Greatness of Karnataka Music:
Everywhere the parents and Gurus are held with high respect as they always strive hard for the development of the younger generation. As all know our ancestors categorized Gamakas into 15 numbers. But, as they are not at all enough to cater the needs of our classical music of these days I have dealt with this aspect in my book, Sangita Svararava Sudha (Telugu/English), with definitions and examples, and categorized the different oscillations of these notes mainly under two heads and they are Kampita and Gamaka. Under this categorization, the relation of a note with either upper or lower adjacent note is called Kampita and the relation of a note with the second upper note or even beyond that is called Gamaka. Among them, while the Kampita is of four kinds and they are 1) adho-svaragatasthana-pradhanya-oordhva-kampita 2) oordhva-svaragatasthana-pradhanya-adho-kampita 3) sveeya-svaragatasthana-pradhanya-adho-kampita and 4) sveeya-svaravgatasthana-pradhanya-oordhva-kampita (the correct name of svarasthana is svaragatasthana ), the Gamaka is of two kinds and they are 1) traditional-gamaka and 2) sensitive-gamaka (while the gandhara in the Arohana of Kanada is of traditional-gamaka, the gandhara in the avarohana is of sensitive-gamaka). Generally, in any music all the oscillations of a note are made on the note itself or towards the upper notes but not below the note. But, in our South Indian classical music this oscillation spreads to the lower note also to make the note concordant with the Adhara-shruti. In this manner, both the upper and lower adjacent notes, Shuddha-rishabha, Kakali-nishada, Shuddha-dhaivata & Prati-madhyama of the Prakriti-svaras, Shadja and Panchama are made dependents of these Prakriti-svaras only to make them concordants with Adhara-shruti. Among the other notes, while the Sadharana-gandhara does not have harmony with the upper-partial note, Antara-gandhara, Madhyama does not have harmony with the Panchama and Kashiki-nishada does not have harmony with any note of the Adhara-shruti-tambura. Particularly, in respect of these three discordant notes, it is really amazing to note that our forefathers have modified their oscillative limits to make them concordant ones. Thus, unlike in any other music, the traditional-gamaka of Sadharana-gandhara is modified to be sung between Shuddha-madhyama and Chatusshruti-rishabha (a note beneath Sadharana-gandhara), the traditional-gamaka of Shuddha-madhyama is modified to be sung between Panchama and Antara-gandhara (a note beneath Shuddha-madhyama) and the traditional-gamaka of Ksishiki-nishada is modified to be sung between Shadja and Chatusshruti-dhaivata (a note beneath Kaishiki-nisdhada). While this discordant effect of these three notes still prevails in other systems of music, our forefathers have removed this by making them concordant ones. Others, who do not have the knowledge of this modification, might take them as singing of off-keys but it is not correct and they are not off-keys at all. Thus, our forefathers have proved their greatness in discarding the discordant effect of these three notes holding our Karnataka Music higher than any other systems of music in the world. amsharma.