Composers and Tradition in Karnatic Music

Author(s): Barbara Benary

Source: Asian Music, Vol. 3, No. 2, Indian Music Issue (1972), pp. 42-51
Published by: University of Texas Press
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COMPOSERS
AND TRADITION
IN KARNATIC
MUSIC
by
BarbaraBenary
The classical concert music of South India performed tbday in concerts, at
weddings, at religious ceremonies and in festive processions involves both
composition and improvisation. The composition, with its specifications of
raga (melodic prototype) and tala (rhythmic cycle), forms a central musical
core around which various kinds of improvisation are woven.
The greatest part of a concert musician's repertoire is traditional. The earliest
compositions played today date from around the sixteenth century, but the
large majority are works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The
compositions of the most popular composer, Thyagaraja (1767-1847), account
for about half the songs heard in public concerts in Madras today. Most
Karnatic compositions are vocal pieces having text and a title derived from
the first few words of the text. Telugu is the predominant language, but
Sanskrit and Tamil are also common.
Although most musicians know the names of the composers whose works they
perform, there is not a great deal of common knowledge about the life and
times of the dozens of major composers of the classical tradition. Thyigaraja
is one of few well-documented composers. Information about other composers
was rarely compiled in their own lifetimes and has been passed on only
through the memories of certain musical families and through the ideals,
myths and anecdotes which survive in popular culture.
The focus of this essay is to picture the South Indian composer as he appears
in current English-language writings, and to estimate the effect of his image
and his contributions on current musical practice.
I Sources
Perhaps the most valuable source for information on composers is a series of
articles published by The Hindu (Madras edition) in its Sunday magazine
between the last weeks of 1969 and the first weeks of 1971. The series,
entitled "Carnatic Music Composers" consists of 64 biographies by different
authors. The well-documented "musical trinity" (Thyagarajaand his two
contemporaries Muttuswamy Dikshitar and Sydma Sastri) are not included in
the series. It gives a thorough and broad picture of the various social
settings and musical expectations which a composer might encounter during
the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. 1
The writing of historical biographies is a trend of this century, brought on
by a long period of Western educational and political domination. Despite
the use of the English language and "scientific" aim, the biographies in The
Hindu's series maintain a good deal of the traditional writing style and values.
The Western ideals of fact, time, location and objectivity are given little
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coverage, both because such information has often been lost, and because it
is not considered as important and interesting as information which highlights
Hindu aspects of the composer's life. Biographies generally include social
information such as the composer's caste or family background, name of
native village, guruparampara (musical pedigree) and sishyaparampara (line
of disciples).
Since music is believed to be powerful only insofar as it is
devotional, the religious aspects of the composer's life and music will be
If he was a bhakta (one seeking unity with God through devotion
discussed.
and praise), who was his Ishtadevata (form of God to whom his songs were
dedicated); what miracles allegedly occurred in his life, what instances of
divine intervention, what inspirations leading to the composition of particular
songs ? Musicological information is also included such as names of ragas
used, forms used, names of outstanding works and details of the composer's
performing career, if they are known.
Information on composers from earlier centuries is rather difficult to obtain.
The traditional musicological treatises such as the Natya Sastra,
Sangitaratnaikara
and Lilappadikaram are of little help since they deal with the ideals of music
rather than actualities of practice, and they make no mention of actual
historical persons.
One is more likely to find biographical information in
literary and religious histories such as T.M.P. Mahadevan's Seminar on
Saints (Madras: Ganesh and Co., 1960) or C. and H. Jesudasan's A History
of Tamil Literature (Calcutta: Y.M.C.A. Publishing House, 1961). One must
keep in mind, however, that the impact of these composers today is more
There is little musical information
philosophical and literary than musical.
to be found about them, and in fact little if any of their music has survived
these centuries of oral transmission or is sung in concert.
Influences

of Caste

Although music formed an integral part of life and poetic expression in south
India in the early centuries A.D., it was a general infiltration of Brahminical
values and religious philosophy from the North which lead to the bhakti
movement of the seventh through ninth centuries.
It was this nrFvement
which laid the foundations for the late forms of classical music.
It also
formed the basis for certain beliefs and conflicts about the role of music and
musical composition in religious and secular life.
Up through the twentieth century we see varied biographical instances of
the musician pulled between the life ideals proposed by the Brahmin caste
and the Kshatriya caste.
Brahmins, according to tradition, are priests,
Their
religious leaders, teachers, and keepers of knowledge and literacy.
values lean toward asceticism,
and the role of music in the scheme is to
please God and aid the practitioner to achieve salvation through devout
expression (bhakti) or exact practice of musical science (nadopasana). Music
is seen as a very personal mode of religious expression, to be displayed in
public only for the purpose of teaching and imparting religious belief to
others.
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However, innumerable professional musicians from earliest recorded times

have made their living through association with a royal court or a wealthy
private patron (zamindar). Royal patrons were of the Kshatriya caste, whose
traditional role is military and political.
Music under such patronage was
for display, amusement and cultural adornment. Musical competitions were
frequently held, the object being to impress the patron who (in theory)
represented the ultimate connoisseur.
The fine-arts view and the religious view of music have coexisted up to the
present day, sometimes in conflict, but usually intermingling peacefully.
In the collection of biographies some composers appear as saints, others
as hard-working lackeys of a pleasure-loving
monarch. Yet the majority
experienced both roles to some degree and practiced music in both capacities,
rejecting neither the power of devotion nor their ability to entertain.
Although music today is patronized by an urban public consisting of wealthy
The
persons of many castes, the influence of Brahmins still predyminates.
and since the
majority of popular performers are themselves of this caste,
caste places particular value on appreciation and education of classical
music, the largest percentage of the audience at advertised concerts are
also Brahmin. It is this educated audience for whom the biographical collections I have cited are written. Thus it is not surprising that both the
written materials and the current concert repertoire show a striking preference
for composers and compositions.
The Composer as Saint
The earliest remembered composers of Karnatic music were the poet-saints
of the bhakti movement for whom devotional texts were the means of salvation
and music was the vehicle for the texts.
Those saints of the Saivite sect
were called N1yangrs; those of the Vaishnavite sect were called
of
Later, in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries when current formsTlvvrs.
Karnatic music began to emerge, the originators of the forms are pictured as
either recognised saints or as saintly personalities.
They include Arunagiri
(originator of Thiruppugal hymn form), Tirtha Narayana (who composed a
cycle of tarangini, similar in form to bhajans), Siddhendra Yogi (founder of
Kuchipudi dance), Purandara Dasa (prolific composer, called the "father of
Karnatic music"), and Kshetragna (composer of padams). The next wave of
innovation came in the late eighteenth century, and its three most renowned
composers, the aforementioned "musical trinity" are all considered saints.
Thyagaraja's life in particular is looked upon as exemplary of the Brahmin
musical ideal, even though some of the saints of earlier centuries are
remembered as having gone to further extremes in their devotion.
Themes which characterize the lives of musical saints in India have their
counterparts the world over. Devotion to the Ishtadevata precludes worldly
ties, particularly that of marriage which entails social and material involvement as well as sexual union. Those saints who are pictured as having a
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religious bent from early childhood often refused marriage or later repudiated
it. Those who experienced conversion later in life often abandoned their
spouse or, as happened to the female NIyanlr saint KIraikkal Ammaiyar,
were abandoned by a spouse frightened off by an excess of piety.
Thy'garaja and a few others consented to live a married life, believing it
to be their duty to fulfill the ashramas or prescribed life stages.
During
some time in their lives many saints undertook pilgrimage, visiting
distant shrines and holy places, possibly settling at a particular place
for the rest of their lives.
For Thyagaraja and many of his contemporaries,
pilgrimages occasioned the composition of a collection of five, seven or
nine songs dedicated to the deity of a particular shrine visited.
Many
saints accurately predicted the moment of their death either through
astrological skill or, more often, through a direct vision or message from
The NIyanar saint Sundarar is said to have met his
their Ishtadevata.
end by disappearing into the inner sanctum of the shrine of his chosen
deity, having been absorbed into the deity. Similar legends exist about
the deaths of AndNl (of the Alvirs) and Mirabai (of Rajasthan).
As described in the biographies, it is usually the god who reaches down to
the saint, revealing himself through vision or miracle and instructing or
inspiring the devotee to worship him. Often the god provides the devotee
with the first few words for his song, or endows him with a musical talent
previously lacking.
Through his deity the saint is believed to acquire
particular powers and by the power of their music some are believed to have
been able to perform miracles.
Muttuswamy Dikshitar, according to a
popular incident, brought rain and then sent it away. Thyagaraja and
Sundarar are both credited with incidents of restoring the dead to life.
Likewise it is believed that God inspires those with unusual creative powers,
and the saint-composer is the instrument through which new musical ideas
pass into human hands.
To today's musicians, the members of the musical trinity are as strong, if
not stronger, as a religious force than the deities whom their compositions
praise. A tradition of post-Vedic writings says that the devotees, by virtue
of their great penance, are greater than God Himself.4
Whether or not this
is believed literally, it is interesting to note that modem authors and
illustrators often use the same techniques in the portraiture of saintcomposers as are used in depicting the gods. Gods are usually portrayed
in an act or incident for which they are well known. Saint Thy-agaraja is
depicted singing; Dikshitar is depicted playing the vina; Sygma SIstri is
usually shown holding betel leaves or having them nearby, since one of
the prominent facts remaining about his life is his fondness for chewing.
These leaves and instruments serve much the same function as Krishna's
flute or the conch which Vishnu carries in one hand.
The bhakta seeks ultimate union with God as others seek wealth, sexual
love and earthly power. And so it is not surprising that hymns, poems and
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musical texts often took the form of madhura bhakti, also called nayakinayaka bhava, sringara rasa or "bridal mysticism. " In such texts the
love of woman for man becomes a parable for the soul's search for God.
Other texts dealt with direct praise or description of the god. Praise could
even take the form of sarcasm and fault-finding (ninda stuti). Saint
Sundarar, who made use of this form, produced lyrics which were often
wildly beyond the limits of good taste, yet it was believed that Siva himself commanded Sundarar to do so.
By the time of the musical trinity, however, the emotional aspects of
bhakti appear to have gone out of favor among orthodox devotees.
In
Thy-gar"ja's texts more stress is given to musical knowledge and the
philosophic aspects of devotion.
During the same period opera and dance
forms continued to flourish, relying heavily on madhura bhakti, yet in
this century they suffered much neglect, being regarded as a less desirable
form of worship by both the moralistic British and the ascetically-inclined
Brahmins.
Today's writers and critics of classical music seem to regard Thyagaraja's
style of text as the most pure and profound. Dikshitar, who wrote in
Sanskrit with intricate poetic structure, is regarded as overly intellectual
and somewhat dispassionate.
Shyama Sastri's works are considered
rhythmically clever, but are not given as great an amount of attention.
And the vast legacy of dance music, with its many shades of love-parable,
is relegated to degrees of inferiority directly proportional to the overtness
of its sexual allusion.
In most musical concerts (other than dance concerts)
Thyfgaraja's compositions form the meat of the program and the works of
others are left for the trimmings. But of course this represents the preference of only one social group. There are other groups, castes and
traditions of musicians who continue to preserve and practice the music of
less publicized composers, though they may be out of the limelight of
activities of the large urban sabhas (clubs) and universities.
Questions

of Patronage

One might well ask at this point how greatly these ideals of devotion and
sainthood corresponded to the realities of most composers lives, both in
the classical
period and today. For although religious forces in fact
provided the main inspiration and direction of Karnatic music, it was the
courts and patrons who provided the wealth, leisure and encouragement
which enabled both artists and religious philosophical writers to produce
words during the centuries of intense creativity.
Orthodox religion was
aided and supported by empire, yet by the nature of its philosophy, it
rejected empire as an ultimate human aim.
This paradox is reflected in the life conditions of the musician and composer.
Should he rely on patronage and use it to his own ends, or should he reject
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it on principle ? Thyigaraja most adamantly rejected the offers of several

Maharajas and chose instead to make his living by singing for alms. On
the other hand there are legends of great musicians who, when denied
audience with the king, sang by the roadside when the royal entourage
passed or made music outside the royal chambers, to achieve royal
In general biographers do not seem
recognition despite social obstacles.
to condemn such actions or the idea of singing for a patron's entertainment. But they do stress the virtue of those who either refused gifts of
money, donating such gifts to charities, or who influenced their patron
to finance the building of a temple or shrine.
A greater cause for conflict was the issue of dedicating the song. According
to tradition, the king is the visible God (raja pratyaksha deivam).
Many
kings and wealthy nonroyal patrons expected composers to write songs
in their honor, and musicians were well used to such expectations.
Yet
a particularly religious musician would balk at the idea of praising
royalty above his deity. Again, the biographers do not condemn particular
composers who addressed lyrics to a patron. They merely neglect to
mention the fact, while recounting in detail incidents such as the following:
Maharaja Swati Tirunal demanded that the composer Vadivelu rewrite a new
composition so that the lyrics praised Sri Padmanabha rather thagnhimself.
"Music is not worth its name if it has any lower aim, " he said.
An exception to this ideal was the praise of other saintly personages.
A
religious composer might refuse to recognize the greatness of royalty,
but other godly men could be praised in song for the religious ideals which
they represented.
Thyagarfja's famous kriti "Endar mahanabhavulu" has
such a theme, although it expressly avoids naming any of the great devotees.
There is strong evidence that the devotional role of music often took second
place to the worldly realities of practice.
Viewing the Hindu series
chronologically one finds that few of the composers of post-Thy-garaja
times were saints and progressively more information is given about their
musicianship and less about their religious life. Of course, the idea of
an atheistic composer is absent and writers usually make every effort to
incorporate evidence of their subjects' good character.
In summary then,
the qualities which are most stressed are outstanding musical skill and
imagination, strong reputation as performer or teacher, and a devotional
approach to the art, if not to all of life.
What Becomes of Traditional Compositions
A composer's popularity in his own lifetime depended much on his own
reputation as a performer and on his standing among his musical peers. If
he gave frequent performances, he would have ample opportunity to bring
his own compositions to the attention of the musical elite.
Performers
often visited each other and exchanged repertoires; by this means the
music was spread to a larger audience.
Sishas or disciples were even
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more important in passing on compositions to future generations.

A popular
or skilled performer can bring a composer's work to fame within his lifetime or generations after, whereas a composer lacking professional status,
was likely to become obscure.
friends or sishya
The general lack of stress on notation before this century accounts for
the loss and alteration of many musical compositions.
The first published
notations in Tamil and Telugu of both text and melody began only late in
the eighteen-hundreds.
By that time the larger part of the repertoire of
the sixteenth-century
composers had been forgotten and works of composers
only a few generations past already existed in many variant versions.
Even the existence of published notations in this century provides little
insurance against variations and changes in the works of past composers.
The notational system itself does not include the vast amount of ornamentation and improvised variation integral to the performance of a piece.
In
addition, a performer never considers published notations the final authority.
He still prefers to learn new compositions orally from his guru or from a
If the
performer who is well known or whose family style is respected.
oral version differs from the printed, he will usually ignore the printed.
The very structure of compositions such as Thyagaraja's encourages variation, providing some sangatis (composed variations on a line) and giving
the performer liberty to add further melodic variation on the text through
niraval and swaras (improvisational devices).
The line between composition and improvisation is thin. The musical additions, deletions and alterations of a particularly famous performer may become an accepted version of
the composition.
I have heard performances of the same kriti wherein only
the name, text and raga of the piece remained similar, the melodic curve
being quite changed, the sangatis totally dissimilar and even the tala
counted in a different way.
Performers seem to be concerned about correctness,
but this correctness
means a faithful rendition of the composition as taught by the guru or
family tradition, or, more broadly, a faithfulness to the style of raga
singing (or playing) and interpretation which he has been taught. It seems
understood that there is no means of accounting for the note-for-note sound
of the composer's own rendition unless the composer himself has been the
guru. A respected style of rendition passed on by guru or family has an
authenticity of its own. A variant version of the piece performed by another
musician would still be considered acceptable if the listener believed that
it carried the true spirit of the composition.
Family styles and versions
are cherished, yet it is still recognized that to some degree the composition has become public property.
Even the text is not free from alteration once a piece is out of the hands of
its composer and his immediate followers.
There have been many instances
of one composer's text being sung to another composer's tune. In the process
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of changing languages and alphabets further alterations may occur. Much

of the classical repertoire is in Telugu, yet many of today's musicians
are Tamil speakers and much published notation is in Tamil. Yet the
Tamil alphabet cannot account for many sounds of the Telugu and Sanskrit
Thus Tamil vocalists who do not speak those languages have
languages.
frequently been accused of mangling the meaning of devotional texts
beyond forgiveness.
Ultimately it appears that the essential identity of a song lies neither in
its melodic lines, which can be changed, nor in its text, which may be
It lies in
unintelligible to the audience or even to the performer himself.
a combination of factors provided by audience and performer as well as
composer. The listener's knowledge of the piece- its name, its raga, and
the reputation of its composer- is highly important. The performer's
contribution is his interpretation of the bhava (essential mood quality)
of the piece through rhythmic structure, tempo, and use of selected
pitches and phrases in the raga. The composer has provided the musical
skeleton and the thought which generated the text. However the composer's
contribution has much less direct effect on an actual performance by
artists in late generations than is the case in Western music. The performer has the license to become a composer himself, and to bring the
traditional composition to life as he sees fit.
Composers in This Century
When it comes to the naming of contemporary composers of Karnatic music,
historical writers fall strangely silent.
The only living composer to be
included in The Hindu's series is Papanasa Sivan, a man now in his
eighties who is portrayed as leading the simple, austere life of the ideal
bhakta. There are no available biographies of any composer born in this
century. This does not mean, however, that no one composes Karnatic
music any more. It is true that many composers work instead through the
medium of the film industry, where fame and fortune come far more easily.
However, film music is unmentionable tQ the upholders of the classical
tradition, so one would not hear of those composers from such sources.
Quite a few of Karnatic music's most popular performers do write pieces in
the traditional forms, and occasionally
include them at the tail end of a
concert.
Why then is there nothing written about them ?
One factor to consider is the overall reluctance to write about the living.
Perhaps a few generations must elapse before today's musicians will be
ripe for biography.
An even more important factor seems to be the attitude of traditionalism in
viewing the present.
Upholders of this viewpoint believe the past to be
far more glorious than the present.
The elderly musician is more revered
than a young musician.
The image of Thyagaraja casts both a light and a
His compositions dominate the repertoire
long shadow over the present.
that a performer must present in order to achieve popularity.
Other
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compositions are judged by the standard of his music. There is no market

for the new, and any composer who stressed his own individuality or
originality would be viewed harshly by traditional critics.
Sainthood and
The issue of religion underlies much of this criticism.
innovation are believed to be linked. If a new musical development is
not a result of devotion or darshan (vision of God) then can it be of any
merit? Musicians are advised to follow the example of those innovators
of the past who were in divine contact, since few musicians of today fit
the ideal of the bhakta. In addition, today's music is played to an
Traditionalists see this as a
educated public, not to a royal elite.
disastrous blow to the music. They believe the public lacks aesthetic
taste and prefers clever gymnastics and sensuality to a truly devotional
spirit, and that music can be no better than its audience.
However, I should add that it is only the purists who see the music of
today as hopelessly degraded.
Performers, although they may be absorbed
in the businesslike
modern world, still lead lives that are far from
secular, and believe that their practice of classical music even before a
mass audience is still a devotional undertaking.
Though developments
For instance,
occur, performers do not view them as a break from tradition.
the major trend of the past few decades has been a rise in importance of
instruments.
Technique and virtuosity have blossomed and as a result
instrumental solo concerts are nearly as common as vocal concerts in
Madras today. Improvisation, particularly fast rhythmic work, has gained
greater importance, perhaps because the element of text is absent in
instrumental performance. However instrumental performers see this as
a shift from direct expression of religious idea to indirect expression,
with alina
(raga improvisation without rhythm) and melodic sangatis
adequately substituting for text.
Hindu culture has a great toleration for paradox. Traditionalists may claim
that true music is defunct, yet it will continue to be practiced and to
develop along its natural lines, adjusting to economic circumstances as
they come. Traditional ideals need not be overthrown by revolution or
The new is incorporated so thoroughly that it is
abandoned entirely.
believed to be a return to the old and it becomes hopelessly difficult to
disentangle objectively what musical developments come from where and
some generations
when. Least of all can we predict how musicologists
hence will view the state of Karnatic music today ?

FOOTNOTES
1. Another biographical collection of fairly prominent composers is P.
Sambamoorthy's Great Composers, book I (Madras: Indian Music
Publishing House, 1962). There are quite a few books and essays
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in English available on Thy-gar5ja's life, including S. Y. Krishnaswamy's

Thy-gar5ja, Saint and Singer (Bombay: Orient Longmans, 1968), V.
and V.
Raghavan's long introductory thesis to C.
RimrTnujichtri
Raghavan, The Spiritual Heritage of ThyVgarjia
(Mylapore, Madras: Sri
RamakrishnaMath, 1966), and P. Sambamoorthy's Great Composers,
Book II: Thyagar'ia. (Madras: Indian Music Publishing House)
2. C. Jesudasan and Hepzibah Jesudasan, A History of Tamil Literature.
Calcutta: Y.M.C.A. Publishing House, 1961, p. 136
3. Froman unpublished study on castes of Karnatic musicians by Adrian
L'Armand,University of Pennsylvania
4. T.M.P. Mahadevan, Seminar on Saints, Madras: Ganesh and Co.
1960, p. 85
5. T. Sankaran, "Carnatic Composers series #16: The Last of the
Tanjore Quartette, " The Hindu (Madras edition) April 5, 1970

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