sanskrit language learning by carnatac music students

mvlakshmid · Post by **mvlakshmid** » 20 Jan 2008, 18:10

nowadays many students are learning carnatac music. but they are not giving much importance to learn the language in which the kritis are written. as a result they are not able to express the bhava of the kriti. for example, many music studnets can understand the bhava of uthuswamy dikshitar's kritis as they written in sanskrit.

vageyakara · Post by **vageyakara** » 20 Jan 2008, 18:34

Hallo MVL you are right. For Understanding the Bhava one need not be pandit in that language. The minimum requirement to learn atleast the kritis they chose to render, should be considered a must.
Ramaraj

baboosh · Post by **baboosh** » 20 Jan 2008, 19:45

In one article about ARI and Kanchi Mahaswamigal,His Holiness advised ARI and other artistes that all vidvans should atleast have a basic knowledge of Telugu,Tamil and Sanskrit to evoke the bhavas of the Trinity while rendering their kritis.This is quite important to bring out the sahithya bhava

grsastrigal · Post by **grsastrigal** » 20 Jan 2008, 20:27

Going a step further, learning sanskrit (or Hindi to pronounce sanskrit properly) on one hand and on the other,knowing the meaning is also important. Dikshitar kritis have got wealth of knowledge to appreciate. For me personally, I always refer a book of MD's kritis in sanskrit with Tamil meaning.

vgvindan · Post by **vgvindan** » 21 Jan 2008, 12:23

mvlakshmid,
I am giving hereunder a stanza from Sivananda Lahari of Adi Sankaracharya -

sarvAlankAra-yuktAM sarala-pada-yutAM sAdhu vRttAM suvarNAM
sadbhis-saMstUyamAnAM sarasa guNa yutAM lakshitAM lakshaNADhyAm |
udyad-bhUsha viSEshAm-upgata vinayAM dyOtamAnArtha rEkhAM
kalyANIM dEva gaurI-priya mama kavitA-kanyakAM tvaM gRhANa || 98 ||

"O Lord! Thou beloved of Gauri! Deign to accept this - the maiden of my poesy - adorned with the ornaments of various figures of speech, charming by gait of beautiful diction, possessing the virtuous conduct of excellent metres, having the bright complexion of sweet sounds, praised by the world of good men constituted of holy sages, endowed with amorous sentiment of devotion together with the virtue of loftiness, planned with the suitor of Brahman as the objective, invested with the most auspicious marks of literary qualities, endowed with numerous brilliant decorations of the literary art, revealing the modesty of poetic humility, bearing the 'wealth-line' of clear meanings, and possessing the virtue of working for the good of the readers." (Translation by Swami Tapasyananda).

I will take only one word out of this - 'vinaya'. This is translated as 'humility' in English; 'paNivu' in Tamil and so on and so forth. However, the 'bhAva' of 'vinaya' is one whichever language one may adopt. When one utters the word 'vinaya' - in whichever language, the bhAva of vinaya should be exuded.

I had quoted in a different thread where a reviewer had mentioned about a Pakistani lady singer that 'she can rattle out a shopping list' and yet make the audience - who might not understand a single word of what she sings - weep. While this may be an exaggeration, that conveys the point that 'bhAva' is universal communication tool.

We all have laughed till our stomach ached; we all have experienced that bliss of soaring in a limitless space with no body consciousness - may be momentarily; we all have wept bitterly till the tears in the eyes dried up.

This bhAva is common for whole humanity - language is no barrier. Music is language of bhAva. That is why we say music transcends languages - countries - races and unite humans - nay even other beings and non-beings too - there is a story of Hanuman Singing in Gundakriya and making a mountain melt. Similar is the story with Agastya when he had a duel with Ravana in Music.

Therefore understanding the 'bhAva' of what one sings is most essential. If that is done, as I have brought out 'You can read out a shopping list and make the audience weep'.

Can we touch the sympathetic chord in human hearts? That is the purpose of music. People who search for Raga Lakshana and anaylyse the pitch as 'inert' waves, let them do so. But human emotions are beyond the 'waves' and 'frequencies'.

baboosh · Post by **baboosh** » 21 Jan 2008, 19:26

In the biography of MSS,T.J.S.George quoted one episode when MSS was in the US for the UN Concert.
She was performing a private concert at a friend's flat where there was some carpentary work going on in an adjacent flat.She sang without getting disturbed by the noise which stopped after some time.Two american carpenters came to the flat where she was singing and stated that they wanted to listen to the music which was very moving and added that though they could not understand a word of it

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 21 Jan 2008, 22:59

In Subburama Dikshitar's Shankaracharyam (Shankarabharanam), the charanam goes:

parama jnAnalatAlavAlam bhavyatara su-manOjAlam
paramata khaNDana caNDima shIlam paramAdvaita sthApanalIlam

Singing this as parama_ajnana and parama_dvaita instead of parama_jnana and parama_advaita will reverse the entire thing.

There is a group of people who claim that such errors are allowed if rendered with "overall bhakti" but I am not one of them.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 21 Jan 2008, 23:17

vgvindan wrote:People who search for Raga Lakshana and anaylyse the pitch as 'inert' waves, let them do so. But human emotions are beyond the 'waves' and 'frequencies'.

I hope you are not mistakenly assuming that those people who search for these don't agree with the second statement.

Why do we feel the need to justify our position mainly by pointing out flaws at others? (sort of in jest vgv

)

Arun

Suji Ram · Post by **Suji Ram** » 22 Jan 2008, 00:56

I once attended an Opera of Mozart which was in German. Though I knew the story being depicted and sung, I could not follow a single word-(not that I would understand if it was in English

)

But I thoroughly enjoyed the music and also the bhava which came out of it.

On a different topic
http://www.propinquity.com.au/about10.html

Here is an article on human emotions -waves and frequencies.
I did not understand much of it though.