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Glossary - Classical Dance |
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Terms used in Indian
classical dance
Bharata Nătyam - Indian classical dance style from South India
Kathak - Indian classical dance style from North India mainly Jaipur and Lucknow
Kuchipudi - Classical dance style from Kuchipudi village in Andhra Pradesh
Mohiniattam - Classical dance style from South Indian state of Kerala.
Odissi - Classical dance style from Orissa (India)
Kathakali - Indian classical dance drama of Kerala, a state in south India.
Nritta - Pure dance involving hand and body movements
Nritya - Interpretative aspect of dance involving Abhinaya
Bhăva - Mood
Thillana - A lively musical form, usually set to be rendered in brisk pace. It is the Carnatic counterpart of the North Indian 'tarana'.
Rangapravesam or Arangetram - This is the blossoming of the student of Bharatnatyam into a full-fledged artist and enters the stage for the first time.
Mudhras are a means of communication for
the dancer to express the theme of the song. Common in south Indian classical dance.
Adavus- are the basic steps taught to the students in Bharatanatyam.
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Glossary - Classical Music |
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| Terms used in Indian classical music |
Karnatic Music/Carnatic Music - the classical music of South India.
Hindustani Music - North Indian classical music.
Rag/Raga/Ragam: A melodic concept within certain strict rules. Ragas are groups of notes that organise melody.Common in Indian classical music.
Tal/Tala/Talam :A time cycle, a rhythm structure and a measure applied in the act of keeping time.Common in Indian classical music.
Laya: Rhythm or Tempo. The tempo is regulated. The duration of rest between two strokes of 'matra' Is laya.Common in Indian classical music
Gharana : A school Of music representing a specific musical lineage or tradition.Term used in North Indian classical music.
Bol - This is the mnemonic system where each stroke of the drum has a syllable attached to it. These syllables are known as bol. Term found in Northy Indian classical music.
Bhajan — a hindu devotional song. Bhajans are sometimes used as light classical repetoire
Mridangam: A percussion instrument which is a common accompaniment in south Indian classical music and dance.
Tabla: A percussion instrument which is a common accompaniment in north Indian classical music and dance.
Guru-Shishya Parampara -The traditional teacher-disciple method of learning all forms of Indian classical music. |
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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 09 April 2005 |
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Carnatak Music and Hindustani Music
a long history of cross-pollination
by Shantha Benegal
Recently, I was witness to a small but heated discussion between South and
North Indian music fans. The topic of debate was: Why are South Indian
musicians are continually borrowing ragas and styles from North India, but
there is no reverse traffic? Is Carnatak music being diluted and
corrupted by fusing with Hindustani music?
Each generation of musicians has probably asked these questions and
worried about losing the purity of its precious heritage. In truth, the
phenomenon is nothing new. The give-and-take has been going on for
centuries. Purandaradasa (1491-1564), considered to be the <<pitamaha>>
or grandsire of Carnatak music, was a bhakta of Vitthala of Pandharpur,
Maharashtra, and was deeply influenced by Dnyaneshwar and the varkari
(singing pilgrim) tradition of the region. Kshetragna (c.1600) of Tanjore
studied Sanskrit and Marathi, composed 1200 padams, and was invited to
sing them in the court of the Muslim Nawab of Golconda. The great
composer Muthuswamy Dikshitar (1775-1835), who lived in Benaras for five
years, is said to have been inspired by the stately and dignified style of
North Indian Dhrupad, while Tyagaraja (17.....), a Rama bhakta, was
well-read in the Ramayana of Tulasidasa. Muthiah Bhagvatar (1877-1928),
who also visited Benares, evolved Hamsanandi by adapting the North Indian
Sohni. He also introduced to the South ragas such as Goud Malhar and
Mohana Kalyani. Hindustani Kafi, Senjurutti, Brindavani Sarang, and
Sindhu Bhairavi were either borrowings, or re-instated from a forgotten
time.
It is easier to understand this phenomenon if one remembers that both
systems were born of a common heritage harking back thousands of years to
the Natya Shastra of Bharata, or the Cilappatikaaram of Ilango Adigal -
these texts on such topics common to the two systems as swaras and the 22
shrutis. The unanimity of the two systems can be still perceived in the
similarity of ragam-tanam-pallavi to the nom-tom alaap of Dhrupad - the
older style of North India. Some of the old raga names of the undivided
system are still used by dhrupadiyas: Amritvarshini, Natai, Kaamboji,
Vardhani, Vaachaspati, etc. As the two systems diversified, they evolved
separately. The same ragas and talas were given different names and
slightly different interpretations. Over time also, the question of which
influenced which became a chicken-and-egg issue.
For example, was the Hindustani raga Yaman-Kalyan introduced from the
Persian Iman by the Turkish genius Amir Khusrau? Or did it already exist
in the undivided system as Yamuna Kalyani? Was the Carnatak raga Husseni
a borrowing from the North as its Muslim name suggests? If so, why did it
not stay in the musical currency of the North, except in a few gharanas
like Agra? Was Ravi Shankar the first North Indian musician to borrow the
idea of the Taani Avartanam to give accompanists a chance to perform solo
sections? In my opinion, these questions should continue to puzzle us and
excite debate.
The cross-pollination of music was most conspicuous in the border states
of Mysore (now Karnataka), Andhra, Orissa and Maharashtra. The patronage
of such rulers as the Nawab of Golconda (in modern Andhra), and the
Maharaja of Mysore was given to musicians and dancers of both South and
North India. So many creative people performing in one palace must have
led to some musical intercourse. The Ustads (maestros) of the Agra
gharana (family/style) were court musicians for several years in Mysore,
as were musicians such as Mysore Vasudevacharya. Is it perhaps this that
has led to the use of ragas such as Husseni in the Agra gharana? Were the
<<mittu jatis>> adopted by the veena players of the South influenced by
the plucking techniques of the sitar?
Odissi dance of Orissa has clearly been influenced by Bharata Natyam and
Kuchipudi. A striking feature of Odissi accompaniment is its use of
Carnatak ragas, talas and instruments. It is common to hear a pallavi in
Shuddh Saveri or a pada by Orissa*s famous poet Jayadeva rendered in
Karaharpriya. Jayadeva*s poems are used by Carnatak musicians too, and
with good reason: the 17th century composer Ramudu Bhagvatar
Tirumalarajanattanam first set Jayadeva*s Geeta Govinda to Carnatak Ragas
and talas. With its poetry married to such a old musical heritage, it is
no wonder that Odissi dance turns so often to the Carnatak system.
Maharashtra*s connections with Carnatak music also go deep. Tanjore, one
of the centers of Carnatak music, was at one time known as a <<Pocket
Maharashtra.>> For about 150 years between 1690 and 1855, Tanjore was
ruled by Maratha princes. The first Marathi play was written, not in Poona
or Bombay but in Tanjore, by the then King Sarfoji. These kings were
closely acquainted with Southern culture but kept in touch with Marathi
culture through generous patronage of artists and writers from
Maharashtra.
The first Marathi plays pf Tanjore borrowed freely from the Yakshagana and
Koravanji plays of South India. The music directors of latter-day Marathi
stage -- composers such as Bhaskarbua Bakhale and Govindrao Tembe --
inherited this interest in Carnatak culture, and repeatedly went to South
Indian music for inspiration. The Kirvani kriti <<Varmulosagi brocuta
ne>> turned up in the Marathi play <<Vidyaharana>> as the song: <<Sura
sukha khani tu Vimala>> sung by the legendary female
impersonator-actor-singer Balgandharva. Trained in classical music,
Marathi actor-singers such as Balgandharva and Dinanath Mangeshkar often
performed as concert artists. The impact of Carnatak music was inevitably
felt by the concert stages of Mahrashtra as well.
In the popular musical play <<Maanapman,>> (1911), the hit song<<Chandrika
hi zanu>> based on an Arabhi kriti, was sung on a 78 record by the famed
Ustad Abdul Karim Khan of the Kirana gharana, who settled in Miraj. Among
his other recordings are two Carnatak ragas and compositions he had
learned from Veena Dhannammal (according to T. Brindamma): Tyagaraja*s
<<Rama ni samaanam evaru" in Karharpriya, and <<Enta nercina, enta
nercina entuku>> in Saveri. But the influence of Carnatak music on this
great musician was deeper than just surface learning. As Ashok Ranade
writes in <<On the Music and Musicians of Hindoostan>>:
<<Of his [Abdul Karim Khan*s] musical personality one facet needs to be
considered before a settled opinion about his contribution can be
recorded. The matter of his responses to Carnatak music deserves special
mention. To *import* Carnatak ragas into the Hindustani fold, to author
new compositions in them and in this manner to totally acclimatize
Carnatak ragas is perhaps too obvious and easy a response to merit
analysis. What the Ustad tried was however more fundamental and subtle.
What he did was to incorporate certain Carnatak patterns of phrasing the
sargam (solfa; from sa-re-ga-ma) in his Hindustani elaborations and to
employ them without the colour of the Carnatak gamak-style. To all
purposes a major way of enriching a total, available, musical repertoire
of any culture is to induct new patterns into it, and this was what the
Ustad achieved. The patterns he brought were assimilated because they
were not accompanied by the Carnatak way of intoning them. At the same
time, the quality of novelty was unmistakable because they did not belong
originally to the Hindustani progressions and were an outcome of a deft
removal from their original matrix. He had transplanted them and placed
them in a different but conducive context. His act was therefore not an
act of wholesale borrowing of Carnatak structures, nor was it a fashion or
a *gimmick*. It was a skilled act of introducing new resources by way of
recreation.>>
Through Abdul Karim Khan, these <recreations> have been assimilated into
Hindustani music. They are used by artists as diverse as Amir Khan,
Bhimsen Joshi, and even the sitar-maestro Vilayat Khan, who collected many
bandishes (compositions) from Abdul Karim Khan.
One of the 20th century*s most influential figures of Hindustani music was
another Maharashtrian, Pandit Bhatkhande, an advocate who left a permanent
impress as a musicologist. A friend of Subbarama Dikshitar (grand nephew
of Muttuswamy), he came became acquainted with Venkatamakhi*s 72 mela
system and adapted it, simplifying it into ten <<Thaats>>. Bhatkhande
wrote a preface to his friend*s children*s primer:
<<Baala-shiksha-sampradaaya>>. Bhatkhande*s major works included several
volumes filled with detailed descriptions of ragas that included Carnatak
ragas Nagaswarali, Arabhi, Shankarabharanam, Hamsdhwani, Devgandhari,
Saveri, Bilhari, etc. These books are the standard volumes of modern day
Hindustani music thought. In spite of criticism leveled at the inadequacy
of his system, Bhatkhande*s Thaats have come to stay.
Today, Carnatak ragas like Kirvani, Hamsdhwani and Charukeshi are
performed by musicians as far flung as Malini Rajurkar of Gwalior,
Nazaakat and Salamat Ali Khan of Pakistan, sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, and
the younger generation sitar-player Shujaat Khan. Rabindranath Tagore has
used them for his Rabindrasangeet (a noted example is <<Baaje karuna
sure>> in Simhendramadhyam). Hamsdhwani, particularly, has become a
naturalized North Indian raga. Yet, Amir Khan*s <<Jai mate vilamba,>>
Jasraj*s <<Pavan-puta Hanuman,>> and yes, the Hindi film-song <<Jaa tose
nahin bolu Kanahaiya>> still bear the strong stamp of Dikshitar*s immortal
composition, <<Vatapi Ganapatim bhaje.>>
One can only conclude then that music is a two-way street; actually a
crossroads, where several influences constantly act, react, and interact.
It is fortunate we have two such diverse and yet compatible systems of
music. As the French say in a quite a different context: Vive la
Diffrence!
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 09 April 2005 )
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Fusion 
