Today my friend and I were discussing about musicians in olden days who were appointed in King's court. Like, for example Harikeshanallur Sri Muthaiah Bhagavathar, who was in the court of Sri Krishna Raja Wodeyar. It is said that Muthaiah Bhagavatar visited Mysore during the Dasara festivities when he was about 50 years old. He gave a couple of concerts at the palace and earned the benevolent attention of Sri Krishna Raja Wodeyar. He secured a position of a prestigious musician in the court. During this time, HMB composed a Dharu in praise of the King's mother, equalizing her goodness to that of Goddess Parvathi. This is none other than the famous Maathe Malayadhwaja Paandya Sanjaathe in Khamach Raaga, Adi taala. From here my thoughts started pondering in varied directions.
What is a Dharu?
A Dharu is a varnam format that typically consists of Swara, Jathi, and Saahithya - all in one, along with the usual pallavi, anu pallavi and charana. The swara-jathi-saahithya pattern normally follows after anu pallavi followed by the charana. Sri HMB is supposed to be the first among musicians to come up with this pattern.
What is the significance of a Dharu?
While a dharu gives ample scope for a musician to sing and tests his swara, jathi, saahithya gnana, thaala is an important aspect to it since it is a varnam on its own. Also, dancers use Dharus for performing since the saahithya is filled with bhava, ample scope for Abhinaya - a very important aspect for dancers.
What is the difference between Dharu, Padha, and Thana Varnam then?
Categorizing varnams based on thaala - like Adi taala and Atta taala varnam, may not be completely correct since there are varnams in Jhampe taala, Khanda Triputa, Roopaka, Tishra Eka, etc.
A Padha varnam is the one that consists of saahithya throughout - meaning, consider what we sing these days, for example, Ninnukori - in Adi - Mohana Raaga - Has saahithya in pallavi, followed by chitteswara, and charana where we sing 2 lines of saahithya and then jump to first charana composed only of swaras, sing the saahithya, and continue till we complete the 4 charanas. However, a Padha varnam consisted of saahithya in the entire charana as well! So, every charana has saahithya, and this format was sung in olden days. Since it was rich in saahithya, mostly conveying feelings of love (i believe), it gave lot of scope for abhinaya hence for dance performances too! Padha varnams are also called Chauka varnams / Ata varnams.
As music developed, it got customized and polished and we sing what we sing today - Thana varnams!
So that is the difference.
Have I learnt Dharu?
Yes I have learnt Maathe many years ago, and I have also sung this for my sister's bharatanatyam rehearsals (only), :( with my music teacher ofcourse :) since I was a little kid then. Trust me, with accompaniments like the nattuvangam, this krithi is a total bliss to sing!
There ends the tale of Dharu.
I also learnt that to compose varnams / thillanas one needs to have very good mridhangam knowledge. This increases the laya sense and is useful in composing varnam. In fact, Sri Muthaiah Bhagavathar had also trained under Vidwan Sri Narayanasamappa of Tanjore in mridangam. He possessed an accurate knowledge of rhythm which explains the excellence of his tillanas and dharus.
If you notice, among the trinity, Sri Thyagaraja and Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar have composed keerthanes/krithis but not varnams, as known to me. Whereas, Shama Shastry has Swarajathis to his fame. So somewhere he must have had a deep knowledge of mridangam or the kelvi gnana.
If you come across any contradicting or complementing information, pls feel free to comment.
I will next speak about Swati Thirunal and his Thillana in Dhanasri in my next post!
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8 comments:
enna ponalum orey "Over Head Transmissionaa" eruku pa
sowlpa busya ethini chiroti, amelie bandhu detailaghe comment maaduthini ri
haha! thumba busy aagidhira? yenu vishesha rii?
sari aamele comment maadi. i wrote this from layman's perspective, as in, anybody who reads this should understand types...:( guess i was unsuccessful...try reading it and ask me questions where you cannot follow. :) a good learner should be a good teacher first :)
illa ur succefull but u know my state right.. :) innum sowlpa time kudi. :) illa nana dhaan punctual comment podurin illa ??
Hey sorry for the late comment ;)
Good post. The Khamas dharu is one lovely piece :)
mm first i like the pattern of post. it sounds like the Notes for a book. set of definied simple questions and answers to with blog-authors experiance and justification to it. you had done enough research towards it.
mm. i have a fair idea about Varnam and Null knowledge about Dharu and rest of the thing before reading this post.
as a amature lover of music i learnt a lot in the post. keep posting good one.
Aparna,
Thanks.
Adiya,
Yeah, I know. But so many things attached to this krithi, like the history associated with how it evolved (courtesy:my music teacher), the pattern of this composition, my childhood, how my teacher used to explain the theoritical aspects, everything just poured in that I HAD to write this in my blog. Rest ofcourse is my research. :)
Namaskara,nanu Swathi tirunal ara
ragamalika swarajathi notation hudukutthaiddaga nimma article sikkitthu,chennagide.Nanu Dharu varna yenu antha thumba divasadfinda tarka maaduthidde?eega gotthayithu.,nimagenadaru gottha ee ragamalika swarajathi bagge
Thanks
vidya
Just 15 years late in commenting! But then, learning only takes place when one is ready and deserving! It was today for me. Thanks for such a lucid explanation. Mathey by MSS is a regular at our home, and yet, even after over a thousand-plus renditions, MS amma continues to amaze! Oh how blessed are we to have had her in our midst!
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