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"Srutis and Srutibheda": a book on tonal shifts by Dr K Varadarangan
Review: Courtesy themusicmagazine.com and Principal Vasanthamadhavi,
Ragasree College of Music, Bangalore, India
'Sruti' is the first word heard by any music student.
Though sruti is a part of everybody's life in one form
or the other, much remains to be known about
bit.
Right from Vedic times, sruti has been described in
various ways and has acquired many meanings. In fact,
the word has actually been used to refer to the Vedas
themselves, as in 'sruti, shaastra, puraana,
nigamaagama.' It forms the foundation on which the
divine mansion of music is built.
'Srutirmaata, layah pitah' (sruti is the mother, laya
the father) is the governing principle of all music.
Omkar, which Indian musicians believe is the origin of
all sounds musical and non-musical, is considered the
most sacred form of sruti.
Books like Prof P Sambamurthy's South Indian
Music, C Subrahmanya Iyer's The Grammar of
South Indian Music and Kukkila Krishna Bhatta's
Bharatiya Sangeetha Shaastra deal in some
detail with srutis and its bhedas. Srutis and
Srutibheda by Dr K Varadarangan is a masterly
work, complete and exclusive. He journeys widely in
the domain of sruti.
In the first chapter, Dr Varadarangan makes a survey
of sruti-related terms and lays a sound base for
further observations. In the next chapter, he takes up
the idea of modal shift of tonic. In concerts,
musicians (especially vocalists) apply this technique
in ragas like Hindola, Todi and Shuddha Saveri to
display their mastery over the swarasthaanas. By
shifting the aadharashadja to a different note without
changing the sruti, and singing the notes of the
original raaga, one can get a different raaga.
However, this is only a small practical application;
Dr Varadarangan elaborates on the larger implications
of srutibheda. He also introduces the idea of
srutibheda chakras and explains their properties with
examples.
Chapter 3 shows how the relative frequences of the 12
swarasthanas can be derived using the srutibheda
sutras. Earlier musicologists have defined the
frequency values for each of the seven swaras and the
22 srutis. They did this with the help of dhruva
(fixed frets) and chala (moving frets) veenas.
That within an octave there can be only 22 srutis has
been established beyond any doubt by Indian
musicology. In this book, Dr Varadarangan has
approached the subject from a new perspective, and,
remarkably, his analysis leads him to the same
conclusion. His manner of expressing frequencies in
cents instead of ratios is really advantageous.
Comparison of Western and Indian musical scales sets
one thinking about the importance of gamakas in Indian
music, particularly Karnatak music.
Over the next three chapters, srutibheda possibilities
-- applicable to parent and derived raagas as also to
individual swaras -- are explored methodically and
exhaustively. Determining the srutibheda possibilities
of any raaga is made simple by Table 5.5 on pages
82-83 in Chapter 5.
The idea of dividing the scale into three segments ie,
poorvaanga, madhyanga and uttaranga, to constitute
the six vrindas (defined by madhyama and panchama), 11
chakras (defined by rishabha and gandhara) and 11
raagas within a chakra (defined by dhaivata and
nishadha) to tabulate the 726 kramaswara raagas is
indeed unique. Chapter 8 lists srutibheda
possibilities for all these 726 raagas.
In the final chapter, Dr Varadarangan studies a few
ragathayamalika compositions. We may note that in a
few kritis of Sri Mudduswamy Dikshitar, this
srutibheda idea is put to practical
application.
To sum up, Dr Varadarangan's book deserves to be in
every serious music lover's collection.
Vasanthamadhavi
The reviewer is principal, Ragasree College of Music,
Bangalore, India
2003/11/07
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