to have visited Swami Haridas at Brindavan. Even in the midst of wars and political upheavals, the Sultans continued to show their munificence to music and musicians. Ghiaz-ud-din Muhammad, the Sultan of Mandvi honured an Andhra musician with a gift of one thousand tolas of gold for demonstrating the 22 srutis in his court.

Mandana wrote his "Sangitamandana" in the court of Alim Shah of Gujarat. The Sultan of Kada, a city about 40 miles from Allahabad collected a large library on Natya and Sangita and organized a conference of musicians. Their combined effort produced a large work on music called the "Sangita Siromani" which was completed in 1429 A.D.

A classic example of a Hindu musicologist being patronized by Muslim rulers of far-away areas is that of Pundarika Vitthala who was a Brahmin born in a village in Karnataka. He wrote four works in Sanskrit and in his introductory verses mentions that he flourished in the court of Burhan Khan (c. 1600) of the Pharaki dynasty which ruled from a city named Anadavalli in Khandesh. This scholar from the South later went to the North and in his work 'Ragamanjari', praises Akbar, under whom were two brothers Madhavasimha and Mansimha, kings of the Kacchapa Vamsa. The Ragamanjari is a short work with the accent on North Indian music of those days and an interesting feature of the treatise is that among ragas, Pundarika Vitthala gives fifteen new 'Parasika' (Persian) ragas at the end.

One is astonished at the manner manuscripts used to be transported in those days, finding their way into the remotest corners of India. A Bikaner catalogue and Burnell's Tanjore catalogue mention a work called 'Sangita Saroddhara' by one Hari Bhatta. This work was available in the Madras manuscripts library labelled as belonging to the N.W. Provinces!

Jagajjyotirmalla was a Nepali king who ruled between 1617 and 1633 A.D. This ruler did valuable work on music by bringing to his court music works and writers on music. Haraprasada Sastri, who prepared a catalogue of the manuscripts in the Nepal Palace Library found that a work called 'Sangita Chandra' written by one Abhilasha from South India had been obtained by the King after great efforts. He later commissioned a scholar named Vangamani, a native of Mithila, to write a commentary on it. Ahobala Pandita was a South Indian but his work 'Sangita Parijata' was first published from West Bengal. This work was translated into Persian in 1724 A.D.

The period 1750 - 1850 was the golden age of music not only in India but in Europe also. In South India, the three master composers, Shyama Shastri (1762 - 1827), Tyagaraja (1767 - 1847) and Muttuswami Dikshitar (1775 - 1835), collectively known as the Trinity, flourished during this period. Europe saw great composers like Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin and Schubert shedding their lustre on Western Music. It was the Augustan age of music in North India also and there were more contacts between Hindustani and Carnatic musicians than at any time before.

Raja Serfoji who ruled from 1798 to 1832 as the Maratha King of Tanjore was a scholar with an encyclopedic knowledge and a linguist who knew several Indian and European languages. These rulers of the Bhosle dynasty were the descendants of Shivaji and instead of trying to force their language on the local Tamil population, they learnt languages like Tamil and Telugu and even wrote musical compositions in them. In addition to a large number of Carnatic musicians, artistes and kirtankars from Maharashtra and and other Northern states sought his patronage and received it in lavish measure. The Tamil musicians lost no time in learning the Marathi type of kirtan and developed it in their own style known as the Harikatha.

Carnatic composers of this period like Tyagaraja and Muttuswami Dikshitar were fully acquainted with Hindustani music although, for obvious reasons, they did not mix the styles. Muttuswami Dikshitar, in his formative years, lived at Varanasi for about five years and coming from a family of musicians he must have listened to the cream of Hindustani music of those times. This influence is discernible in some of his compositions in allied ragas like Hamir Kalyani (Kedar), Hindolam (Malkauns), Dvijavanti (Jaijaivanti), Yamunakalyani (Yaman) and Brindavana Saranga.

It was Swati Tirunal, the Maharaja of Travancore (1813 - 1847) who effected a synthesis between the two systems of Indian music. During a short lifespan of 34 years, he built a musical empire that will last forever when compared to the small kingdom over which he ruled. His court was in fact a minaiture Bharat (India) in which flourished musicians and scholars from various parts of India, receiving equal patronage at his hands. Besides a host of Carnatic musicians, poets and scholars, the Maharaja maintained Hindustani Ustads such as Punjab Sulaiman, Allauddin and others. The most important of these was, however the Maharashtrian kirtankar named Meruswami for whom the king wrote two story compositions.

Swati Tirunal was a versatile composer and wrote Dhrupads, Khayals and Tappas in addition to Marathi abhangs and Dindis. Among his bhajans in Hindi maybe mentioned 'Sirsha Ganga' in Dhanashri and 'Ramachandra' in Bhairavi. His song -

'Devanke pati Indra, Tarake pati Chandra,
Vidyake pati Ganesh Dahka Bhara hari'

reminds one of Kabir's songs.

The twelve notes of Indian music are the same in the Hindustani and Carnatic styles although they have slightly differing names:



Carnatic swaras

Hindustani swaras

Shadja - Sa

Shadj

Suddha Rishabha - Ri 1

Komal Rishabh

Chatusruti Rishabha - Ri 2

Sudh Rishabh

Shatsruti Rishabha - Ri 3

Komal Gandhar

Suddha Gandhara - Ga 1

Sudh Rishabh

Sadharana Gandhara - Ga 2

Komal Gandhar

Antara Gandhara - Ga 3

Sudh Gandhar

Suddha Madhyama - Ma 1

Sudh Madhyam

Prati Madhyama - Ma 2

Teevr Madhyam

Panchama - Pa

Pancham

Suddha Dhaivata - Dha 1

Komal Dhaivat

Chatusruti Dhaivata - Dha 2

Sudh Dhaivat

Shatsruti Dhaivata - Dha 3

Komal Nishad

Suddha Nishada - Ni 1

Sudh Dhaivat

Kaisika Nishada- Ni 2

Komal Nishad

Kakali Nishada - Ni 3

Sudh Nishad



Apart from the swaras, the theory part of both the styles is the same. Terms like Vadi and Samvadi, Murcchana and Mela, Arohana and Avarohana and the rules for developing a raga are also common. It is only when we come to musical forms do we find different patterns like Dhrupad, Khyal, Thumri and Ghazal in Hindustani music and Kriti, Padam, Javali and Svarajati in Carnatic. Tarana is known as Tillana in the the southern system.

The 20th century witnessed the music of the North and the South coming closer to each other as never before. Instead of keeping aloof from each other, the musicians and musicologists of the two styles are getting together and trying to understand the respective idioms and approach to ragas. Hindustani musicians have started to develop Alaps of South Indian ragas like Hamsadhvani, Abhogi and Kiravani. When Ustad Amanali Khan (1884 - 1953) visited Mysore and heard the song 'Vatapi Ganapatim' in Hamsadhvani played by Vina Seshanna, he was so captivated by the tune that he composed a 'chhota khayal', Lagi Lagana Pati Sakhi, in the same tune.

In the last century, the musicians of the Hindustani and Carnatic schools would not have dreamt of performing together from the same platform although they respexted and appreciated each others' art. The question of a common platform was outside the pale of possibility for them. Jugalbandhis (duets) between Ustads and Vidwans have now become a regular feature in many parts of India. A sitarist now plays together with a South Indian Vina or Violin artiste and Tabla virtuosos play alongside Mridangam artistes. Musicians have realized that many ragas of the two systems have the same notes in ascent and descent and when played together they present the two styles in a unique light. Percussionists of the two styles have discovered that in spite of different nomenclature, the basic Tala elements are the same, resulting in delightful percussion jugalbandhis.

The barriers are thus breaking down and there is a greater awareness among the musicians of today that the music of India is one. The Hindustani and Carnatic systems are the two classical styles based on a common grammar but with different approaches and emphases. Students and musicologists from abroad recognize only these two classical traditions and study them together and not in isolation.

The significant contribution of Carnatic Music lies in its preservation of the purity of the art, unaffected by exotic influences and making sizeable additions to the theory part of Indian music based on the works of Bharata and Sarngadeva. The saint-composers of South India have pored out hundreds of compositions in Sanskrit as well as musical plays in prose and verse, which can be appreciated all over India. Venkatamakhi's daring scheme of 72 parent scales revolutionized the very concept of Melas in Indian music while on the practical side, the use of subtle srutis (quarter tones) has made Carnatic Music one of the most sophisticated classical systems of the world. The two sub-systems of Indian music have thus become true symbols of national integration.

Above article taken from:

http://carnatica.net/special/tsp-unify1.htm

A classic example of a Hindu musicologist being patronized by Muslim rulers of far-away areas is that of Pundarika Vitthala who was a Brahmin born in a village in Karnataka. He wrote four works in Sanskrit and in his introductory verses mentions that he flourished in the court of Burhan Khan (c. 1600) of the Pharaki dynasty which ruled from a city named Anadavalli in Khandesh. This scholar from the South later went to the North and in his work 'Ragamanjari', praises Akbar, under whom were two brothers Madhavasimha and Mansimha, kings of the Kacchapa Vamsa. The Ragamanjari is a short work with the accent on North Indian music of those days and an interesting feature of the treatise is that among ragas, Pundarika Vitthala gives fifteen new 'Parasika' (Persian) ragas at the end.

Exponents of Kathak will be pleasantly surprised to read the article on that style by Mandakrata Bose. This Sanskrit scholar and prolific writer, presently in British Columbia, has published a critical edition of the ``Nartananirnaya'' of Pundarika Vitthala which she thinks is an early textual source for Kathak. Dance lovers will be interested to know that although the colophon of this work mentions that it was written to please Akbar, Pundarika Vitthala was a Brahmin scholar, who hailed from a village called Sattanur in Karnataka. He later became the court musician of the Great Moghul. It is for the Kathak scholars to decide whether the evidence is conclusive or suggestive.

http://www.hindu.com/2000/03/07/stories/1307017c.htm

From what i can tell musicians and music scholars from NI were traveling to SI and those of SI traveling to SI. Wherever a musician found opportunity he or she would go--depending really on the patronage extended by the NI or SI ruler to music.

So the claim that Carnatic music belongs only to the South Indian states seems bizarre and smacks of regional chauvinism.