Justification in changing the technical-terms of music to th

Languages used in Carnatic Music & Literature
vasanthakokilam
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Post by vasanthakokilam »

Thanks srkris. Your point about RTP is instructive.

BTW, what does 'rUpauruviDi' mean in sanskrit? It does not have the sanskrit ring to it ( for me ). Also, I can not find it in any sanskrit dictionary. It is possible I do not know to how to look it up properly.

Let me combine the info you all provided and reconcile all the meanings and make it a uruppadi in my mind ;)

Keying in on the 'rUpa' part which means 'shape', and adding the usual Tamil 'u' to the front, 'uru' in many contexts has the meaning of shape.

uruvam, uruvAdal are the most straightforward examples that has the 'definite shape' connotation.
uruvangAtti would be a mirror ( I think ).
urupittal is to 'prove', I can see how that can come from shape

Alright, enough examples for 'rupa' to 'uru' to 'shape'.

uruppadiyAdal means something that is taking tangible shape. One way to give something tangible shape is to repeatedly work it over.
So 'uruppadi' is something that has gone through this process of 'giving shape' by working it to perfection. It fits the use in musical context.
uruppOdudal means committing to memory through repetition. Again, the same thing, 'tangible shape in memory'.
uruppadiyaha also has the common meaning of 'in good shape', 'unhurt', 'in one piece' (uruppadiyAha vandu sEr).
From here it is easy to get to 'useful ness'. Something that is in good shape is also useful.

So it is all again related to ''shape' ('rupa'). Over time, 'the same word acquired the various meanings related to shape to cover a wide gamut:
- The method of giving something shape ( repetition ),
- The characteristic of things that have well defined shape ( they are useful ), and
- What you can do with something that has a definite shape ( e.g. you can count it ) etc.

koyaliya
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Post by koyaliya »

just a couple of thoughts that pertain;

many people who read, speak, write and think primarily in tamil cannot continue a regular conversation for ten minutes exclusively in tamil.
i don't mean they use words that have origins in other indian languages, i mean english words have a way of being all too normal in a typical conversation.
the same people - who consider their primary tongue to be tamil - can very often talk exclusively in english should the need arise.

that goes to show the inadequacies in the language and the need for improvement (and thus strange additions to the lexicon) if the language is to thrive.

i cannot speak for anyone else, but my ability to read and write in tamil is limited. even so, when i did manage to make my way through 'sivakamiyin sabadam' and 'ponniyin selvan,' i fell so much in love with the poetry and gentle grandeur of the language that i cannot help feeling that whatever needs to be done to preserve the language, however inconvenient, illogical, or propagated by someone i don't particularly like, is warranted.


i'm not sure why people have a problem with tamil - there seems to be some kind of resentment that i don't understand - but ultimately forcing people who are not comfortable with being forced to learn a language, no matter what language, will never work.

VK RAMAN
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Post by VK RAMAN »

koyaliya - you are talking about multilinguals and their tendency to mix other language words in between. You have to watch pure tamilians and Srilankan tamils

koyaliya
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Post by koyaliya »

oh, no doubt there are people who are adept enough to accomplish speaking in tamil alone - but please correct me if i am wrong, are they a majority of the tamil-speaking population?

srkris
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Post by srkris »

koyaliya wrote:i'm not sure why people have a problem with tamil - there seems to be some kind of resentment that i don't understand - but ultimately forcing people who are not comfortable with being forced to learn a language, no matter what language, will never work.
Good question. Generally Tamils are ignorant not only of their own language to a great degree but more of other languages (and about linguistics in general). There are always exceptions. I dont know about speakers of other languages, but it appears the others know better because they are exposed to multiple languages, while most tamils are unilingual.

When you dont know something, you can afford to imagine (about its greatness blah blah). This is exactly what happens. Too much empty hyperboles are generated about a common everyday language that is not much different in any way from any other common everyday language. It rubs other people the wrong way and creates resentment (ironically) against Tamil, rather than against those who indulge in its hyperboles.

This hyperbole and resentment is hardly a couple of centuries old, it started with Rev. Caldwell's declaration that Tamil and other southern languages were a separate family compared to other major Indian languages. It was the fuel for the flame that still burns. Before Caldwell's time, neither was there this hyperbole about Tamil nor was there any particular resentment against it (compared to other Indian languages).

Sanskrit had enjoyed this high status of being the first grammatical (standard) language for a long long time, and the Tanittamil (separate Tamil) movement of the 20th century tried to challenge its primacy. This challenge caught the tamil public's imagination and won wide support, but it was primarily not an intellectual challenge. It was based on ignorance both of Tamil as well as Sanskrit (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Primar ... _the_World) . It invited the scorn of Sanskritologists (not because Tamil was challenging the status of Sanskrit and competing for the same) but that there was no merit in the challenge. Colonial age researches of Sanskrit and its Indo-European origins led to the development of comparative linguistics, and these linguists confirmed what the native Sanskritologists had been claiming for so long - that Sanskrit is by far the most rigorously analysed natural language, and it had the wide level of acceptability in ancient times that English enjoys today, plus an almost universal stature as a high language. There is still no grammar in any language to match the highly complex sutras of Panini. Tamils now opposing it amounted to nothing at all... these tirades against sanskrit didnt even get a reply. It only served to tarnish the image of Tamil among non-Tamils.

That the tamils tried to merge this with their opposition to Hindi post independence made the image of Tamil and tamils worse in others eyes (although this opposition to Hindi was principled), people assumed it must be of the same ignorant nature as the Tamils opposition to Sanskrit.

How does this connect to the thread? The tamilization of carnatic music terms is a continuation of the blind opposition of the tamil establishment (and its supporters) against sanskrit. Any attack against sanskrit by tamil speakers is viewed with this suspicion and distaste.


I hope I have conveyed my understanding of the issue.

sridhar_ranga
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Post by sridhar_ranga »

srkris wrote: ... while most tamils are unilingual.
On a lighter vein, the above line helped me recall the following conversation I had with Peter I, the client side manager I had to interact with while on a project in Irvine, Ca, circa 2001:

Peter: So Shredder, what do you call a man who can speak many languages?
me: mmm Polyglot? or multi-lingual?
Peter: Right. And what do you call a man who speaks three languages?
me: tri-lingual
Peter: someone who speaks two languages?
me: bi-lingual
Peter: and what do you call a person who speaks only one language?
me: mmmm is it unilingual?
Peter: no, you call him an American

:lol:

vasanthakokilam
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Post by vasanthakokilam »

:)

A lot of them take Spanish, German or French but only to forget them completely after a few years.

If you go by the measure of minimum proficiency in reading/writing/comprehending proficiency I would think majority of the world population is uni-lingual.

Srkris, You wrote

>Tamils are ignorant not only of their own language to a great degree but more of other languages (and about linguistics in general)......it appears the others know better because
>they are exposed to multiple languages, while most tamils are unilingual

That is a true statement by definition of any population that is majority unlingual. So I do not think that observation adds any value. 'lack of knowledge of linguistics' .... ha.. ha.. so obviously true to even not warrant a mention for pretty much any population group in the world.

Having said that, rest of your analysis is quite illuminating as to the root causes of the resentments against tamil. I did not realize it goes that far back. In my generation, Tamils are known for the fight against 'Hindi Imposition' and I was not even much aware about the Sanskrit-Tamil debate/fight other than some idiot atheists trying to bash anything religious. Along with that Sanskrit got bashed due to its strong connection with religious things. It is a tragedy if Tamilians' view of Sanskrit is perceived to be synonymous with the views of those idiots.

koyaliya, tamils mixing English in their speech is common as you observe but that is only true for the metro and tier-1 and tier-2 cities and towns. Step outside of metro areas....not that they speak proper tamil but the use of English will be limited to just words and not sentences. In any case why implicate a language as deficient for the sins of the speakers? ( it is possible I misunderstood your point )

>i cannot speak for anyone else, but my ability to read and write in tamil is limited. even so, when i did manage to make my way through 'sivakamiyin sabadam' and 'ponniyin selvan,' i fell so much in love >with the poetry and gentle grandeur of the language that i cannot help feeling that whatever needs to be done to preserve the language, however inconvenient, illogical, or propagated by someone i >don't particularly like, is warranted.

Can you clarify this in a simpler way? It is too long-winded for me to know if what you wanted to say is properly conveyed.

girish_a
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Post by girish_a »

I think srkris has summed it up excellently. It is not the tamil language that people resent, but the holier-than-thou attitude of some in the tamil community that comes across as very offensive.

The most recent example of this is the opposition by certain quarters in Tamil Nadu to the elevation of Kannada to classical language status. Why needlessly put down other languages? This snobishness is what puts off people.

These fanatic loudmouths would do well to heed the advice of Miss Manners: "It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help".

While incidents like this are mere irritants, such attitude can adversely affect the well-being of the whole country. China has now got a foothold in our backyard because tamil politicians forestalled the Indian government from providing Sri Lanka with military assistance (China is building a naval base in SL, in case you didn't know; SL had first approached India).

srkris
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Post by srkris »

girish_a wrote:China has now got a foothold in our backyard because tamil politicians forestalled the Indian government from providing Sri Lanka with military assistance (China is building a naval base in SL, in case you didn't know; SL had first approached India).
That is unfortunate, but there is a real ethnic profiling/targetting going on in SL against their Tamil speaking population.

There was a popular Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka who declared in the mid- 19th century that the Buddha had reserved Lanka as the promised land for Buddhists. After this declaration, the Sinhalese speaking Buddhists began to view themselves as a separate ethnic group from the mainly Hindu tamils, and this was the root of the efforts at ethnic cleansing against which rose the LTTE.

Doesn't this ring so close to the Israel/Palestinian conflict with Israel claiming all of Palestine as the promised land of the hebrews?

koyaliya
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Post by koyaliya »

thank you, Srkris, your post explains the resentment well.

vasanthakokilam wrote::)
koyaliya, tamils mixing English in their speech is common as you observe but that is only true for the metro and tier-1 and tier-2 cities and towns. Step outside of metro areas....not that they speak proper tamil but the use of English will be limited to just words and not sentences. In any case why implicate a language as deficient for the sins of the speakers? ( it is possible I misunderstood your point )
i think i tried to club too many points into one and confused what i was trying to say. let me try and clarify;
english words such as units of measure, motor, bus, auto, fan, etc. etc. are used by tamilians for ease of communication and because sometimes there are no existing words for a concept in tamil (this holds for other languages).
the lack of words in the language is what i meant by 'inadequacies'.
the addition of words (such as kanini, menporul, etc.) to try and grow the language i what i meant by improve.

my line about people who consider their primary... etc. was unnecessary to the point; i should have edited it out.

i should be more careful with my language when speaking about languages ;)

vasanthakokilam wrote: >i cannot speak for anyone else, but my ability to read and write in tamil is limited. even so, when i did manage to make my way through 'sivakamiyin sabadam' and 'ponniyin selvan,' i fell so much in love >with the poetry and gentle grandeur of the language that i cannot help feeling that whatever needs to be done to preserve the language, however inconvenient, illogical, or propagated by someone i >don't particularly like, is warranted.

Can you clarify this in a simpler way? It is too long-winded for me to know if what you wanted to say is properly conveyed.
sorry;
simply put, i, personally, think the tamil language is beautiful.
as a purely emotional response to the beauty, i was willing to justify politicians and fanatics using the language (by adding words or changing grammar) to their own gain if that is what it takes for the language to thrive.


reading the responses above, however, i don't think anything they are doing is making the language thrive; on the contrary, by creating resentment they are doing exactly the opposite.

bilahari
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Post by bilahari »

Srkris, thanks for that informative post about the history of resentment towards Tamil.

As for girish_a's point, India's foreign policy and global "situational awareness" almost doesn't seem to exist today (did you all read that Indo-Pak joint statement?!). The gov't is perfectly happy being manipulated by the US--it almost seems like the strings that are attached to the puppet give it its only direction and mobility.

I'm sure we're all still interested in akellaji's original post though. What exactly has changed?

arasi
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Post by arasi »

Ravi,
Listen to this (related to the discussion or not). Disturbing news or what? A TV channel person in Chennai did not know who subramaNia bArati was!
I just read about it in Sanjay's blog tamizhilE ezhuduvOm.

tamizhanenRu SollaDA
talai nimirndu nillaDA
enRu Sonnavan mun talai kunivOM

Say proudly that you are a tamizhan
Hold your head high!--sang the bard

We stand before him
heads bent in shame

VK,
You are right. This won't happen outside of Chennai.
Last edited by arasi on 06 Aug 2009, 09:28, edited 1 time in total.

msakella
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Post by msakella »

Hi all,
Having come to know that the Department of Music, Madras University has newly introduced a full-fledged question paper on ‘Tamil tradition’ itself in M.A (Music) Examination of Distance education and already extended it to 3000 students in 7 countries I have become inquisitive and gone through the details of the syllabus and respective text books and found the following:

In the Tamil tradition: Even in the text itself it was clearly mentioned that there are differences of opinion even among the scholars in respect of the names of Ragas. Thus Harikambhoji has two different names, Cempalai and Palaippan, Nathabhairavi has two names, Padumalaippalai and Vilarippalai, Todi has two names, Vilarippalai and Cevvazpalai, Shankarabharana has two names Arumpalai and Cempalai, Kharaharapriya has three names, Kodippalai, Arumpalai and Padumalaippalai, Kalyani has three names, Mercempalai, Arumpalai and Marudappan and some 10 other Ragas are carrying a single name. Surprisingly, even among them while Cempalai is given as the equivalent of both Harikambhoji and Shankarabharana, Padumalaippalai is given as the equivalent of both Nathabhairavi and Kharaharapriya, Vilarippalai is given as the equivalent of both Todi and Nathabhairavi.and Arumpalai is given as the equivalent of Kalyani, Kharaharapriya and Shankarabharana. Nowadays while more than 200 Ragas are being used by all our musicians only very few among them are having equivalent Tamil names and even among them, adding fuel to the fire, there are differences of opinion of the scholars in respect of these names. In such case does it not become a fanatical and lunatical act to furnish such ambiguous material to our kids?

Even in respect of Tala some unfamiliar names ‘Kottu, Acai, Tukku, Alavu, Cirtala’ even without any equivalents, some changed-names like tuti/tudi, kattai along with the present druta (Dhruta), laghu, guru, pluta, kakapada, dakshina, vartika, citra, citratara, citratama, aticitra, avapa, nishkrama, vikshepa, pravesa, samya, tala, sannipata are furnished. Most surprisingly, the definition of ‘Prastara’ has been furnished incorrectly both in the Tamil-tradition and Samskrta-tradition. Even though all the problems relating to ‘Talaprastara’ have fully been solved more than 20 years back and three books on this topic have long ago been brought out this has not been taken into cognisance in respect of furnishing full, correct and unambiguous information to the aspirants.

Nearly 100 new names are furnished even without any equivalents in Samskrtha-tradion in respect of the Musicology and Dance.

Only xerox copies of the booklet of the syllabus are furnished and some of the words disappeared in the stiched folds of the booklet obviously revealing the negligent attitude of the authorities towards the poor aspirants. In the Paper-I, Practical-I, the Foundation course in performance, equivalents for some of the tamil-technical-terms are not furnished creating confusion to the aspirants and in the Paper-10, Practical-8, Alatti-Tanam-Pallavi, the aspirant is compelled to guess the equivalent for Alatti is Raga in relevance with Tana & Pallavi. Possibly utilising tamil-terms and again jumping back to the samskrta-terms in the absence of relevant tamil-terms looks funny.

In fact, being the part of our Indian Culture, it is welcome to include these tamil-terms also in our syllabus and also it is desirable to every aspirant of Karnataka music to know the historical imporatance of the tamil-tradition. But, as the material available is ambiguous and not full-fledged and these new tamil-terms are not known even to the present day stalwarts of Tamilnadu itself it is apt only to include them in the choice of questions of a paper but it is not at all justifiable to tax even a tamilian-kid with a compulsory question paper of the same. While the entire world is using one kind of technical-terms since many centuries it is not justifiable to tax the kids of all other languages also with all these new tamil-terms. If the authorities of the University are so particular to restrict this M.A (Music) Examination of Distance Education only for Tamilians and not for others at all it is better to clearly mention this upon the booklet and texts also.

Like the ‘House of commons’ in Britain I wish that the Music Academy, Chennai as the ‘Mecca of Karnataka Music’ and ‘House of elders in Karnataka Music’ immediately reacts properly to save the kids of our Karnataka music, all over the globe, at the least, from such fanatical, lunatical, arbitrary and suicidal acts. amsharma
Last edited by msakella on 08 Aug 2009, 06:39, edited 1 time in total.

srkris
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Post by srkris »

Carnatic music has its own tamil terms that are widely used - examples are niraval, thani, etc which are indisputably used by all. As Akellaji says, if the result of a lesson is to confuse rather than clarify, do we need those to be instructed to students? Clearly not, but the establishment does not care... and the course is bound to be a failure.

Assuming the students of the course learn the new terminology, are they going to derive any use out of it? Are mainstream performers across south India (not just the professional musicians but also the lay performers/students) going to acknowledge those as valid terms?

The Tanittamil (separate tamil) movement had an objective... by showing how Tamil culture and language is separate from the rest of India, they wanted seccession from India to form a separate country. But following the Indo-Chinese war of 1963, this idea of secession was given up by the DK & DMK, why then do they persist in undermining national integration even now? Is a carnatic music devoid of its multilingual history bound to be carnatic at all?

rajeshnat
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Post by rajeshnat »

akella gAru,
With so many terms of extreme thamizh phonetics, there is a majority population of tamilians who get a tarnished image because of a small minority of those who frame the syllabus.

Just out of curiosity can you furnish alternate institutions ,which in your opinion are not having this parachoial mindset. After all it is only a distance education how does it matter where the institution is located.

vasanthakokilam
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Post by vasanthakokilam »

I was going to make some observations on the content of akellaji's post arguing the case for learning about musicological history as part of a course in music, but since srkris brought in extreme politics into the mix that put a halt to any intellectual discussion of the topic. Let me desist from making any comments since I do not want to be perceived as aligning with the idiots who preach secession, tamil superiority etc. Yikes!!

I will leave with this general thought, not necessarily targeted at msakella's point. There is nothing wrong in learning about a parallel musicological system that existed, even if the details of it is sketchy and ambiguous, so long as those ambiguous items are clearly spelled out. Education is not just about whether one needs it immediately for the real world practice of music. A well rounded education, especially in liberal arts, is just that. If you start tailoring it very narrowly to professional needs and perceived usefulness, it is not a well rounded education anymore. In my own cases, I had taken so many courses that were not directly useful but occasionally even after many decades you realize why we were required to learn those, even if it looked incredibly irrelevant at that time. BTW, I am not universally defending the content of all degree programs, I am sure there are ones that are not put together well. I am just stating that general criteria like 'Practically useful or not', 'Is it going to confuse people or not' etc. are not what you need to go by.

One thing I want to make clear, I am not talking about including any factually wrong material. If there are such things in the syllabus ( like the thalaprasthara example akellaji quotes ), that needs to be questioned, criticized and efforts taken to clean it up.

Akellaji has had much experience in designing curricula, so I should stop here and let him comment further.

msakella
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Post by msakella »

A true citizen must always preach for intellectual discussion only. More over, elderly person must always behave elderly irrespective of his own culture. As written by our brother-member, vasanthakokilam, when the elderly persons always remain vigilant to question, criticise and put their ‘sincere efforts to clean up’ the things, pass on their flawless culture to their kids and take evey care in feeding them the best every society, irrespective of its religion or cast or creed flourishes well. Even before the aspirant spots the ambiguity of any material the teacher himself must make it clear to the aspirant. But, inefficients always try to, somehow, cover their inefficiencies to flourish well on par with all other efficients and, at this point only, the real trouble starts in keeping the things in tact. amsharma

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Post by srkris »

I am all for including the complete history of carnatic music within the syllabus of the degree level music courses. But we are not talking about that here.

The discussion is specifically about the recent changes to the syllabus pointed out by Sri Akella.

Apart from that, universities are the wrong place for establishments to further their agenda. It is a poor argument that something irrelevant today among the mainstream scholarship may benifit someone at some point in their life to justify its inclusion as a subject of study.

vasanthakokilam
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Post by vasanthakokilam »

srkris: It looks like you are coming at this with a pre-judged jaded view based on some past experiences. I get that by your use of the word 'Agenda'. I empathize with that. But I am not interested in that at all. That is a separate topic and of zero interest to me. If that is what is actually happening here, then you have all the right to criticize it.

But do not call my fairly well considered argument as poor argument. What I wrote above is a response to your question "Assuming the students of the course learn the new terminology, are they going to derive any use out of it? Are mainstream performers across south India (not just the professional musicians but also the lay performers/students) going to acknowledge those as valid terms?"." .

My point is, that is not the criterion to be used for evaluating it.

It is a time honored and well tested experience that a liberal arts program should be designed without any immediate expectation of the practical utility of the material learned. That is one of the main differences between craftsman and professional courses, and a broad program in arts.

But please don't get me wrong. I am not defending the inclusion of any garbage. All I am saying is 'why should I learn it' should not be based on perceived utility but based on relevance to scholarship.

In fact, one can turn the table and ask why should any one learn about Shadja Grama, Madhya Grama etc when the whole music system has changed in the past 800+ years to a fixed tonic system. I would not be part of that, that development and thinking is of enormous importance to anyone seriously interested in the development of music.

Also, I am fundamentally against overloading materials with definitions and technical terms that create a complexity that is not inherent in the material. So I should not even be supporting any increase in the terminology that is already overloaded. But here I am looking at it beyond that. What the students should be learning is about the parallel musical system that existed and its relevence and relationship to the current practise of carnatic music.

There is this huge bias in favor of books of distant past and tracing the roots of our music to that. ( incidentally, the quality of material in a few of those books themselves are questionable - msakellaji would attest to that ). People take a lot of pride in that. I do not have any problem with that and in fact I share that point of view. But when it comes to including a study of a regional music system and its influence on the current practise of classical music, it somehow irks people and people assume that the basis of that had to be regional politics, bigotism and regional-pride discounting any possible scholarly reasons. I do not want to challenge you all publicly on that, but it requires some soul searching.

Every time I speak in favor of looking at the regional influences in our classical music, the discussion invariably gets into political matters. That is just a huge impediment to a scholarly discussion and I put the blame squarely on anyone who brings politics into matters of scholarship. That includes both: Those who bring in ( regional ) politics in scholarly matters and those who see regional politics in everything and react in a knee-jerk fashion. ( I do agree that when a syllabus is put together by a committee there will be some tug-of-war politics involved in the sense of lobbying for inclusions and exclusions. )

srkris
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Post by srkris »

Touché

msakella
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Post by msakella »

vasanthakokilam wrote: There is this huge bias in favor of books of distant past and tracing the roots of our music to that. ( incidentally, the quality of material in a few of those books themselves are questionable - msakellaji would attest to that ). People take a lot of pride in that. I do not have any problem with that and in fact I share that point of view. But when it comes to including a study of a regional music system and its influence on the current practise of classical music, it somehow irks people and people assume that the basis of that had to be regional politics, bigotism and regional-pride discounting any possible scholarly reasons. I do not want to challenge you all publicly on that, but it requires some soul searching.

Every time I speak in favor of looking at the regional influences in our classical music, the discussion invariably gets into political matters. That is just a huge impediment to a scholarly discussion and I put the blame squarely on anyone who brings politics into matters of scholarship. That includes both: Those who bring in ( regional ) politics in scholarly matters and those who see regional politics in everything and react in a knee-jerk fashion. ( I do agree that when a syllabus is put together by a committee there will be some tug-of-war politics involved in the sense of lobbying for inclusions and exclusions. )
What you wrote is absolutely true. While adjudging the merits and demerits of the things, at that time, the ‘souls’, if at all there, stop functioning and all other influences dominate. For example, for the time being, if you don’t think otherwise that I am always harping upon my research topic ‘Talaprastara’, since last 800 years the latent secrets which are more useful to the aspirants have never been brought out within the easy reach of the aspirant. More over, even the highly knowledgeable musician late R.Rangaramanuja Iyyengar, in page 106 & 107 of his ‘History of South Indian (Carnatic) Music’, dealing with this topic, wrote ‘The forms are obsolete. The text is obscure. The two commentaries (of Sudhakara and Kallinatha commentaries on Sangita Ratnakara) are vague and contradictory. Research gets stuck up in a tantalising bottle-neck’, ‘The numbers allotted seriatim convey no clear idea of their significance. This is a matter for careful study and elucidation’, ‘The practical application of Patala to rhythm as a whole has to be determined by competent research’, no musician has ever took any interest in solving this problem. In all the 15 treatises of this topic available, right from Sangita Ratnakara until recent past, is highly contradictory and no musician is aware of even the basics of this topic. Having experienced this precarious state of this topic of our music I have run from pillar to post to get the knowledge of even the basics of it. At last, among all these hudreds of great musicians and great musicologists available in our country, only one person, Shri Uppalapati Ankaiah, who was foutunately my colleague, taught me the basics and told me that he doesn’t know even a single letter beyond that. From then onwards my real struggle started and, in that pitch dark state, only with the grace of the Almighty, it took 40 years of my precious life to bring out the topic beyond any ambiguity. Even sacrificing much of my prefessional artist life, I have encountered all this struggle only to keep our Great Indian culture in tact but not to receive Sangita Kalanidhi or Nobel-prize or inclusion in Guinness Book of World Records or any other honour as they all, even put together, are nothing before this achivement. Then, late Prof. P.Sambamurthy, who, at first, wrote his invaluable fore-word (in 1970) for my book, Talaprastarasagaram on this topic, was very frequently reminding me to immediately print and give it to him to include it in the syllabus as a text-book in the Madras University. But, even though I had handed over the manuscript to A.P.Sangita Academy in 1972, very close friends and true well-wishers of mine, well succeeded in keeping the manuscript of my book for 13 years (12 years for Vanavaasa and another 1 year for Ajnaathavaasa) in cold storage. At last, only by the grace of the Almighty, things again took a turn on their own and my book was published by Andhra Pradesh Sangita Academy in 1985 and received the award for the ‘Best book written on Fine Arts’. But, by that time, as either Prof. P.Sambamurthy was no more or no other person is willing even to recognise the work of a Telugu-person my book did not find place even in the list of reference-books of the Madras University leave alone as a text-book. By all this, even without writing anything further, I hope anybody can very well understand the state of affairs in our country. amsharma
Last edited by msakella on 10 Aug 2009, 12:59, edited 1 time in total.

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Post by arasi »

srkris, mods,
I realize that my post #62 does not fit in here where Akella's concerns need to be discussed without diversions. Please move it and this post to wherever you think they belong.
I do not want to make a big issue of it and blow it out of proportion. However, I am saddened by such an incident which speaks of the ignorance and insensitivity that is displayed by a member of the media. To think that the media today is highly influential and has the power to keep or destroy our cultural values is a scary thought.
For anyone in tamizh nADu, not to know bArati!
I quote him now with slight changes to go with this incident: taNNIr viTTO vaLartOm sarvESA, ippayiraik kaNNIr viTTO 'vaLarppOM'?
Last edited by arasi on 11 Aug 2009, 10:20, edited 1 time in total.

srkris
Site Admin
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Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 03:34

Post by srkris »

Arasi,

It appears you have already reposted it in a separate thread, so I will leave the post here.

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