Carnatic… Classical or Heretical?

I am saying a few things about Classical Music in India. There are predominantly two schools of music in India- Hindustani in North and Carnatic in South. But both are based on the same original work of Venkatamahi which is in Sanskrit. The next best works is by Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande in Hindi – for Hindustani Music. In carnatic, theoretical works are lacking. There is also a theory that fall of Vijaynagar destroyed the base of carnatic music and had to be re defined. This can be seen from the fact, that many Ragas are not appearing in their namesake melakarths. North Indian version is that wrongly R G M P D N S was re cast as S R G M P D N .The carnatic music is very popular and was made popular by Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar. He created Sabhas (Associations) and made the carnatic music very popular. But in the process of making it popular its purity was lost. One major mistake is that singers put their own Thala (Beat) this goes haywire and in the process the song is sung without thala. Many carnatic music doyens may become angry but here is the proof. Normally instrumentalist can play to perfect beat. But in Carnatic music, Mridunga is played adjusting the singer’s wrong beats and they loose ability to play to Beat. That is why in Bhartnatyam dance the singers and mridunga artists are different as a wrong beat will make the dancer into quandary. So you won’t find good singers for dance programs and also Mridunga players are ordinary players who cannot play in cuchery (Vocal concerts). Many Mridunga players who are not famous got chances to go to USA with Dancers and good famous players started envying them. Don’t still believe me then put Balamurali krishna’s cassette and switch on the beats in keyboard and watch (I have done it). As per Venkatamahi, “Thal (beat) is the mother and swaras are children playing in the lap of the mother”. Probably carnatic musicians are the only people in the world who do not sing to beat. But one thing goes without saying the only classical music that is so famous and popular is carnatic music though it may have lost its sheen as classical a bit. In North India even before teaching Sargam they teach Tabla ka bhol and almost all music teachers can play Tabla to keep the Thal. Also identifying the swaras is very important not singing. See for yourself (Proof of the Pudding is in eating it) by going to YouTube and hear a 5 year old with 7 months of training sing Rag Yaman.

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