My pilgrimage to Ettaiyapuram

 This is the 250th birth anniversary year of Muthuswami Dikshithar, born on Krithikai nakshatram in the Tamil month of Panguni in the year 1775. It was a blessing to be there in Ettaiyapuram at his samadhi last Sunday. This is the 15th year that this is being celebrated by Ravi Kiran's Guruguhaamrata with more than 40 high calibre musicians. Dikshithar is supposed to have come to Ettaiyapuram twice . Firstly for the coronation of the Yuvaraja and the second time to spend his final years before he shed his mortal coil on Narakachaturdasi day in 1835. 

The proceedings started aptly enough( given that Dikshithar was a vainika) with Jayashri Arvind playing the Thodi dhyana krithi on the veena. I think at least 3 or 4 of the navavarnams were sung by various vocalists. I remember hearing the ones in Khamboji, Anandabhairavi, Punnagavarali and Ahiri. In addition through the day, starting at about 9 am one got to hear so much of Dikshithar. Of these , Shri Venugopala in Kuranji, Pahimam Ratnachalanayaka in Mukhari and Nagalingam Bhajeham in Shankarabharanam were totally new to me. I had gone there only to pay homage and listen since I registered very late and there was an announcement that the slots for performers were closed. However, when I was there I realised quite a few people had dropped out and slots were available. So decided to sing Shri Subramanya in Thodi, inspite of my trepidation in singing in front of very high calibre vocalists. But I am unlikely to be going to Ettaiyapuram again in this lifetime, so yes it was now or never.

One has to comment on this labour of love by Ravi Kiran and his Guruguhaamrata. The arrangements were excellent, starting from rooms at Kovilpatti for people to freshen up, the pick ups at the station, the to and fro to Ettaiyapuram, the really lovely meals and the excellent sound system. I know there are week long celebrations in Chennai starting on Monday. I will try to log on to these online. So immense respect and admiration for the work that he is doing and sure that the Universe will continue to support him in this endeavour.

I am happy that I went this year. Sure I was the oldest person there. Most of the musicians were in their 20s or 30s. All these activities are physically arduous. ...going to Ettaiyapuram( incidentally Subramanya Bharathis's house is also here a stone's throw away) consists of flying down to Madurai, driving down to Kovilpatti, which is 103 km away , staying the night and making an early morning trip to the samadhi. So my advice to other Dikshithar bhakthas is to do this sooner rather than later.

The next day I went to Kaghugumalai, the 300 feet rock temple. I actually knew it was nearby only as the result of a casual conversation with a lady on the bus. Subramanyena rakshitoham in Sudha Dhanyasi refers to this sthala in the charanam Kankashaila viharena.. It was one of the earliest krithis I learnt. It is a very quiet temple . So I got to sing the composition . While I did try to go the Vettuvan Koil nearby, there is a fine line between adventurous and fool hardy. Climbing this in the midday heat , with a whole lot of monkeys around and by myself seemed foolish. So I went half way up and decided to come back.

The whole trip also left me ever so slightly embarrassed and conscious yet once again about how privileged and elitist one's life is. Kovilpatti is a small town. Ettaiyapuram even smaller. And Kazhugumalai seems nothing more than a little hamlet. Going in buses to these places and observing the people who live there  makes one realise that we have lived in this ivory bubble and have no real idea of what living is for 90 percent of India's population. Well, it is what it is..but there can be no real understanding without an actual experience of these cities. Also, it made me understand at some level, Dikshithar ..the eternal pilgrim. I was exhausted after travelling and staying in air conditioned comfort. But he did these pilgrimages from Nepal( Pashupatiswaram in Subha Pantuvarali) to deep South long before even the advent of trains. That frail body sure housed an indomitable spirit.

The next three days were in Madurai. After Kovilpatti,  Madurai felt so wonderful.. much better hotels, availability of vegan cuisine etc. My first trip was to the Azhagar Koil in Pazhamudircholai. This is really quite lovely.. the Vishnu vigraham at the foothills with Bhudevi and Shridevi was exquisitely decorated. The Murugan temple on the top of the mountain is small, but beautiful with the Noopura Ganga and the Rakkayi Amman temple right on the top of the mountain , approachable only by foot.

The next trip was to Tiruparikundram, the first of Murugan's six abodes. As luck would have it , I landed up on the day of his Tirukalyanam to  Deivanai. Mention has to me made of our absolutely endearing trait in the humanising of our Gods. Apparently the day before the Meenakshi temple was closed since she and Sokkanadar had come to Tiruparikundram for the wedding of their son. The evening of the wedding saw the beautiful vigrahas being sent back to their abode by Subramanya.

With these two, I have now been to four of Subramanya's six abodes. Swamimalai and Tiruttani are still pending. Guess they will happen when they do. But I need to go to Trichendur again since I went there before learning Shri Subramanya in Thodi. Somewhere for me, going to a sthala before learning the particular krithi does not count. Which is why I have to go to Kalahasti too again, so I can sing the Husseini panchaboota krithi and the Kalyani one on his consort( Gnyanaprasoonambike)

The last day was devoted to the Meenakshi temple and the Teppakulam Mariamman temple. The Meenakshi temple is one I have been to before. There are enough images and write ups on the net. The sculptures, the murals, even the painted kolams on the ground are all breath taking. Even with special darshan tickets, one has to be prepared to spend a minimum of 2 to 3 hours in queues. Gives one time to softly sing the Varali and Poorvakalyani songs on her by Dikshithar.

I am back in Mumbai now energised after my trip and ready to get back into year end meetings with CAs and planners and all the other humdrum work of daily living.

 

Last night at the NMACC

 Last night was quite thrilling. And I almost missed it. The event was billed as Wild Women: A Jugalbandi in Verse. Featuring Alarmel Valli and Arundhati Subramaniam. Much as I love both artists individually and collectively, I was fearful of an extremely avant garde event that would have Valli demonstrating abhinaya or doing adavus to English poetry. Since I had not seen Valli forever and was reconciled to turning up even if she was in track pants talking about Bharatnatyam, I decided to risk it. This was actually, clever misdirection by the duo. The event was broadly based on Wild Women, a book by Arundhati about sacred poetry by and about women.

 There were a total of four pieces. The first an invocation to the Goddess with verses from the Devi Mahatmyaham, Mahalakshmi Ashtakam, Subramanya Bharathi's Vellai tamarai and the Abhirami Andaadi. Now, one has heard Vellai Taamarai so many times.. and mangled so often by enthusiastic school children that I have personally become immune to it's beauty. But yesterday with Valli, I discovered the original sentiment once again. Saraswathi is not some Goddess in an ivory tower, remote and unapproachable. She is everywhere even in the most common place. In the vellai taamarai( white lotus) and the veenai naadam and so on. Almost all of it sung by Prema Ramamurthy.

The second piece was called Ecchal( Spit) by Senkottai Avudai Akkal. Akkal was born in the very early 1800s and was widowed while still a child. Her Guru was supposed to be Sri Sridhara Venkatesa Ayavaal, a contemporary of Sadasiva Brahmendra. A jivan mukta , she is believed to have composed over 200 songs in various formats. These songs in turn inspired legends like Subramanya Bharathi and even Ramana Maharishi, whose mother apparently would sing these compositions. Akkal , it is believed went up the mountains near Kutrallam and disappeared without leaving any trace of her body!!

The third piece was from Tallapaka Annamacharya, the 15th century musician,  writing not as a devotee of Venkatesa but in the voice of his consort, Alamelu Manga. It was amazing how Valli transformed herself in this piece. From her first steps on the stage for this number, she became somebody else.. playful and capricious. It was in everything, her gait, her hand movements. I have seen demos where an ageing Kalanidhi Narayanan transmuted right in front of my eyes to a coy blushing nayika. And everything about her physical body was forgotten in that moment. Valli as Alarmelu Manga was something like that.

The last was a thillana in Nalinakanti with the sahithya portion by Neelambike the wife of the 12th century philosopher Basavanna. Long after I left the theatre and I was having my Mongolian Rice in the nearby Earth Cafe, I was humming the first line S G R,,, M,, P, N,,,S,,

A little bit about the structure. I am reasonably sure that this will go on the road at least to cities with a large Indian diaspora. The compositions are all pre recorded with Prema on the locals. The backdrop and the lighting is all minimalistic.. no HD screens , no multicolor lighting arrangements.. just some marigolds in the background. So very apt. Nothing but powerful verses, music and dance. If I could be allowed to quibble , I would have preferred a marginal reduction in the sound volume and the percussion sound while mixing. What will also help(when they take this show abroad) is a small pamphlet with the lyrics and translations of the four pieces.

I will now end with my favourite poem of Arundhati's. Especially relevant today on Holi when my household staff is all absent and I have to wash dishes and cook meals. I have long been a fan of hers and am both mesmerised and energised by her words. So much of it can only be described as some sort of preternatural dejavu since I am left bewildered wondering whether she is articulating her experience or mine. So here goes.

Give me a home

that isn't mine,

where I can slip in and out of rooms

without a trace,

never worrying

about the plumbing,

the colour of the curtains

the cacophony of books by the bedside.

A home that I can wear lightly,

where the rooms aren't clogged

with yesterday's conversations,

where the self doesn't bloat

to fill in the crevices.

A home, like this body,

so alien when I try to belong,

so hospitable

when I decide I'm just visiting.

Rasa by RaGa

 Yesterday's Rasa by RaGa program at the Tata Theatre in Mumbai presented by Pancham Nishaad was really quite remarkable. Of course, it is a few months since I have been inside a concert and a few years since I have heard a live performance by the duo. That helps. As in much else, too much exposure to anything dulls our palate and gives us diminishing returns in terms of enjoyment.

The single thing that stood out was the sheer innovativeness in presentation. I think except for two compositions, Mariveregati( Shyama Shastri, Anandabhairavi) and Manasa Sanchara re( Sadashiva Brahmendra, Saama), not a single composition was a straight presentation. There were medleys in a particular raga, medleys in related ragas, griha bhedam demos etc. But more about that later.

And it was long. Today, we are getting used to a two hour or even a 90 minute presentation. Which makes one wonder if you want to spend three hours travelling and 30 minutes listening to the organiser's ramblings.

The concert started with Gambeeranattai. Two compositions, one in a straight forward Adi talam and the other Uthukaadu's Shri vignarajam bhaje in kanda chaapu

The second piece was a really slow and wonderful Marivere in Anandabhairavi..simply superb

However for me the most interesting was the next griha bhedam starting with Hamsanandi, a janya of the 53rd melakartha Gamanasramana( S R1 G3 M2 D2 N3 S) Using a thillana in Hamsanandi( or Purvi, Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar's nrnr gmgrs) as the base, the artists moved on to Hindolam by moving the shadjam to R1..Piece demonstrated here was Samajavara( Thyagaraja).. onto Durga by moving the Shadjam to G3.. piece demonstrated was a bandish on Durga. This was followed bySudha Dhanyasi by moving to M2( Dikshithar's Subramanyena Rakshitoham), followed by Mohanam ( Swagatham Krishna moving to the D) and lastly Madhyamavathi( Bagyadalakshmi) by moving to Nishadam. This was an extraordinary exercise because each of the compositions had some swarams or alapana or neraval, some manodharma component. And finally at the end a simple demo of singing the base flat notes to demo the shift. Was both thrilling and  enjoyable.

The next big segment which they dubbed as the main piece had four compositions, all in Deshadi talam and janyas of Kharaharapriya( 22nd in the melakartha scale). They were also all on Rama. They started with Bhuvini dasudani in Shriranjani, followed by Ikka Naina ( Pushpalatika, Tirupati Narayanaswamy) with neraval at akalanka neeve adharudani. This was followed by Kamalaptakula( Thyagaraja) in Brindavana Saranga and lastly Neekelana in Devamanohari of Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar. 

The last two segments were  medleys of popular songs derived from films,  folk or devotional in nature. The first segment had pieces by Subramanya Bharathi on Muthumaari, ram ratan Payoji and muddugare yashoda. The second was a medley of popular songs in Kapi in a variety of languages like Tamil Telugu Kannada, Hindi and Marathi beginning with a 1991 SP Balasubramanian song( lyrics by Vairamuthu, Composed by Ilayaraja) - Vannam Kondu Vennilave.

And one cannot end without mentioning the tani portion. Which was again different and innovative. Started with a segment consisting of konnakol by S Krishna, the ghatam artist and mridangam by Sai Giridar. And The konnakol portion, such incredible voice modulation ranging from soft as a whisper to a rising crescendo. Till I heard that, it never occurred to me that it was one of the tools available for a konnakol artist. This might seem laughable to many. But listening to him made me realise how that is a tool to differentiate too. Students need to hear stuff to get the myriad possibilities in various places. Followed by a tani segment in the usual format between a mridangam and a ghatam artist . But this was followed by a segment where Charumathi Raghuraman , the violinist started the simple takadhmi takajanu shol in chatusra , joined by the vocal artists and then the percussionists who went on to tisram and khandam etc . Given that we are used to seeing the tani portion of a concert as one where basically the percussionists perform with the others just keeping a talam, this collaborative exercise was a refreshing change.

The simple fact was that there was so much freshness and innovation in the entire presentation from a small thing like the vocalists alternating among themselves in taans once as swaras and once as aakar to the many ghatams and mridangams on stage for the griha bhedam segment.

And it showed. The Tata Theatre fully packed with not a soul moving out till the last note.

T M Krishna and the Sangeetha Kalanidhi award

 A week back,  the Madras Music Academy announced that the 2024 Sangeetha Kalanidhi award was being conferred on T M Krishna. I was happy for him. There is no question that his musical talent and vidwat more than deserves this. I remember thinking that if he could have just spent the past many years singing instead of making various ridiculous pronouncements, he might have won it earlier. And that was that. I did not think about it till Wednesday the 20th when Ranjani Gayathri announced that they would not be participating in this year's conference and their reasons for doing so.

Before I go any further, I need to set a certain context. I am totally apolitical. I have zero interest in the shenanigans of various politicians either in India or worldwide. I am not a social justice warrior. Irrespective of whether it sounds callous or uncaring, I do not jump up to defend the disenfranchised or the underprivileged. I do not subscribe to most of the current woke ideologies and since I do not want to waste my time arguing about these things, I keep quiet and go my own way.

After a lifetime in the corporate world, I want to be left alone in my urban cave. Where I do my various Isha practices, practice my music, practice my konnakol, deep dive into Dikshithar krithis, and  Sanskrit and Hindu dharma so as to understand the various references, visit his favourite sthalas and blog about them. 

However, I was forced to emerge from my cave this last week, when something this momentous that is central to my being was happening in the world.

I have been this huge fan of TMK's music. There are things that he sings that can move me to tears. I have heard many concerts repeatedly and know every nuance that he will bring out. Given that, I ignored most of his other statements. Maybe I was blind. Or I was naive. However, the quality of his music eclipsed everything else for me. I wished that he would just shut up and sing. But I forgave him. I told himself that maybe he was just bored and needed to amuse himself by singing with transgenders or in a fishing village somewhere. And again, before I am accused of being a transphobe, I have nothing against transgenders. But the quality of that music was abysmal.

I have also always believed that one should separate the art from the artist. This gave rise to a hugely vituperative discussion some time back when the popular opinion was that one cannot assist an artist in monetising his art when it is being used to propagate a criminal unjust agenda. I was asked where I would draw my line. I had said then that I did not know . But I would inform that person when that line was imminent for me.

I have spent that last 72 plus hours reading and watching everything I can on this issue. I am no expert. This is research in progress. Starting with TMK's full length 2015 essay in Caravan, which many believe is one of his first salvos. A very cunning piece of writing which belittles her in many ways under the guise of an informed article. I believe this is the main source for the anti MS propaganda that  artists refer to. The politics of Tamil Nadu and the anti Brahmin movement starting with Periyar's pronouncements. Now this is a vast subject. I need to read Periyar's directives for myself. What I have is various people's comments on his statements and views.

And again here, my whole life, I have believed that I am not religious. I am a Hindu. I am a Brahmin. But it was just something that was always so. Like the colour of my skin. Or the shape of my eyes. Nothing to be proud about. Nothing to be ashamed about. I believed, and continue to believe , that all that matters is a person's thoughts, words and deeds in this world. I have never known or tried to know the caste or community of co workers or employees or friends. I do not celebrate festivals except when I feel like it and visit a temple only when it is a Dikshithar sthala or a visiting relative wants to visit Sidhi Vinayak. I was your typical laissez faire Hindu willing to allow and include all manners of views on a variety of issues. To each his own as I phrased it. Or as Shakespeare said " To thy ownself be true. And it shall follow as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man".

But today this has forced me to rethink who I am. And accept that the way I have defined myself is based on who I was in a different time under different circumstances. And my "remembered history" is no more valid in defining my current experienced experience. I need time for that.

But getting back to TMK. He has once more done me a huge favour. For forcing me to examine my core beliefs and values.

The simple fact is that Carnatic music has Bhakthi as a core component. The Trinity , as well as various other vaggeyakaras did not sit down to compose for fame or fortune. Their compositions were an outpouring of their love and adoration of the Divine. Many of them were mystics. The sahithya and the music poured out as one wonderful homogenous entity. They did not bother to even write it down. Their shishyas did so that it would not be lost to posterity. They did not care about caste or community or politics. Many would not compose on any king except their ishta devta even when they were in deep penury. That was the extent of their vairagya and their devotion to a higher cause.

Those are some of the songs we sing today. How do you exclude bhakthi from such a piece. Even if you do not feel the same fervour in your heart( understandable), how do you say bhakthi has no place here? 

And what is this Brahminical hegemony that is being referred to? Some of the greatest musicians whether Veena Dhannamal and her progeny or Purandaradasa or Yesudas are not Brahmins. Nobody gives a damn. Nobody whether it be a Dalit or a tribal is prevented from learning Carnatic music and performing.

And why is TMK accepting an award from the Academy when he has distanced himself from performing in the Chennai season? And why does his award citation refer to him using music for social reform while the reply by Mr Murali to Ranjani Gayathri says that he has been selected only for his musical abilities and not his political views?

And is there any merit in Dr Gautam Desiraju who calls him an useful idiot and implies that the Music Academy might have been arm twisted into giving him this award for political reasons. And goes on to his inclusion in various associations that have anti national interests. Honestly I do not know.

But yes, too many loose ends. Too many unanswered questions. 

ChatGPT in CM

 So a few days back, I sat down to explore if I could create krithis in carnatic music. In Tamil and Telugu and Sanskrit. Just for fun. I was bored and there was nothing interesting on any of the OTT channels.

My prompts were for a Tamil composition( with a pallavi, anupallavi and charanam) in praise of Lord Muruga. Additional prompts were provided in the iterations to refer to his valour, his compassion and his consorts Valli and Deivanayaki and use the Ramadasan mudra( attempt to create in the style of Papanasam Sivan). I stopped after a couple of revisions . But the output is given below.

This is truly horrific at so many levels. The first thing that bothers me is the superficial mimicking of something truly profound. I am not getting into the content of the krithi at this point which is garbage since one could improve that with some more tweaks. But the basic source code. All of our krithis have been the outpourings from a deep wellspring of devotion . All of the alliteration, the prasa , the references to events in mythology happened on their own without any particular planning or manipulation. Most practitioners would believe that singing Dikshithar's navavarnas is akin to doing Srividhya puja of the Devi. All of them are deeply emotional . They evolved out of an altered state and a singer can still experience that magic when listening or singing some of these. 

I stopped after maybe a few revisions because I could feel my skin crawling. You know those horror movies where a mad scientist creates this perfect looking baby in a laboratory with an advanced IQ. But totally devoid of everything that makes it human: empathy, compassion, simple kindness. And that very lack goes on to unleashing a truly evil being on the world. Something like that.

But there is more. We have today the ability to generate videos both from text and also for alteration. We can create audios or videos of a fake composition sung in the style of a music legend by anybody. In fact many years back Kavita Krishnamoorthy has spoken about how all that is needed for playback singers today is attitude. Both pitch alignment and tempo are being corrected in the studio. 

So there will be a time when there will be a fake AI generated composition in a AI generated video in the style of some old time master  previewing on Youtube and garnering hundreds of likes and comments😢😡😠😟

Margazhi in Chennai

 It has been more than a week since I have been back from Chennai and I have been meaning to do a detailed review of the fifteen plus concerts I attended. But getting very lazy in my old age.

Beginning with the excellent Vignesh Ishwar concert at Arkay today. When I was there, heard  a lot of buzz about his super crowded Brahma Gana Sabha concert early in the season. But could not catch any of his concerts. Did so today. Thanks to Arkay's live feeds

While I will not bore my few readers with detailed song lists...let me make special mention of the Begada( Shankari Neeve) and the Varali( Maamava Meenakshi).. lovely voice, lovely bhava, lovely swaras, lovely everything..what can I say..specially liked the sort of seamless move from neraval to swaram and back in Varali. And a young violinist called Sivateja Mallajosyula, who I had never heard before. Fully matched Vignesh in his bhava. And in fact, Vignesh himself acknowledged Sivateja at the end. Apparently the great Kanyakumari's student.

Will now do a detailed review of all my concerts. Watch this space.

Rama Varma, MDR and Gowlipantu

 I heard a lecdem By Rama Varma at the Music Academy recently. Not surprisingly on MDR. Easily the very first love of his life. I have to admit that I am not really a MDR fan. And not for lack of trying. Almost twenty years back RV tried to get me enthused about MDR's music. And I tried. But it did not take. I went back and in my brutally honest way informed him that he just sounded drunk. Since I have always felt that there is nothing more hypocritical than pretending to love something in any art form unless it is real for you. What can I say? MDR, like the greatest single malts, is an acquired taste. Though I absolutely loved all the MDR compositions we learnt from him like Gajavadana( Hamsadhwani), Sagarashayana, Manasa( Bowli)  and of course Hariyum Haranum.

But something happened this last week when I listened to Tera tIyaga rAda. Of course, there is this incredibly sonorous baritone which is quite distinctive. But there was something else. It was as if his singing was timeless and not in the way the word is normally used. It was outside of time. He bent time to accommodate his concept of the composition. And as I heard it again and again over the past few days I realised my mind was getting quieter and maybe my breathing was becoming slower. And that brings us to the receptivity of the listener. Ultimately every performance is a one-to-one dialogue between two individuals. What a listener will get depends totally on his mind set, his receptivity, his world view at any point in time. And I sat and thought " I have read and heard so much about banis and the music of a Dhannamal and a Ramnad Krishnan or even a MMI?" So what is it? What is the characteristic of this? What draws aficionados to  MDR? And somehow, the answer that kept coming back to me was that firstly he seemed to encapsulate a total conviction in his world view on what music was. And what was this world view? As I see it firstly everything is there in the composition. There is no need for any extraneous gimmicks, ornamentation etc. There can be incredible beauty in the deceptively simple rendering of a phrase. There is no hurry. Nowhere to go, nothing to get. The singing of a composition is a simple dialogue between you and the composer or the Divine. That is all it has to be. Nothing more. Nothing less. And if one does that authentically for one composition once in your lifetime that is enough. But that is what I got. But I know I have to listen to way more MDR. Also never knew about his Navagraha chittaswarams , which I need to now track down.

But ofcourse this lecdem also raised a query in my mind? What was this prati madhyamam doing here? Wasn't this a janya of 15? So what was going on? And of course I went to Ramya Narsimhan, my go-to on anything musical. And I learnt about many Madhyamas. Ofcourse I knew about sudha madhyama and prati madhyama and the varali madhyama which is almost panchamam. I will eventually upload her demoing the various madhyamams . But to quote her. There are actually four madhyamams: the sudha madhyamam, the tivra sudha madhyamam, the prati madhyamam and the Chyuta Panchama( or Varali) madhyamam in that order. Apparently there is no sudha madhyamam in Gowlipantu. It uses only the tivra sudha and the prati madhyamam. Thyagaraja has used both the tivra sudha and the prati whereas Dikshithar has used only the tivra sudha. Of course that makes me wonder why it is classified under 15 and not 51( Kamavardhini)?