If the evolution of the ‘raga’ into its present form had been determined historically (and there is every reason to believe that it was so determined), then the “sampurna raga” indicates a phase of the evolution which was consciously and dialectically directed by the intellectual climate of an urban elite. In Indian music, at any … Continue reading Breaking the Shell →

There are two ways in which a “raga” may be said to represent experience, one as an archetype and the other as a prototype. Archetypally, the “raga” intuits the ultimate truth of the experience in an epistemological quest; as a prototype, it fixes the experience morphologically. In either way the “raga” is deemed to realize … Continue reading Ends of a Straight Line →

The difference between pop art and serious art lies not in the emphasis on rhythm, loudness and bizarrerie that the former flaunts and the latter tries to conceal; the essential difference seems to lie in the emphasis on the obvious which pop art seeks to make its characteristic technique and the emphasis on the implied … Continue reading Iteration and Improvisation →

The continuity of tradition has exercised different minds differently. Historians, anthropologists, poets, philosophers and artists have tried to find, in various ways, a definition for culture and tradition, and have assiduously collected and analysed a mass of information to trace the continuity of tradition through historic epochs. They have evaluated the leit motifs in art, … Continue reading Traducement of Tradition →

The enlightened people who seek to promote international understanding through cultural exchanges are up against a greater problem than those who wish to unify the world through political pacts or economic treaties. While the politicians and the economists have to wrestle with factors which can be objectively assessed, the artists and writers have to be … Continue reading Encounters and Edification →

The Tyagaraja Aradhana at Tiruvayyar early this month and the quadricentenary of Purandara Dasa's death observed at Hampi in the middle are reminders to us of a continuing and vital heritage in Karnatak music; but this is a heritage to which we can add, to which we can give new meaning and content in each … Continue reading The Cave of Aeolus →

December in Madras! The month in which the city gathers up its energies to an expression of piety, gaiety and fun that mocks the sad-faced exit of another year! The stillness of the morning is broken by the lusty singing of the bhajan parties that circumambulate in the broad Mada streets of Mylapore. Against a … Continue reading December in Madras →

In theory, Karnatak music has seventy-two ‘melakarta’ (parent) ‘ragas,’ and any number of derivative ones. But in practice, our musicians limit their attention to not more than twenty or twenty-five ‘ragas.’ The Karnatak ‘ragas’ are constructed and arranged on a permutative basis. There is a neatness about the ‘melakarta’ scheme as evolved by Venkatamakhi which … Continue reading Wall Street and Nazareth →

Indian music has a freedom of extemporising which distinguishes it from all other systems of music. The extemporising is governed largely by the artist's imagination or manodharma. The importance which Indian music attaches to this freedom of delineation is brought out by the fact that the highest form of art music in India has been … Continue reading Theseus and Icarus →

Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar was more than a musician. He was primarily a singer of God’s glory. In this he was a true representative of the hoary Maharashtrian tradition of religious singers, starting from Tukaram. That there was no break in this tradition either in the heyday of Mahratta power or in the period of … Continue reading Of ‘Abhangs’ and Ariels →