KARNĀTIK
VARIOUS FORMS OF MUSIC
GĪTAM
PART I
Karnātik
Welcome to the lecture series on music.
Karnātik
In this session we will deal about another Gītam
music form, The .
The objectives of this session are;
→ Introduction to
Gītam
→ Explanation of the 1
st
Śrī Gaṇanātha
Gītam
Introduction
The term
Gīta literally means a ‘song’ but in music it signifies a particular type of
composition.
Gītam is the technical music form taught to the students after teaching the
Svara Saraļi varisa, janta varisa, Alankārās
exercises like etc.
Gītās
are of two types,
1. Sāmānya Gītam
2. Lak
ṣ
ana Gītam
Sāmānya Gitās
We will be discussing about the in this session.
Sādhāra
Sāmānya Gitās are called by the other names as ṇ
a Gītās, Lak
ṣ
ya Gītās
and
Sancāri Gītās. They are the simple melodic extension of the
rāgā in which they are
composed. Their tempo is medium and also uniform. In
Gītās the number of
svaras
present in an
āvarta is equal to the number āvarta
aksharakālās forming the . The
dīrgha
svaras are reckoned as two svaras. Thus
Gītās are compositions with one
Svara for each
Ēkāk
count. They are in ṣ
ara kāla Tāļā
(one word per beat of the )
The theme of the
Sāhitya is praise of God and quaint syllables like ‘
a iya, ti iya, a
Sāhitya
iyam, vā iya’ are found interspersed in the . These are introduced for
ornamentation only. These quaint syllables called the
gītalańkāra phrases lend a
characteristic beauty to the Gitās
Sāhitya of . These are continuous compositions without
Pallavi, Anupallavi
sections such as Chara
and ṇ
a
.
These compositions are sung without repetition from beginning to end. Some
Gītās
khandikās
have two sections ( ) and some have three. Some
Gītās are concluded by
repeating a section of the opening part. There are no
sangatīs and the flow of music is
natural. Neither intricate combinations nor terse
sanchārās are found in its music. But the
rāgā
structure of the is well brought out.
There are Sanskrit
Gītās in Kannaḍ
, a, Tamil
and Telugu.
The
Sāhitya of few
Gītās are
well known
Sanskrit
ślōkās cleverly set to music. There are
Gītās in rare time measures
also.
Ghana rāga Gītās are those that are in
Ghana Rāgās such as
Nātai, Gaula, Ārabhi,
Sri Rāga
and VarāliGhana rāga
. is rāgā whose melodic individuality is easily revealed
in a composition.
During the pre Gītās
Thyāgarāja period, composers took a delight in composing .
Pai
Purandara Dāsa and ḍ
āla Gurumūrti Śāstri are the most prolific composers of this
type of composition.
Gītās were composed in order to introduce the different
Tāļās in
combination with lyrics.
Purandara Dāsa’s introductory
Gītās in praise of
Vigneswara,
Mahēswara Vishnu
and Pillāri
are sometimes refers to collectively as Gītās
.
Pai
ḍ
āla Gurumūrti Śāstri was a prolific composer of Purandara Dāsa
Gītās after . He
is referred to as Gīta)
Veyi Gīta (1000 Pai
ḍ
āla Gurumūrti Śāstri. After him no
noteworthy composer has attempted Gītās
sancāri Rāmamātya
. , the author of
Svaramēla
kalānidhi Gītās
has also composed .
Among the several
Gītās composed by these composers, only few of them are being
Gītās
taught and sung today. Now we shall discuss 8 such .
GĪTAM – 1
GAṆANĀTHA KAZHAL TOZHUDĒN
Rāgam – Māyāmāḷavagouḷai rōhana
Ā – s r g
1 2 m p d
1 1n 2ṡ
Tāḷam Rūpaka Avarōhana
ṡ n
2d
1p m g
1 s
2 r1
s r | g , m , || p d | p m g , ||
ga ṇa | nā thā || ka zha | to zh dē ||
l u n
m g | r , s , || m , | g m , p ||
a ḍi | yēn nān || dē | va nā ḍu ||
r m
d p | d n ṡ , || n d | p d n , ||
tu di | pu ri yum || ka ri | m kh nē ||
u a
ṡ ṡ | n d p d || n n | ṡ n d , ||
ta mi | zhi sai va ra || da yei | pu ri vāy ||
ṡ n | ṙ ṡ ṙ , || ṡ n | d p n d ||
ha ran | ma ga nē || ē du | ku rai ni na ||
p m | d p m g || p m | g r s ṇ ||
da ruḷ | va rin ye na || kk du | ta ḍi va ru ||
i
(Gaṇa)
Explanation for Gītam – 1
GAṆANĀTHA KAZHAL TOZHUDĒN
This
gītam is in the Māyāmāḷavagouḷai.
Rāgam This mē
Rāgam is the 15th ḷ
akarta
raga under mē
Venkatamakhi’s ḷ
akarta system. Its n
Ārōha n
avarōha
a a structure is as
svaras
follows (see Karnātik
in music for details on below notation and terms)
n
Ārōhaa
: s rg
1 m
3 p d
1 n
1 ṡ
3 Avarōhana
:
ṡ
nd
3 p m
1 g
1 r
3 s
1
The notes in this
Rāgam are Rishabam
Suddha , Gāndharam
Antara ,
Suddha
Madhyamam
,
Suddha
Dhaivatham and nishāda
Kākali mē
. As it is a ḷ Rāgam
akarta , by
definition it is a
sampūrna
Rāgam (has all seven notes in ascending and descending
scale). This
Gītam is given as the first
Gītam as it is in praise of Lord
Ganesha and is in
Rāgam Māyāmā
the ḷ
avagou
ḷ
ai
.
This Ganesha
Gītam is in praise of the deity Lord .
Ganesha is widely revered as the
remover of obstacles and more generally as the Lord of beginnings and the Lord of
Obstacles, patron of arts and sciences, and the
Devā of intellect and wisdom. He is
honored at the beginning of rituals and ceremonies and invoked as the Patron of Letters
during writing sessions. Since
Gitās are the first lyrical form taught to students, the
Sāhitya in praise of Lord
Ganesha is suitable and auspicious to be introduced. Hence the
Ganesha Gītam Gītam
is taught as the first for the students.
Sāhitya
Gaṇa nātha Kazhal tozhudēn
Aḍiyēn nān
Dēvar nāḍum tudi puriyum Kari mukhanē
Tamizhisai vara dayai purivāy
Haran maganē ēdu kurai ninadharuḷ varin
Yenakkidu tadivaru
Word meaning
Gaṇa nātha n
Ga
– Oh the lord of s
ā
Kazhal
your feet
Tozhudēn
worship
Aḍiyēn nān
I’m your
servant
Dēvar
– The celestial
Dēvās
Nā
ḍ
um
– come in search of you
Tudi puriyum
– praise you
Kari mukhanē
– elephant faced one
Tamizhisai vara Tamil
– To gain knowledge of music
Dayai purivāy
– show mercy up on me
Haran
Lord
Siva
Maganē
– The son
Ēdu kurai
– where is sorrow?
Ninadharu
ḷ
varin
– when your grace is there
Yenakkidu Tadivarum
– I will gain knowledge.
Meaning
This Po
Gītam is composed by ṇ
nayya Pillai (1804–1864) who was one among the
Tanjāvur Quartet.
Tanjāvur Quartet were four brothers who lived during the early 19th
Bharatanā
century and contributed to the development of the Indian classical dance ṭ
yam
and
Karnātik music. The brothers Po
Chinnayya Pillai (1802–1856), ṇ
nayya Pillai
(1804–1864), Va
Sivanāndam Pillai (1808–1863) and ḍ
ivēlu Pillai (1810–1845) were
employed in the courts of the
Marāthā King Tanjāvur
Serfoji II at Po
. ṇ
nayya Pillai
was
Gītās
the first to compose amil.
in T
In this Ganesha
gītam the composer surrenders completely to Lord . He says, Lord
Ganās
Ganesha is the lord of the , and he worships his feet. He says, “I’m a servant to
you my Lord”. The
Dēvās (celestial lords), come in search of this Elephant faced Lord
and praise him. The composer requests the Lord to show his grace on him to gain
knowledge in Tamil music.
Siva
The composer calls him, “Oh! The son of Lord , when your grace is upon me,
where is the place for sorrows?”
Yenakkidu
tadivaru
In this
gītam the composer expresses complete devotion towards the Lord
Ganesha and feels confident that difficulties can never be around with the blessings of
the Lord.
The
Svara framework of this
gītam commences gradually from s and then
Rāgam
progresses involving all the characteristic phrases of the . The
jīva Svaras of
Māyāmāḷavagouḷai are well emphasized through Janṭa
dīrgha and Janṭa prayōgās such
.
‘ṡnṙṡ’ Simple
as ‘ṡndp ndpm dpmg pmgr’ are found towards the
Svara patterns such as
gītam
end of the . They add beauty to the song and bring out the
Svara prayōgās within
Rāgam
the . The range of the
gītam extends up to the higher octave Rishabam
Svara ṙ ( ).
gītam
This āvartanas
has only 12 .
gītam
This is a short , with simple
Svara passages. With this
gītam the student
becomes quite familiar with the
rāgā Māyāmā
swarūpam of ḷ
avagou
ḷ
ai
. The rendering of
Sāhitya Svaras
to the tune of the will also be practiced here by the student.
ītās
We can thus see that the G are the advanced musical forms that make use of
Svara
many of the Sāhitya
exercise patterns combined with Gītā
. The above discussed is
one such example.
gītam.
Now let us discuss another such
Ī
GTAM – 2
ŚRĪGAṆANĀTHA
Rāgā– Malahari (15) Ārōhaṇam – s r m
1 p d
1 ṡ
1
Tāḷa – Chatuśrajāti Rūpakam Avarōhaṇam ṡ dp m
1 1g r
2 s
1
Pallavi
m p | d ṡ ṡ ṙ || ṙ ṡ | d p m p ||
śrī . | ga ṇa nā tha || sin dū | . ra var ṇa ||
r m | p d m p || d p | m g r s ||
ka ru | ṇā sā ga ra || ka ri | va da . na ||
s r | m , g r || s r | g r s , ||
lam . | bō . da ra || la ku | mi ka ra . ||
r m | p d m p || d p | m g r s ||
am . | bā . su ta || a ma | ra vi nu ta ||
s r | m , g r || s r | g r s , ||
lam . | bō da ra || la ku | mi ka ra . ||
Charanam 1
m p | d ṡ ṡ ṙ || ṙ ṡ | d p m p ||
sid dha | chā . ra ṇa || ga ṇa | se . vi ta ||
r m | p d m p || d p | m g r s ||
sid dhi | vi nā ya ka || tē . | na mō na mō ||
(lam)
Charanam 2
m p | d ṡ ṡ ṙ || ṙ ṡ | d p m p ||
sa ka | la vi dyā . || . dhi | pū ji ta ||
r m | p d m p || d p | m g r s ||
sa r | vō . thta ma || tē . | na mō na mō ||
(lam)
Explanation for Gītam I
ŚRĪ GAṆANĀTHA
This is the second
Gītam and is composed by
Purandara Dāsa in the
Kannada
Chaturasra Jāti Rūpaka Tā
language. It is set to ḷ āvartana
am which has 6 counts in one ,
Drutam
with one laghu
and one (0 I)
4
This Rāgam Malahari
Gītam is composed in the . It is a
Janya
rāgā derived from the
15
th
mē
ḷ
akarta Māyāmā
, ḷ
avagou
ḷ
ai.
The notes in this scale are
'Suddha Rishabam,
Suddha Madhyamam, Suddha Dhaivatham Ārōhana
in
and
additional
Antara
Gāndharam
in
avarōhana.
Ārōhana: S r m p d
ṡ
Avarōhana
ṡ
dpmgrs
It is an rāgā
upānga , meaning a
Janya
rāgā that takes notes only that are present in
their respective parent
rāgā. This is the first
Janya rāgā in which students of music begin
Gītās
to learn the .
Malahari literally means that which removes dirt. It is a
rāgā ascribed
Malahari cleanses the mind of all evil thoughts.
to the rainy season. This
Gītam is also in
Ganesha
praise of the deity Lord .
gītam
Let us discuss the meaning of this in the next session. Thank you!
