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[Editor's
Note: Sangita Kala Acharya Sri. T. S. Parthasarathy, eminent
musicologist, researcher and writer is one of the senior most scholars in
the field of Music and related arts. He was also the Secretary of the
Music Academy, Chennai for many years. He is a source of guidance to all
musicians and a respected authority on music theory and history. Carnatica
is deeply honored to have his permission to reproduce a selection of his
scholarly articles on Music and Dance published over the years in various
journals]
The endless diversity in the
Indian subcontinent has been the subject of many trite remarks. But no other
country of the world, with such a vast extent of area, offers so much unity in
diversity as India does. This unity transcends the innumerable diversities of
blood, colour, language and sect.
Among the factors that
account for this unique type of unity are the use of Sanskrit as a cultural
link language and the existence of a single system of classical music
throughout the country. It was only after the twelfth and the thirteenth
centuries that regional differences developed even within the sphere of
classical music but this was reflected only in the practical side of the
music. The ‘Natya Shastra’ of Bharata and the ‘Sangita Ratnakara’ of
Sarngadeva still continue as authorities for the theory of Indian music and
commentators on these and other treatises hailed from Kashmir in the North to
Tamil Nadu in the South and from Gujarat and Rajasthan in the West to Mithila
and Bengal in the East. The theory part remained surprisingly intact which
made the continuity of Indian music possible. Every treatise on music written
before the twentieth century mentions only one variety of classical music.
It was only in the early
years of this century that Pandit Kashinath Appa Tulasi, a musicologist from
Hyderabad, mentioned in his work ‘Sangita Sudhakara’ that there were two
varieties of Indian music – Carnatic, prevalent in South India and Hindustani,
prevalent in the North.
“Tadapi dvividham jneyam Dakshinottara bhedatah
Karnatakam dakshine syad Hindustani tathottare”
But even this writer calls them only as two
variations of the same system and not as two different systems of music. The
oldest detailed exposition of Indian dance, musical theory and theatrical art,
which has survived the ravages of time, is the Natya Shastra of Bharata Muni.
We do not know which part of India Bharata hailed from, but by the 2nd
century A.D. his Natya Shastra appears to have become familiar in the Tamil
country down south. Poet Ilango Adigal, the author of the ‘Silappadhikaram’,
one of the five Tamil Sangam classics gives ample evidence that he was
acquainted with Bharata’s treatise. A number of Tamil works on music, extant
in his time and quoted by his later commentator Adiyarkunallar show that the
Tamil musicologists of the Sangam period were fully conversant with Sanskrit
works on music written by authors who obviously lived in the Northern part of
India. Even the names of several Tamil treatises on music like ‘Bharatam’,
‘Panchabharatiyam’ and ‘Bharata Senapatiyam’ show the influence of Bharat on
Tamil Music in those remote days. The authors of these Tamil works have
acknowledged in their works, their indebtedness to Bharata. No further
testimony of the cultural unity of India is needed when we remember that
travel in those days was primitive and facilities for copying and transporting
manuscripts were meager.
It is well-known that Tamil
Nadu is the only part of India that has a contemporary style of dance called
‘Bharata Natya’ while in other parts of the country, classical dance is called
by various names like ‘Kathak’, ‘Odissi’, ‘Manipuri’ and ‘Kathakali’ which do
not suggest any direct connection with Bharata’s treatise. The chief aspects
of dramaturgy according to Indian rhetoricians are natya or dance,
rupa or scenic presentation and rupaka or regular play. The ancient
Tamils achieved the first two aspects of dramaturgy to a large extent.
Dattila is another ancient
writer on music who has been named as a son of Bharata and as one of the five
Bharatas, the other four being Bharata, Kohala, Nandi and Matanga. All these
names are familiar to the authors of music treatises in South India. In fact,
the only manuscript of Dattila’s treatise called ‘Dattilam’ was discovered at
Trivandrum in Kerala and was published in the Trivandrum series.
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