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Revision as of 09:04, 1 October 2007 by Sarvagnya (talk | contribs) (create)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The reign of Vijayanagara empire was a watershed period in the cultural history of South India, particularly the history of Carnatic music. By virtue of the geo-political influence it exerted, Vijayanagara had became the confluence of many religions, art forms and cultures. Society and culture was also undergoing various internal tensions and external stresses due to conflicts between the traditional and the modern. There was a strong interaction between traditional and elite values on the one hand and folk and foreign influences on the other. Even as an assimilation and nativization of the contending or opposing foreign influences took place, traditional purity and historical continuity continued to be preserved too. These cultural trends and objectives were sustained, fostered and cherished even after the fall of the empire by several several feudatory states such as Anegundi, Penukonda, Tanjore, Mysore, Madurai, Ikkeri etc.,. The period witnessed the prolific contributions of numerous musicians, saints and theoreticians.
Innovations in theory and practice
A wide range of experiments and innovations were carried out in the field of instruments too. The Tamburi (Tanpura) was introduced and soon became the principal drone instrument. Seminal work and innovations took place in the Vina keyboards in respect of accordatura, tonal range, and instrumental parameters. The mela replaced the grama and its the theoretical possibilities were fully explored through mathematical schemes of tabulation; new classificatory models emerged for ragas; through psychoacoustical principles of temperament.svayambhusvara (upper partials), paryaya-svara (alternative svara denomination), and pratinidhi-svara (representative note) scales and intervals were rationalized to be in alignement with contemporary musical practice. The innovation of the concept of mela and organization of the entirety of contemporary melodic material under its umbrella are among the most influential and enduring contributions of Vijayanagar to the music of India.
Various melodic and rhythmic structures were admitted into art music. All music became desi and marga music passed into oblivion as did the madhyamagrama and its paraphernalia. The totality of melody came to be referred to sadja grama alone. The desi talas, which had grown arbitrary, archaic and prolific, made way for the suladi talas engendered by the Haridasas. these were made comprehensive and versatile through ten vital elements called tladasaprana. Theoretical and pedagogical scalar standards, as well as propaedeutic exercises (abhyasagana) which are relevant even today, were the contributions of Vijayanagar.
Prominent composers
It was at the height of the Vijayanagara empire that great saint-composers like Sripadaraya, Vyasaraya, Purandaradasa, Vadiraja, Kanakadasa, Tallapakam Annamacharya and his descendants, and Nijagunashivayogi flourished. The most influential musical forms.Kriti, Suladi, Ugabhoga, Dandaka, Urttanama, Namavali, Mundige, Gita, Thaya and Prabandha developed and rose to prominence during this period.
Musicology - The Vijayanagara musicological nonet'
Theory kept pace with musical practice closely throughout the Vijayanagar period, maintaining a remarkable spatio-temporal continuity through the theoretical works. Great musicological luminaries like Sri Vidyaranya, S.üva Gopa-tippendra, Kallinatha, Kumbhakarna, Ramamatya, Laksmanarayana, Pandarika Vittala, Somanatha, Locana Jha and Hrdayanarayanadeva contributed to musical theory of both North and South India during this period while Tanappacharya, Govinda Dikshita and Venkatamakhin made foundational contributions from Tanjore about a century later. Each work of these scholars records a revolutionary and seminal concept or development, cumulatively resulting in modern Carnatic music. Nine such musicological treatises of great significance were composed in the Vijayanagar period. These have been called the Vijayanagara sangitashastra navaratna or the 'Vijayanagara Musicological Nonet'.
- Sangitasara
The first of these is the Sangitasara of sage Vidyaranya composed in the second half of the fourteenth century A.D. Parts of this work which dealt with the fifteen melas and their fifty janya ragas, as well as certain types of singers, were paraphrased by Govinda Dikshita in his Sangitasudha (nidhi) in the early seventeenth century.
- Taladipika
The second of the Nonet chronologically is the Taladipika by Salva Gopa-tippendra, the viceroy of Mulbagal and the brother-in-law of Praudha Devaraya II in the mid-fifteenth century. Besides describing over a hundred desi talas (and inventing quite a few of them), he elucidates the taladasapranaa (ten vital elements of tala) for the first time. Following this innovation, all temporal activities in music and dance came to be organized, collocated and collimated under these elements.
- Sangitakalanidhi
To the same period belongs the third work of the Nonet, Kallinatha'sSangitakalanidhi, a versatile commentary on Sharngadeva's Sangitaratnakara, the encyclopaedic magnum opus on Indian music. It was dancing and aesthetics of the thirteenth century. In the work, Kallinatha meticulously annotates, explicates, criticizes and emphases all the central issues of the Ratnakara; he also illumines it through comparison with contemporary practices, theories and norms of music and dance. He anticipates many developments in these arts.
- Bhandaru Vittaleshwara's commentary
Bhandaru (-ri?) Vittaleshwara's Telugu commentary on the Sangitaratnakara in the last quarter of the fifteenth century is the fourth of the Nonet. Bhandaru Vittaleshwara claims that his father Keshava was honoured for his musical prowess with three thousand tolas of gold by Ghiyasuddin Sultan of Mandwa in Gujarat.
- Sangitasuryodaya
His son Bhandaru (ri?) Lakshminarayana composed the fifth treatise of the navaratna, the Sangitasuryodaya, in 1525 under the patronage of Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagar.
- Talakalabdhi/Talakalavriddhi
In the very next generation, Achyutadevaraya's Talakalabdhi/Talakalavridhi was written. This was an important treatise on tala. This work organizes for the first time the theory and practice of the suladi talas of the Haridasas in terms of the dasapranas. He also compiles the views of many precedent works on tala such as Talakalavilasa, Sangitavidyavinoda, Jainamata, Sangitamarga, Chaturasabhavilasa, Sangitachudamani, Anjaneyamata, Nrttachudamani, Sangitamanidarpana, Katyayaniya, Sangitarnava, Rangaraja Bharatabhashya, Kapardi, and Parameshvara(all of them non-extant), and refutes them.
In his work, Achyutaraya also expands the scope and function of the suladi talas by applying all the five laghu-jatis to each sµul.di tala. At the same time, Ashtavadana Somabhatta composed the Svararagasudharasa or Natyachudamani under the guidance of his guru Sitarama and probably under Achyutaraya's patronage. This work is now available only in fragments.
- Swaramelakalanidhi
The final 'gem' in the series is the much celebrated Svaramelakalanidhi authored by the illustrious Kallinatha's grandson, Ramamatya ca. 1550. Ramamatya was the royal composer and royal architect, and described himself as abhinavabharat.ch.rya and toÎara-malla (meaning "the hero(malla) who wears the honorific anklet(todar)). The last epithet however, is usually interpreted by scholars as belonging to the lineage of Todarmal, one of Akbar's ministers, the anachronism notwithstanding. The Kannada term, in fact translates to 'the hero (malla) who wears the honorific anklet (todar)'.
Svaramelakalanidhi importance lies in the fact that it is more relevant and related to modern practice than the books written prior to it. The work, spread over five chapters deals primarily with Raga and preliminary to it, describes the Mela-s for the classification of Raga-and the different Suddha svara-s and Vikrta svara-s constituting the Mela-s. Similar works by other celebrated contemporaries like Pand arika Vitthala and Somanatha project a common theme, namely the description of Ragas, classification under Melas and the enumeration of the Suddha and Vikrta svaras constituting the Melas. Minor ideological differences can however be discerned among these works.
The Svaramelakalanidhi brings the theory up to date, rationalizes intervals and scales, introduces the concepts of svayambhµu-svara (self-generating note, upper partial), .dh.ra-½sruti pary.yatattva and pratinidhitattva of svaras. It establishes mukhari as the shuddhasvara saptaka, standardizes and fixes musical intervals on the keyboard, defines the accordatura, range, preferred strings (for particular notes), etc., for a variety of stringed keyboards. It also innovates and dedicates a new keyboard to Achyutaraya. A new scheme for classifying ragas into uttama (superior), madhyama (middling) and adhama (inferior) on the basis of their expressive potential is also expounded in the work. It also resolves the problem of the antara and kaishiki notes.