Book reviews: Bala on Bharatnatyam edited and translated by S. Guhan; The varnam by Lalita Ramkrishna and Sitar technique in nibaddha froms by Stephen Slawek

6 Pages·1992·0.23 MB·English

BOOK REVIEWS
Bara on Bharatanatyam
S. Guhan
(ed. and tr.)
The Sruti Foundation. Madras. 1991
23 pages. Rs 6
In the field of classical Indian dance, one
personwhocouldetchherselfinthememory
ofthose whowatchedheroncewas Balasar
aswati. Entering the universe of dance at a
timewhendignitywas beingrediscoveredin
a decadent tradition, BaIa (as she is affec
tionatelyknown) reigned supreme for over
50years. If the dance style of the Tamil
regionhadbeen merely changed in nomen
claturefrom Dasi-attam to Bharatanatyam
(whichhappened about 60 years ago), it
wouldnothavegained instatureor prestige
ifTamilNadu had not been blessed with a
dancerofBela's calibre exactly in that era.
As DOC who has had the privilege of
witnessing her dance, I was attracted by a
slimpamphlet containing Bala's thoughts, My interpretationofpadasdepends~nDhan~­
views,andreminiscencesbroughtout bythe mal's interpretation of all her mUSIC, not Just
padas.Shehassetanidealofri~ess~dsubtlety
Sruti Foundation, Madras. But the fifteen
of emotional expressionthat shineslikealamp,
p~ges. sensitivelyeditedby S. Guhan, con before thosewhohaveheardandappreciatedh~r
tamenoughtoread,more thanonce,and to
music. Dhanamrnal would not allow. us to SIt
ponder.Foritisnot onlyherexperienceasa around: one had to practiseall the tune...Her
dancerthat isreflected here; her dedication unbendingmaximwasthatallbodilycomfortshad
tothequintessenceoftheartistictraditionis to be sacrificed for the advancementof art.
whatcomesthrough, in ringing tones. An
added virtue is her infrangible integrity. Bala's mother toowasamusician,asalso
Bala'sgoodfortune wastohavebeenborn manyothers inthefamily,thoughtherewas
thegranddaughterof Veena Dhanammal,a the dim memory of a great-great
toweringpersonality inthe field ofCarnatic grandmotherwhowasadancerintheco~
mus~c: Though she saysof her family, "the of Travancore. Apart from the s~on~ bias
traditionsofmusicand dance have been the towards music,there was the SOC1~ climate
focus oflifefor generations" the dominant to contend with, thanks to the a~ve cam
influencewas that of Dhan:unmal: paign for the abolition of devdasis. How,
Sugee,NatakNo.103:January-March1992
30 K.S. SRINIVASAN
then, did Bala turn to dance? Bala recalls IspeakasadancerofSOyears'standing.IftodayI
that it was the great classical musician, have, at my level, achieved tangible self·
Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, who lent fulfilment,andifnumerous personsbelongingto
powerful support to her mother in the various countries have also found spiritualand
option.Once her mother'selected' Kandap aesthetic satisfaction in my dance, it ~ the
paastheguruforBala,therewasnolooking Tanjavur style that is responsible.
back. "Rigorous dance trainiog from him"
Naturally, she set her face firmly against
was .embellished with sensitive musical
'innovation'inBharatanatyam.Not onlydid
education from her mother: Jayammal
W she frown on the employment of keeIUDas
taught the close relatiooship of abhinaya to
(e.g. Tyagaraja's 'Sadinchane) for d:uice,
raga",
she found a varnam like •Viribhom" in
Thai early lesson was to staywith her all
Bhairaviunsuitable. Sheexplainedwhy:itis
through life. Speakiog at the East-West
atana-vamam.!!Q!apeds-venum.Besides,
Conference in Hawaii in 1979. she said:
"the words and ideas come along too fast
and furious".
In_demonstrating the art of Bbaratanatyam
Bala's faith in the tradition that she
abroad. I have made II special point ofshowing
imbibed wasthe faith ofa devotee.Shewas
audiences howdelicatelylinkedisthe realisation
ascontentasshe was convincedthat"tradi
of movement to raga expression in abhinaya,
induding the subtle expression of gamilis. in tional discipline gives the fullest freedom to
lonationof srutiandthe unfoldingto improvisa the individualcreativityof the dancer", She
tion in airaval. is forthright in ber disdain for seekers of
novelty when she says: "lei those who
Herselfanaccomplishedsinger.shewould create novel dance-forms present them as
often singwhile dancing:"A dancer, profi separate performances; they need notmake
cientinmusic.isabletocompletelymeltand a hash of tbe Bbaratanatyam recital by
mould her bodyinsubmissiontoGod".One interpolations of novelties."
thing sbe was absolutely clear about-the If Bala attained the status of a doyenne
supremacy of music in Bharatanatyam. (dancers had not yet begun calling them
Guhan reports her comments: "You think selves 'prima ballerina'). it was on the
youarc being transportedbythedance;itis strength ofher abhinaya.The richness that
the music that is deceiving you". she lent to the interpretation of the song
The reference to the dancer's body "in 'Jagadodharana'in Yaman turnedanordin
submission to god" belongs to her tenet ary lyric into a famous composition. The
rooted:in the notion of devadasi: magic of her art is revealed in some ofthe
passages inthis pamphlet, First.shedisting·
uishes between abhinaya and actiog:
Like theother modesof ritual. such asincense,
Dow.ers,c:amphorandsweetmeats,theofferingof
music and dance has to be made in a spirit of The gestures usedin Bharatanaryem mustnever
worship,devotionandsurrender.Therecanbeno betakentobethegesturesusedineverydaylifeor
room for error in this...Even for an ordinary in drama or in film acting. Abhinaya is asfar
being litemyself,onsome occasionsandinsome removedfromacting aspoetryisfromprose.No
meas~re. dance and musichave enabled a deep feeling.noemotion.DOmood.noexpcriencr.00
.experience of tbe presence of God. locale is portrayed in a self-conscious manner.
Theyareallexpressedin the suggestivelangrJ,ge
ofimagination. [Emphasisadded.]
In. this process. she was convinced. the
Tanjavur style and the traditional order of Subtlety was indeed her forte. Watching
performance(aJarippu to rillana) were most her. perform at the Indian Council for
conducive.Speakingat the IndianFineArts Cultural Relations, Delhi, in the 70s, I
Society in 1981, Bala said: recall I was moved to sentimental exhilara-
BOOKREVIEWS 3t
tion when she rendered abhinaya for the
onlyindirectbenefitfrombostingthedaughtersof
song'EnpalIikondeeraiya'.Itisdescriptive the elife. il haseven reached a pass whenthey
of Lord Ranganatha of Srirangam who is expect: payment for doing so. Instead of being
reclinedasseshashayi.Interpretingthespirit temples for Saraswati, Sabhas have becomethe
of the devotional lyric. rather than the play-fields of DhanaJakshmi.
words, when Bala ran her eyes across the
recliningfigure in her mind's eye, deferen In today's context, when dancers are as
tially,she demonstrated what she describes culpable as the ssbbss. allthismightevoke
asthe "divinecharacter" of dance. "Digni cynical laughter. But that would itself ex
fiedrestraint isthe hall-mark of abbinaya", plainwhyBalaremainswithoutasuccessor,
she says. For "the divine is divine only
because of its suggestive, subtle quality", K.5. SRINtVASA.'1
(The dividing line between a dancer and a
philosopher can be truly thin.) Yet, as
connoisseur, she says:
The Varnam
~~garast~supremeintherangeofemotions; Lalita Ramakrishna
ItlSth~~~male?,otionwhichgivesfullestscope Harman Publications, Delhi, 1991
forartisticImprovisation,branchingoffcontinual
286 pages, Rs.380
lyas it does into the portrayal of innumerable
moods full of newness and nuances.
A thought Kalidasa would endorse! This book is an asset for the student or
How did Bala acquire so much, without enthusiastofCamaticmusic.To myknow
whatwecal}fonnaleducation?Talentranin ledge, no other book has examined the
her blood. no doubt. But it was significant Vamamwithsuchthoroughness.tracingthe
that she came under the influence of the entire history of this song-type.
cultural tlite-Ariyakudi, T.K.C., Tiro V. Vamams are the very foundation of
K. V. Raghavan-to name but a few. Few Carnatic musicas theygivean insightinto
~ave been able to derive so much from the ragaJakshanaandtaJaJakshana.Ifoneisable
link~ge between kavya and natya. to master a Varnaminaparticularraga, he
Little wonder. therefore that she had can be sure of having acquired full know
occasion to express resentment over some ledge of the raga in all its aspects. For
len.dencies which are dominant today. but example, the Bbairavi Vamam 'Viribboni'
whichhad begun to surface in her lifetime. givesacomplete pictureoftheragaandthe
Admom.sh1i09parents who seek quick prog- rhythmic possibilities it offers.
ressandpresspublicity for their daughters Unfortunately. in spite of the fact that
Bt ala Sat'd: "Let them not, please. bustle' there are innwnerabJeVarnams composed
eachers to prepare their girls for early bymasters,onlyafewareinvogue:oflate.
arangetram".To the critic, she stressed the practising musicianshave simply not taken
"responsibilitytocloselymonitordrawbacks the painstoenlargetheirrepertoire.Infact,
and to expose them, so that they can be the Vamam is being used practicaUy for
?,neeted.I am afraid that these days there clearing the throat at the start of a
n 100muchpraise and 100little concernfor perfonnance-a rather sad state of affairs.
protecting the quality of the art." Fortunately, the pada-varnams as against
She did not spare the sabhas either-. thetana-vamamshavenotbeensubjectedto
suchcavaliertreatment.OurBharatanatyam
whogive OPPOrtunities only to those who have dancers have utilized many pada.vamams
~oney or prestige..• For the daughtersof the for imaginative interpretationin their recit
e te, dance isonly a hobby. Sabhas desire not als.
JZ SUBBUDU
third finger as in the case of the Ada-tala
Vamams. The 14 beats of the Ada-tala
Vamams are not organized in two equal
halvesof sevenbeatseachbutdivided into
twosegmentsof fivebeatseachandoneof
four. TheAda-talaVamamiscalledKanda
jathiTriputaTalainmusicalparlance.Many
such details are well brought out in this
book.Itschapteronthehistoricalreviewof
the Vamam should also be useful forstu
dents of Carnatic music.
The authorhasnotbeentooconservative
inherapproach tothesubjectandhasbeen
catholic enough to give due importance to
present-daycomposersofVamamslikeLal
gudi Jayaraman, T.R. Subramaniam, and
BalamuraliKrishna.Thisisasitshouldbeas
both Lalgudi Jayaraman and Balamurali
Krishna have given a new dimension to
Vamamswiththe bhava andlyrical excel
lenceof theircompositions.TheirVarnams
areextremelypopularthesedayswith both
It must howeverbenoted that this book musicians and dancers.
by itself, with its notations, cannot help
students comprehend the full import of the SVBBUVV
Vamam. Notations can only guide us to
some extent in Carnatic music. This is
because the seven solfas have different Sitar Technique in
frequenciesindifferentscales. Forexample. Nibaddha Forms
the rishabbam in Saveri is quite different
Stephen Slawek
from the rishabbam in TOOi. Our music
solely depends upon kama-param.para; Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1987
that is10say,onlybylistening(andlearning 232 pages. Rs. 250
fromagood teacher)canonedojusticeto a
composition.IIwouldthushavebee.agood
idea to preparean illustrativecassette to 1bis book attempt> to provide a basic
accompany the book. understandingofimprovisationinHind~ta­
AstudentofCamaticmusicwouldgainby niinstrumentalmusic, particularlytheSitar.
leading the chapter on 'Etymology, Fonn The major pan of the book composes ~
and Structure' here as it provides a good thesissubmittedtotheUniversityofHawaII
deal of inlonnation about the Vamam-its foramaster'sdegreeinMusic(EthDomusi~
origin,thenamesofthecomposers, andthe cology) in 1978.
mudras used by them.The author has also Going bythetitleofthebook,onewould
carefuUy gone into the structure'of SOme expect at least a shan description of til<
Vamamsandbroughtoutthecontentsofthe termsnibaddhaandanibaddhaattheoutset.
rhythm-orientedswarapatternsofVamams, but this one doesn't find. On page 2. !be
giving an insight into the genius of the author simply says:
composers.
Varoamsdonotalwayscommenceonthe ...it is necessary to remember thatthepreseut
sam; thereareVarnams which starton the studyislimited to the aibaddhll sanged (bound
BOOK REVIEWS JJ
music, setto a rhythmiccycle) ofclassical style.
The improvisatory processoflightclassical music
will.not be:dealtwith,not willthe useofSitarin
eon-classicalmusicbeexamined.Healsodeclares
that the role of thegharanain definingmusical
stylehasnotbeendiscussedinthepresentstudy.
The book isdividedintotwo sections.The
first section consists of an outline of the
thesis(itsbackground, research and metho
dology), aratherbriefsurveyofwell-known
theories about the origin and development
of the Sitar, an account of the possible
sources of present-day Sitar technique
including the basic "building blocks" of
left-and right-hand technique-and a de
scription of how these techniques are com
bined to deal with larger musical structures
during performance,
The second section provides a short dis
cussionofthe variables of musical perform
anceinimprovisation,followed bythenota
lionofaperformancebyPanditRavi Shank
ar and a detailed analysis of the same.
ChapterY,whichdealswith talim shrinkha
ls,canbetakenasthelink betweenthetwo
sections of the book. Here the author
analyzes in detail the different gat-types: account relevant textual material on this
Masitkhani, Razakhani, vilambit, drut-all topic.Theauthor onlymakes a briefrefer
settoTeentala-aswellasgatscomposedin enee 10 the hastavyapar of the Ekatantri
ether taJas and their vistar. Against this Vine, a term used bySharangadevafor the
background the sixth and seventh chapters repertoryof techniquesfor thai instrument.
ofthebook aredeveloped-themostimpor Further. he talksabout the contributions of
tant ones-providing notation and analysis the Been, Rabab, percussion instruments,
of vilambitand drut gat-vistar by Pandit and vocal musicto current Sitar technique.
Ran Shankar. The relevant recording is of This topic itself could be the subject of a
raga Rasiya (Capital international series, full-length doctoral thesis and cannot be
S.P.10482LP).This recordisthebasisofall dealt with in just one chapter.
analysesin the book; the Tabla accompani In ChapterV the authorspeaksat length
ment is by Kanai Dutt. about the talim for different gat-slyles and
Going through the book, one feels that their improvisation. Though he devotes
thefirst section lacks incomprehensiveness, more space (and anention) to the d~scri~
~ougb the topics dealt with here are judi tion and analysis of the Teentala vilembit
Cl:O~ly chosen, For example Chapter III, gat,healsodescribesthe drutgatandgatsin
dealing with the sources of modem Sitar tslssotherthanTeentala,whichhecallsthe
technique.reliesentirelyon discussionswith fur bu.This term wasoriginallycoined by
Pandits Lalmani Misra and Ravi Shankar, Pandit LalmaniMisra inhisbook Bharatiya
Although the author reaches some intelli SangeetVadya. While it is not uncommon
gent and useful conclusions one does feel today to play a vi/ambit garin Rupak or
thai the chaptershouJd also havetakeninto Jhaptal,it wasramer rare even in the early
J.l SUNEERA KASlIWAl
70s.PanditLalmaniMisrausedtoplaysuch theinterrelationshipoftheshrinkhaJaofthe
gats on the Vichitra Vina. Again, Pandit vistar with tempo, range, and technique.
RaviShankarhaspopularized many other Going through this analysis, one wantsto
tsles like Ada Chautal, Dhamar, etc. for know about the aesthetic aspects involved,
vi/ambit and madhya-Jaya compositions. but these are not substantially dealt with.
Apart from vilambitJhumra, Jhaptal, Ada Also,theTablaportionsarenotcommented
Cbautal, etc., the author gives the mizrab uponatall.Thoughthefocusofcourseison
patternsforPanchamSayanandMarta-tala. Sitar technique, some attention to Tabla
Notating Indian music is a very difficult accompaniment would have enriched
task, As Pandit Ravi Shankar says in his Slawek's analysis.
foreword tothebook:"Interpretinganoral The analyses in the book are well sup
art tradition through writing canbeconfus ported with clear charts, graphs, andnota
ing, unsatisfactory or even misleading in tion. The author has devised a modified
spite of the seriousness andcompetence of version of staff notation to deal withSitar
the writer."Slawek.-formerly astudent of music. The use of the left and right hands
Pandit Lalmani Misra at Banaras Hindu has been indicated between the lines of
Universityandsince1978astudentofPandit music.
Ravi Shankar-passes muster in this re The book would have been more useful
spect. (Notation of music exercises and haditattemptedacomparativestudyofthe
compositions has been common enough performancesofafewselectSitar-playersor
since the appearance of Pandit Bhat analyzed three or four performances by
khande's Krami! Pustale MaJika. but nota Pandit Ravi Shankar alone. The analysis
tionoffuUperformancesforthepurposeof here is solely on the basis of one perform
analysisis still quite rare.) ance by Ravi Shakar, Even so, the book
Theauthoranalyzesvilambitanddrotgats does prepare the ground for moreserious
separately~ limiting his parameters to analytical works on the Sitar in future.
structural elements in general form. the
contextofaprecomposedsection.technique
in variation ofa precomposed section, and SUNEERA KASUWAL