Haridasas and Carnatic music
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The Haridasas, the Vaishnava saints of Karnataka, are traditionally classified into the Vyasakuta and Dasakuta. The Vyasakuta were the pontifical saints who were known for their scholarship and exposition of the Madhva's philosophy. This order included the likes of Sripadaraya, Vyasaraya, Vadiraja, Vijayeendra teertha and Raghavendra Teertha. The dasakuta on the other hand were the peripatetic saint disciples of the Vyasakuta sanyasins. They were proficient singers and composers and extensively made use of classical music and the Kannada language as a medium to propagate the teachings and philosophy of the Dvaita school. This order included the likes of Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa, Prasanna Venkatadasa, Vijayadasa, Gopaladasa, Mahipatiraya, Jagannathadasa and a host of others. While Sripadaraya is sometimes credited as having started this musical movement, Vyasaraya, who went by titles such as abhinavabharatacharya, kalpanachaturanana, sangitasampradaya pravartaka etc., counted the likes of Purandaradasa, Vadiraja and Kanakadasa among his disciples. Among these, Purandaradasa became renowned as Karnataka Sangita Pitamaha.[1]
These saints who were ardent devotees of Panduranga Vitthala of Pandharapur in the Varakari tradition roamed the nooks and corners of Karnataka and chose Kannada for their compositions and teachings. Their compositions almost entirely in Kannada, covered a wide spectrum of philosophy, religion, ritual, theology, social reformation, ethical conduct etc. It is thus doubly appropriate that the Vyasakuta and the dasakuta savants called themselves Haridasas. Many of them took the name of Vitthala as part of their ‘ankita’ (signature) and deekshanama. The Haridasas have left deep, seminal and abiding influences on Carnatic music as we know it. Later composers from Karnataka and outside, including the venerated 'Trinity' and musical treatises exhibit and acknowledge these influences. They laid the foundations of what is today called Karnataka or Carnatic music.[1]
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[edit] Theory
The 15th century marked a watershed period in the history of Indian classical music. Sripadaraya, a contemporary of Kallinatha (the commentator on Sarngadeva's Sangitaratnakara), was a musician and composer who heralded the musical traditions of the Haridasa movement. Vyasaraja, Vadiraja, Purandaradasa and Kanaka dasa (15th – 16th century) who followed in the tradition were contemporaries of celebrated musicologists like Ramamatya (Svaramelakalanidhi), Poluri Govindakavi (Ragatalachintamani) and Pandarika Vitthala (Sadragachandro`daya, Ragamala, Ragamanjari and Nartananirnaya). Other distinguished composers of the time included Tallapakam Annamacharya and his descendants, Bhadraachala Ramadas from Andhra, the Veerashaiva saint Nijagunashivayogi and Ratnakaravarni, the Jaina saint from Karnataka. Prolific contributions of these composers and their contemporaries marked a period of renaissance in the musical history of India and Carnatic music.[1]
The impact of this renaissance was further amplified by the fact that all these composers and theoreticians worked within the same geographical and historical limits. Paradigmatic changes such as the merger of madhyama grama into Sadjagrama, the standardisation of all melodic materials within the frame of the Sadjagrama, a new alignment of intervallic values, scalar temperament, tuning of keyboard chordophones, models of melodic classification, the influence of exotic musical systems etc., wrought during this period are reflected in the music and compositions of the Haridasas.[1]
The tamburi (a stringed drone instrument) often identified with the Haridasas, is mentioned for the first time by Sripadaraya and subsequently by Vyasaraya and Purandaradasa. Contemporary Virasaiva poets and composers of Karnataka also mention it. The Haridasas as well as Palkuriki Somanatha (14th century), Chandrashekhara and Nijaguna Shivayogi (16th century) give a wealth of technical vocabulary, many of which still await critical commentary and elucidation.[1]
[edit] Pedagogy
Purandaradasa is credited with laying the foundations for a systematic study Karnataka Music. He composed the the elementary solfeggio exercises called sarale (svarali), janti (varase), tala-alankaras as well as the group of songs called pillari gitas. These exercises form the very first lessons in learning Carnatic music even today. Prasanna Venkatadasa (17th century) testifies in a song that Purandaradasa composed in the gita, thaya, suladi, ugabhoga, pada, padya-vrata(vrittanama) and prabandha forms. Though his thayas or prabandhas are not available now, some of his gitas or padas may be reconciled into prabandha types. The organisation of his gitas etc., into a pedagogic scheme however, seems to be the work of later Haridasas. R Satyanarayana, a stalwart musicologist from Mysore is also of the opinion that the popular 'padumanabha' gita isn't Purandaradasa's composition at all. Another popular song (kereya niranu kerege chelli) was originally a suladi and that yet another, the analekhara was initially a pillari gita. Svarajati, Varna, Kriti and other items may have been added to the scheme as late as the 18th century.[1]
Purandaradasa is also believed to have introduced the mayamalavagaula raga scale as a pedagogic model. This raga was called malavagaula in his times and some times lacked the second and fifth degrees. Purandaradasa or probably some of his peers added them, thus converting the pentatonic to a heptatonic scale. The Malavagaula was both a popular raga and mela and had the largest number of ragas grouped under it. Malahari, an ancient raga, was also grouped under this mela in his times. Purandaradasa and other Haridasas mention the malavagaula, malahari and several others under the collective name of battisa (32) raga. This pedagogic model differed from the theoretical standard which was the suddha-svara-saptaka, which corresponds to the Kanakangi of present day. The suladi talas in which were composed a large number of their compositions was also used to teach the beginners.[1]
[edit] Musical Material
[edit] Ragas
The Haridasas frequently name and mention a corpus of thirty-two ragas called battisa raga, well known in Karnataka since at least the 12th century with repeated mentions in medieval Kannada literature. The Haridasas employed a scheme of classification in which a set of ragas carried the same name but were prefixed differently, thus grouping together ragas which differed widely in intervallic content. They also classified ragas into sets of five based which alluded to the five primordial elements - prithvi, upp, tejas, vayu and akasha. Thanks to their descriptions in contemporary musical treatises, these ragas, names and classifications have survived to the present times enabling musicologists to even recreate their music.[1]
[edit] Tala
One of the most enduring contributions of the Haridasas is to the theory and exposition of the tala. They are credited with organising them into a simple, comprehensive, logical and organic system. They systematised and reorganised the conceptual and empirical paraphernalia of the tala. They athetised archaic and obsolescent details and accommodated forms from folk and other sources. Importantly, they reduced the structural components and forms of desi talas to the bare minimum of suladi talas and conferred the theoretical umbrella of taladashaprana (ten vital elements) to the suladi talas. They also created deshyadi and madhyadi talas. Minor adjustments between talas of the past and the talas of their own times were carried out with a view to maintain historical continuity.[1]
They did this by working on talas, traditionally prescribed to ancient vernacular compositions known as salagasuda Prabandhas. After extensive modification at their hands, these songs came to be called suladis and the talas, suLadi taLas. These talas in their modern form comprise of the dhruva, mathya, rupaka, jhampa, triputa, atta and eka talas. The jhompata and raganamathya talas were also absorbed into these. These developments were stabilised and sustained by successive generations of Haridasas who, in their large numbers, prolific and varied compositions gave currency to these talas. These talas are now in exclusive usage in Carnatic music.[1]
[edit] Musical form
They also made rich contributions to musical form. As early as the 14th century, Narahari Teertha offered the first model of the pada, which was adopted and developed by extensive experimentation by successive Haridasa composers. This became the prototype of the most important musical form of Carnatic music, viz., the Kriti and also retains its original form as devaranama. The ancient salagasuda prabandhas were restructured into the suladi and ugabhoga, two independent forms. They drew upon several Kannada folk sources such as the lullaby, koluhaDu, udayaraga, suvvakke, sobane, gundakriya etc., to enrich Carnatic musical forms. Early prabandha forms such as gadya, churnika, dandaka, shukasarita, umatilaka and sudarshana were revived. They innovated with vrittanama. Vadiraja composed the Bhramaragita, the first musical opera in any south Indian language and the first koravanji dance drama. Spiritual and mundane conundra feature prominently in their songs. Apart from their numerous compositions in Kannada, Purandaradasa composed in the bhandira language while Vadiraja composed in Tulu also.[1]
Their compositions also testify to their familiarity with a host of musical instruments. These included the tamburi, vina, dandika, kombu, flute, ankle-bells, bhringimela, panchavadya maddala, bheri, rudravina, titti, nagasvara, conch, mridanga, cymbols, dundubhi, damaru, tambata, mauri, tuttuti, kinnari, and pancha maha shabda.[1]
[edit] Influence
The Haridasas played a crucial role in the growth of Carnatic music and exerted great influence on the composers of Andhra and Tamilnadu. Tyagaraja’s biography reveals the strong influence of Purandaradasa whose inspiration he openly acknowledges. Purandaradasa's influence on Tyagaraja is evident in the theme and treatment of several of Tyagaraja's compositions. Tulaja, the Maharashtra Ruler of Tanjore (1729 – 1735 AD) deals extensively in his Sangitasaramrita with the various musical forms of the Haridasas. He heaps praise on Vyasaraya and Purandaradasa as great composers and trendsetters in music.[1] Numerous manuscripts in various manuscript centers of Tamil Nadu testify to the great popularity of Haridasa compositions in TN as early as the 18th century. Purandaradasa, in fact was hailed as the father of Karnataka music first in Tamilnadu and then in the rest of the country.[1] Though their compositions were imbued with the elements of Carnatic music and composed specifically in that tradition, their compositions have also made their way into the Hindustani music world, thanks mainly to eminent exponents of Hindustani music from northern Karnataka.
