It May be Better to Live in the South, But not just because of Music!

Hindustani Classical evolved under the Court patronage of the Mughal empire and was not very easily available to the lay listener. It was only after the Maratha kings started providing patronage to Ustads and Pandits which the decaying Mughal Empire could not support that Hindustani Classical Music became easier to listen to and learn

Shishir Prasad
Updated: Aug 23, 2012 06:38:55 AM UTC

A great thing about journalists turning in ethnographic and anthropological theories is that they are always entertaining. This is largely because they are based on a limited set of observations, rather than field data. A case in point is Aakar Patel’s column in Mint this Saturday.

Patel is as usual provocative but makes a series of assertions that leaves someone like me totally befuddled. I have lived in at least four states of Northern India, Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and I call Maharashtra home, having  lived in two of its cities, Nagpur and Mumbai, for a total of 30 years. And I find Patel’s entire point about North India not being able to appreciate South Indian art form, false. When you are talking art you have to consider dance and music. In cities that I have stayed in Bharat Natyam would have been the second most popular choice after Kathak. In Nagpur and Mumbai there would be more Aarangetrams than Kathak initiations. Nagpur is a wonderfully neutral city being neither North nor South. And to really master a dance form you really do have to understand the rhythm and the song both, so it is hard to see why a keen learner, whether from South or North would have trouble understanding the rhythm.

Let us now consider music, where Patel spends most of his energies in his column.

A more serious observation is that of Carnatic having a written tradition of music while Hindustani having none. Well, clearly Patel does not think Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande’s work between late 1800s and early 20th Century was an effort in not only 'writing' music down but documenting it across myriad Gharanas. Bhatkhande reclassified Hindustani ragas into thaats which is similar to the Melakarta system of classification followed in Carnatic music. Bhatkhande’s effort was tremendous because Hindustani classical music evolved in different gharanas spread far wide across India. To put that distributed knowledge into a central repository was tough was but as Janaki Bakhle points out in her book Two men and Music he was a tough customer who harangued the Ustads and the Pandits into sharing their knowledge. And all this was done by 1909!

Though I must confess I don’t understand what Patel is trying to do when he likens Carnatic Music to Western Classical Music! Western Music needs the notation because one, they have many instruments playing in harmony so you need coordination amongst them that the written music provides. And two, these are fixed compositions so you have to play them the way the composer wrote them down.

Neither Carnatic nor Hindustani requires this from their artists. The raga system is merely an outline and the artist has to develop something new each time – keeping classical constraints in mind of course! An Indian classical singer does not need to write anything down because he is supposed to prepare a fresh interpretation every single time! (The choral form isn’t a true representative of either Carnatic or Hindustani music).

Patel also doesn’t quite take into account the different ways in which the two musical traditions have evolved. Carnatic music is very closely tied to the devotional form and apart from formal Kutcheris it can be accessed rather easily at temples. Many south Indian temples -- in Nagpur I would often frequent the Bhagwad Pada Sabha -- organize informal sessions of classical musicians. The music therefore has been high democratized and easily accessible through history.

Hindustani Classical, on the other hand, evolved under the Court patronage of the Mughal empire and was not very easily available to the lay listener. It was only after the Maratha kings started providing patronage to Ustads and Pandits which the decaying Mughal Empire could not support that Hindustani Classical Music became easier to listen to and learn. Again this was all done by the early part of the last century.

Today in Maharashtra and Bengal, two states which are bastions of music in general and most certainly of Hindustani Classical Music, the assertion people don’t know their classical music breaks down. And let’s not forget Madhya Pradesh. I would urge Mr Patel to take look at Bhopal and Indore, two places that love their classical music. Classical music is widely learned in these places and the audience in concerts is as knowledgeable as it gets.

So is the Carnatic Classical music fan more knowledgeable? It may sometimes appear so but it isn’t the case always. I been with my South Indian friends to concerts – not in Chennai though! – and the number of people who can “get” the raga while initial alapana is on would be very small. This is the same with Hindustani classical music. Where the Carnatic music fans have it slightly easy is when the compositions or “Kritis” are sung. The father of a Tamil friend of mine used to sniff mildly at these listeners and say “Ah! She (or He) is figuring out the raga from the Kriti “!  That’s analogous to saying “It must be Yaman Kalyan when “Jab deep jale aana” plays.

In Hindustani Classical music bandishes do not have the same primacy as a Kriti does in Carnatic music. And that’s because Hindustani Classical music – the khayal form – places a higher premium on the abstract nature of the exposition. You can enjoy Pandit Bhimsen Joshi’s masterly Shuddh Kalyan through just three words “Mandar Bajo Re!”. The absolutely fantastic Miyan ki Malhar of both Joshi and Ustad Amir Khan is developed through just three words “Karim Naam Tero”!

As a classical music lover I find that amazing. I want the music to take me where words can’t go! If I want to listen to a composition that has literary value then I will read a poem or listen to a ghazal. After all, our classical texts say “Nad Brahma” and not “Samvad Brahma”.

(For further reading on Nad Brahma do click here)

 

 

 

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.

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