Singer, and Marker of Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini
V. Raghavan
In the history of Indian music in modern period, four musicologists stand out utmost prominently; but for their pioneering labours the continuity in our enjoyable tradition would luggage compartment been unsmilingly impaired and the renaissance in the art that took place would luggage compartment suffered in peculiarity and impression. In the North, it was prime Rajah Sir Sourindra Mohan Tagore and plus Pt.Bhatkhande; in the South, Sri A.M.Chinnaswami Mudaliar prime and plus Vidvan Subbarama Dikshitar. The delay was possibly the height as he was an arranged attach and recipient of the fanatical conductor Sri Muttuswami Dikshitar (1775-1835) and himself a recitalist and conductor, "the chain cautionary of one of the utmost exact of our Beethoven and Mendelssohn families", as Sri Chinnaswami Mudaliar described him. His Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini can be compared to a huge and reputation dam which impounded and sealed the music of the golden age of Karnatic music. Practising musicians, theorists, editors and publishers of extra period luggage compartment been for ever and a day design be there for from it.
Subbarama Dikshitar would not luggage compartment undertaken this magnum come off but for the prompting and resolution of Sri Chinnaswami Mudaliar, a Superintendent at that time in the Madras Management Secretariat, a Christian with a strong take for Karnatic music. Having started on his cumbersome circumstances of presenting Oriental Music in European LP, he required out compilation of the chain shishya-parampara of Tyagaraja sort Walajahpet Krishnaswami Bhagavatar and wrote out 800 pieces of Tyagaraja and other composers in Fasten LP, scrutiny his scripts with the aid of violinists skillful in Western music who were asked to fidget them by marker.
Chinnaswami Mudaliar circulate significantly the prime issues of his "Oriental Music". The metropolitan rejoinder was meagre nevertheless leading men of culture, as moreover the Examine, did praise him for his gigantic undertaking. The issue forth and Mudaliar's carefree track of his edge fashioned a manufacture of important import, namely his coming inside join with the Ettayapuram Samsthanam and the court-musician offering, Vidvan Subbarama Dikshitar. In The Hindu and in the pages of Oriental Music, these two figures, Subbarama Dikshitar and Chinnaswami Mudaliar, corresponded; the long-ago called the latter an avatara-purusha and the latter, consenting the long-ago as Adviser, got him thrice to falsehood with him in Madras and to give explanation him encourage on the science and art of Karnatic music and the intricacies of the raga repeat, and the gamaka-s, in undeniable. Subbarama Dikshitar in this manner stayed with Mudaliar for a blotch of three to four years in all and helped him to breeze down go to regularly of the compositions of Muttuswami Dikshitar.
The Rajah of Ettayapuram in Tirunelveli Narrow had been an impassioned patron of Sanskrit learning, of Tamil scholars and poets, and of musicians and composers.It was in Ettayapuram that the fanatical conductor Muttuswami Dikshitar finished his delay years. In rear years, his youngest brother Baluswami Dikshitar had been received as Asthana Vidvan offering. Five generations of the Ettayapuram Rajahs had been impassioned patrons and full of activity votaries of music, themselves practising every one vocal and instrumental music and composing pieces in Telugu and Tamil. Affluent accounts of these Rajahs, of their grant of and service for the arts and literature can be found in the biographies of the personalities in the world of music which were penned by Subbarama Dikshitar himself as part of his Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini.
Muttuswami Dikshitar passed to the right in Ettayapuram in 1835. His brother Baluswami Dikshitar had a offspring Annapurni who had been perfect in marriage to Sivarama Iyer of Tiruvarur. Subbarama Dikshitar was their tiny son. He was uneducated at Tiruvarur in 1839. Taking into consideration he was a moment ago five, he was taken to Ettayapuram by Baluswami Dikshitar, his protective grandfather, who adopted him as his own son. Subbarama Dikshitar underwent mutual training under Baluswami Dikshitar in music, more than ever on the vina, and affected Telugu and Sanskrit under the instruction of other teachers. He became a conductor in his seventeenth court and the skipper Asthana Vidvan, in file to Baluswami Dikshitar in his nineteenth court. A diagrammatic reason of his life and music ability can be read in his own words in his magnum come off. He statistics that the plus regulator of Ettayapuram, Jagadvira Rama Kumara Eddappa Maharajah, had his horoscope examined by high-quality astrologers and, seeing the indications of splendor offering, told Baluswami Dikshitar that Subbarama Dikshitar would be a tiny Muttuswami Dikshitar and that Baluswami must condition him as his own son.
The defense that led to the amusing friendship and co-operation of Subbarama Dikshitar and Chinnaswami Mudaliar luggage compartment formerly been recalled. Mudaliar had laboured hard, faced guilty difficulties, and had reached a represent everywhere he was helpless to upright support all the issue that he had in print down. Mudaliar's sight had moreover been unsmilingly affected by his labours and he was helpless to upright support the Dikshitar pieces he had destitute to documentation with Subbarama Dikshitar's reinforcement. On the sudden of the factory on the gaddi of Jagadvira Rama Venkateshvara Eddappa, Rajah at Ettayapuram, in 1899, Mudaliar visited Ettayapuram and through and through appealed to all make somewhere your home who mattered, amid the Rajah himself, to perceive that his disappointed give instructions would be utter by the Samsthanam. He held that Subbarama Dikshitar must be urged and helped to upright support in documentation, at token in the Telugu script, the entire music of the Dikshitar school.
Subbarama Dikshitar himself statistics that Mudaliar's explanation was that Subbarama Dikshitar must put down in vernacular and documentation everything that he knew, exclusive of thrashing anything. To quote from the English Preface by C. Nagojee Rau (a famous form in music circles in make somewhere your home period) to the new-fangled Telugu style of the Sampradaya Pradarshini, "Sri Subbarama Dikshitar, nevertheless chary at prime to part with what he naturally regarded as a exaggerated heirloom to be enviously careful and retained in his family, yielded in the end to the needs of his master and patron, the Rajah". Sri Nagojee Rau adds, "To what extent we are appreciative to the man named stuck-up (i.e Mudaliar) could be realised if it be remembered that BrahmaSri Subbarama Dikshitar is now an old man and that his fanatical learning and knowledge and the store of music literature in his hold would, in the course of nature, luggage compartment been lost to the world in a few years if this work had not been published now".
Subbarama Dikshitar worked on this book Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini for snooty than four years. Its printing began towards the end of December 1901 and what it was in perk up, to quote the words of the Tamil Preface by R.Srinivasa Iyengar to the new-fangled style, "Matangi Devi, presiding Idol of Music, drew to Her own Lair Her beloved Aficionado Sri Chinnaswami Mudaliar". Leniency to the continued zing of the Rajah, the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini was utter in the in the middle of 1904. Special types for Telugu and for the gamaka-signs were common, the distinction for having in print this very grave issue at a time such as printing in this be given was in its infancy goes to T. Ramachandra Iyengar and the Vidya Vilasini Examine at Ettayapuram. The book was published under the correction of Rao Bahadur K.Jagannathan Chettiar, Secretary of the Ettayapuram Samsthanam.
This book is in two volumes, and extends to about 1700 pages. It comprises 76 biographies of relations crystal-clear in the history of music from the period of Sarngadeva to make somewhere your home of Subbarama Dikshitar himself. It includes the lives of writers of exact treatises, composers and musicians. Two sections are keen to the science of music (Sangita-lakshana-prachina paddhati and Sangita-lakshana-sangraha). Existing is an meticulous tabular image of raga-s, raganga-s, upanga-s and bhashanga-s with their murcchana-s; a diagrammatic descriptive guide in Telugu and Tamil to the gamaka-signs employed in the notations of the songs in the book; tala-signs and explanation on likely pitfalls in resemblance them on the vina or singing part them; the principal prose of the work giving the 72 Mela-s and all their Janya-s with their raga-lakshana-s, lighting of their special features, their lakshana-gita-s, sanchari-s and helpful compositions; and supplements giving ragamalika-s and pieces of other composers who had lived in the real McCoy three centuries.
In the principal portion, in the company of the compositions perfect are about 170 gita-s of Venkatamakhin, about 229 kriti-s of Muttuswami Dikshitar, 10 prabandha-s and 41 chittatana-s of Venkatamakhin, some ragamalika-s and other compositions of Ramaswami Dikshitar, the commence of Muttuswami Dikshitar, a few pieces of Tyagaraja and Shyama Shastri, and manager hundred other pieces, suladi-s, varna-s, svarajati-s, daru-s and pada-s amid some in Tamil. In luxury to the two volumes of the principal work, Subbarama Dikshitar wrote and compiled for beginners an introductory work in about 230 pages called the Prathama-abhyasa-pustaka.
The work moreover gives us an creation of the learning and able accord of Subbarama Dikshitar himself. In the explanatory explanation on the raga-lakshana-s, he shows his understanding in good manners of the special and personage explanation or phrases of raga-s and under each raga, he adds put on sanchari-s. Else, the book moreover contains the new-fangled pieces which Subbarama Dikshitar himself composed: varna-s, kriti-s, and ragamalika-s. Horizontal if Subbarama Dikshitar had not fashioned the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini, his name would unmoving stand high in the company of the proficient composers of Karnatic music. Moment in time maintaining the high manner of Muttuswami Dikshitar, he displayed obese versatility and fashioned in luxury to kriti-s, go to regularly varna-s, svarajati-s, and ragamalika-s all studded with svarakshara beauties. Of his ragamalika-s, the one illustrating the 72 Melakarta-s, according to the Venkatamakhi school, with words self-assured by his Telugu tutor, Krishna Kavi, is of special size.
Subbarama Dikshitar moreover set to music, the Valli-Bharatam, a Tamil display by Kadigai Namassivaya Pulavar of the Ettayapuram Court. "Ma moha lahiri" in Khamas on God Kumara at Kazhukumalai by the incredibly Tamil scholar was moreover set to dance-music by Subbarama Dikshitar, overdue impressive the big Useni Svarajati. It is in print in the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini and has a moment ago been brought inside create by Balasarasvati.
We may multiply the very words of Subbarama Dikshitar on his creative work: "Taking into consideration I was a moment ago seventeen, I self-assured a Tana Varna in Darbar and such as it was open previous the King, some in the assemble strife that my commence had actually self-assured it. The King, consequently, told me, 'I am going out and shall come back in one hour; by that time you must sit at home, outline and collaboration adequate for me a jatisvara in Iman; and he prearranged that in it, at the back of pallavi and anupallavi, offering must be a svara-passage starting on Dha, and the subsequent svara-passage must be set in three tempos fast, medium and delayed, and anew in the incredibly three in reverse order, and plus the muttayisvara'. The King, to test my possible common that I must not, what composing the intrigue, specialist the vision and he moreover set two guards to watch over me. I wrecked the jatisvara in the perfect form previous the set down time and the King, at the back of listening to it, himself took me to my commence, announced the new display, through me sing my new display and remunerated me with a two of a kind of shawls and ten sovereigns. On Jagadvira Rama Eddappa Maharajah, I self-assured at his motive and on him, two chowka varna-s for persuade in Anandabhairavi and Surati and a ragamalika in nine raga-s. On His Holiness Sri Sankaracharya of Kamakoti Pitha, I sang a tana varna in Ramakriya and the kriti Sankaracharyam in Sankarabharana". The sadas, included, very His Holiness and Vidvans in peculiar Shastras, Vinai Subbukutti Iyer, Tirumalarayampattanam Ramudu Bhagavatar and Tirukkadayur Bharati (the delay a chain student of the fanatical Muttuswami Dikshitar).
Subbarama Dikshitar had structured to upright support different big work containing 100 kriti-s of Shyama Shastri, 500 kshetrajna pada-s and the kriti-s of Tyagaraja unflappable by Mr. Chinnaswami Mudaliar from the Walajahpet school. lt is our misfortune that he could not match his circumstances, and we are not persuasive even to speed the manuscripts of his run of the mill.
Subbarama Dikshitar was clearly a very full of activity person; a organically speculative work of some group that he concluded is the Tamil rewording of the Telugu Mahabharata.
Subbarama Dikshitar passed to the right in 1906 and the fanatical Tamil lyricist Subrahmanya Bharati sang an couplet on his death.
The stuck-up reason of the labours of Subbarama Dikshitar and a chirp at the flat terrain of contents of his Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini reveals what a fanatical a fanatical store of enjoyable lore the work is, and how it has proved to be the hub of our musicians and music scholars. In the twenties and thirties of the build in century, offering was a amiable stimulation in our domestic arts; selected optional organisations were founded for codifying our music traditions and agriculture the growth of the art on appropriate resentment. Indian music was through one of the subjects of study in schools and colleges. Music studies, researches, editions of songs, and publications began to mound and conferences of Vidvans steeped in Sampradaya came to be convened. For all this work, the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini became the one key book of constant quotation and imperishable source-material. Subbarama Dikshitar and his labours moreover fixed the concentration of Shri Bhatkhande who plausible from him portions of the Chaturdandi Prakasika of Venkatamakhin and moreover adopted the Karnatic Mela-Janya ploy in his new codification of Hindustani music.
References:
1. Primary shoot Nos. 1 to 10 (Rs. 5, one anna a page), 8th December 1893. Stamped at the Ave Maria Examine. Pudupet, Madras.
2. Plus the full fiscal aid of the Sangeet Natak Akademi. I undertook to bring out under the protection of the Music Academe and with the deal of Sangita Kalanidhis T. L.Venkatarama Iyer and Mudicondan C. Venkatarama Iyer and Vidvans B. Rajam Iyer and S.Ramanathan, a Tamil script style of this gigantic work of Subbarama Dikshitar. Three volumes of this book luggage compartment been published and the fourth is looming muggy.
Subrahmanya Bharati's couplet can be found in utmost anthologies of his verse. It runs to about 30-35 lines; at home is an ~ rewording of a unfriendly section:
Plus Karna went outfit
Arjuna took bravery
Free verse redundant with Kamban, they say;
Plus Subbaraman went music, may we say
