ILaiyaraaja – The Mathematician

AruNagirinathar, who lived in the 15^th century, was a musician par excellence.

Did I say musician? But was he not known for his verses in beautiful Tamizh-verses like Thiruppugazh, Kandar Alankaram, Kandar Anubhuti, Vel Viruththam, Mayil Viruththam etc.,?

Is there any historical record of his performance? Did he tune his verses in ragas or PaNNs? And if so, is there a record or reference to these like say Tyagaraja kritis or Muththuswami Dikshitar kritis?

It is really not known if he tuned his Thiruppugazh or his other works. It is not even known if he learnt classical music. Unfortunately, he had no disciples. Like a vagabond, he travelled across the Tamizh country and composed the verses. In fact, in all likelihood he travelled to Sri Lanka too as there is a Thiruppugazh on KaNdi Kadirgaamar.

Then why do I call him a musician? The reasons go much beyond the fact that his Thiruppugazhs are sung in carnatic concerts(albeit towards the end) in classical ragas. The taaLas he has used in Thiruppugazh make one wonder as to how he could conceive such rhythmic patterns. Though some say he composed in all 108 taaLas, what amazes one are the compositions in taaLas which are not listed in any classical theory books. These have now assumed the name ‘Chandha TaaLas’.

Let us look at a Thiruppugazh(he is said to have composed about 16,000 Thiruppugazhs out of which just around 1,800 are available now).

பாதிமதி நதி போது மணிசடை நாதர் அருளிய குமரேசா

பாகு கனிமொழி மாது குறமகள் பாதம் வருடிய மணவாளா

காதும் ஒரு விழி காகமுற அருள் மாயன் அரி திரு மருகோனே

காலன் எனை அணுகாமல் உனதிரு காலில் வழிபட அருள்வாயே

ஆதி அயனனொடு தேவர் சுரர் உலகாளும் வகையுறு சிறைமீளா

ஆடும் மயிலினில் ஏறி அமரர்கள் சூழ வர வரும் இளையோனே

சூத மிக வளர் சோலை மருவு சுவாமி மலைதனில் உறைவோனே

சூரன் உடல் அற வாரி சுவறிட வேலை விடவல பெருமாளே.

Though the focus now is not as much on the meaning as it is on the rhythmic structure, I feel I must briefly touch upon some aspects of the verse before explaining the taaLa structure.

He starts the verse saying ‘Muruga is the son of the one who has the half crescent moon, the river and the kondRai flower on his head.’ He then moves on to the romance of Muruga(whether many like it or not, the romance of the Gods is part of our literature and one cannot escape from this or be like an Ostrich). In the third line, he tells a mini story from RamayaNa in which Rama first attacks a crow(a raakshasa in the form of crow, in fact it is Indra’s son Jayanthan who assumes that form) and then forgives him after ‘poking’ just one eye. He then requests Muruga to protect him (AruNagiri) from the God of Death and then talks about how he saved the Devas. He ends the verse with a lovely description of ‘Swamimalai’-one of the six abodes of Muruga.

This is just the gist.

What is of particular interest in the way each line is constructed.

In Carnatic Music parlance, the taaLa pattern is :

ta ka/ta ka dh mi/ ta ka/ ta ka dhi mi/ ta ka/ ta ka dhi mi

(1 2 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2/ 1 2 3 4 ).

This peculiar pattern, which has 18 aksharaas, is a taaLa by itself.

This is just an example and there are hundreds of examples like this which show the mastery of AruNagirinathar. Though I have not seen AruNagirinathar, I am sure it would have taken just a few minutes for him to compose this(otherwise how would he have composed 16,000 songs plus a host of viruththams in one life time of which at least the first 20 odd years were lost in just ‘wandering around’(an euphemism for ‘womanising’)?

The Genius called ILaiyaraaja’s strength lies not just in melody but in rhythm too, a fact which is being highlighted by ‘yours truly’ in infinite posts.. He has used different patterns, has used cross rhythms, has used ‘usi’, has done ‘gati bhedam’..and has done many more(the list is huge). The composition I am going to focus on today is special in many ways.

‘Paarththa Vizhi Paarththapadi’ from ‘GuNa’(1991) is a composition which will make a genuine classical composer proud. First, it is based on a raga which in real sense is a rare one. As far as I know, there are only 2 compositions in this raga in carnatic music.

There is an interesting story too. It is said that the hero of the movie requested the composer to give him a song like ‘Kaa Vaa Vaa’ and the composer came up with this song. The song quoted by the actor is based on a beautiful raga called ‘VaraLi’. Any other composer would have instantly obliged and would have composed in VaraLi. But not the gentleman whose brain is wired differently.. He composed it in Paavani.

How is the latter different from the former?

The latter is a melakarta raga while the former is a derived raga and follows a devious structure. However, both are ‘vivadi’ ragas. I have written about the concept of vivadi in some of my posts earlier. Moreover, since this post will focus more on the rhythmic pattern and less on the raga pattern, it will be prudent on my part to revisit ‘vivadi concept’ sometime later.

All I can say now (and this does not pertain to ‘vivadi’) is that on paper it is the variant of ‘dha’ which separates the two ragas, but this too is on paper as VaraLi is a very special raga having some unique oscillations of swaras.

Paavani is the 41^st meLakarta and the swara ‘ga’ is the vivadi swara. A raga with a vivadi swara evokes a very different feel and I am sure this kind of a raga was used here keeping the protagonist of the story in mind.

Generally, my posts in this thread would go systematically and the description would follow a pattern, and I would take up the prelude first, go to the Pallavi, then move on to the first interlude, go to the CharaNam and finally describe the second(and third if it exists) interlude. Today, I am straightaway jumping to the interlude and not without a reason. But before that, I must tell you that the composition is different from a normal composition in terms of the structure. There is a prelude, a short Pallavi, an interlude which can also be called as the CharaNam, the Pallavi again but in higher octave and then a postlude.

Let us first see that interlude/charaNam part.

This part has the vocals (chorus) and no melodic instruments. It is in fact a ‘recitation’ of ‘Abhirami Andaadi no.42.

The composition is set to the 5-beat khandam. Now, any other composer would have set the verse too in the same beats and would have moved on. Yes, I am talking about an ‘ordinary composer’. But why talk about something ‘ordinary’ when we have somebody who is ‘extraordinary’?

The group of percussion instruments follows this pattern when the verse is sung. Here too, one set (Jaalra) plays in kizh kaalam while the other set(cheNda) plays in mel kaalam simultaneously. It would not have been difficult at all for the composer to set the verse (which is in Paavani ragam anyway) in khandam. But here, the verse goes ‘freely’. How free it is, let us see.

The entire verse lasts 18 khandams. So, it a total of 90 aksharaas(18x5). The rhythmic pattern of the verse (mind you, decoding this was an herculean task!) roughly follows

                  15  / 10  /33  /32

How he conceived this and executed this (it is not an easy task to make the chorus sing in this pattern when the percussion goes in khandam considering the fact that a majority of chorus singers may not have been well trained in carnatic music) is difficult to fathom!

Let us now look at the composition from the beginning.

It starts with the resonant ‘gong’ like instrument reverberating during the first, third , fifth, seventh and the eighth beats. This piece which lasts for one aavartana of Aadi taaLam(kizh kaalam) sounds like veda mantram and sets the tone-literally and figuratively. The chorus starts rendering ‘Abhirami Andaadi no.50’and this too is set in Aadi taaLam with the ‘gong’ sounding rather subtly now. The resemblance to the veda mantram is too close to be missed.

This ethereally hormonised singing lasts for 4 aavartanaas. The sympathetic strings then play the arohanam of Paavani and right from this point it is khandam. One sees the glowing images as the conch plays extended notes to the backing of the cheNda.

Laced with softness, the Pallavi starts in the voice of Yesudass and it entrancingly portrays the hidden beauties of the raga. Note that the vivadi gandhara(Shuddha gandhara) dominates the first two lines while the last two lines(can be called as ‘anu pallavi’) are dominated by the ‘uttaranga swaras’. The akaaram towards the end shows the subtle and the dynamic shades of Paavani.

Andaadhi no.42 follows(as already described in the beginning) with the shining contrasting texture. It is a kind of cohesive matrix with some variegated patterns.

It segues into the Pallavi which is rendered this time in the higher octave.

The percussion takes over and it is a mélange of sorts with the group going in mel kaalam and if I were to say that it is a divine spiritual experience, it would not be an exaggeration.

The composition has a postlude too with the sitar playing a sensitively crafted classical melody in Paavani and the flute joining towards the end with an emotive heft.

Free flow of music which runs into patterns..

That is how a river flows..And that is how the moon shines..And that is how a flower blossoms..

And that is how AruNagirinathar sings..

And that is how ILaiyaraaja composes..

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