Request - History/Use of violin in Carnatic music
Amitava Sarkar
Could folks assist with providing some sources on the Internet that focuses on
the history of the violin in Carnatic music, the schools, and techniques? I
have located one article at
http://www.geko.net.au/~mohan/articles/violinists.html on the instrument. Any
others?
There seems to be some confusion as to who (if a single individual) was
responsible for the indtroduction of the instrument into Carnatic music. What
were the 'original' accompanying instruments? Flute? Sarangi? Veena?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Amitava
SESHAN RAMASWAMI
Sangeeta Shankar (daughter and disciple of Dr. N. Rajam) wrote a doctoral
thesis on the contribution of the violin and violinists to Indian
classical music (both North and South) .... one of her conclusions about
the history of the violin in Indian music was that the principle of
bowing, and the first bowed instruments likely originated in India, but
the violin form of the bowed instrument was adapted to Indian music only
(relatively speaking :)) recently .... I do not remember to whom she
attributes the introduction of the violin into Indian classical music.
Her thesis has a picture of a sculpted figure of a musician on the temple
walls at Chidambaram - the musician's instrument looks a lot like the
modern day violin.
Rama
Srini Pichumani
In article <amitava.sarka...@mci.com>, Amitava Sarkar
>
>There seems to be some confusion as to who (if a single individual) was
It is said that the great composer Muthuswami Dikshitar's
brother, Baluswami Dikshitar, was the first person to play
Carnatic music on the violin. The entire Dikshitar family
moved to Manali near Madras in the late 1700s from their
home in TiruvArUr in Thanjavur Dt and were there for quite
a while, during which time they heard the airs and instruments
of the British in Fort St.George in Madras. Manali Venkatakrishna
Mudaliar (or someone in his family) who was the dubAsh (<Skt.
dvibhAShI) for the English is said to have asked Baluswami
to try playing Carnatic music on the violin.
Later, Vadivelu, the last of the famous Thanjavur quartet
who pioneered the BharatanATyam dance format, learnt the
violin and became a noted violin player... he was the most
favored courtier for a while in Travancore during the reign
of Svati Tirunal(1830-1846).
Of course, there is no way to confirm that Baluswami was
indeed the very first person in this regard... but this
much seems definitely true - that he and Vadivelu paved the
way for the widespread use of the instrument, given their
stature in the field, the enormous amount of musical action
and interaction in Thanjavur Dt, and their travels to various
places and royal courts.
And since the latter half of the 19th century, there has been
a steady stream of violinists about whom we have information
in varying levels of detail...
I don't know what confusion you are hinting at - but I know
that R.Sathyanarayana of Mysore, who is otherwise a very solid
and thorough scholar, goes off on his boondoggles on this issue
by pointing out a painting in the Mysore Court, supposedly from
Tippu's times (1784, if I am right), and suggesting that the
violin was already in widespread use in Carnatic music.
>What were the 'original' accompanying instruments? Flute?
>Sarangi? Veena?
Some say that it was the veena... probably basing it
on a few vaiNika-gAyaka traditions... Dikshitar calls
himself a vaiNika-gAyaka... Tyagaraja _may_ have been
accompanied on the veena, at times, by his disciple
Veena Kuppier for whose ability he had great regard...
regular musicians may also have had veena for accompaniment.
Flute accompaniment seems very remote as a possibility.
However veena and flute did form part of the dance orchestra.
Sarangi is documented as far down as Tirunelveli... but I
don't know if there are any details about its use for
accompaniment.
In Dhrupad, certainly, rudra veena accompaniment seems to
have existed, at least in the Dagar tradition as per the
sleevenotes of some Zia Mohiuddin Dagar CDs.
>that focuses on the history of the violin in Carnatic music, the
>schools, and techniques?
Prof.P.Sambamurti's music books South Indian Music (vols i-vi)
will definitely be useful in this regard... however drab the
get-up and organization of the books are, they nevertheless
contain a lot of useful info and insights. Somewhere there
he talks about a couple of styles of violin... one of which
he calls the piDi style... I don't know if this is right, but
he seems to be hinting at a style very different from, let
us say, the "glib" technique of MSG, to choose a contemporary
performer.
-Srini.
Kartik Raghupathi
Dear everyone,
Although I am by no means an expert in this area, I came across an
article from
the Hindu newspaper which I had saved on my computer which provides an
interesting reference about the history of the violin in India. It
comes from an article
entitled "THE EVOLUTION OF VIOLIN" and is from The Hindu dated December
22, 1993.
Of interest are the following lines from the article:
"The violin, which had developed from its Welsh and Byzantine origins in
the
10th and 11th centuries, changed in the 16th century from a lower pitch
to
a higher octave. It has occupied an important place in Western music.
The
Stradivarius is the best and all others are copies. In India, the bowed
instrument was in existence from the 7th century B.C. Tribal and folk
music
had many types of violines but they were of coconut shell, with cactus
fibre for bowing and was popular in all parts of the country..."
This reference to the existence of some form of the violin in India from
the 7th century BC may have something to do with the fact which Mr.
Srini
Pichumani mentioned concerning R.Sathyanarayana of Mysore, who perhaps
suggested the violin may have already been widespread in use before
1784.
Anyone out there who is more knowledgable in this area have any
comments on this?
Kartik Raghupathi
k...@po.cwru.edu
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH
Mohan Ayyar
In article <54o4dv$c...@news.eecs.umich.edu>, sr...@quip.eecs.umich.edu (Srini Pichumani) wrote:
>In article <amitava.sarka...@mci.com>, Amitava Sarkar
><amitava...@mci.com> wrote:
<articles deleted>
Take a look at the article titles 'Great Violin Maestros of the Past'
It discusses the contributions to Carnatic music of four pioneering violinists
namely:
Baluswami Dikshitar (1786 - 1859)
Vadivelu (1810 - 1845)
Tirukodikaval Krishna Ayyar (1857 - 1913)
Malaikottai Govindaswami Pillai (1879 - 1931)
The full article can be found at my Carnatic Corner page, specifically at:
http://www.geko.net.au/~mohan/articles/violinists.html
Mohan Ayyar
mo...@geko.net.au
Carnatic Corner at:
http://www.geko.net/~mohan/music.html