F I N E A R T S Music and Brahmins
Indian music, has it’s origin in the Vedas, Sama Veda in particular. In fact the arts of music and dance are classified as ‘ Gandharva Veda ‘- the Veda of celestial musicians and singers. Shiva plays ‘Dhamaru’ (drums), Krishna plays 'Venu’ (flute) and Saraswati the goddess of learning plays the ‘Veena’ (stringed instrument). These are the classical Indian musical instruments. Evolution and adoption have added several new types of instruments in all three categories of percussion, wind and string. Western instrument like the Violin has now become as much a part of Indian musical scene as the Veena or Sitar.
Basically there are two systems of classical music, called
Carnatic and Hindustani.
The ‘Carnatic Sampradaya’ encompasses music written in Sanskrit and South Indian languages and has a history dating back to the Vedas.
The origins of Hindustani classical music called the North Indian style (Gharana) can be traced to the courts of the Persian and other Islamic rulers of fourteenth century India.
The seven notes (Sapta Swara) – Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni
are common to both styles of music. Whereas these classical forms of music are for connoisseurs, there are other musical forms, of universal appeal. These are folk music, light classical music (Bhavageet or Sugama sangeet) and film music. In terms of variety, volume, popular appeal, and number of fans, film music is indeed phenomenal..
Historic perspective
Vyasarayaru (A.D 1447-1539) the celebrated Vaishnava guru (Mathadhipati) at Udupi, whose disciples include, the most revered composer Purandara Dasa, is credited with taking Carnatic music to new heights of glory.
The honor of being recognized as the trinity of Carnatic music goes to Saint Thyagaraja (A.D 1759-1847), Shyama Shastri (A.D 1762-1827) and Muthuswamy Dikshitar (A.D 1775-1835). Between them they have composed over a thousand melodies (Krithis).
Venu Gopala |
Shiva Nataraja |
Dance
Birju Maharaj
Brij Mohan Mishra, the living legend of the dance form called Kathak was born in Lucknow in 1937. Dancer par excellence and a great guru, he has single handedly shaped over a hundred budding talents, some of whom are shining as stars in their own right. His contributions to the development of Kathak Kendra, the National Institute of Kathak at Lucknow, is immeasurable.
Rukmini Devi Arundale
Born in Chennai in 1904, she established ‘Kalakshetra’ at Chennai for training artists In Bharatanatyam. This has grown to be a venerable institution.
Samjukta Panigrahi
Much acclaimed Odissi dancer
In : BRAHMAN, MAHASABHA,BIKANER BHAGWAN PARSHURAM