குறளின் குரல் – குறளெண் – 636

27^th Sep 2017

(இக்குறள் எப்படியோ முதலில் எழுதுகையில் விடுபட்டுப் போனது! இம்முயற்சியைப் படித்துவந்த ஒரு அன்பர் சுட்டலில் இன்று இடப்படுகிறது! இதுபோன்ற விடுபட்ட குறட்பாக்கள் எத்தனையோ.. நான் இவற்றை மீண்டும் படித்து சரிசெய்யும் முயற்சியிலிருக்கிறேன்.. ஒரு ஆறுமாதங்கள் கூட ஆகலாம்)

மதிநுட்பம் நூலோடு உடையார்க்கு அதிநுட்பம்

யாவுள முன்நிற் பவை.

                            (குறள் 637: அமைச்சு அதிகாரம்)

மதிநுட்பம் - நுண்ணறிவும்

நூலோடு உடையார்க்கு - பல நல்ல நூல்களைக் கற்றுத் தேர்ந்த அறிவும் உடையவர்க்கு

அதிநுட்பம் - மிகுந்த நுட்பமாக மாற்றார் (பகைவர்) செய்யும் சூழ்ச்சி மிகுந்த செயல்கள்

யாவுள - எவை இருக்க முடியும்?

முன் நிற்பவை - அவற்றுக்கு முன்பாக?

நுண்ணறிவும், பல நூல்களைக் கற்றுத் தேர்ந்த அறிவும் உடைய அமைச்சர்களின் அறிவுக்கு முன்னால் வெல்லக்கூடி நுட்பமான சூழ்ச்சியாளர்கள் எவருள்ளனர் என்பது இக்குறளின் பொருள். “அதினுட்பம்” என்றும் பொருள் கொண்டு, அதனின் நுட்பம் எவையுண்டு என்றும் பாடம் உண்டு.  இயற்கை அறிவோடு, நூற்படிப்பும் இணைந்தால் அதை வெல்லக்கூடிய நுண்ணறிவு எங்குண்டு என்றும் கூறுவர். கி.வா.ஜ அவர்களின் ஆராய்ச்சி உரையில், தோலாமொழித் தேவரின் சூளாமணி காப்பியத்திலிருந்து இரநூபுரச் சருக்கத்தில் வருமொருபாடலை ஒப்பு நோக்கிக் கூறுகிறார்.

ஒன்றுநன் றெனஉணர்ந் தொருவன் கொள்ளுமே

லன்றதன் றொருவனுக் கறிவு தோன்றுமே

நின்றதொன் றுண்டினி நீதி நூலினோ

டொன்றிநின் றவருரை யுலக மொட்டுமே.

ஒருவர் அறிவுக்கு நல்லென்று தோன்றியவொன்று, நல்லதன்று என்று பிறருக்குத் தோன்றலாம். ஆக ஒன்றை உறுதிபட அறிவதற்கு தன்னுடைய சுயவறிவு மட்டுமல்லாது, அறநூல்களை அறிந்த அறிஞர் மொழியின்வழி ஒழுகின் உலகானது ஒப்புக்கொள்ளும் என்பததன் கருத்தாம்.

Transliteration:

Matinutpam nUlODu uDaiyArkku atinuTpam

yAvuLa munniR pavai?

Matinutpam – Sharp and rational intellect

nUlODu uDaiyArkku – and learned from the choicest texts of knowledge

atinuTpam – (compared to their intellect), to win over such intellect with scheming

yAvuLa – what would be there? (the opponents, enemies)

Mun niRpavai? – to stand face to face

Before a minister of sharp and shrewd intellect who is further complete with the knowledge of learning from the choicest books on rule, law and justice, which enemy’s intellect can stand face to face? It does not necessarily mean enemy here! – “Which other sharper intellect can be there?” is the general question. In Ki.vA.jAs’ research publication, he refers to a poem from the “ChooLAmaNi”, one of the five major epics of (written by TholAmozhit tEvar), with a thought similar to this verse.

That poem says this: What seems right to a one intellectual may not be right to another. But to ascertain the right and stay away from wrong, one must not only go by the innate intellect, but the words of the learned scholars to guide; only such words of such an intellectual, will be accepted by the World.

“Which sharper intellect can surpass or stand before

 the combined innate intellect and scholastic score?”

இன்றெனது குறள்:

நூலோ டியைந்ததாம் நுண்ணியர்முன் நின்றிட

ஏலுவதாம் நுட்பமில்லை காண்

A journey in to Musicscape -8

9/26/2017:

“Simhanandanam” is the Simham  (Lion) of all the ThALams. I have tried to find true the meaning of this word and found no reference to the reason or root of this word. Sanskrit root word “nandan” means joy or beauty. So the word must mean the beauty of Simha, or the joy of Simha!  Simha symbolically stands for the majesty, strength, agility, power etc,. Don’t we equate the powerful authorities as Simha or Kesari etc? In this sequence, we are about to see how the Simham that  MAHA Vaidhyanatha Iyer was, demonstrated his prowess of handling the complex and majestic thALam “Simhanandanam”.

Being the most difficult with most number of aksharas (128) this thALam must probably be called “The Beauty of Simha” or “The Joy of Simha”. Out of the 6 parts (Shadaangas)) of a ThaLA, viz., Lagu, Drutham, Anudrutham, Guru, Plutham and KAkapAdam, it has all other parts, except the Anudrutham. The figure below gives the parts of the thALA in 4 equal counts of 32 Aksharas (makes it easy to remember, of course after some memorizing)

8 stands for Guru; 8 with a line over is Plutham; and + stands for KAkapAdam; Vertical is only too well known Lagu and O stands for Drutham.

 

Once MAHA Vaidhyanatha Iyer had to stay for many months in Chennai. Many musicians in and around Chennai would visit him at the place where he was staying to discuss several music related topics and sometimes to clear their doubts. Since MAHA was an acknowledge authority on anything pertinent to our music. They wanted him to demonstrate Simhanandana thALAm. Their thought and desire was expressed through the great Vidwan “Pallavi” Seshayyar who had also visited him, during one of the evening congregation of musicians.

Without any hesitation, and with no accompaniments there to support, and with the help of a just a Thambura shruthi,  he immediately fulfilled their wish. He chose to sing KalyANi rAga elaborately and instantly created a Pallavi in the thALam. After a detailed Alapana, he sang the following Pallavi lines. His neraval, and thrikAlA were all impeccable and none felt the lack of accompaniments. His voice and all engaging singing captivated the musicians gathering and left them spellbound.

“Gowri nAyaka kanaka sabhA nAyaka

  hAlA haladhara gangAdhara hara

  smarahara purahara SivakAmIshwara

  chidambarEshwara naTArAja mAmava”

 “கௌரீ நாயக கனக ஸபா நாயக

  ஹாலா ஹலதர கங்காதர ஹர

  ஸ்மரஹர புரஹர ஶிவகாமீஶ்வர

  சிதம்பரரேஶ்வர நடராஜ மாமவ.”

Though musicians of those days, had their own practice and opinions on the “appearing order” of the angAs of the meter, everyone seemed to appreciate the clarity of how MAHA handled and readily accepted his way as the most logical and correct one.  Even today, we can see some different ways of doing these angAs of whenever a musician chooses to use one of the 108 thALams or other Anga thALam..

The most important part of his demonstration was how he handled the angAs,  Guru, Plutham and KAkapAdam!.

Among the nishabda kriyas, Guru has 8 aksharAs; In Oru kaLai chowkam it has 16 mAtrAs; Likewise in 2 kaLai chowkam, 32 mAtrAs, and 3 kaLai chowkam, 64 mAtrAs etc… The symbol has two zeros (sunnam) one over other. Gurus symbol is sunnam, denoting worship-worthy Shivalinga (Dakshinamurthi). A worthy disciple of a Guru would also essentially, eventually attain the status of a Guru. So the symbol signifies the two zeros one above other, the top one being the Guru and the bottom one being the disciple – who is also a Guru’s form. The mudrA for a guru is “ChinmudrA”, done by holding the thumb and index fingers together, with other 3 fingers held vertically straight, denoting “wholesome consciousness”. Just as a Guru would hold his right hand in ChinmuDrA, the hand would be waved to left side and held for 4 akshara kAlA and waved to the right side with another 4 akshara kAlA, as the Guru would address the disciples.

For the next anga Plutham, though the current symbol is as indicated above, with a 8 and a vertical line over it, MAHA would denote it as a bow and arrow ready to fire as in the figure below. Just as in Guru, in 1 kaLai chowkam this would have 24 mAtrAs, 2 kaLai chowkam, 48 mAtrAs and in 4 kaLai chowkam 96 mAtrAs

This is simply executed with holding 4 fingers folded inside, and keeping the thumb vertically upright (as if we show victory symbol!) and show the action of pressing downwards in 3 places like the letter “ஃ” in Tamil, each press counting for 4 aksharAs

The next anga kAkapAdam (crow’s feet) is the longest of angas with 16 aksharAs. The symbol is “+” symbol, just as how a bird’s feet would be. Here again, 1 kaLai chowkam will have 32 mAtrAs, 64 for 2 kaLai and 128 for 4 kaLai chowka. To do this angA, the following is done: with thumb of right hand vertically and with all other 4 finger open and together,  moving left for 4 aksharas and moving right for 4 aksharas, showing the palm downwards for 4 aksharas and then lifting the palm to vertically up as in abhaya hastam for 4 aksharas, completes this angA. Now the whole pallavi is given below in Tamil. Those of you who are interested can try this and sing..

When MAHA completed this, the entire congregation was ecstatic and was very appreciative of MAHA Vaidhyanatha Sivan’s command in the thALAm and how he did it with so much conviction, confidence and concentration. Looks like he sang the same, in different occasion in the rAga “kAnaDA”…

Now,  more information on the same subject will be discussed further on, in the next part of this series..

More to come..

A journey in to Musicscape -7

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9/20/2017

Very famously known “IraTTai Pallavi” Sivarama Iyer, who was a friend of Panchanatha Iyer AKA Duraiswamy Iyer, father of “MAHA” Vaidhyanatha Iyer, visited  their house once, when he was a young boy. During their conversation, Duraiswamy Iyer happily shared that his son Vaidhyanathan sang in the house warming party of one KudiyAlam Vasudeva Iyengar, who was a keen rasika and a patron of fine arts. The visiting Vidwan blessed the young Vaidhyanathan and instantly created a very new Pallavi in sAvEri rAgam set to a thALam, which was a combination of Tisra lagu, Two Tisra Gathi and followed by a Misra chApu, with a total of 19 AksharAs;

The thALam would be TK TK TK - TKT TKT – TKT TKDM. The thALam was not a well-known one and did not belong to any existing thALa system; it was probably the Sr. Vidwans own concoction. This was also a practice that was adopted by later day Vidwans too. Contemporary of, Vaidyanatha Iyer, Pattanam Subramania Iyer also has done such inventions. In the same book, later, it has been mentioned that, once before Vaidyanatha Iyer, he sang a 9 akshara (18 mAtra) pallavi in a thALam called Lagu jampai (Drutham, Lagu, Anu Drutham and Drutham).

It was intriguing indeed for young Vaidhyanatha; but once he heard Sivarama Iyer show how this Pallavi was sung, a couple of times, he was to quick  to pick up and elaborate on the same without hesitation or doubts on either Sahithya or the thALam, with all elements such as Neraval, Sahithya placement, unambiguous execution of the thALam etc.. Such was his grasp and sharpness. Such an “Eka Chanda Grahi” (ECG) the young Vaidyanatha was with amazing photographic memory.

Sivarama Iyer, was astounded at the quickness of this young lad and told his friend (Vaidyanatha Iyers father) that his son was uniquely blessed by Sarveshwara Himself. The Pallavi words are: “SankaraSiva Sivasankar pAhimAm charaNamSiva SivacharaNam IsapathE” (ஶங்கரஶிவ  ஶிவஶங்கர பாஹிமாம், சரணம்ஶிவ ஶிவசரணம் ஈசபதே)

Ragam: Saveri;    ThALam: Tisralagu, Two Tisra gathi, MisrachApu (19 Aksharas)

TK	TK	TK	TKT	TKT	TKT	TKDM
sA rI	mA mA	pA pA ,	pA pA mA	mA d p dA	pA ; mA	pA dA SA ;
Sa ng	ka ra	si va	si va sang	. ka . ra	pA - -	hi – mA m
ச ங்	க ர	ஶி வ	ஶி வ சங்	. க   . ர	பா - -	ஹி - மா ம்

TK	TK	TK	TKT	TKT	TKT	TKDM
SA SA	S n dA	d p dA	pA mA pA	dA SA ;	S n dA mA	d d p m g r sA
Cha ra	Nam .	si . va	si va cha	ra Na m	I - - -	Sa - - - pa – tE
ச ர	ணம் .	ஶி . வ	ஶி வ ச	ர ண ம்	ஈ - - -	ஶ - - - ப - தே

I wonder if these days, anyone has the ability to just listen to a Pallavi and repeat it without any doubts or stumbling. ECG is rare and almost not there, anywhere these days.  Here and there, we see some daring artists that have done attempts at least in demonstrations to show some of  these complex thALams! But, it is evident that they have put in the real hard work and months of practice and that much must be appreciated. The wealth of Ragams and ThALams that have been left to us by our elders are enormous body of knowledge. It requires a life long dedication to understand, and even scratch a bit of this knowledge. With the advent of technology and recording facilities, sharp musical minds, congregate outside the hurry-burry of the season and make demonstrative, video recordings with detailed lectures to motivate the young crop of musicians that have flooded the scene these days. The true pitiable state is that works of many unsung heros have been completely neglected as futile exercises.

When I continue, I will share how among the Shadangas of Kriyas, Nishabda angas such as Guru, Plutham and Kakapadam were handled by the Great MAHA, which is quite different from what we see these days. The explanations given by MAHA himself, have been so admirably documented by  Vainika Vidwan V.S.Gomathy Sankara Iyer, the author of that book.

….More to come..