Dikshithar School of Music

[Krishna]

Hi,

During a concert, I happened to listen to the Raga Chamaram. The
artiste referred to this raga as equivalent to Raga Shanmukhapriya but
known as Chamaram in the Dikshithar School of Music.
What exactly is this school of music and how are ragas classified
there?

Thanks,
Krishna

[Sandeep Varma]

...equivalent to Raga Shanmukhapriya but
known as Chamaram in the Dikshithar School of Music.
What exactly is this school of music and how are ragas classified
there?

This is the little bit that I know : according to the
"usual" method of classifying rAgams, the 72
sampUrNa rAgams ( mELakartA rAgams ), i.e., the ones with
a complete ArOhaNam and avarOhaNam, have been assigned
names starting with kanakAngi ( 1st ), ratnAngi ( 2nd )
etc.

But there is also another scheme of classifying rAgams,
attributed to one venkaTamakhin, which was what dIkShitar
followed. According to this, though there are 72 "main"
rAgams, not all of these are complete. But for the n^{th}
rAgam in this scheme will be a "janyam" of the n^{th}
rAgam in the other ( popular ) scheme. For instance, there
is no kharaharapriya ( #22 ) in the venkaTamakhin scheme
- instead the 22nd rAgam there is shrI, which happens to
be a janyam of kharaharapriya ( note that during those
days kharaharapriya was never considered to be of any
worth and that it was saint tyAgarAja who breathed life
into it ). And of course, the names are different, though
they are consistent with the kaTapayAdi convention -
the first rAgam is called kanakAmbari, the second called
phEnadviti, the eigth called janatODi ( in contrast with
the name hanumatODi in the other scheme ) etc.

You may wish to refer to ( the sixth paragraph or so of )

http://www.sangeetham.com/others/archives/mdikshipilgrim4.php3

for an interesting story in this connection.

The artiste that you ( Mr. Krishna ) referred to was
probably singing dIkShitar's siddhivinAyakam in
cAmaram/ShaNmukhapriya. The "rAgamudra" cAmara is
present in the caraNam of the song.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
sandIp

[ark]

Post by Krishna
Hi,
During a concert, I happened to listen to the Raga Chamaram. The
artiste referred to this raga as equivalent to Raga Shanmukhapriya but
known as Chamaram in the Dikshithar School of Music.
What exactly is this school of music and how are ragas classified
there?
Thanks,
Krishna

dIkshitar followed the asampUrNa mEla scheme laid out by Muddu
Venkatamakhin who in turn followed (fine-tuned) his
grand-father/grand-uncle (not sure?) Venkatamakhi who of course
authored the famous 17th century work caturdandi prakAsika. Muddu
Venkatamakhin compiled the anubhandham of caturdandi prakAsika.

The main difference between this scheme and the scheme prevalent in
carnatic music today is that mEla ragas are not sampUrNa in BOTH
Aro/Avaro - but are sampUrNa when taken together. So mEla ragas in
that system are not the ones we treat as mEla ragas today. For
example, srIraga, kEdAragowLa are mElas in that system (No mention of
kharaharapriya/harikAmbhOji). There are also differences in the names
of certain ragas like cAmaram/shanmukhapriya,
gamakakriya/pUrvikalyANi, kAshIrAmakriya/pantuvarali.

BTW, the system prevalent today is the one laid out by Govindacharya
(18th century - date?) which Thyagaraja followed.

(apologies for spelling/transliteration or other mistakes)

Arun

[Krishna]

Post by ark

Post by Krishna
Hi,
During a concert, I happened to listen to the Raga Chamaram. The
artiste referred to this raga as equivalent to Raga Shanmukhapriya but
known as Chamaram in the Dikshithar School of Music.
What exactly is this school of music and how are ragas classified
there?
Thanks,
Krishna

dIkshitar followed the asampUrNa mEla scheme laid out by Muddu
Venkatamakhin who in turn followed (fine-tuned) his
grand-father/grand-uncle (not sure?) Venkatamakhi who of course
authored the famous 17th century work caturdandi prakAsika. Muddu
Venkatamakhin compiled the anubhandham of caturdandi prakAsika.
The main difference between this scheme and the scheme prevalent in
carnatic music today is that mEla ragas are not sampUrNa in BOTH
Aro/Avaro - but are sampUrNa when taken together. So mEla ragas in
that system are not the ones we treat as mEla ragas today. For
example, srIraga, kEdAragowLa are mElas in that system (No mention of
kharaharapriya/harikAmbhOji). There are also differences in the names
of certain ragas like cAmaram/shanmukhapriya,
gamakakriya/pUrvikalyANi, kAshIrAmakriya/pantuvarali.
BTW, the system prevalent today is the one laid out by Govindacharya
(18th century - date?) which Thyagaraja followed.
(apologies for spelling/transliteration or other mistakes)
Arun

Thanks Arun and Sandeep for that wonderful piece of information.

The Abhayamba Navavaranam was the rendition during the concert.

Krishna