ILaiyaraaja- The Sagacious Musician

Subtleties..

In this age of WhatsApp forwards, You Tubes, Instas and Tweets, the meaning of the aforementioned word is getting lost. How many of us have the time to listen to the early morning bird calls, to watch the sunrise and sunset, to watch the moon, to watch the stars or just to be quiet and listen to the silence?

It is not that we don’t have the time. It is just that we don’t want to. Blame it on the ‘life style’ and ‘changing times’. I do not want to delve into the reasons as this post is more on subtleties and less on our inability to appreciate and the decline in the aesthetic sense and values.

So, let us look first look at a poem. I call it a poem, despite its being a verse from ‘Bhakti literature’, because to me, a poem is a poem. Moreover, poems in Bhakti literature are no way inferior and stand out for their acuity and quality which can be appreciated by atheists and theists alike, provided they genuinely care for language and not for the source.

Here it is:

தொந்தி சரிய மயிரே வெளிற நிரை

தந்தம் அசைய முதுகே வளைய இதழ்

தொங்க ஒருகை தடி மேல் வர மகளிர்... நகையாடி

தொண்டு கிழவன் இவன் யார் என இருமல்

கிண் கிண் என முன் உரையே குழற

விழி துஞ்சு குருடு படவே செவிடுபடு.....செவியாகி

வந்த பிணியும் அதிலே மிடையும் ஒரு

பண்டிதனும் மெயுறு வேதனையும்

இளமைந்தர் உடைமை கடன் ஏது என முடுக...துயர் மேவி

மங்கை அழுது விழவே எமபடர்கள்

நின்று சருவ மலமே ஒழுக உயிர்

மங்கு பொழுது கடிதே மயிலின் மிசை....வரவேணும்

எந்தை வருக ரகுனாயகா வருக

மைந்தா வருக மகனே இனி வருக

என் கண் வருக எனதாருயிர் வருக.....அபிராம

இங்கு வருக அரசே வருக முலை

உண்க வருக மலர் சூடிட வருக

என்று பரிவினொடு கோசலை புகல....வருமாயன்

சிந்தை மகிழ மருகா குறவர் இள

வஞ்சி மருவும் அழகா அமரர் சிறை

சிந்த அசுரர் கிளை வேரொடு மடிய..... அடுதீரா

திங்கள் அரவு நதி சூடிய பரமர்

தந்த குமர அலை பொருத

செந்தி நகரில் இனிதே மருவி வளர்....பெருமாளே.

It is indeed a long verse. In fact, this is one of the longest verses from thiruppugazh, though it follows the structure and rule to tee ( 8 cantos/following a ‘chanda taaLa’). For the benefit of all readers, I am first reciting it and then giving a summary.

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In the first part (first 4 cantos), AruNagirinathar describes the ‘final moments’ in anybody’s life.

‘Sagging paunch, silver hair, shaking teeth, hunching back, drooping lips, walking stick(for support), whooping cough, incoherent speech, very poor eyesight, deaf ears, all diseases, intruding doctor, ‘curious sons’(to get details of assets and liability), crying wife, uncontrolled bowel movement, messengers of Yama (God of death as per Hindu mythology) and there I see Death approaching..And at that point please come in front of me Oh Muruga!’

Isn’t this a beautiful narration and description of a man’s final moments?

Logically, the poem should have ended here. But when there is logic, there is no poetry; when there is logic, there is no genius.

So, the poet continues,

‘‘Oh, the hero of Raghu dynasty! My father!! My Son, the apple of my eye, my soul, my king.Please come here, I want to feed you. Please come here, I want to you to be adorned with flowers’, sang Kausalya’,

says the second part( 2 cantos).

Now, what is happening? Did he not sing to Muruga in the first segment? Then why Rama now? Like the present day politicians, did AruNagiri switch sides? Isn’t there a disconnect anyway?

Well, not really. One just needs to be patient and wait for the next word in the poem. He ends that line with the word ‘nephew’; Rama’s nephew(Muruga). But this is not all. He makes Kausalya address Rama first as ‘father’, then as ‘maindhan’(மைந்தன்) and ‘magan’(மகன்). The first one is not uncommon. However, the second and third ones require a deeper understanding. ‘maindhan’ and ‘magan’ can be easily translated in English as ‘son’. But tamizh scholars know that there is a subtle difference in the meaning. ‘Maindhan’ is one who protects not just his parents but also the entire family(which would include his all other relatives as well). ‘Magan’is just a ‘son’. The former is strong;the latter is comparatively weak. The former is like an emperor; the latter, just a king. There are more meanings too, but let me stop here.

But look the lines closely and see how he says-or make Kausalya say- ‘Maindha’ first and ‘Magan’ next.

Subtlety?

Well, there is more too. The first half talks about ‘Death’ while the next segment talks about ‘childhood’. The following line talk about his romance (with one of his consorts-VaLLi) while the next line talks about his valour and finally, the last one talks about his father, Paramasivan(look at the description here-one who adorns the moon(thingaL), the snake(aravu), and the river(ganga).

Contrasts…Life Cycle..Relationships..

Read the verse again and you can find infinite inner meanings.

If the works of the tamizh poet from that great spiritual land called ‘ThiruvaNNamalai’ are full of subtleties, the works of the gentleman from that remote village called ‘PaNNaippuram’ too brim with subtleties. If the first one is musical poetry, the second one is poetic music.

Today, let me just take one example. And it is from one of his most recent works.

The beauty of ‘Kekkadha Vaathiyam Kekkudhu’ from ‘MeRku Thodarchi Malai’(2018) lies not just in the tune or in the raga used. There are so many other subtle elements in the composition which make it shine like a kohinoor diamond.

Can we see that one by one?

For starters, the composition is mainly based on Mohanam. Underline the word ‘mainly’. The fact that ILaiyaraaja is in awe of Mohanam , is known to people who have been following him right from his entry into the film music world. Also known is the fact that he takes a lot of liberties with the raga, just like how one takes liberties with the beloved. And this includes adding the non-existent note ‘ni’ or the other ‘ga’ or the other ‘dha’. But what he has done in ‘Kekkadha..’ is something unique.

Let us see the composition from the beginning.

The prelude starts from nowhere. This is what one can say about this rather unusual start in which it seems as if the melody is a continuity of an existing melody or that is an extension of a previous melody, which of course one has not heard before and yet has been in existence since eons. Coming to think of it, this is how rivers are born, right? Who can get to the source of a river?

And yes, it does flow like a river. Two synth instruments are superimposed on one another and these move with an intuitive perception, giving us the fragrance of Mohanam, with two sets of percussion playing ‘ta ki ta’and a third one sounding ‘ta’ with resonance after 4 ‘ta ki ta’ s. The melody is filigreed by the dulcet flute. One gets to see musical images in different colours with more synth instruments joining in and with the melody played from the beginning continuing like a leitmotif.

The Pallavi starts in the voice of the Maestro himself. It is tender with a unique melodic expression. What adds to the beauty is the sound of the bells in the background. In fact, throughout the Pallavi, one hears the sound of different synth instruments subtly sounding in the background. N.S.K.Ramya continues the Pallavi in pure Mohanam until the last line which changes to Hamsadhwani, albeit briefly. On paper, one just has to substitute the swara ‘dha’ with ‘ni’ to go to Hamsadhwani from Mohanam, but the transition here is very smooth. So smooth that one can even easily miss it.

The musical river continues to flow in the first interlude. It in fact seems like an unrestrained flow and yet is disciplined. There are sensitive overtones as well, with a couple of synth instruments in the background. After a quick dash of the non-existent swara ‘ni’, the melody continues in Mohanam but this time in the humming of the chorus. The imagistic brevity is bewitching.

The lines in the CharaNams have a cherubic charm with the flute-like instrument which appears between the lines(as usual, his music demands ‘reading between the lines’) shining with a divine luminescence. However, what defines the CharaNams is the scale change which appears in the penultimate line.

Mohanam can be said to be in major scale as it has ga3(E in Western Classical Music). Replacing this ‘E’ with ‘D#’will change the scale to minor as per western classical theory. Here, the Master does it with insouciance maintaining his sangfroid.

But is that all?

The second interlude says ‘No, there is more’. As connoisseurs who have trained our ears and the heart to listen to music with aesthetic sense and value, we too expect more and more from him, anyway.

However, what happens here is even beyond one’s expectations.

Since few words of music theory and techniques have to be given to help one understand and appreciate the nuances and niceties, I am going ahead here with some relevant details briefly.

Mohanam has sa ri2 ga3 pa dha2 while ascending and descending. Changing the swara ‘dha2’ to ‘dha1’makes it Vaasanti, another beautiful raga. The Master does this first. Then he keeps the swara ‘ga’ as the base ‘sa’ and changes the raga. Music aficionados and regular followers of this Group know that this is called as ‘Graha Bhedam’ in Carnatic Music parlance.

Now, if graha bhedam is done on ‘ga3’ of Vaasanti, it would give a raga with the following swaras:

sa ri3 ga3 ma1 ni2 Sa. This raga is not defined in any raga text. The Maestro adds a swara ‘dha1’ here to make it a six-note raga- which has sa ri3 ga3 ma1 dha1 ni2 sa. This raga is ‘Swara vardhini’and is derived from Ragavardhini, the 32^nd mela ragam. People who have attended Geetanjali-2018, I am sure will remember that this is a vivadi raga.

The second interlude(in Swaravardhini) moves with a suffused flow of pensiveness and with an elusive fascination. It wafts us through quiet currents.

It is this quietness which makes us feel the subtleties.

Can we define this feeling?

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