While Hindustani music began to change due to external influences, Carnatic music continued to develop along the same path as before.
Sri Vidyaranya (1320–80), the Shankaracharya of Sringeri Sharada Peetham and the founder of the Vijayanagar empire, used the term “mela” for parent (janaka) ragas in his treatise Sangita Sudha for the first time. He has mentioned fifteen melas and fifty derived (janya) ragas, and the concept of sixteen swaras in an octave.
Annamacharya (1424–1503) was the eldest member of a family of composers from Tallapakkam who lived in the fifteenth century. He was a great devotee of Lord Venkateswara (a form of Vishnu and the deity in the temple on the Tirupati hills in Andhra Pradesh). He would climb the hills every day to go to the temple. There are stories that, on one occasion, the goddess Alamelumanga, consort of Venkateswara, appeared before him and blessed him.
The Tallapakkam composers (so called because they came from a small village of that name in Andhra Pradesh) were early composers in the kriti form which had three sections: pallavi, anupallavi and charanam. Annamacharya was prolific and versatile, and is believed to have written thirty thousand songs. He started composing at the age of sixteen. He wrote in Sanskrit and Telugu. His songs, which sprang forth from his great devotion, were beautiful both in musical and lyrical content.
He was the earliest composer of the kirtana and shringara padams in Telugu. It is believed that his shringara padams were the inspiration for Kshetragna’s padams. Annamacharya was given the title of Padakavita Pitamaha (the grandfather of padam poetry).
Purandara Dasa (1484–1564) was born in Purandaragada to Kamalamba and Varadappa Naik. He was named Srinivasa Naik. His father was a very successful moneylender. The young Srinivasa was well-trained in music and very fluent in Sanskrit and Kannada. At the age of twenty, he married Saraswati Bai. He followed his father’s profession and was well known as a miser. Legend has it that an incident involving his wife changed Purandara Dasa, leading him to a life of service to the Lord. It is said that Saraswati Bai was once approached by a poor Brahmin who needed monetary help. She gave him her diamond nose-ring, without her husband’s knowledge. When the Brahmin went to pawn the nose-ring with her husband, Purandara Dasa recognised the jewel as his wife’s and was furious! He locked it up in the safe in the shop, went home and asked his wife to bring him the piece of jewellery. His wife, not knowing what to do, decided it would be better to end her life. She was about to drink a cup of poison, when she noticed that the nose-ring was lying in the cupboard. She took it out gave it to her husband. Perplexed, he went back to the shop where he found that the jewel was missing from the safe. When he returned home, his wife told him the whole story and he realised that the Brahmin was none other than the Lord himself. This caused him to renounce all his worldly possessions and become a Haridasa (servant of the Lord – Hari meaning Krishna and dasa meaning servant or slave). From then on he came to be known as Purandara Dasa. He travelled all over the country visiting places of pilgrimage and composing songs on deities.
He was the most prolific of all South Indian composers. It is said that he had wanted to compose 5,00,000 songs in his lifetime. The bard says in one of his own compositions that he had composed 475,000! His devotional songs are known as Devaranamas (names of the Lord). These songs contain the very essence of the Upanishads and the Puranas. Though the language is simple, his ideas are lofty, his thoughts sublime. The mudra he used in his songs was Purandara Vittala. His invaluable contribution to music earned him the title of Karnataka Sangeeta Pitamaha (the grandfather of Carnatic music). He laid the foundation for present-day Carnatic music and brought about a major transformation by devising a method for learning South Indian music. He created the scale exercises (saralai varisai: saralai = simple, varisai = sequence), exercises to expand vocal range (tara sthayi varisai: tara = higher, sthayi = octave), and alankarams (exercises based on the seven talas). He also created simple melodic compositions in a particular raga, set to a rhythmic cycle where each syllable is set to a particular note, known as gitams. It was he who introduced Mayamalavagaula as the first scale to be learned.
Swaramelakalanidhi by Ramamatya was published in 1550. It is considered one of the most important works tracing the history of the modern period. Ramamatya discarded the grama-murchchanajati system, describing the mela raga in clear, precise terms. He was the first to clearly classify ragas into a system of parent (janaka) and derived (janya) ragas. Venkatamakhi later built his classic scheme of the seventy-two melakartas on this. Ramamatya mentions twenty melas and sixty-four janya ragas along with its swaras. In fact, he uses the term “mela” in the title of the treatise, Swaramelakalanidhi, highlighting its importance.
Excerpted with permission from Classical Music of India: A Practical Guide, L Subramaniam and Viji Subramaniam, Westland.
