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Read Part 4
A classic example of a Hindu musicologist being patronized by Muslim rulers of
far-away areas is that of Pundarika Vitthala who was a Brahmin born in a
village in Karnataka. He wrote four works in Sanskrit and in his introductory
verses mentions that he flourished in the court of Burhan Khan (c. 1600) of
the Pharaki dynasty which ruled from a city named Anadavalli in Khandesh. This
scholar from the South later went to the North and in his work 'Ragamanjari',
praises Akbar, under whom were two brothers Madhavasimha and Mansimha, kings
of the Kacchapa Vamsa. The Ragamanjari is a short work with the accent on
North Indian music of those days and an interesting feature of the treatise is
that among ragas, Pundarika Vitthala gives fifteen new 'Parasika' (Persian)
ragas at the end.
One is astonished at the manner manuscripts used
to be transported in those days, finding their way into the remotest corners
of India. A Bikaner catalogue and Burnell's Tanjore catalogue mention a work
called 'Sangita Saroddhara' by one Hari Bhatta. This work was available in the
Madras manuscripts library labelled as belonging to the N.W. Provinces!
Jagajjyotirmalla was a Nepali king who ruled
between 1617 and 1633 A.D. This ruler did valuable work on music by bringing
to his court music works and writers on music. Haraprasada Sastri, who
prepared a catalogue of the manuscripts in the Nepal Palace Library found that
a work called 'Sangita Chandra' written by one Abhilasha from South India had
been obtained by the King after great efforts. He later commissioned a scholar
named Vangamani, a native of Mithila, to write a commentary on it. Ahobala
Pandita was a South Indian but his work 'Sangita Parijata' was first published
from West Bengal. This work was translated into Persian in 1724 A.D.
The period 1750 - 1850 was the golden age of music
not only in India but in Europe also. In South India, the three master
composers, Shyama Shastri (1762 - 1827), Tyagaraja (1767 - 1847) and
Muttuswami Dikshitar (1775 - 1835), collectively known as the Trinity,
flourished during this period. Europe saw great composers like Beethoven,
Mozart, Chopin and Schubert shedding their lustre on Western Music. It was the
Augustan age of music in North India also and there were more contacts between
Hindustani and Carnatic musicians than at any time before.
Raja Serfoji who ruled from 1798 to 1832 as the
Maratha King of Tanjore was a scholar with an encyclopedic knowledge and a
linguist who knew several Indian and European languages. These rulers of the
Bhosle dynasty were the descendants of Shivaji and instead of trying to force
their language on the local Tamil population, they learnt languages like Tamil
and Telugu and even wrote musical compositions in them. In addition to a large
number of Carnatic musicians, artistes and kirtankars from Maharashtra and and
other Northern states sought his patronage and received it in lavish measure.
The Tamil musicians lost no time in learning the Marathi type of kirtan and
developed it in their own style known as the Harikatha.
Carnatic composers of this period like Tyagaraja
and Muttuswami Dikshitar were fully acquainted with Hindustani music although,
for obvious reasons, they did not mix the styles. Muttuswami Dikshitar, in his
formative years, lived at Varanasi for about five years and coming from a
family of musicians he must have listened to the cream of Hindustani music of
those times. This influence is discernible in some of his compositions in
allied ragas like Hamir Kalyani (Kedar), Hindolam (Malkauns), Dvijavanti (Jaijaivanti),
Yamunakalyani (Yaman) and Brindavana Saranga.
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