Interpreting the
"graham" part of
the ciTTasvara
passages
in the krti-s of muttusvAmi dIkshitar.
(N Ramanathan)
A
traditional and very interesting
feature of South
Indian art
music is the singing of passages of
svara, in
other
words, passages made up of the svara syllables, sa ri
ga ma
pa dha and ni, as part of kalpita
and manOdharma
sangItam. I wish to draw attention to a curious
feature in
the
notation of a composition, where, below each line of the
ciTTasvara passage,
there is a different
set of svara
syllables
in the same metrical or hrasva-dIrgha format. This
will be
clear from the example given below.
In
the krti "guNijanAdinuta"{1} of muttusvAmi dIkshitar
set in
gUrjari rAga, Adi-tAla, at the end of anupallavi, the
following
svara passages are to be sung.
T-1
l4 O O
ss,s
rrgg ,s,r g,sr | g,,d
,dp, | ddpp mmgg ||
graham:rr,r ggmm
,r,g m,rg m,,n
,nd, nndd ppmm
ddp,
mg,d pmg, dg,g | gpgd
p,mg | dmg, pmgr ||
nnd,
pm,n dpm, nm,m
mdmn d,pm npm,
dpmg
ssrd
,spd spdr srgg | dnsr
gmpm | srgp dpmg ||
'
'' '' ''
rrgn
,rdn rdng rgmm
nsrg mpdp rgmd
ndpm
.
.. ... ....
....
pdns
pdrs drss grss | mgrs
,ndp | mg,p grsn ||
'
dnsr
dngr ngrr mgrr
pmgr ,snd pm,d
mgrs
We
see that there are two lines, the lower
one being
marked "graham". Today
there are two ways in which
the
`graham'
part is being rendered. In the first one the svara-
s are
rendered in their proper positions. And in the
second
method the same music is sung to a different
set of
svara
syllables. For
example, the first
svaram `ri' of
the
`graham' will be sung in the pitch of `sa' of the original
svara passage. The aim of this paper is to establish
that
the
second method of singing is the correct one.
In the sangIta-sampradAya-pradarSini (SSP)
of subbarAma
dIkshitar we find this feature in 16 songs. Of course,
in
not all
of them are both passages prescribed to be sung. In
many
only the `graham' passage is to be sung. In the SSP, in
almost every
rAga described, a lakshya gIta
(present day
lakshaNa-gIta) attributed
to vEnkaTamakhi is given which
describes its characteristics or lakshaNa. The gItam-s
in
which
the graham passages are found belong to
the following
rAga-s.
T-2
1 SuddhasAvEri (6) bhairavi
2 bhinnashaDja (7)
vElAvali
3 hejjajji (8) kEdAragaula
4 rItigaula (9) nArAyaNagaula
5 ghaNTArava or ghaNTa (10) Arabhi
Apart from these there are four kIrtana-s
of muttusvAmi
dIkshitar, one
kIrtana of ponnayya piLLai, a
disciple of
muttusvAmi dIkshitar and one prabandham of vEnkaTamakhi in
which graham
passages occur. These are in the
following
rAga-s.
T-3
rAga Commencing words Composer
bhinnashaDja SrIguruguhamUrtiki nE ponnayya piLLai
hejjajji rAmacandrabhaktam muttusvAmi dIkshitar
rEvagupti sadA vinata do
kannaDabangAla
rENukAdEvi do
gUrjari guNijanAdinuta do
bauli uddhataripujana vEnkaTamakhi
Thus there are 16 songs in 14 rAga-s in
which `graham'
passages occur. It is now our problem to investigate
what
these
graham passages are.
`graha'
in the melodic context is one of the
defining
characteristics
of jAti in the ancient period. It was
later
adopted for defining rAga too. graha is the svara
on which
compositions set
in a rAga commences. However
the term
`graham' used in the above examples has been very
clearly
explained by
subbarAma dIkshitar in the SSP{2}. While
explaining graha
as one of the lakshaNa-s
(defining
characteristics) of rAga, he says, "graha: the svara
with
which the
rAga is seized (commenced) is
the graha svara
(graha-seizing
or grasping)." While describing the lakshaNa-
s of rAga-s, for each rAga a particular svara
is specified
as graha."
If for a rAga a svara other
than shaDja is
specified as graha then irrespective of what that
svara is
it has to
be placed in the position of `sa' and
sung. If
shaDja is the graha svara, then it should be placed
on the
shaDja pitch position." subbarAma dIkshitar
then draws the
attention
of the reader to a few examples of svara passages,
in
which this feature called `graha' is seen and adds, "This
manner
of singing is called graha-svaram". According to him
this
graha-svara concept is explained by gOvindAmAtya in his
work rAga-tAla-cintAmaNi and
there was a
tradition of
singing
graha-svara-s 400 years ago.
From the above account it is clear that
graham involves
a rAga
in which a svara other than shaDja
is the graha-
svara.
Now the example from the song "guNijanAdinuta" given
at the beginning of this section is based
on gUrjari rAga
which has
rshabha as the graha-svara. If
in the main
ciTTasvara passage
we replace the syllabe
`sa' by the
syllable `ri', `ri' by `ga', `ga' by `ma' and so on
we get
the `graham
passage'. This is shown below.
T-4
ss,s
rrgg ,s,r g,sr
g,,d ,dp, ddpp
mmgg
graham:rr,r ggmm
,r,g m,rg m,,n
,nd, nndd ppmm
Now
if the graham passage is
sung according to
the
first method, that is, with the different
svara-s sung in
their
normal positions then the music would be different.
If however the passage is sung according to
the second
method
the music will be the same; only the syllables of the
text will be different. In fact, in this case,
when played
on a musical instrument, no difference will
be discernible
between
the two passages.
Let
us take a few more examples. In
the following
examples too only a portion of the svara passage is
being
given.
T-5
1.
krti: `rENukAdEvi'{3} rAga: kannaDabangAla
l7 U O
d, ,m ,p ,m dd mp gg rs ds
,,
'
graham:
s, ,d ,n ,d ss dn pp mg sg ,,
In
kannaDabangAla, gAndhAra is the graha-svara. Hence
the
syllable `ga' will replace `sa', `ma' will replace `ri',
`pa' will
replace `ga', `dha' will replace `ma'
and `ni'
will replace `pa' to get the graham passage. In
the normal
svara passage
of the kannaDabangAla song,
shaDja is
functioning as the graha-svara and in it nishAda (seventh)
is omitted.
And in the
graham passage, gAndhAra
is
functioning as the
graha-svara and its seventh,
namely,
rshabha
is omitted.
Now in this song it will become difficult
or impossible
to sing the graham passage according to the first
method.
Since, if
all the svara-s are to remain
in the normal
position
we find that one new svara, namely, `ni' figures in
the `graham'
which is not there in the original.
Now the
question would be, which variety of `ni' should be
taken.
And,
even for the sake of argument if we take the `ni' to be
of the
variety belonging to the same parent mEla, number 15
or
mAyAmalavagaula, and sing it, what musical purpose would
be achieved by this as we would be deviating
from the rAga
svarUpa
of `rEvagupti'.
On
the other hand if the second method of
singing is
adopted, then
again one could ask, what purpose
would be
achieved since there is nothing musically new and
further
singing
svara syllables out of position will sound
strange.
The answer for this is that although nothing
musically new
is
achieved there is a musicological significance to this as
will be
established shortly. Let us take the other examples.
T-6
2 krti: `sadAvinata'{4} rAga: rEvagupti
O
l4 O l4
. ... . .
rg,p
,ds,rgr, sd,p g,pdpds,
graham:
gm,d ,nr,gmg, rn,d
m,dndnr,
In the rAga rEvagupti, ri is the
graha-svara.
T-7
3 gItam: `ArE tridaSaramaNi'{5} rAga: bhairavi
.
.. .. .. .. .. .. .
s, ,,
sg rg rs gg rr sr sn dn
pd nd dp mg rs
graham:d,
,, ds ns nd ss nn
dn dp mp gm pm mg rs nd
Thus
all the 14 rAga-s in which we
have compositions
containing graham
passages have for their
graha a svara
other
than shaDja.
T-8
The graha-svara-s of these are:
rAga graha- rAga graha-
svara svara
1. SuddhasAvEri pa
8. rItigaula ni
2. bhinnashaDja ri
9. ghaNTArava dha
3. hejjajji ma
10. bhairavi dha
4. rEvagupti ri
11. vElAvali dha
5. karNATabangAla ga 12. kEdAragaula ni
6. gUrjari ri 13. nArAyaNagaula ni
7. bauli ma 14. Arabhi ni
The songs presented in SSP cover in all
192 rAga-s and
out of
these there are 23 rAga-s which have for their
graha
a svara
other than shaDja. Apart
from the
14 mentioned
above,
the other 9 are:
T-9
rAga graha- rAga graha-
svara svara
1. chAyAgaula ni
6. AndhAli pa
2. gaula ni 7.
nArAyaNi ga
3. malahari dha
8. pUrvagaula ni
4. kannaDagaula ni
9. dESAkshi ga
5. madhyamAdi or
madhyamAvati ma
In
other words we do not come across in SSP
instances
of
graham passages for songs in the above 9 rAga-s.
Note: In the above list the graha prescribed
for bauli in
the
rAga-lakshaNa in the appendix part of CP is shaDja. But
earlier texts
like sangItasudhA and
caturdaNDIprakASikA
mention
madhyama as the graha and this is seen in the graham
passage
in the SrIranga-prabandham.
Now in singing the graham passage in a
song, the graha
of the
particular rAga will have to be sung in the
position
of shaDja
and the other svara-s in the
positions of the
subsequent
svara-s; if dhaivata is the graha in a rAga, then
dha
should be sung in the position of sa; ni in the position
of ri;
sa in the position of ga and so on. This means
that,
instead of
shaDja, dhaivata is the
svara which will
be
identified
with the tonic.
In the SR{6} and earlier texts the term
aMSa was used to
denote
the tonic. But in SSP and the CP-anubandha, graha is
the term
consistently used and the
term aMSa is
almost
absent. In CP, rAga-s are classified with respect
to their
graha-svara, e.g. rAga-s having shaDja as graha are
put in
one
group, those having rshabha as graha are put in
another
group and so on. Thus graha was the term which
came to
be
used to convey the sense of tonic. Of course in
the system
of the present day there is no question of any
svara other
than
shaDja being the tonic and hence all rAga-s have shaDja
as graha
and, as seen above, in the rAga
bauli too, the
graha
has changed from madhyama to shaDja. but designating a
svara other than shaDja as graha indicates a
tradition not
belonging
to the modern period but to a period more than 400
years ago as pointed out by subbarAma dIkshitar.
He refers
us to a
text "rAgatAlacintAmaNi", written 300
years ago,
which he
says discusses this concept of graha
in detail.
This work
in telugu written
by pOluri gOvinda
or
gOvindAmAtya
as subbarAma dIkshitar refers to him, discusses
the placing of different graha-svara-s in
the position of
shaDja in the context of the derivation of
mUrchanA-s from
grAma-s. He
does not discuss this aspect
of graha while
describing
the lakshaNa-s of rAga-s.
This passage in rAgatAlacintAmaNi (RTC){7}
forms part of
the
description of the methods of deriving mUrchanA-s. After
describing one
method of deriving
mUrchanA-s the author
gives the method "according to the view of
others". it is
quite apparent
that both these methods are
based on the
description
found in SR. SR too, after describing one method
of
deriving mUrchanA-s, refers to another "according to the
view of
the others". We shall take a look at the
discussion
in SR
before continuing with RTC.
In SR, SArngadEva speaks of the derivation
of different
mUrchanA-s
from a grAma by shifting the tonic; this
accords
with the
practice detailed in earlier texts
like NS and
Datt.
madhyasthAnasthashaDjEna
mUrchanArabhyatE'grimA ||
adhastanair nishAdAyaiH shaDanyA mUrchanAH
kramAt |
SR
1,4,12cd-13ab
The
above verse pertains to the derivation
of the
mUrchanA-s
of shaDjagrAma. The first mUrchanA starts on
the
shaDja of the middle register.: sa ri ga ma pa dha
ni. The
subsequent six
mUrchanA-s start on the nishAda
and other
svara-s situated
below this shaDja. That is, the
second
mUrchanA starts on the nishAda in the mandra-sthAna:
ni sa
ri ga ma pa dha. The third mUrchanA starts
on dhaivata in
the mandra-sthAna. And the last mUrchanA begins
on rshabha
in the
mandra-sthAna.
Similarly
SArngadEva describes the
procedure for
deriving the
mUrchanA-s of the
madhyamagrAma. The first
mUrchanA starts
on the madhyama-svara of
the middle
register,
and so on.
madhyamadhayamam Arabhya sauvIrI mUrchanA
bhavEt ||
shaDanyAs tadadhO'dhaHsthasvarAn Arabhya
tu kramAt |
SR
1,4,13cd-14ab
After
this, SArngadEva speaks of another
method of
deriving mUrchanA-s
which he attributes to the
view of
others
(parE).
shaDjasthAnair nyAdyai rajanyAdyAH parE
viduH ||
hAriNASvAdikA gAdyair madhyamasthAnasaMsthitaiH |
shaDjAdIn madhyamAdIMSca tadUrdhvaM
sArayEt kramAt ||
SR
1,4,14cd-15cd
In
this method the second mUrchanA (called rajanI)
and
other mUrchanA-s are obtained by placing
nishAda, etc. on
the
position of shaDja; for the second mUrchanA, nishAda is
to be placed on shaDja, and shaDja and other
svara-s moved
up.
Once nishAda takes the place of shaDja, shaDja will move
up so
that the interval of
ni-sa as existing
in the
shaDjagrAma, namely four Sruti-s will be maintained.
Thus
shaDja
will not move to the position of rshabha, but it will
become
an independent second svara.
Similarly in the case of the
madhyamagrAma, the second
mUrchanA is
derived by placing gAndhAra in
the place of
madhyama
and moving madhyama to the second position, pancama
to the
third and so on.
In this method of deriving mUrchanA-s the
tonic is not
shifted
from one pitch level to another but is stationed at
the
same position. It is only the intervals that are shifted
by
bringing different svara-s to occupy the position of the
tonic. Whereas
in the more
ancient method, by
taking
different svara-s as tonic, the tonic got shifted
to lower
and still
lower pitch levels, in the present
method, the
tonic remains
stationary and shaDja is
also identified
permanently with the tonic. That is, shaDja is always
the
first note, rshabha the second, gAndhAra the third,
and so
on. But
in the second method mentioned by SArngadEva, though
the
tonic remains stationary, it could be shaDja or
rshabha
or any
note. The first, second and
modern positions are
illustrated
below.
T-10
I
sa-mUrchanA 4-s- 3-r- 2-g- 4-m- 4-p- 3-d-
2-n
ni-mUrchanA 2-n- 4-s- 3-r- 2-g- 4-m- 4-p-
3-d-
dha-mUrchanA 3-d- 2-n- 4-s- 3-r- 2-g- 4-m- 4-p-
II
sa-mUrchanA 4-s- 3-r- 2-g- 4-m- 4-p- 3-d-
2-n
ni-mUrchanA 2-n- 4-s- 3-r- 2-g- 4-m- 4-p-
3-d-
dha-mUrchanA 3-d- 2-n- 4-s- 3-r- 2-g- 4-m-
4-p-
Modern system
sa-mUrchanA 4-s- 3-r- 2-g- 4-m- 4-p- 3-d-
2-n
ni-mUrchanA 2-s- 4-r- 3-g- 2-m- 4-p- 4-d-
3-n-
dha-mUrchanA 3-s- 2-r- 4-g- 3-m- 2-p- 4-d-
4-n-
(In the modern method, nishAda-mUrchanA
cannot strictly
be
called so, since the first svara is always shaDja. Hence
the practice
of calling different scales by
the mUrchanA
does
not exist now.)
We see in the above illustration that there
is a lot in
common between method II and the modern system,
namely the
tonic remaining stationary. In fact, if we substitute
sa,
ri, ga
etc. for 1st, 2nd and other svara-s present in method
II. the
modern nomenclature results.
Coming
to RTC{8}, we find that the author describes the
method II
of SArngadEva in detail.
The description is
briefly
outlined here:
The
first mUrchanA is
formed by placing
madhyasthAna-shaDja first and
madhyasthAna-nishAda
towards
the end. Then instead
of starting on
mandrasthAna-nishAda etc.
(mandra-dhaivata,
mandra-pancama etc.), the remaining six
mUrchanA-s
are
formed by placing
madhyasthAna-nishAda,
dhaivata,
pancama, madhyama, gAndhAra, rshabha,
successively as the first svara. That is, in the
first
mUrchanA: sa ri ga ma pa dha
ni, [place
nishAda
in the place of shaDja, shaDja
in the
place
of rshabha, rshabha
in the place
of
gAndhAra,
gAndhAra on madhyama,
madhyama on
pancama,]
pancama on dhaivata and
dhaivata on
nishAda. In this way the svara-s nishAda
etc. are
placed as graha-svara-s (emphasis mine)
on shaDja
etc.
without the intervals of the
seven svara-s
shaDja, rshabha etc. being altered. Now
the second
mUrchanA starting with nishAda is
obtained. In the
same way the five remaining mUrchanA-s
have to be
obtained. The other mUrchanA-s, viz. `dha
ni sa ri
ga ma pa', `pa dha ni sa ri ga ma', `ma pa
dha ni
sa
ri ga', `ga ma pa dha ni sa ri' and `ri ga ma
pa dha ni sa' are similarly formed.
The derivation of mUrchanA-s from the
madhyama-grAma by
the
same method is explained next by gOvindAmAtya.
What is important in the above discussion
is the use of
the word `graha-svara' by the author. This usage,
which is
seen in
SSP{9}, seems to have had a long tradition. Thus even
a few centuries ago the term `graha' seems to
have denoted
the
svara functioning as the tonic.
In
the post-SR period, with the emergence of the mEla
system, it is
firmly established that all the
rAga-s are
based on the
seven svara-s in the order shaDja, rshabha,
gAndhAra, madhyama,
pancama, dhaivata and nishAda,
with
shaDja identified with the stationary tonic. Even
then the
lakshaNa-s of
rAga available in the post-SR texts
do not
present
a changed picture but exhitbit a transitional
stage
where
part of the old definition is retained and part of the
new system
is introduced. Let us take a
few examples of
rAga-s and
see how they have been defined in
the various
texts
and especially with respect to the graha-svara.
a) rEvagupti:
T-11
Texts{10} graha- varjya-
svara svara
1. sangItaratnAkara (rEvaguptA) ri
2. sadrAgacandrOdaya ri sa & pa
3. rAgavibOdha ri sa & pa
4. svaramElakalAnidhi ri ma & ni
5. sangItasudhA ri ma & ni
6. caturdaNDIprakASikA ri ma & ni
7. sangItasArAmrta (rEvagupta) ri ma & ni
8. caturdaNDIprakASikA (appendix)ri ma & ni
9. sangItasampradAyapradarSini ri ma & ni
10. sangrahacUDAmaNi sa ma & ni
In this rAga we see that from SR to SSP
every text has
uniformly
mentioned `ri' as graha, but as far as the svara-s
to be
omitted are concerned there
are differences among
texts.
While SR does not prescribe any svara to be
omitted,
two
texts mention shaDja and pancama to be omitted, and the
remaining prescribe
madhyama and nishAda. But if
we take
this
scale, as starting from rshabha and the svara-s
shaDja
and
pancama as the ones to be omitted. i.e., varjya-svara-s,
then it
will be as follows.: