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SPECIAL FEATURES
Sangeeta Sampradaya Pradarsin A Few Observations -SRIRAM.V The
Sangeeta Sampradaya Pradarsini is truly a magnum opus. The mind boggles at the
thought of an old man at the fag end of his life compiling 1700 pages of music
theory and more importantly, practice and guidelines for the same. It must not
have been easy to put into words what was always held to be an oral tradition.
Subbarama Dikshitar belonged to an age when writing or discussing music was
frowned upon and indeed their very necessity was questioned. He hardly had any
worthwhile role models in terms of books in the modern sense. His friend A.M.
Chinnaswami Mudaliar's ill health and death, directly attributable to the
travails he underwent in publishing Oriental Music in Staff Notation, must have
further dampened his spirits.
It must not be forgotten that Subbarama Dikshitar took up this task in an age
when electricity was still in its infancy and printing was, despite being
widespread, still a laborious process. Dikshitar must have pored over proofs,
correcting them long into the night, aided by a few lanterns. The special types
for gamaka symbols must have been tough to evolve.....
The book itself merits a lifetime of study. As one scans through its pages,
one is amazed at first at the wealth of information that is contained in it, all
of which is of immense value to practising musicians. Unfortunately not many
appear to have looked into it. In the year of its centenary one would have
expected questions from the music community as to why and how the pathantara of
the Bilahari kriti Kamakshi Varalakshmi was changed beyond recognition from what
is given in the book. What are the lakshana-s of Sahana as given in the book and
what has it become now? Would we accept the version of Todi as given in the book
today?
Looking at it purely from the historical and the sahitya point of view, I
have made bold to list a set of questions after a preliminary study of the book.
The word preliminary is not a measure of the hours that have been spent poring
over the Pradarsini. It is a reflection on the state of mind on closing the five
volumes prepared by the Music Academy. There are so many questions. All of which
will sadly remain unanswered. But one hopes that a debate will be initiated
based on the points listed below.
1. Personalities profiled by Subbarama Dikshitar
Strange Omissions
This section, which is in the original, was not included in the five volumes
released by the Music Academy. There are some startling omissions from the list.
The first is Maha Vaidyanatha Sivan. Sivan's rival and contemporary Patnam
Subramania Iyer is included in the book. How is it that Subbarama Dikshitar left
out this illustrious personality and his talented brother, both of whom he was
acquainted with personally?....
Subbarama Dikshitar gives a list of eleven disciples of Muthuswami Dikshitar
in his compilation. He does not include the name of Sattanur Panchanada Iyer, a
man who is today accepted to be a direct disciple of Muthuswami Dikshitar.....
2. Muthuswami Dikshitar's kriti-s
(a) Why only a partial compilation?
Coming to Muthuswami Dikshitar's works, why did Subbarama Dikshitar choose
only some of the songs and not all? Was it because he did not know all the songs
himself? Or was he preparing a subsequent volume where the remaining songs would
make their appearance?....
(b) The Abhogi mystery
For years we have been told that Muthuswami Dikshitar visited Kallidaikurichi
during his lifetime and composed Sree Lakshmi Varaham there. Yet Abhogi remains
the only raga which, despite this Dikshitar kriti, does not feature in the
Pradarsini.....
(c) Rationale behind song selection
Why did Subbarama Dikshitar choose to include certain songs under a raga as
representative and leave out others? This is a mystery. Why did he for instance
include only Kamalambike under Todi, but as many as four songs under Bhairavi?....
(d) No mention of all the Tirunelveli and Kerala kriti-s
(e) Songs without Guruguha mudra
There are three songs in the Pradarsini, attributed to Muthuswami Dikshitar
by Subbarama Dikshitar, which do not have the Guruguha mudra in them.....
(f) Ramakali
The song Ramarama in Ramakali -- who composed it?....
(g) Muthuswami Dikshitar and the Kanakangi-Ratnangi scheme
3. Variations in sahitya
The following is a listing of some sahitya variations that have crept into
the kriti-s of Muthuswami Dikshitar over the years, when compared to what is
given by Subbarama Dikshitar in the Pradarsini. This is by no means a
comprehensive listing. I am grateful to violinist R.K. Shriramkumar who
painstakingly went through the Telugu original and brought to light these
discrepancies:
(1) Tyagaraja mahadhwajaroha
(2) Sree Viswanatham
(3) Kamakshi Varalakshmi
(4) Tyagarajam bhajeham satatam
(5) Chandram bhaja maanasa
(6) Sree Venugopala
(7) Balagopala
(8)
Venkateswara Eddappa
(9) Ambaa Neelayatakshi
(10) Dakshinamoortey
4. Extraneous factors involved in publication
of SSP
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Role of the Ettayapuram Estate
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The publishing boom
5. The Post-Subbarama Dikshitar scenario
It is clear that Subbarama Dikshitar did not consider the publication as the
end of his journey. He states very clearly that he intended bringing out yet
another companion volume comprising 800 kriti-s of Tyagaraja as collected by
Chinnaswami Mudaliar and around 100 songs of Syama Sastry.....
Subbarama Dikshitar died in 1906. His son Ambi Dikshitar (aka Muthuswami
Dikshitar) was not as forthcoming as the father. He deliberately hid the
manuscripts, did not give access to them to anyone of his disciples, which led
to their attempt to surreptitiously copy them as detailed above. Once this was
discovered, Ambi Dikshitar became more secretive than ever. In later years he
however unbent sufficiently to teach the songs he knew to T.L. Venkatarama Iyer,
S. Rajam and D.K. Pattammal.....
The usage of the Guruguha mudra by three generations of Dikshitars (namely
Muthuswami, Subbarama [though he did not use it in all his kriti-s] and Ambi)
has resulted in needless confusion and one has to be thankful to the Pradarsini
for setting the records straight on at least the kriti-s it contains.....
One can sense a feeling of frustration in Dr. V. Raghavan's words when he
wrote "missing (kriti-s of Muthuswami Dikshitar) could probably be found in the
manuscripts of the family of Dikshitar's descendant Baluswami and pupils, the
Ponnayya Brothers, and it is up to their descendants, Sri Kittappa and Sri
Sivanandam, to search for them in their ancestral home and help us in our
researches". Until that help is forthcoming, devotees of Muthuswami
Dikshitar's music can take comfort in the Pradarsini and thank Chinnaswami
Mudaliar for daring to dream and to Subbarama Dikshitar for making that dream a
reality.
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