The
Vijayanagara musicological nonet or the
Sangitashastra navaratna are a group of
nine musicological treatises written during the reign of the
Vijayanagara empire. These works
are counted among the most important and definitive treatises in
Carnatic music theory. Each of these
works contributed seminally to the growth of the
Carnatic music tradition. These nine works
are the
Sangitasara by the sage
Vidyaranya,
Taladipika by Salva Gopa
Tippendra,
Sangitakalanidhi by Kallinatha, Bhandaru
Vittaleshwara's commentary on the
Sangitaratnakara, Bhandaru
Lakshminarayana's
Sangitasuryodaya, Achyutadevaraya's
Talakalabdhi/Talakalavriddhi and the much celebrated
Swaramelakalanidhi by
Ramamatya.
Historical milieu
The reign of
Vijayanagara empire
was a watershed period in the cultural history of South India,
particularly the history of Carnatic music. The period witnessed
the prolific contributions of numerous musicians, saints and
theoreticians. By virtue of the geo-political influence it exerted,
Vijayanagara had become the confluence of many religions, art forms
and cultures. Society and culture went through a process of
conflict and eclectic assimilation of the traditional and elite
values on the one hand and the emerging folk and foreign influences
on the other. There was a strong interaction between traditional
and elite values on the one hand and folk and foreign influences on
the other. Much of this was also the result of a reaction and
revolt against emerging sociological and aesthetic trends. Even as
this assimilation and nativization of the contending or opposing
influences took place, traditional purity and historical continuity
continued to be preserved. These cultural trends and objectives
were later sustained and fostered in the several feudatory states
that continued to thrive beyond the fall of the Vijayanagar empire.
Some of the notable states included Anegundi, Penukonda, Tanjore,
Mysore Kingdom, Madurai,
Ikkeri etc.,.
Innovations in theory and practice
A wide range of experiments and innovations were carried out in the
field of instruments too. The
Tamburi
introduced during the period soon became the principal drone
instrument. Seminal work and innovations also took place in the
Vina keyboards with regard to the accordatura, tonal range and
instrumental parameters. The
mela replaced the
grama and it's the theoretical possibilities were fully
explored through mathematical schemes of tabulation. The innovation
of the concept of
mela and organization of the entirety of
contemporary melodic material under its umbrella culminated in
Venkatamakhin's
Melakarta scheme, one which continues to
influence greatly the theory and practice of Carnatic music to this
day. New classificatory models emerged for ragas;
svayambhusvara (upper partials),
paryaya-svara
(alternative svara denomination) and
pratinidhi-svara
(representative note) scales and intervals were tuned to be brought
into alignement with contemporary musical practice.
Various melodic and rhythmic structures found their way 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 arbitrary, archaic and prolific
desi talas made
way for the suladi talas engendered by the
Haridasas. These were further refined based on the
principles of the ten vital elements called
taladasaprana.
Prominent composers
At the height of the Vijayanagara empire great saint-composers like
Purandara Dasa,
Sripadaraya,
Vyasaraya,
Vadirajatirtha,
Kanaka
Dasa, Tallapakam
Annamacharya and
his descendants, and Nijagunashivayogi flourished. Musical forms,
the
Kriti, the
Suladi, the
Ugabhoga, the
Dandaka, the
Urttanama, the
Namavali,
the
Mundige, the
Gita, the
Thaya and the
Prabandha developed and found wide currency during this
period.
The 'nonet'
Throughout the Vijayanagara period, theory and musical practice
kept pace with each other closely. Great musicologists like
Vidyaranya, Salva 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. 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 which cumulatively resulted in modern Carnatic
music. Nine musicological treatises of great significance were
composed in the Vijayanagar period and these have been called the
Vijayanagara
Sangitashastra Navaratna or the 'Vijayanagara
Musicological Nonet'.
- Sangitasara
The first of the
navaratnas is Vidyaranya's
Sangitasara, composed in the second half of the fourteenth
century. The work dealt with, among other things, the fifteen
melas and their fifty
janya ragas as well as
certain types of singers. Some of this even found its way into
Govinda Dikshita's
Sangitasudha (
nidhi), authored
in the early seventeenth century.
- Taladipika
The second of the nonet (chronologically) is the
Taladipika.
Authored in the mid-fifteenth century by
Salva Gopa-Tippendra, brother-in-law of king Praudha Devaraya II and a viceroy of Mulbagal
, the work deals at great length with the tala. It describes over a hundred desi talas
including some of the author's own inventions. Most importantly,
the concept of
taladasaprana (ten vital elements of tala)
is elucidated for the first time in the work. This innovation was
to prove so influential that, following its explication, all
temporal activities in music and dance came to be organized and
consolidated under these elements.
- Sangitakalanidhi
To the same period belongs the third work of the Nonet,
Kallinatha's
Sangitakalanidhi, a versatile commentary on
Sharngadeva's
Sangitaratnakara, the encyclopedic magnum
opus on Indian music. It was about dancing and aesthetics of the
thirteenth century. In the work, Kallinatha meticulously annotated,
explicated, criticised and emphasesed all the central issues of the
Ratnakara; he also illumined it through comparison with
contemporary practices, theories and norms of music and dance. He
anticipated many developments in these arts.
- Bhandaru Vittaleshwara's commentary
A Telugu commentary by Bhandaru (-ri?) Vittaleshwara on the
Sangitaratnakara in the last quarter of the fifteenth
century forms the fourth of the
navaratnas.
- Sangitasuryodaya
In 1525, Vittaleshwara's son Bhandaru (ri?) Lakshminarayana
composed the fifth treatise, the
Sangitasuryodaya, under
the patronage of king
Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara.
- Talakalabdhi/Talakalavriddhi
In the generation that immediately followed, 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. In the work, he
also compiles views from several earlier 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.Further, Achyutaraya applies all the
five
laghu-jatis to each
suladi tala and thereby
expands the scope and function of the
suladi talas. Around
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 architect in the court of de-facto king
Aliya Rama Raya. He described
himself as
abhinavabharatacharya and
todara-malla
(meaning "the hero(malla) who wears the honorific
anklet(
todar)). The last epithet however, is usually
interpreted by scholars as alluding to the Todarmal, a minister in
Akbar's court, 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 Pandarika 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
svayambhu-svara (self-generating note, upper partial),
.dharashruti paryayatattva and
pratinidhitattva
of
svaras.
Mukhari is established as the
shuddhasvara saptaka. It also fixes and standardizes
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.
See also
Notes
- Moorthy (2001), p 27
References
External links
Wikis
Map
Search
