M.D.RAMANATHAN

'നിരുപാദാന സംഭാര-
മാഭിത്താവേവ തന്‍വതേ
ജഗച്ചിത്രം നമസ്തൈസ്മ
കലാനാഥായ ശൂലിനേ.'
-വസുഗുപ്തന്‍

The views shared here are those of a music illiterate who happened to hear M.D.Ramanathan. There is nothing novel in these observations and may be wrong either. Let the scholars of music pardon me.This is a tribute to M.D.R whose death anniversary falls on 24th of April.

K.S.Mahadevan, an eminent music critic said about M.D.Ramanathan ,“ this giant of an Oak tree may have flowered late, but till it fell, it was one of the tallest in the musical flora of our country.” Another musicologist K.Chandrashekharan said, “ Ramanathan’s voice gained majesty and depth and moved like a great mountain stream. His voice registered at every turn of its grand gait and the rasika knew that he was in the presence of a great musician.” Dr. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer likened some of Ramanathan’s phrases to rounded pearls issuing from a great vocalist.

When Ramanathan was in one of his best moods ,his  voice touched us in our sensitive chords and something intensely vibrant pierced the seat of our own sensibilities. His raga alapana often reminded us of a gold or diamond prospector, digging up large loads and often striking it rich. Certain ragas became his monopoly so to speak eg; Yadukulakambo
ji, Ritigowla, Shama , Saveri, Bilahari, Purvikalyani. While elaborating these ragas even experienced musicians would come under the spell of incomparably suggestive power of his handling his soft attacks, the audumbration of phrase of exquisite roundness, colouring and subtlety, rolling out of his rich voice like freshly minted coins. On such occasions one would feel that Ramanathan infused a third dimension into his music. Ramanathan’s deliberate choice of Vilambakala was an oasis with its green palms and luscious dates. His  music moved in massive chords when he
lingered lovingly on both the sahitya and sangita of great vaggeyakaras.

In his deep-toned exposition there was an irresistible combination of tenderness and melody. In the purity of tone, admirable vilamba kala pacing and spacing. To Ramanathan, his, extended Kalapramana was a sort of fine tool with which he probed into the inner core of the Kritis of Thyagaraja, Shyama Sastry and Swathi Thirunal and came up with apocalyptic visions of their true beauty when Ramanathan sang “Dorakuna” or “Diwakaram Sanaiswaram” or “Janani ninnu vina”, “Samajavara Gamana”, “Devi Pavanae”or “Dhavayami Reghu Ramam”.-in his inspired moments, one felt he experienced ecstatic consciousness of their artistic content; and that every sangathi he improvised yielded fresh illuminations of the song to our sensitized faculties. His thorough grasp of  Sanskrit,Tamil,Telugu,Malayalam made him fully alive to the nuances of the sahithya and the inner meaning of the kritis. Ramanathan’s music to him an intensely felt experience, a shared personal expression of aesthetic sensitivity and enjoyment. He stormed the citadel of music and won the hearts of professionals and lay man alike with his profound Vidwat, a deeply resonant and rich voice and inspired singing of Kritis, rendered conspicuously in a Kalapramana as large as life.



* M.D.Ramanathan, renowned Carnatic music composer and vocalist ( 1923 – 1984)

MDR teaching students at Kalakshetra. Photo: The Hindu Archives

ON MARGE PIERCY'S POEMS

Marge Piercy was born in Detroit, Michigan.During the 1960s, Piercy was an organizer in political movements like the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the movement against the war in Vietnam, an engagement which has shaped her work in myriad ways.Perhaps most importantly, though, has been Piercy’s sustained involvement with feminism, Marxism and environmental thought. An extremely prolific writer, Piercy has published 17 volumes of poetry and 17 novels.

Marge Piercy's poetry is a revelation of the internal and imaginative life.She shocks the readers into complexities of womanhood and breakdowns,psychic awareness and order.Sandra M.Gilbert and Susan Gubar point out that 'these phenomena of interiorization mark the women writers' struggle  for artistic self-definition.'Piercy's poetry is about death,rage,hatred,blood, wounds,cuts,deformities,stings,fever-there is devil's plenty with which she hardly reconciles.Her poetry reveals a hurting,grinding,grating joy which comes from the perfection of the descriptive language that overcomes a hesitating spirit.The expressive violence of the language comes from a mind speeding along madly,yet she commands an uncanny control of language,sound,rhythm and imagery that is the opposite of mental disorder.The symbols and metaphors she uses have the stamp of femaleness about them.The biological imagery in her poetry is useful to understand women's situation in society from a female angle.

The quest for the self and the fragmentation of the self are central to the poetry of Marge Piercy.Most of her personae undergo disintegration of the self:each self split into the woman and the artist.The conflict between split selves is a common motif in her poetry.Madness as a theme and point of view shaping poetic technique is the hallmark of her poetry.The adaptation of madness as poetic material which reveals a wide range of experiences and responses is felt in the individual  voices of the poet and her personae who are at once familiar and strange to the poet.Susan Sontag observes that madness symbolizes the predicament of a modern writer.In Piercy's poetry ,madness is a means of self -realisation.

Marge Piercy has the visionary insight by which she rewrites the history of the female.She narrates the story of a woman poet in such a manner that changes her life as well as those of others.

RAJAM PUSHPAVANAM:IN MEMORY OF A UNIQE VOICE

This dates back to a score of years. I met Perumal Muthiah in Aavarampalayam, Coimbatore. He was a devout music lover and a true friend, through him I happened to know about a lot of things in life. He owned a marvelous collection of music records and cassettes. I was a vagabond then, he took me as his roommate, fed, clothed and kept me alive in those years of penury.

I accompanied him in his long journeys to 100 feet road, Gandhipuram, Maruthamala, those rambles provided apt background for discussions on world literature, music and everything under the Sun. He introduced me to maestros like Tiger Varadachari, Kishori Amonker, Karaikkurichi Arunachalam, M.D.Ramanathan, Chandru Atma, Mallikarjun Mansur, Mehdi Hassan etc,. I heard Mohammad Rafi’s Hindusthani Bhajans for the first time in Muthiah’s gramophone. He was a cornucopia of knowledge. I learned of film directors like Mahendran, Rudrayya; writers like Kulaikoothan, Mouni, Na. Muthuswamy ; painters like Aadimulam, danseuse like Leela Samson, through him.

I heard of Rajam Pushpavanam from Muthiah who was an ardent fan of her. He appreciated her ,used to say of her ‘ostensible voice’, those were his own words on Rajam. Later in our travel to Himalaya; in a frosty night ,near Adibadrinath temple, I heard Rajam’s serene rendition in Muthiah’s taperecorder. It cured me off all the pains and it proved again that music is a panacea.

In ‘Philosophical Studies on East and West’ by Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, he pointed out Rajam’s soul stirring expatiation in the chapter dealing with music and philosophy. While reading I mused on that unsung artist. Since then I never heard anyone mentioning Rajam Pushpavanam related to music.

I came to know that later Muthiah had become an ascetic and now I have no idea of his whereabouts. Whenever I hear Rajam Pushpavanam’s blissful voice , I remember Muthiah.

POEMS OF AVEESH

I REMEMBER AVEESH  ,  A YOUNG POET HAILS FROM TRICHUR WHO HAD AN UNTIMELY DEATH . HE WASN'T A CLOSE FRIEND OF MINE .  A DAY'S FRIENDSHIP , THAT'S ALL . WE MET IN THE OPEN MAIDAN AROUND VADAKUMNADHA TEMPLE . WHEN SAID ADIEU ,  HE GAVE ME BUS FARE , REALIZING MY BANKRUPTCY . AN EMBODIMENT OF GOODNESS .

LATER , I GOT HIS COLLECTION OF POEMS , WHICH WAS PUBLISHED POSTHUMOUSLY , FROM ONE OF MY FRIENDS IN TRICHUR . IT CONTAINED MANY PROMISING VERSES . THERE WAS AN IN DEPTH STUDY ON AVEESH'S POEMS DONE BY K.G.SANKARAPILLAI . IT IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE INTRODUCTIONS OF SANKARAPILLAI DID .  Dr.S.P.RAMESH'S NOTE WAS THERE IN IT ?  A POEM OF ATTUR RAVIVRMA ON AVEESH ? I DON'T REMEMBER .  I LOST THAT BOOK IN MY YEARS LONG WANDERINGS . YET ANOTHER LOSS.

I HAVE READ AVEESH'S POEMS QUITE A NUMBER OF TIMES , AND FROM THAT MEMORY I CAN ABSOLUTELY SAY THAT , OF THE POST MODERN NATURE POEMS DEVELOPED IN MALAYALAM ,  ITS TRACES WAS SEEN IN SOME OF HIS POEMS . THE LITTLE TIME I SPENT WITH HIM PROVED THAT HE HAD AN UNUSUAL VIEW , RADICAL OBSERVATIONS ON POETRY , AMONG OTHER THINGS . HE READ A LOT , I'M SURE.

OPEN GROUND OF VADAKUMNADHAN , STILL BRINGS TO MY MIND THE DAY WE MET.
HOW DID AVEESH CAME IN THAT AGE , IN A DAY , AND REMAINED AN UNFORGETTABLE FIGURE ?
LIKE A SOLITARY BIRD WITH NUMEROUS WINGS , WHERE HAD HE FLOWN AWAY ?

IS EVERY FARE WELLS
MEANT A RETURN ?
DON'T KNOW.
I'M IGNORANT.

POEMS OF LAL LUKOSE

Lal Lukose is a bosom friend of ours. One ,with a different reading,different observations. He keeps strange interests in music and films. Outside our life of ease,his life too goes on in its clamor and turbulence. His solitary journey heads to an altitude and depth where our commonplace discussions on music, cinema and literature cannot reach. Lal is not a regular poet, Therefore his poems do not tire us like other poets who writes incessantly. Without doubt we can say that Lal is an adept who gives less attention to fame and fortune and we proudly present his poems.


I

SPIDER AND BEETLE

There was a spider and a beetle
Spider spun thread
From the spider's mouth
Grew ten thousand thread
Around the earth.

Beetle sung along the blooms.
When the beetle met the spider again,
Which was vaulting
From stars to stars And spinning the web
To trap the earth,
It didn't tell the hues it saw.
Spider and beetle went on as friends.

II

FISH


Fish kept in ice tastes less
Fish in the sea
Catches its prey,unmindful of its caste.

Whale's mouth is big
It can have only tiny water creatures.
Shark is dangerous
Eats everything.
Fishes precipitates in the shore
When the waves stir
In the rhythm of winds.
Fishes, livelihood of man.
Bargaining, another issue.

I went to the sea
In a night in Karkkidakam.
Sea, darkness.
Then I knew the deathly passion
Of darkness.

Dreams are like fishes.
They slip from reason.
Once reach the shore of vigor
They die out like poetry.
Sylvan trees.
Archaic trees.
Roar of lion.

Let me go back to the sea
Leaving flowers and old trees.
I'm a fishmonger.



*Karkkidakam is a period of monsoon;cloudy days , darkness are its features.

A NOTE ON QURAN

If we read Quran between the lines, we will come across eloquent passages breathing a spirit of universal toleration and harmony.It is an embodiment of the rich contents of the Prophet's mind,as well as of the loftiness of his spiritual genius.It is really an insult to human wisdom to suppose that Prophet of Islam did actually advocate compulsion in religion. The verses quoted below from Quran constitute proofs positive of his catholicity and friendliness towards the religions of others. The Quran says: 'If thy Lord had pleased,verily all who are in earth would be loved together. What! Whilt thou compel men to become believers?' Say thou:'I worship not that ye worship,and ye do not worship that which I worship;neither shall I worship what ye worship;neither ye worship what I worship;to you be your religion;to me my religion'.'Revile not those whom they call on beside God,lest they, in their ignorance, despitefuly revile Him.Thus have we planned out their actions for every people;then shall they return to their Lord,and He will declare to them what those actions have been.' 'Verily, they who believe, they who follow the Jewish religion, and the Christians,and the Sabeites, whoever of these doeth that which is right, shall have their reward with their Lord;fear shall not come upon them, neither shall be grieved'.'And if God had pleased,He had surely made you all one people; but He would test you by what He hath given to each.Be emulous, then , in good deeds.To God shall ye all return, and He will tell you concerning the subject of disputes'.'To everyone of you have we given a rule and a beaten track'.'Our God and your God are one God and after Him we all strive'.
Indeed,what stronger and more convincing testimony is needed to demonstrate the universalism in Islam-the freedom extended in Quran to every man to follow his own convictions in matters religious? The illustrious Persian poet Sanai has also sung to the same tune:'Islam and the faiths other than Islam follow Thee,O Lord,when they declare that there is no god but God'.Even the beautiful song of the celebrated Urdu poet Zafar expresses the same sentiment: 'Angels and men, Hindus and Mussalmans, thou , O Lord,hast created according to Thy sweet will.Everyone bows to Thee, for it is Thou who art worshiped everywhere- in the Caaba, in the mosque,or in the temple. Thou art omnipresent.Every heart is a dwelling place,and Thou art the dweller. There is no heart where Thou abidest not. Thou dost abide equally in all hearts, for Thou art all that exist in the universe'.So does another Urdu bard sing:
'Only names differ,Beloved!
All forsooth are but the same.
Both the ocean and the dew-drop,
But one living liquid frame.

--------------------------------

*Remembering Kalam Vellimadu who gave me the Quran for the first time, E. Moidu Maulavi Sahib who taught me the depth of Urdu language, and friends Abdur Rehman Kutty,Syed Alavi Sahib,Nazar.

*Quotations from Quran (Translated from the Arabic by Rev.J.M.Rodwell)

ON ADITYA SANKAR'S POEMS

'Search for a lane where
the air is rusty and bleeding
by the long absence of a beloved son'

Aditya Sankar's poems are journeys to subjects in varied moods, in different vehicles or at times in gentle walk.Most often these haphazard jaunts, trip here and there,never reaches its destinations. A word picture without a beginning ,middle and an end. The space of these poems are far away from other poems with possessive approaches to subjects.

In malayalam poetry, Satchidanandan is one who has a possessive approach to subjects. To a certain extent the same is applicable to K.G. Sankara Pillai too.(though their poems help us to know the market standard of subjects! ) In Balachandran Chullikkadu,this crosses the limit hence,had to say they are of the stale variety. What's wrong with possessiveness is,though it catches attention suddenly,loses the same in like manner. Contemporary literary critic Mark Doren says" A poet who detached with the subject enables him to see what is beneath him and about him as well as what is above him". How fast we accepted P.Kunjhiraman Nair's possessiveness as' keraliyatha'(everything pertaining to kerala)? In fact,the advancement,evolution and tautness of keralite society seen in Edassei and Attoor is not much evident in 'P' .

If Aditya's poem is devoid of possessive approach ,it doesn't mean,it is not intense. It do have intensity to the core.,but it lies in the manner in which it is written and in the selection of its diction. This remain active enough to explain the subject in the poem. Like Cavafy,Akmatova,Camus,Amoz Oz,Dali who lived vehement lives,becomes words,interpretations within the poem.

'Standing by the midnight window,
relive Albert Camus-
the meaningless monologue of solitude
when cold wind blows into an old- age home'

Aditya's is a designer poem.He uses films,painting,music , photography etc. as part of this design.
Renowned fashion designer Marlene Cooper opines designs are born out of eccentricities.Just as in a craze,the dreams one saw ,the films ,photography,painting- all merges and designs are created. Such a craze is also seen Aditya's poem but that craziness grows in poetry as a release of minute awareness. Most promising factor of his poems is ,it grow off the existing theories of new malayalam poetry.

He writes,

'To be heard only the lonely
the lords of time'

SONGS OF ALVARS

The Alvars, who laid the foundation for the Vaishnavite movement, were the pioneers of the religion of love. Along with the rest of the country, South India was feeling the impact of Jainism and Budhism during the few centuries before, and in the early centuries of, Christian era. It was during this period ,Alvars with sweet melodies in the popular tongue on their lips, wandered through Tamil land.Thus was set in motion a new revival of Bhakthi movement.
The precise dates of the different Alvars cannot be determined. But it is generally agreed that they lived at different periods during the three centuries beginning from A.D 500.Their influence was mainly confined to the Tamil speaking areas ruled by the four kingdoms of the Pallava, Chola, Pandya, Chera. According to tradition the Alvars were Twelve in number. It is significant that most of them were of humble parentage, and did not attach any importance to caste. However, the character of their lives inspired by divine love endeared them to the people, and differences of caste or position were washed off before this tide.
It was their bhakhti literature that attracted Sri Natha Muni (A.D.824-924),the first of the acharyas of Vaishnavism towards them .The doctrine of self-surrender, later developed by the acharyas , was derived from the Alvars.The acharyas were well-versed in Sanskrit and Tamil.They had a thorough knowledge of the Vedas, Upanishads, and other scriptures. Sri Ramanuja belonged to this line of acharyas.Sri Natha Muni took upon himself the task of popularizing the songs of the Alvars.He classified and arranged them metrically, to be chanted in temples side by side with the Vedic hymns. These poems of great beauty are known by the name 'Divya Prabandham’, numbering over four thousand. The twelve Alvars were:Poigai,Bhutattar,Pey,Tirumalisai,Nammalvar,Madhurakavi,Kulasekhara,Periyalvar,Andal,Tondaradippodi,Tiruppan, and Tirumangai.

*' Bhakthi Poonga' , a tamil book by G. Ethirajulu Naidu, Dr. N.V. Krishna Warrier's introductions to' Verakkuru', a book based on the early Tamil literature ,a translation of Sangha poetry in Malayalam,translation of early Kannada poetry , M.Govindan's study on Mahakavi Tholan ,Ponnambalam Arunachalam's "Philosophical study on East and West",Ayyappapanicker's and D. vinayachandran's studies on thina concept, Satchidanandan's in depth study on Bhakthi literature and his poems on the same subject are available and I request to read them along with this note.

*Thanks for the Tamil language,which is part of my life.


NAMMALVAR

Nammalvar occupies the formost place among the Alvars.Out of his contribution of 1296 verses to the Divya Prabandham ,his magnum opus,Tiruvaimoli,contains 1102.He was born to a vellala (farmer) couple at Karungur-called Alvar Tirunagari now- in Thirunelveli district .His earlier works ,Tiruviruttam, Tiruvasiriyum ,and Peru Tiruvandadi , contain 100,7,87 verses respectively.


Enemies rejoice,dear one suffer,
Death covers everything, men are deceived
Riches ,friends, high heritage,
Dear sweet heart,and one’s own dwelling,
All are left behind; quick Death carries
All ,with suddenness.
O what is this Nature
That spreads destruction?
Like bubbles on water, this life never abides;
Monarchs, surrounded by regality ,disappear unknown.

O seek His lotus feet ,the only refuge.
……………………………

The great magician,
Tricky thief,
He ,a mystery poet disguised,
Entered my life and heart unseen,
And filled my whole being.

TIRUMANGAI ALVAR


Tirumangai was the last of the Alvars. Born to a kalla couple,he was named Nilan, owing to his blue complexion.He has to his credit a number of works, Peria Tirumoli, Tirukkuruntandakam, Tiruneduntandakam, Siria Tirumadal, Peria Tirumadal, and Tiruvelukutrirukkai. His verses a total 1360,thus contributing the largest share to the four thousand verses of the Alvars.

He who destroyed the evil demons,
Aided by monkeys and bears,
That Lord, who is my honey and milk,
His name did I utter.
…………………………………

Torturing your body
And imprisoning life,
And throwing all the
Five senses in agony,
Why do you dry up in fiery austerities?
Reach Chitrakuta where flora and fauna
Smile in adundence.
And there
Devote yourself to His worship.

KULASEKHARA

Kulasekhara is well known for his celebrated Sanskrit hymn Mukundamala. He was the son of the king of the Chera kingdom, corresponding to the present Kerala state.His tamil work Perumal Tirumoli consists of 105 psalms, divided into ten sections.



Shall that day dawn when lovers of the Lord,
With songs enchanting on their lips,
Shall dance together in ecstasy?
When the ground shall
Turn muddy with their tears of joy,
In that holy Flood ,holier than the Ganga,
When shall I roll in delight?

………………………………….

A particle of sand the earth is,
The ocean, a little drop,
Fire, a tiny spark twinkling,
Vayu,a feeble breath,
And space a mere minute hole.

………………………….

They think of this fleeting world
As if full of eternal good;
They who always greedily brood
Over food and raiment for this fleshy mould.
O save me from their company ,
They travel in evil avenues.

PERIYALVAR

Periyalvar was born to a Brahmin family in Srivilliputtur, in the kingdom of the Pandyas. His only work known as Tirumoli contains 461 stanzas. Most of these refer to the Krishna incarnation.

The flock of deer
With tremulous eyes,
Their mouthfuls of grass slip off
At the call of Krishna’s flute;
They stand enchanted like
Deer in a picture.

……………………………

O fool,you call your sons
With earthly names, of mortals
Who reach dusty graves.
O call them with His numerous names,
The blue one,the cynosure of all eyes.

ANDAL

A reference has already been made as to how Periyalvar found a a female child under a ‘tulasi’ bush in his garden. He brought her home, and his wife, too, was overjoyed .They named her Goda (in Tamil,Kodai). The word means ‘she who was born of Mother Earth '.
Andal 's mysticism has been compared to that of Mirabai and St.Theresa.Her two works are Thiruppavai and Nachiyar Tirumoli,containing 30 and 143 stanzas respectively. They have found an esteemed place in Tamil literature.

O my dear cuckoo,
Are you unaware of
Lovers grief?
My bones are all softened.
My spear-like eyes
Remain unwinked for days many.
Caught in the sea of distress,
I look for that ferry boat,
Called the Lord of Vaikunda.
Would you not call Him of golden hue,
Whose banners bear the royal eagle?

THREE BOOKS:THREE SHORT REVIEWS

In memory of the great gandhian who I know ,the creator of the wondrous movement 'Ayalkoottam',editor of 'Darshanam'(monthly) a platform for social awareness, D.Pankajakshakurup .



ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL LIFE AND RELATIONS
By M.K.Gandhi

( Three volumes. Total pages-846 compiled and edited by V.B. Kher)

To Gandhiji, the motive behind every work is the realization of truth.Even a social and political system, in order to be far reaching, must have truthful urges serving as its basis.To him, therefore,Swaraj means self- control by each individual.A society where the individuals do not possess this quality is not ’really free’.When the individuals can control themselves,there is no need for external interference, so that there is a state of enlightened anarchy,and each individual is ‘really free’.Dictatorship is not a suitable means for the attainment of this ideal;For it does not pave the way for the withering away of the state;rather, it has a tendency to perpetuate violence and struggle for power.Gandhiji, therefore,champions decentralized democracy with ’ Panchayati Raj’ as its corner-stone.
On a similar ground, he decries the western pattern of industrialization.In the west,industrialization has caused concentration of economic power,economic inequality,and the conflict between capital and labour. Such a system is bound to hinder the unfolding of human personality. Therefore the use of machinery should be reduced to an essential minimum, and attention should be given to the development of each village as a self-contained unit ‘manufacturing mainly for use'.'"Provided this character of the industry is maintained, there would be no objection to villages using even modern machines and tools that they can afford to use. Only, they should not be used as a means of exploitation of others’. Gandhiji has also much to speak about bread labour, labour dispute, and similar other problems. His views on all these subjects and their interrelations have been admirably brought together in these three volumes. The book will be of immense help to every serious student of Gandhism.

LETTERS TO SARDAR VALLABHBHAI PATEL
By M.K.Gandhi

This book contains a bunch of letters of Gandhiji, translated from the original Gujarati, dealing mostly with the topics connected with the various phases of the independence struggle.

Letters, really speaking, mirror the contents of the writer’s mind. The different moods of the writer, reflecting his fears and disappointments, hopes and joys, humour, love, or sympathy, can be felt in the pages of this book. The letters cover the entire period of the hectic days of our national struggle from 1921 to 1947. It is fascinating to read what Gandhiji’s thoughts were on some of the important events that have shaped India’s future-Bardoli ‘satyagraha’; Round Table Conference; Bihar earthquake; Haripur Congress; Naokhali, Delhi, and Punjab disturbances; etc.
Students of history will derive much benefit from these letters, and the general reader will get a valuable insight into the personality of Gandhiji.

THE STORY OF BARDOLI
By Mahadev Desai

Bardoli’s name has been permanently inscribed in the pages of modern Indian history. The non-violent battle waged by the peasant population of this little taluk of Gujarat for seven months during 1928, under the inspiring leadership of Vallabhbhai Patel,was aimed at securing remission of an increased levy in land revenue.The satyagraha drew the attention of people even from remote countries and created a stir in the British Parliament .Its triumph acted as a fillip to India’s freedom struggle.Gandhiji wrote then:’Though the object of the proposed satyagraha is local and specific, it has an all-India application…..The struggle has an indirect bearing on swaraj’(p.45)
The author of this book, Mahadev Desai ,a martyr in the cause of India’s freedom, who worked for many years in close association with Gandhiji.The book unfolds,in arresting language,the history of Bardoli satyagraha and its sequel, in two parts. When it was first published in 1929, the volume must have acted as an immediate tonic to the freedom movement.Now this book will be read like a story by the young generation.All the same, the author has made the book authentic with numerous quotations from actual correspondence and many statistical details .

WITH V.DAKSHINAMURTHY

Here is the music maestro V. Dakshinamurthy,unmindful of the hue and cry of the age,reluctant to fame,positions and controversies. Yes,the master beyond par excellence. All time favourite of music lovers who blended malayalam film songs with carnatic music,made them evergreen;a devotee of music.

A nonagenerian,'swamy',he is affectionately called takes life as a compassionate,delicate feeling. I met him at the Garuda Appartments, with his younger daughter Parvathi and family , which is on the north gate of the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in Trivandrum. I learned, for those who are pious at heart,old age cannot catch them easily. He presents a moving symbol of this fact ,energetic walking,movements, nonstumbling dulcet
voice,compliant,godly demeanour and radiant eyes. The old age of this perpetual traveller too is clear and undefiled.

He began, where is truth? My be he is quite conscious of our tarnished surroundings. He answered it as nothingness. Nothingness is the prime truth, the yogic essence says Swami. If there is real music ,it is God itself. He compares God to a merciful sea incessantly pouring out music. Sangeetha Ganga has no other way but to merge with the sea of music. As a music enthusiast his bliss lies in searching for the God with undying form of music.

His eloquence fills with spiritual plenty. In the contemporary world where spiritualism is played as trump card to win fame and fortune, among spiritual superstars who become best sellers in American market,this devout musician stands alone because of righteousness and creative goodness.He hasn't any wishes but for the immaculate naturalism,that is his spirituality. And his music is the completion emerging out of the depths of that spirituality.

Swamy always remembers what his Guru Venkitachalam Potti had said. 'Knowledge is like water in a well. It replenishes again, the more you draw,the more it supplies. Swami has no disciples in the Gurukula system but there are numerous informally. Just as his Guru advised he shared his knowledge to others and hence his life is gratified.

He spends his time travelling, to the dear and near in Chennai,Trivandrum, Palghat and to many temples. They satisfy him and in such fruitful journeys,places, time never bothers,he said. 'I don't want
to compare old and modern film songs. Likes and dislikes are creations of the mind. It's not easy for sound to become a song. Song is a completion,perfection. Sound is the beginning. Unfortunately most of the songs remain as sounds',he added.

When asked how he spends a day,what Swamy said became his definition of music. He turns every moment a chant through meditation. That is how the day goes. The tail end of the rosary is in the musician's hands. The song as kite, tied by its thread is in the infinite sky.Once chanting ceases songs vanish.Then what's music? He was silent for a moment, 'it's nothingness'.

First published in Varadya Madyamam April 22, 2001
.

A FOOBALL LUNATIC WRITES

VUVUZELA HAIKU

vuvuzelas blare

Tshabalala la la

as Bafana score

---Crispin Thomas


While watching world cup 2010, remember Lucien Laurent who scored the first goal in World Cup, the black dominance of Pele ,Cafu ; wings of Johen Cruyff;Gerd Mullar's horse shoe beats;George Best-Prince of dribbling;Maradona's magical realism;fighters like Alfredo Stefano,Eure Bio.....Sentinels of dreams Lev Yasin, Dino Zoff, Walter Zenga ,Rene Higuita,Oliver Khan....The two world wars in between..... And of course our Inder singh, I.M. Vijayan,Nevil de Souza, Chuni Goswami, Gostho pal,P.Tangaraj,Indrapalan,V.P.Sathyan,Najimudeen, Titus Kurien.Xavier Pius..........The young children who play street football.MUST HAVE MEMORIES.

ON B.RAJEEVAN'S WRITINGS

B. Rajivan’s ‘Vakkukalum Vasthukkalum’ attracted me because of the serious approach to the subjects under discussion. This type of ‘seriousness ’is very relevant when considering the silly going literary and political scenario in news papers, periodicals and visual media around . The book is in need of further discussions , criticism and fill ups.

The first part of the book deals with literature. The studies on Satchidanandan, Sankarapillai are satisfactory in a historical point of view. When looking from the contemporary context of literary criticism , its limitations are gradually appears . While going through it an astute reader may curiously wish to know what Rajeevan writes about their poems in the changing phase , pattern and democratization of Malayalam poetry after 90’s. How they participate in that change? Any degradation happened to their poetry? If such a search is done , a totality could be attained in case of above said studies. Unfortunately Rajeevan evades the risk of that continuity.

The second part discussing changing Marxism. Here, Rajeevan is trying to know the differential reality of Marxism. He can recognize it to an extent globally. But when focusing on Kerala, some of his assumptions needed criticism.

Why Rajeevan again and again stress on E.M.S? Can E.M.S face the later developments of Marxism in its depth? Is he capable of analyzing the new complexities taken place in Marxism after the fall of Soviet Union , the arrival of postmodernism and globalization.? How can one reach into the core of the problems of Kerala society through E.M.S? These are not questions but doubts calls for more studies.

The studies on Sree Narayanaguru is comparatively filled with fresh observations. But at the same time a serious reader may expect a continuity of this mainly based on new social movements of Aadivasies, particularly under C.K.Janu, Plachimada, Chengara,Valanthakadu…and so on. How do these movements contribute to the discussions on the utilization and broadening of liberal democracy? Where should the civil society as a rewriting force of democratic system be posted ? These questions are also possible related to Rajeevan’s assessments.

After all, this book gives an impression that the author is not able to escape from the grips of the so called main stream of the left .I feel, Rajeevan’s journey with the main stream, minimizes the possibilities of this book, in a broad sense. In the mean time, no doubt, this book is the document of a writer, and his evolutions, who is dedicated his life in search of leftist thought, terminology and aesthetics, for years.

With all this feelings, doubts and disagreements, I prefer this book as a valuable one recently published in Malayalam .And I realize it is not quite appropriate to write about it in the limited space.

CRITICS DIE THIS WAY

Most of our mature critics are shot dead by their own sensibility. One of the proofs of this is the interview of Dr. V. Rajakrishnan in Madhyamam Weekly. If the interview can be believed, his opinions are peripheral and irresponsible. The interview revealed the incapability and ignorance of Rajakrishnan in realizing contemporary Malayalam literature.His ideas are ragged and exhausted. Let the books he read give him pardon for the sin.Almost of his opinions does not deserve analyzations for they lack quality.
Critics like Rajakrishnan,get into a conclusion that nothing happened in Malayalam poetry after Balachandran and Ayyappan. No doubt, in a particular phase of malayalam poetry their contributions need to be considered. But viewing from the new circumstances poetry of Balachandran and Ayyappan are old stuff.Their style of writing(too verbose and too subjective) related to new Poetry have no scope.A critic who want to study new poetry and its historical importance , must flee from the nostalgic grips of B.C and A.A.

A critic must know that new poetry should not be measured out with a touchstone. On the contrary, the poems should be followed one by one and may find out if there is any cultural, political formation common among them. New poetry in Malayalam has done a decentralization.It is a particular subject to be discussed. Through this decentralization, the hegemony of two or three writers was lost and the conventional closed system in poetry changed into a federal system of numerous poets taken place in Malayalam poetry.Hence if any new critic chooses five or six poets fit to the market in order to analyze the new poetry ,does the same mistake done by the oldies.In fact a new critic should have to write about the common sharings of civil society of poets ,its anguishes and the interpretations it produce.

The traditional sensibility in criticism is always in search of a hero.In the period of modernism they have some heroes.In the 70's another group of heroes came.They wrote about these heroes in hyperbolic hero worship.What happened to these heroes later?The answer is transparent to a serious student of malayalam literature.

In the particular context ,new poetry reached to a level that if history is a burden then shake it out and look into matters candidly.Heroes and super stars are not the reality but the civil society is.This idea is in the core of new poetry.It is democratic and it works through the formation of a poets' civil society.It is a new phenomena.An epistemological break.

Hardly aware of this, majority of critics in malayalam are in search of heroes and superstars.Rajakrishnan also does the same.It is a fruitless search .Critics die this way.

A NOTE ON HAZRAT ABDUL QADIR JILANI

Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jilani was the son of Hazrat Abu Saleh, was born on the eleventh of the Rabiul-Sani, the fourth Arabic month, in 470, Hijri in Jilan , Iran. Contemporary historians admits that Abdul Qadir was a born saint.
At the age of six, his own mother taught him the holy Quran and some theological books dealing with daily religious observances. In the year 488 Hijri, when he came of age at 18, he was advised to proceed to Baghdad to complete his education. His mother gave her permission and escorted him as far as the first caravan station. When the caravan brought him to Baghdad, he got himself admitted into Madarsai Nizamia, which had a unique distinction of being the greatest seminary of its time during the heydays of Islam. In a few years’ time, he completed his education, and was looked upon as one of the greatest exponents of Islamic theology and exegesis. Having attained the highest degree of scholarship in various branches of learning in vogue in those days, he turned his attention wholeheartedly towards spiritual realization. He was duly initiated by his spiritual teacher Abu Said Fakhravi, and under his guidance, he proceeded on the path of renunciation, asceticism, and intense devotion to God. He underwent the strictest discipline and occupied himself with single-minded devotion to the pursuit of the higher purpose in life.

He was endowed with a loving heart, and treated the high and the low, the rich and the poor alike. He never looked upon anyone as an inferior being. Every one was impressed by his humility, sincerity, and uprightness .He was ever solicitous about poor people’s welfare, and never spared himself in serving them. He always responded to the call of needy people, whom he helped generously. He often visited disabled and sickly persons. He was quite contented with all that he had, and deliberately avoided cultivating the acquaintance of rich people; and he never accepted any gifts offered by wealthy people. On a number of occasions, some rich and propertied people offered to reserve for him good portions of their money and income, but he invariably declined to accept them. His means of livelihood was trade. During winter season, he bought and sold warm clothing and made good profit. Throughout the whole night, at stated times, he was deeply and uninterruptedly devoted to the worship of God, and never granted an interview to anybody, including the Caliph of Baghdad. He advised his followers in these words, ’The world is a perishable inn, where people come and go. There is no stability in any of its work. Your life, your comfort, your wealth and possession are all transitory. Those who occupy themselves with the passing sense of pleasures, in preference to the attainment of divine wisdom, are never happy and contented. Devoted people should never seek any assistance from wealthy people’.

He invariably emphasized the need of self surrender to the will of God. He was of the opinion that complete resignation to the will of God was just like a ball which moved to and fro by the stroke of a bat, or like a dead body in the hands of one who bathes it before it is buried. This virtue of self –surrender grants to man God’s highest grace, and he feels that no will of his own separate from God’s. This is the only and the best way to the realization of God, as enjoined by him. The spiritual teacher should have five qualities in him:1.One who does not possess any one of them may be treated as ‘dajjal’(that is, he is not genuine) 2.The ‘pir’(teacher)should have full knowledge of the Shariat of Islam, and should have enough knowledge of the divine wisdom.3.He must treat his visitors nicely and with a broad smile, and should ever be ready to entertain travellers.4.He should treat poor and indigent people with utmost consideration and humanity.5.He should have enough spiritual advancement to be able to teach and guide his disciples, and his character should be free from jealousy, hypocrisy, greed, self-complacency, indifference and love of luxury.

He said ,’I do not consider anything better than feeding the poor and general public and treating high and low alike. If I ever become the lord of the whole world, I would give away all my property in charity to the needy and deserving people. I do not keep any money with me. I receive money of different values from morning till evening and not a trace of it remains in my house. Everything is distributed to the poor’.

One who seeks assistance from a being other than God has failed to understand the true nature, glory, and grace of God. A devout Muslim’s first duty is to seek the right way of livelihood, and not pass his time in idleness. No one can set his will against God’s will because He is all- powerful, and controls the outer as well as the inner world. His thoughts runs like this.

Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jilani died on the eleventh of Rabiul-Sani ,561.

A NOTE ON SOREN KIERKEGAARD

Soren Kierkegaard’s writings leave a permanent impression on the reader’s mind. They are extremely original, and, as must be expected, furnish much material for serious thinking. It may be that we find much room for disagreement, but there is no question as regards the sincerity of his convictions. His whole personality, not merely his intellect, seems to be involved in his writings. He wrote as many as eighteen works, but only two of them are, very important: Philosophical Fragments and Concluding Unscientific Postscript .

When we read these we get the impression that we are in contact with a mind of a very fine penetration, and one that is highly sensitive to the meaning of life and its main problems. Evidently, Kierkegaard, was a thinker who was dreadfully in earnest about the purpose of life, and was anxious that his fellowmen should not run after ephemeral things, missing the main aim of life. Thus, his denunciations of the age must be attributed to his zeal and not to cynicism.

Kierkegaard was born and bred up as a pious Christian, but in course of time, he was dissatisfied with the religion of his fathers, as it did not stand the test of reason, and had to be accepted largely as a matter of faith. He therefore broke with Christianity, and was on the look-out for some other safe anchorage. Hegel’s philosophy was then the fashion, and, no wonder, the youngest Ishmaelite sought refuge in it, thinking that it would prove to be a way of life. After deep study, however, he discovered that Hegel’s philosophy was
terribly disappointing. It was a system based on pure thought, which bore no relation to things and in which the individual was nowhere. ‘A philosophy of pure thought’, he writes,’ is for an existing individual a chimera, if the truth that is sought is something to exist in’. He writes elsewhere: ‘The case of most systematizers is as when a man builds a huge castle and lives himself by the side of it, away in a hut. They do not live in the huge systematic building of theirs. This is a decisive objection. Spiritually speaking, a man’s thought should be the building in which he lives.’ Kierkegaard, therefore, rejected Hegel’s philosophy, because it was based on a standpoint that was inaccessible to the individual. Only from a vantage ground outside of human possibility could one survey the totality of existence.

He again sought refuge in Christianity, because it laid the emphasis on the individual and his destiny. The example of Christ was any day more inspiring than all the systems of thought put together. Christ was a historical personality, who claimed to be an incarnation of God. He was a God-Man descended on earth. He was near to us, in as much as he was a human being like anyone of us; and, at the same time, by claiming divinity to him self, he became an ideal for us to follow. One had to place implicit and absolute faith in Christ, if one was to profit by his example. But the conception of God-Man was not free from difficulties. How could God, who is eternally perfect, incarnate Himself as the son of man? It is possible to adduce arguments to prove the existence of God. In regard to a historical human being, there is no difficulty in believing in his existence. But the combination of the two does present logical difficulties which are hard to overcome. It is only by abandoning reason, and taking one’s stand on pure and uncorrupted faith, that one could believe in Christ as God-Man. It is a leap comparable to the leap from the summit of a precipice into abysmal chasm below. The incarnation of God in the person of Christ is a puzzle which can never be rationalized. It is therefore both a limit and a challenge to reason. The true Christian has to lay aside reason and experience and hold fast to this uncertainty. The more passionately he believes in this paradox, the more he proves himself to be an individual. It no doubt entails great risks, but that is the price that the believer has to pay. The man who joins himself to this paradox in the passion of faith is ‘out upon the deep, over seventy thousand fathoms of water’.

Reason and faith are therefore discontinuous. Various attempts have no doubt been made to reconcile them, but Kierkegaard is definitely of the opinion that the breach cannot be healed. The gulf that separates them is too wide to be bridged. They belong to separate spheres and the only way of avoiding confusion, error, and misdirection of effort is to keep them in their respective spheres. St. Thomas of Acquinas and Hegel made serious attempts to rationalize Christian beliefs, but Kierkegaard does not think highly of them. In his opinion, Christian beliefs are wholly alien to rational thought and incapable of assimilation with the rest of our experience. In taking this view, Kierkegaard is in the very good company of Luther and Pascal.

Kierkegaard is not, however, unaware of the place of reason and thinking in life. He did not mean to contest the traditional claim of reason to guide the day-to-day affairs of life and even to make the right choice as between good and evil. Various finite aims, like seeking wealth, pleasure, and happiness, present themselves before us, and we have to examine them carefully. Reason will show that they are not finally satisfactory and hence have to be renounced as not worth our while. From these finite aims, we may make the transitions to what is Infinite, viz. God, but since God is a purely intellectual conception, it is bound to leave us cold. It will not appeal to our will and emotions, and hence it will be one-sided. We have therefore to give up belief even in God, and proceed to something higher which will call into play our deepest emotions and all the strength of our will-power. Such a conception is that of God-Man exemplified in Christ. It is thus by the rigorous exercise of reason that Kierkegaard formulates the final end which will be worthy of a human being as an existing individual.

Reason can take us thus far and no further. Its role is mainly negative. Its function is to expose the worthlessness of the aims that we ordinarily pursue in life. With the aid of abstract reason, Kant tried to reveal the nature of reality, but failed. The thing-in-itself eluded the grasp of reason. Hegel fared no better. He built a colossal system by the process of reconciling seeming contraries in a higher synthesis, but it did not do justice to the reality of the individual self, nor did it bear any relation to things. No method of reasoning can throw light on the nature of the self. Thought finds its limit here. Existence is not a category of reason. Since it precedes essence, it cannot be defined, It therefore falls outside the scope of thought. A system of thought may be ever so comprehensive, but if it leaves out the individual self, it must be treated as pure fantasy. Hegel maintained that the real was the rational, and that it was therefore possible to render intelligible the whole of reality, including the self, but his claim is untenable.

The existing individual is therefore one who wills absolutely. There should be nothing to act as a check on the absoluteness of his ethical decisions. Kant’s categorical imperative does not go far enough. It lays down the condition that what an individual wills must be capable of universal application. Kierkegaard recognizes no such limit. A man can will without let or hindrance only in an original choice. It must be made with one’s eyes open, with the highest sense of responsibility, and in utter solitude. One should not think of following in the footsteps of others, nor expect others to walk along the path laid by one. There is no question of looking to others for guidance, for no two human beings are ever found in identical situations. Each individual must take the decision by himself, throwing the full weight of his personality into it.

The tension between reason and faith will always be there. Even after taking the final decision, the tension will not slacken in the least, for nothing has happened in the meanwhile to change the situation. The absurd does not become probable, merely because one decides to build one’s life upon it. This total decision has to be renewed from time to time that its tension may not weaken. ‘The truth of inwardness is a function of uncertainty’. As uncertainty increases, inwardness also grows. ‘To depend for one’s life upon the object of a supreme choice and to lay hold on to its objective uncertainty and hang suspended between the two, that is the meaning of faith’. Repeated renewal of the decision makes for growth in inwardness, but there is no development of experience which would remove the tension.

Hegel believed that in history there was the unfoldment of a divine purpose, and that an individual might realize the best in him by identifying himself with it. But Kierkegaard does not agree with this view. He thinks that it is absurd to go to history for one’s life without first having a life of one’s own. It is to abdicate the responsibility of living an authentic life and become colorless and inauthentic. It is feeble and ridiculous limitation to call oneself a member of an association, or to identify oneself with the age, or the public good, or the redemption of humanity. By relying on these external factors, the individual ceases to be an individual and becomes a pale and insignificant nonentity.

When all safe ground has thus been taken away from under our feet, we are in a state of despair. It is a state of utter loneliness and isolation. It is then that the individual will awaken to a true knowledge of his nature. A new and unsuspected dimension of his being will then be revealed to him. This is any day more valuable than collecting a mass of irrelevant information and working it up into a system. The only worth-while knowledge is self-knowledge. The self is not a static entity, but a dynamic, functional unit. It exists only in making and constantly renewing total and irrevocable decisions. The manner in which it lays itself open to be impressed by a critical ethical situation is more important than its assimilating a fund of useless knowledge. ‘It is the how of appropriation and not the what of approximation that is important in knowledge ‘. ‘An objective uncertainty held fast in an appropriation process of the most passionate inwardness is the highest truth attainable by an individual’. Only such a truth has an intimate bearing on our most cherished interests.

Such is the chart of life that Kierkegaard has mapped out for the individual. The essence of the self is ethical. To live on the ethical plane means to be making absolute decisions. The decisions must relate to an apparently absurd belief. Between faith and reason, there is no possibility of reconciliation. The two are discontinuous. It is no use therefore trying to rationalize the object of Christian faith. Knowing full well that it is most improbable, one must still cling to it with the most passionate inwardness. A man deserves to be called an individual only so long as he takes total decisions in absolute solitariness and experiences the tension arising from reason and faith pulling in opposite directions. Kierkegaard’s journey through his thoughts is unending.

MUSIC AND PERFORMING ARTS IN VEDAS

To R. Rama Varma Thampuran Sir, who made Sanskrit approachable to the common man and to Dr. Shaji Shanmughom , my brother who is a guiding spirit to me in Ancient Literature.




The term ‘Veda’ comprises Samhita, Aranyaka, Upanishad etc. hence Vedic age means the sum total of all the periods or phases of the vast Vedic literature. We shall make an attempt to give here an outline of the vocal and instrumental music, dance and drama that obtained in the age that covers long passage of time from 5000 B.C to 1000 B.C.

Indian music shares with Indian poetry the glory of being one of the finest of fine arts and stands unique among the musical achievements of the world. So far as the West is concerned, the only country which has achieved great things in the domain of music is Germany. Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Mendelssohn and Schubert are names to conjure with. Germany was great in music, as Greece was in architecture and sculpture and Italy in painting.

Music as an art has been cultivated in India for more than three thousand years. The chant is an essential element of the Vedic ritual; and the reference in later Vedic literature, the scriptures of Buddhism and the epics shows that it was already highly developed as a secular art in the centuries preceding the beginning of the Christian era.

It is easy to write about post-Vedic music, because we have such outstanding works on the subject as Sarangadeva’s Sangitaratnakara ,Bharata’s Natyasastra, Ramamatya’s Svaramelakalanidhi and the like. In English also, there are several books on post-Vedic music. But it is difficult to write about Vedic music, particularly vocal music, as there is no such outstanding work on the subject. In the following lines, an attempt is made to give an outline of the Vedic music as gleaned from the study of the Vedic literature.

Vocal Music

Music, both vocal and instrumental, was well known in the Vedic age. First, we shall take up the discussion about the vocal music. The Manduka-sukta or Frog- hymn of the Rig-Veda (VII.103.7,8) refers to the musical chanting of the priests engaged in the extraction of the soma juice. Different vocal sounds are carefully analysed in the said hymn, as also elsewhere. Singing is often mentioned as adapted to different ends, such as chanting reciting, hymning, etc.

The Sama-Veda is a standing monument to the wonderful skill and originality of the ancients in the science of vocal music. The terms ‘gana’,’giti’,’udgana’,’sangita’,etc, are
found in the Vedic literature, and all these terms signify vocal music of different types. It was referred to as village music, gramageya-gana and forest music, aranyageya-gana as distinct from sama-gana.

The vocal music of the Sama-Veda is a distinct trait of the Vedic music. The sama-gana or sama music was created by adding notation to the Rg-Veda chant. At its early or incipient stage, it had three notes only, which according to some authorities, were nisada, sadja ,pancama; some others, again hold them to be pancama ,gandhara, and sadja. Somanatha(A.D 1609), in his work on Indian music entitled Ragavibodha, holds these to be the three notes of the early Sama-Vedic era. Venkatamukhi, another authority on Indian music, also holds the same view. In the later period of the Sama-Vedic age, the scale of music came up to seven notes. Ramaswami Aiyer, in his learned introduction to Svaramelakalanidhi, a well known book on music by Ramamatya, observes: ‘The scale of the marga music ordinarily ranged from one to four notes, but during the later saman period ,rose to seven notes’, These seven notes of sama music or chant were styled as krusta, prathama, dvitiya, tritiya, caturtha,mandra,and atisvarya. Narada,the author of phonetics and Sayanacarya,the famous commentator of the Vedas, term these seven sama notes as prathama,dvitiya, trtiya, caturtha,pancama, sastha, and saptma .When these seven notes were applied to marga music, they assumed the present nomenclature of sadja, rsabha ,gandhara , madhyama, pancama ,dhaivata and nisada .Kallinatha, in his commentary on Sarngadeva’s monumental work on Indian music Sangitaratnakara, bears testimony to the truth of this statement. He remarks: Seven notes in sama chanting go by the names of krusta, prathama,etc. and these correspond to the notes ranging from sadja to nisada respectively.

There was a difference of opinion amongst scholars regarding the prevalence of marga sangita in the Vedic era ,but now it is agreed on all hands that it did exist in the Vedic age. Some authors on music have identified marga music with the classical music of India, but, notwithstanding various points of similarity, the two differ from each other. The classical Indian music was partially influenced by Persian music in the Moghul court, whereas marga sangita shakes itself free from any such Muslim or foreign influences ;rather, a slight Dravidian influence is felt in marga music. Authorities on Indian music like Swami Prajnanananda, Ramaswami Aiyer, and others categorically assert that marga sangita existed in the Vedic age. In unmistakable terms, Aiyar observes:’I venture to call “marga” Vedic music’. Sarngadeva’s Sagitaratnakaram also lends support to this view, and the Vedic origin of marga music. The raw material of marga sangita was mainly drawn from the Sama-Veda.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

Various types of instrumental music are mentioned in the Vedic literature. The Rg-Veda mentions ’vina, vana, karkari, dundubhi’etc. The first two fall within the category of stringed instruments, whereas the forth one is a kind of a drum..The ‘vana’was a hundred stringed or ’satatantri’ instrument, and none save and except an expert musician with deft fingers could play on it .A musician who could rightly handle a ’vana’ was called exceptionally gifted or expert (atikusali).The vedic seers were admirers of Nature, which fired their imagination and captivated their minds with its eternal message of beauty and charm. They had a keen ear of natural music, and heard it in the rustling of leaves, pattering of rains, raging of storms, warbling of birds, rippling of streams etc. Thus the ‘Satapatha Brahmana’ says:’ When it rains hard, one can hear the sound of sama chant as it were’(XI.2.7.32).Likewise, the raging of storm through forests has been described in the Rg-Veda as the collective deity Maruts (Gods of wind) playing on the musical instrument ‘vana’. The trees of the forest stand for strings or chords of the lyre ‘vana’ in this poetic imagery. In Greek mythology, too, wind blowing through the trees is conceived as Aeolus, the God of wind, playing on his harp.
Sama-Veda mentions flute players, conch-blowers, drummers etc. Lute players are enjoined to play on the lute in the ceremony known as ‘simantonnayana’. The Rg-Veda and the Atharva-Veda mention ‘aghati ‘ or cymbal, which accompanied dancing.

The lute or ‘vina’ was looked upon as a symbol of grace or fortune and was held in esteem as such. Says the ‘Satapatha Brahmana’ : ‘The lute is, indeed ,a symbol of grace’(XIII.I.5.I).When a man attained prosperity, the lute was played in his honour. Those who sang in accompaniment to the lute were called ‘vina-gathi’. The ‘Satapatha Brahmana observes:’A lute player sings three strophes composed by himself striking up uttara-mandra tune’(XII.4.2.8). On this point, Eggeling says that it is ‘literally, the upper deep one ,ie; perhaps one of the upper chords of which are pitched in the upper notes of the lower key’. The term ’uttara-mandra may be constructed either with the lute or with the tune. Besides solo lute-playing, mention is also made of master lute-players playing in chorus called vina-gana-gina (Satapatha Brahmana,XIII.4.3.3). Two kinds of vina are mentioned in the Vedic literature: picola and audumbari .A third type is also referred to in some texts, called ksoni . The Brahmana texts also refer to flute(venu) and to clapping of hands(karatali) to keep time with music and song. Both vina and vana contained all the seven notes found in the sama chant.

The Rg-Veda mentions another musical instrument, called karkari. We read in the Rg-Veda:’ O Sakuni(vulture), you make a sound like that of the instrument karkari, when your wings flutter during flight’ (II.4.3).

Two kinds of drums, dundubhi and dhumi-dundubhi are mentioned. The sound of the pestle striking the mortar, while threshing corn, has been compared to the sound of drums proclaiming victory in the Rg-Veda. In the Satapatha Brahmana, we find drums keeping time with chariot-race or horse-race called ajidhavana(V.1.5.8). The same book records the fact that seventeen drums were used simultaneously in the vajapeya sacrifice
( V.1.5.6); sometimes drums accompanied chantings of sama .

Flutes made of reed, called nadi, are mentioned in the Rg-Veda (X.135.7) Flute playing was a common pastime, and originated from the pastoral life of that age.

Instrumental music went by the name of vaditra whereas vocal music was called gita. The Chandogya Upanishad mentions gita and vaditra. When we have dancing in addition to vocal and instrumental music, it is called sangita.

The particular bath or ablution ceremony known as avabhrtha, which formed the final part of the sacrifice, included dance and music, both vocal and instrumental, that is to say the ceremony was attended with sangita. Both men and women took part in the music and dance in this ceremony, while going to take bath.

DANCING

As the origin of music and dance, a story is narrated in the ancient texts. Once the ‘gandharvas’ stole ‘soma’ from the gods, and the latter failed to persuade them to give back the same. The gods knew that the ‘Gandharvas’ had a weakness for women, and hence they approached Vak or the goddess of speech to help them in the matter. They invented the arts of singing and dancing, and trained Vak in those arts to dupe the ‘gandharvas’.Vak dressed herself gorgeously showing off her beauty and vanity, cajoled ‘soma’ out of the ‘gandharvas’ hands deluding them with her song and dance.

Dancing was called ‘nrtta’ or ‘nartana’. The word ‘nrtta’ is also spelt as ‘nrtya’. Panini tells that ‘nrtya’ refers to the dance of human beings ,whereas ’nrtaa’ stands for the dance of non-human beings, which included gods, demi-gods, and animals. But this distinction was not in vogue in the Vedic age.

The dancing of the maidens is mentioned in Vedic hymns. Men also participated in dancing. The Rg-Veda (X.76.6) refers to the dance of men by way of simile. While dancing sometimes held aloft bamboo-poles poised on their fingers or their palms. A Rg-Vedic hymn(I.10.1) reads: ’O Satakratu, singers sing for you; worshippers propitiate Indra; admires hold you aloft a bamboo-pole’.The Yajur-Veda also refers to ‘vamsa-nartin,i.e. pole-dancer or acrobat. The ‘sailusa’ included in the list of victims at the sacrifice called ‘purushamedha’ in the ‘Vajasaneyi Samhita’ means an actor primarily, and a dancer secondarily. The Rg-Veda and Atharva-Veda enjoin that the musical instrument called ‘aghati ‘ should accompany dancing. Four or eight women perform a dance in the marriage ceremony. The restriction in the case of a graduate or ‘snataka’ that he is not to practice or enjoy instrumental or vocal music and dance shows the popularity and wide celebrity of music and dance in the Vedic age. The “Atareya Brahmana’ observes: ’Days and night rotate and follow each other in a regular rhythmic manner like dancing’(V.22.10) This passage lends support to the view that there were prescribed rules for dancing with respect to the Universe.

DRAMA

Though full-fledged dramas are not met with in the Vedic literature, there is no denying the fact that the origin and inception of drama may safely be traced in the Vedas. Max Muller, Winternitz, Sylvain Levi, Macdonell and other famous Indologists of the West hold the view in common that the ‘samvada’hymns of the Rg-Veda are the germs of the future full-fledged drama. ‘Samvada’ means dialogue, which is an essential element of drama. The dialogues between King Pururavas and Urvasi,Yama and Yami,Sarama and Pani Surya and Surya, recorded in the Rg-Veda, are dramatic in character .The ‘Satapatha Brahmana’(XI.5.1) narrates the story of Pururavas and Urvasi through dialogues, questions, counter-questions, and repartees in such a graphic manner that the total effect is highly dramatic in tone.

There is a theory that long before Bharatha’s ‘Natyasastra’, which is dated eighth century B.C. there existed a book containing the rules of dramaturgy in the Vedic age, and it is to this book that Panini refers as ‘Natasutra’ of Sage Silali in one of his ‘sutras ‘. This work has not been discovered till today. We have already mentioned that ‘salusa’, included in the list of victims meant for ‘purushamedha’, primarily means an actor.

In the Satapatha Brahmana(XI.6.1) we meet with a concrete presentation of abstract attributes by way of allegory. There, reverence or sraddha is represented as a beautiful lady, whereas wrath or krodha is represented as a terrific figure- an ugly man of dark complexion with yellow eyes and repulsive features. The beginnings of the allegorical play may be traced here, which culminated in such allegorical dramas (rupakanataka) as Probodhacandrodaya and the like in the classical age. The fact that the human soul transmigrates, ie; leaves one body and again assumes another in its next birth, has been compared, in some of the Upanishads to an actor changing his dress and playing different roles on the stage. Moreover , the Maitrayani Upanishad, mentions a nata or actor changing his dress and painting himself in the green room. This fact proves the prevalence, development, and popularity of dramatic shows in the Upanishadic age.

ON LATHEESH MOHAN'S POEMS

The gist of Latheesh Mohan's Poems is a liberation from the constrains of what is known,coupled with plausible and persuasive inner coherance.The contrast with the rules of everyday reality,often glimpsed in his poems.It is not a logical whole,instead, scattering suggestive fragments. To this he added an atmosphere of his own invention,rejection of all conventions of poetry writing and trying to recognize the need to create other worlds.

Latheesh is in search of a poetry in which the characteristic theme is the stranglehold of the past upon the present or the encroachment of minimized concept of life upon the open space in poetry.There is an imaginative as well as a candid structure in it.

He can celebrate in his poetry a distinctive virtue of natural reactions.Apart from upholding realistic illusion, he attempts to break written frames or move from one level of writing to another without warning,or might have placed consciousness,unconsciousness,memory and perception in sudden jumps to temporal juxtaposition.

Away from writing closure and fulfilment of the reader's expectations,or following formulas ,his poems often work towards open endings.They utilize enigma, the ellipsis , the narrative gap and a different complexity.

He walks to poetry through a thin thread between fact and fiction and like a spy conceals himself and his surroundings in his poems.

GARGI'S POEMS

GARGI'S poems are trying to setout the tension between theworlds, of the environment and place on one hand and on the other the complexassociations of an inherited culture. As a poet she has a sensory life in oneworld, its light, weather and topography shapes all that belongs to physicalbeing, while the larger part of what comes through language, knowledge, derivesfrom another. The translation of self into consciousness, to try and affect aconvergence of the non-indigenous and indigenous imagination or dreaming is toform her poems. The poems have an illogical inner reality and unforced beautyemerges from a distinctly female perspective. Her isolated sensibility ragesagainst destructiveness and behind obedience. Deceptively casual, the poemsdemonstrates her craft, wit, grace of expression and above all, her gift withimages.

METAPHYSICAL IMPLICATIONS OF GANDHIAN THOUGHT/Dr.K.C.CHACKO

'ALL THAT TENDS TO UNIFY MANKIND BELONGS TO THE GOOD
AND THE BEAUTIFUL.ALL THAT TENDS TO DISUNITE IT IS EVIL AND UGLY'
TOLSTOY(Tolstoy's letter to RomainRolland)

Dr.K.C.CHACKO
A distinguished  scholar and Professor of Philosophy. Worked as teacher in various colleges in Kerala including University College, TVM and Govt. Brennen College Thalasseri. He was Chairman, Board of Studies in Philosophy (U.G),Calicut University, Kerala University.He has got a number of publications to his credit.

Dr.K.C.Chacko's book 'Metaphysical Implications of GandhianThought' is the outcome of his earnest efforts to throw some light on the Gandhi's metaphysics. Gandhi was essentially a man of action inspired by certain noble ideals and he indulged in metaphysical thinking only to extent his action. Forhim, ideas whether metaphysical ,moral or religion are only guides to action. Generally metaphysics is closely linked with religion, but not so closely with ethics. But with Gandhi's metaphysics is pervaded through and through by ethics.

The first chapter of the book deals with the basis of Gandhi's metaphysics and it has come to the conclusion that it is morality. Various influences on the development of his thought are examined in the second chapter.The third chapter is an attempt to understand how Gandhi arrived at the metaphysical principle of truth. The next chapter discusses the question of the means of realization of that metaphysical principle and also implications. The fifth chapter aims at a study of his political and social philosophy.

Dr.Chacko has a capacity for clear thinking and lucidexposition. This is evident in every page of this book. It can certainly be deemed as a worthy addition to Gandhian literature.
It reminds of Gandhi's words 'I recognize no God except that is to be found in the hearts of dumb millions...And I worship the God that is Truth or Truth which is God through service of these millions'(Harijan,11March,1939 p.44).

ON G.SANKARA KURUP'S POEMS

G. Sankara Kurup’s poetry is the expression of an exotic mind, enriched by knowledge and disciplined by art. He is a conscientious, meticulous artist who sought perfection through successive revision of his poems. Whatever he has written has a stateliness of its own. His poetry has an elevating influence on the reader not only by its lofty thought, but also by the clarity of its style .Apart from his well appreciated grandeur of style, sometimes he was deeply sensitive to the beauties of external nature and exhibits the lighter and more fanciful side of his poetry.  Besides this love of beauty there is a natural strain of pre-independent and post-independent Indian social scenario in his poems. Harmony and contradictions of these two strains are visible in his writings .It is further evident in his auto biography ’oormayude oolangalil’(In  the Waves of Memory).His poetry shows a curious blending of many elements of his time. He experimented with romanticism, classicism, realism,mysticism,symbolism etc. He is the only poet of his generation who knew the range of poetry in its different applications. His range is quite remarkable from ‘Saagarageetham ‘( Song of the sea) , a poem of majestic style to ‘ Chandanakkattil’ (Sandalwood Bed ) , a simple poem  which  narrates a story.  The unending search sometimes made quibbles in the language of his poems. In future, we may consider him as a poet who always tried to overcome the limitations of his time and reached the possibilities of poetic language, diction and style.

ON LAKSHMI PRIYA'S POEMS

'But Iam/Free as a bird
Seeking life/In fissures of  light
I have bloomed/To cry,
To savour,/To pour,/To scald,
To exult,/To sink,
And/To be reborn...'
-Kutty Revathi

Lakshmi Priya's poems are intimate and privately symbolic,yet they also immediatelyand unmistakably speaks on themes that can share.As much as her experiences and the way she writes them hold out an alternative to a masculinist aesthetics.She explores obsessively her self-identity as a woman in her poems.The significance of her poems lies in the manner in which the themes are presented,through a series of images with deep resonance,simplicity of diction and the tenderness of feeling. The poems rest fully on suggestiveness rather than on overstatement.We hear the voice of a woman addressing herself in the poems.Again and again she is trying to know the cause of femininity-through its critical representation of the varied ways in which women have been forcedto accommodate their sense of self to the demands of the changing society.The momentum of the poems, in its turn,brings out a fundamental revision ,both of the image of the poet,and the cultural space within which she now functions.Though there aren't any direct evidence of personal suffering and gender victimization visible in her poems, there are hints to indicate the fundamental anguish of 'woman hood'in it.

SWARNALATHA:CONDOLENCE.

Swarnalatha does not sing but flows  through the songs. Sometimes as leaf ,sometimes as flower, and at other times as storm driven woods. With its numerous branches, the sound blooms up from the deep. Her invisible improvisations take the listeners to the minute strains flying from the wings of birds.’ Maasi Maasam Aalaana Ponnu’, (DarmaDurai) is like a  casuarina tree that sways in the wind ,in the seashore . A lone butterfly’s grief  reaches naturally in ‘ Porale Ponnuthayi ‘(Karuthamma).The song reminds of Jalaluddin Rumi ,who asks what more pleasurable than the pain of love .The song ‘Maalayil Yaaro Manathodu Pesa’(Kshatriyan) was formed when Swarnalatha sang it in a twilight strewn night , amidst the stars. In ‘Usilam Petti Penkutty’(Gentleman),there is the magic of the rustic .’Mukkala Mukkabala’(Kadalan) becomes a meta song with its way of singing.

It is not necessary  for the listener to go deep into analyzation of music when he listens to a film song .But he should be able to love that song. In Swarnalatha’s songs there are seasons that make us to love.

I love Swarnalatha’s songs.

ON ANANYA S GUHA'S POEMS

Ananya S Guha’s  poems  see beyond things, behind things as they appeared to the world. It is keen on an aesthetic attitude that can transform life into a different experience. When this attitude becomes fully developed, then this world of darkness, of mystery difficult to penetrate, resolves itself into a perennial harmony and rhythm. A new music, divine and earthly alike can be heard in tremendous measure. He thinks plainly from simple experience-that experience may be real or imagined-but from experience, he passes on to an idea of universal application, an idea that can soon pass into reality, into a life of joy and fulfillment. That is how he combines imagination with reality. He is not a poet of escape, but of life itself. Reality passed into his thoughts, into his feeling. And as it comes out from his poems, it becomes transformed into a thing of literary and artistic value. There is beauty born out of reality in his poems, and this beauty delights and instructs simultaneously for all time. What he writes is the near thing, an embodiment of life, communicated most lovably. With a deep faith in the real , and passionate feeling for everything in nature, he reaches the height communion with it, which brings him out of himself. He has given expression to this intense feeling in many of his poems. It seems as if the poet had spoken the very words that the reader had so long been searching for; had sung the very music that had been struggling as it were; to flow out of their own hearts. His poems show how depth can be wedded to simplicity. It is not a mere matter of feeling or expression , it is the creation of form.

Life is real and it is to be lived. There is beauty, and it is hidden from us. We have to train our eyes to see beauty in apparent ugliness. This is the undercurrent in Ananya S Guha’s poems.

PATTERNS IN THE SKY BY JULIUS D.W.STAAL

Few,if ever,can remain unmoved by the beauty of a starlit sky on a clear night.But to many who are uninitiated in the mysteries of the star lore,the sky means no more than a jumbling together of a number of stars.With the result the joy and fascination they feel on looking at a star -studded sky is a vague,passing experience.For those who wish to make this experience richer and more permanent, here is a beautiful book written by a scientist.It is a book which every lover of stars would like and enjoy,and novitiates in the art of star- gazing would find it very useful in locating their favorite stars.
The  book makes an introductory survey of the aesthetic and astronomical aspect ,and deals with another aspect-the mythology and legends of the stars,with the hope that it may  serve as an incentive to readers 'to know a little more about the heavens from scientific point of view.
The author makes available to us in this book some of the stories,culled from Greek mythology and from other sources wherever possible,and associated with the main groupings of stars.The stars described are classified under four groups :the stars of autumn,the stars of winter,the stars of spring,and the stars of summer.After narrating the stories connected with each group of stars,the author gives us interesting information about them in a scientific manner.'Many star stories are formed by groups of constellations,which make an inseparable entity,such as the"Orion,Taurus,Pleiades, Canis Major and Minor,Auriga,Gemini,group" or the"Cassiopeia,Cepheus,Andromeda,Perseus,Pegasus,Cetus group".In these cases,The group as a whole is first of all described, and after that ,where necessary, each individual constellation is enlarged upon.
A fine book imaginatively conceived and gracefully written.

LOVE SONG OF VAIRAMUTHU

Vairamuthu experimented and succeeded in blending words that are not generally poetic,in his romantic songs.It is a mesmerizing technique of dissolving the concrete into abstract.The latest  example can be seen in the melodic  hit song in 'Enthiran','Kathal Anukkal Udampil Ethanai...' Scientific words like electron ,neutron,atom,oxygen are placed in this love song beautifully than a rainbow,so soft as a feather.This is a postpostpostmodern romantic song .Vairamuthu is a postpostpostmodern poet.

POEMS OF KAVITHA BALAKRISHNAN

Kavitha Balakrishnan’s poems  is a culture with different layers, a gallery of micro politics and micro linguistics .Her poems try to create every extent of contemporaneity which is beyond the world of women where she  is generally discussed. Thus the poems become an epistemological break from the regular views of feminine poetry.

Kavitha doesn’t write poetry, doesn’t sketch poetry either. Some poems are framed in a pattern in between writing and sketching. A graphical process of transferring visuals to writing and vice versa , is experimented here. Words become an extension of the visuals and the visuals follow the same. Therefore each poem has varied subjects. In the same way diversed hues in a canvas gives manifold meanings possible, echoes of different nature towards innumerable subjects are made in poetry.

Some poems are creations of a cartoonist and of an animator. In such poems unsymmetrical humour barges in. They screw in to the depths of many implied meanings.

Kavitha write poems in this way, not because she is an artist. In her, there is an attitude of a traveller sans destination. Her poems are a queer blend of a world which always unmasks its complexities and hidden grace to a wanderer and the responses to that world.

‘A dynamic work of art may emerge from an internally venturesome rambles and a different perspective of a traveller whose travels are never ending ‘says Griselda Pollock ,an art critic and historian. What she says seems to be true in Kavitha.

Her poems remind of bridges being built between isles of memmories ,histories and culture that shreds from hollow contemporaneity while remaining contemporary .
The poet’s voice is noteworthy in the Indian English poetry, I feel so.

TAGORE SINGS

Rabindranath Tagore writes:
‘One morning in the flower garden,
A blind girl came to offer me a
Flower chain in the cover of a lotus leaf.
I put it round my neck, tears came to my eyes.
I kissed her and said ’’You are blind even as flowers are.
You yourself know not how beautiful is your gift.’’
Here is a simple incident, imagined and put in words of simplicity and sincerity.But there is something significant, really something of penetrating importance ,behind all this simplicity.A blind girl to Tagore,indeed ,to all thinking men with sympathy,penetration,and understanding,is not ugly.Her worth she seems to communicate to her gifts,and they are the flowers,beautiful and touching.Such a beauty only the eyes that see can see;blind eyes that most people have cannot be near realizing this beauty. The eyes that see this beaty cannot be with us for the mere asking.Much effort is needed.He had eyes to see beyond things,behind things as they appeared to the world.Naturally, tears came to his eyes;and he could imagine a blind girl kissed by him for her gifts of flowers.A new music,divine and earthly alike can be heard in a tremendous measure.
Tagore sings:
‘The morning sea of silence broke into
Ripples of bird songs;and the flowers
Were all merry by roadside ;and
The wealth of gold was scattered through
The rift of the clouds,while the busily
Went our way and paid no heed……….
At last,when I woke from my slumber
And opened my eyes, I saw thee standing
By me, flooding my sleep with thy smile.
How I had feared that path was long
And wearisome,and the struggle to reach
Thee was hard.’
We have here a philosophy of hope that can put round our neck a flower chain,delicate,sweet,and evergreen.In Tagore’s own words,out of the depth of one’s heart,one can say:’More flowers will come to you with perfume and pride,O World!’

Tagore realized his self and depicted it in unsurpassable grandeur and beauty.He has painted it in the variegated colour of the rainbow ;he has shaded it with twilight sunbeam;he has washed it in mellow moonlight;he has given it a harp and tuned it with morning air;he has adorned it with laurels and studded with dew-drops;he has enthroned it on the lotus;he has enshrined it in an alabaster temple;and he has kindled the muse’s flame at its golden altar.On the expanding beach the temple stands,under the canopy of the azure sky,wrapped in fog;the ripples carry forth its reflection over the vast expanse of water covering globe.There the poet stands amazed,looking at his own image;singing in solemn melody:
‘One cosmic brotherhood,
One universal good,
One source, one sway,
One law beholding us,
One purpose moulding us
One life enfolding us,
In love always.
Anger,resentment,hate,
Long made us desolate;
Their reign is done.
Race ,colour,creed and caste
Fade in dreamy past.
Man wakes to learn at last,
All life is One.’