These are my notes from a lecture at Vani Mahal, Thyagaraya Nagar in December 2017.
-----
Marvelous lighting at the mini hall in Vani Mahal, such that the speaker Sriram Venkatakrishnan was well lit, without shining on the large the screen displaying his PowerPoint and pictures. There were some projector hiccups halfway but overcome.
From an early move out of Vellore because of a power struggle in the fort, to the expertise of Ramaswami Deekshitar, in Jayadeva's Ashtapathi, to the travels, career and musical virtuosity of his son, Muthuswamy, born by the blessing of the eponymous God in Vaideesvaran temple, it was a comprehensive lecture, as profuse in scholarship as it was delightful in diction and delivery, in not one but three languages.
One could write a twenty page book just from the lecture. I'll list some highlights.
A background of Tanjavur Mahratta politics including Amarasimha, Tulaji, saraboji, Father Schwartz.
Early life in Govindapuram.
Sonti Venkataramana, guru of Thyagayya, was impressed by Deekshitars teaching skills.
Venkatamakhin and his Chatur Dandika Prakasika, containing the melakartas, whose rare copy Muthuswamy had the good fortune of receiving.
Patronage by Manali Muthukrishna Mudali, the Dubash of Madras, and by his son. Songs lauding them, which contrast with other accounts of their lives.
The band in Fort st George, which inspired the nottu swarams, and the adoption of the violin in carnatic music.
Two wives.
A deep knowledge of Tevaram songs, which reflected in several compositions in Sanskrit.
Later settlement in Kanchipuram and encounter with Upanishad Brahmendra, whose mutt survives. Songs on the Somaskanda of Ekamreshvara, with poetic description of the sthala purana, and word play on ma skanda and moola skanda.
A tour of several nearby temples including Kalahasti, Tiruvannamalai, Tirupati. Perhaps a reference to laddu!
A reference to Gnanasambanda as Uttamavipra in his song on Arunachala and his legend of sighting the hill from a distance, and how this episode repeated later in the life of Ramana.
A voyage to Kashi with all its perils, almost surely, entirely by foot. The episode of Ganga gifting a veenai to Baluswamy Deekshitar his brother. Let's just say he came back with a veena, quipped Sriram. A very small veena, perhaps three feet long, which the family preserved and showcased at the Music academy in 1975, the 200th anniversary of Deekshitar.
Life in Tiruvarur, famous also for the life of Nayanmar Sundaramoorthy. The mysteries of the Thyagesa idol, eternally covered from the neck down,which inspired a superb song by another composer. A mysterious closed shrine perhaps of Vishnu behind it, and the oft ignored Valmikinatha, the real moolavar. More on Kamalambal, Katyayani both more celebrated than Neelotpalambal, the primary consort. Katyayani is the Lord's concubine or main Rudra ganika, and the model for all devadasis. In fact it is believe that the devadasi tradition began at this temple. And the erotic sculpture of Uchishta Ganapathi, and it's tantric worship, which Muthuswamy must have practiced as a Sri Vidya upasaka.
The variety and range of his disciples from different communities, including devadasis and the Tanjavur quartet.
Muthuswamy composed music for Rama Ashtapathi, composed by someone else, but unfortunately these haven't survived. Or else we would have known how he set others composition to music, as musician Sriram Parasuram (present at the lecture) observed elsewhere, the speaker adds. (Another singer Ramakrishna Murthy was also in the audience).
Songs on several temples around the Kaveri built including Tayumanavar whom he calls Matrubutha, and various navagraha shrines. Waxing eloquent at Tirukannamangai, where bhkatas believe the devas reside as bees, and the Thayar shrine still has a beehive perhaps two centuries old, that the archaka shows to visitors. Tirumangai Alwar has a mischevous passuram here, where he advises not just Vaishnavas but also Vishnu himself that singing his ten songs will benefit the singer.
Ratnagiri temple, populated by monkeys, where the devotees fill a large copper vessel from the Kaveri, eight km away, and then take it up the thousand steps for abishekam. They did it during his times, as recorded in his song, and they do it today.
Songs on navagraha shrines in the hinterland. Travel to Madurai and Ettayapuram , famous for its betrayal of Kattabommu, but whose king Deekshitar praised. The court appreciated the novelty of the violin as a carnatic instrument. Songs on Meenakshi and Azhagar.
We should recognize that Deekshitar was human, needed patrons, was practical, and not just cover him in saintliness, said Sriram. Final samadhi there. Now, there is a memorial mandapam, which a collector recently wanted to demolish as an illegal structure. Fortunately, it survives.
Originally posted to Facebook on 29 December 2017. Dedicated to Rajagopalan Venkatraman who could not be there, who otherwise would have provided marvelous slide by slide coverage.
On May 1,
2016 I attended the launch of a Tamil book titled “Chitrakoodam – Tiruppudai Marudur
paintings.” The book was authored by Prof Baluswamy of Madras Chrisitian College,
Tambaram, whose earlier books “Arjunan Tapasu” and “Krishna Mandapam” also
about famous monuments in Mamallapuram are outstanding works of research. Speakers
included botany professor Dayanandan of MCC, artists Trotsky Marudu, Smt of Hindu
Religious and Charitable Endowments department, photographer Narasimhan and conservator
and documentary film-maker MV Baskar. These are notes from their talks which I
posted on Facebook, on that day, which I have now copied and edited for this
blog. Prof Baluswamy himself delivered a vote of thanks, which I don’t seem to
have taken notes for. The event was the Goethe Insitute auditorium, Rutland Gate, Nungambakkam, Madras.
I first
heard of these paintings at the Tiruppudaimarudur temple from Prof Baluswamy
himself at the 2012 Tamil Heritage Trust Pechu Kacheri on Paintings of India,
which was held in the Tatvaaloka auditoirum, Eldams Road, Teynampet in Chennai.
These paintings and the unusual military history they recorded were part of his
talk which was about Nayak era paintings of the Tanjavur and Madurai Nayaks. It
was recorded along with other talks at the Pechu Kacheri but none of these have
been yet edited and made available to the public.
The book was only released last year and was available at the Chennai Book Fair
in Nandanam. An earlier book on these paintings by Dr Kannan director of
Chennai Egmore museum, was presented to me as a gift around this time, for my
talk and guided tour about the Amaravati gallery of the Egmore museum, by the
then Director, Dr Kavita Ramu. Dr Kannan who reshaped the Amaravati gallery also
undertook a restoration/renovation effort of these murals and has recorded them
in his book.
The notes from
the talks at the 2016 book launch follow:
Prof
Dayanandan, MCC
Lawrence
Surendra played a major role in developing this book, "Chitrakoodam -
Tiruppudaimarudur Oviyangal", by using MCC as a powerful resource to
research and collate.
Baluswamy
is our treasure. That others share him invokes jealousy and pride. We had a
great asan at MCC in 60s Gift Siromoney, who pulled all of us into several
fields. we thought he had reached a peak with Arjuna's penance, but he has
breached new barriers with this book on Tiruppudaimarudur paintings. He has a
wide variety of knowledge in depth.
Nagaswamy
threw a bomb that Rajasimha built everything in Mallai. Gift Siromoney measured all
sculptures with scales. We discovered that no male was depicted before 720.
Baluswamy went beyond all this. He brought whole new theories to scholarship on
Mallai. Using biology, sculpture sense etc. He discovered that the painting in Tiruppudaimarudur
depicted the Tamraparni battle between Vijayanagar and Travancore. After the
advent of Portuguese. I discussed Columbian exchange with Baluswamy, after
which pineapple potato chili etc entered India.
Sangam Era
marudu tree would have been lagerstomia. Sthala trees are not more than 200 or
300 years old, opined a botany professor in Madras University.
Baluswamy
makes the distinction between mythology and history when teaching. No humans in
India before sixty thousand years. So please forget Lemuria etc. When Africans
settled the world. The common mother of all living humans lived in Africa
180000 years ago. Based on mitochondrial evidence.
Who ordered
the paintings at Tiruppudaimarudur? Did the painters paint what they were
ordered to? The book will discuss all these.
Panelists and audience - photo by VK Srinivasan
Trotsky Marudu, artist
I grew up with the Nayak paintings
around poRRamarai tank in Madurai Meenakshi temple. All now eradicated. This
tragedy bothered for a longtime. Western realism combined with Indian artistic
tradition only in the Nayak period. My predecessors like Adimoolam worked
at Weavers Institute. Government photographers captured paintings of Alagar
Koil, Avudaiyar Koil etc and they used those designs in weaving textiles.
Even Adimoolam has not seen the Tiruppudaimarudur paintings. MV Baskar, Sarangan,
myself and Baluswamy had the opportunity to see them after 2000. In 1990s I
could not go past the first level and it was too dark to see these paintings.
After the Danielles, Europe saw India in pictures. Parsi theater gave another
visual perspective to Europeans. Later Ravi Varma printed his own paintings,
made with costumes used by Parsi theater, most of which became popular across
households in India. Marathi cinema 's look influences films of South India films
now, having few Tamil identity. Dadasaheb Phalke Ravi Varma's Contemporary, and
the artists who worked in Bombay film studios determined the look of Telugu and
Tamil cinema. Film arts, calendar art and magazine art became the defining art
of Tamil country (disconnected from the temple art of the Nayak era).
For several decades maps and images
have been eradicated from Tamil books as cost cutting measure.
European books for children had
paintings from Egyptian temples and pyramids and much less text. Fourteenth
century venetian art decorated such books about Egypt and even Hollywood
actors. Indian books do such a lousy job. Hyder Ali for example depicts him
practically as a beggar though there are wonderful pictures of him. Sadly Tamil
culture is mostly verbal. We pay poor attention to visual art.
Thadagam published a very visual book and they are doing
this with Baluswamy's book on Tiruppudaimarudur. This is a treasure for the
world at large not just Tamils.
Smt Kavitha of
HR&CE
Of the thirty eight thousand
temples under HR&CE about fifty temples have paintings like
Tiruppudaimarudur. We have permitted several people to photograph paintings for
scholarly study. Our department is blind to a lot of technology, and have
inadequate in situ scholarly talent. We are now restoring temple paintings.
INTACH restored kuRRalam Chitra Sabha, then another group complained that INTACH
had ruined them by using very bright colors.
There are wooden panels at every
level in Tiruppudaimarudur gopuram. Insect infestation and bats were big
problems. Water seepage is another problem. We used to use cement, then
combination mortar, and now we use lime mortar. We don't touch up the paintings.
In ASI chemists do the job. Our sthapathi said Silpa Sastra shows several
sources of paint including sand and stone colors, not just vegetable dye.
There are PhDs who have published
with no reference to the temple or HR&CE. Why can't you give copies to the
temple and our department??
Please cooperate with us. Don't
have an antagonistic approach. We find it very difficult to find talent for
restoration. A text called "Aalaya nirmana bimba Lakshana" shows us
how to restore temples. Materials die, just preserve the monument, not just the
materials. Expertise is hard to come by. Maintaining thousands of temples have
to be maintain 38,000 temples with income from 2000 temples. It's not our
intention to destroy, we do it out of ignorance.
Or by good intentions to save a
monument or protect public from collapsing roof etc (one such attempt at
Srirangam thayar shrine caused the paintings to crumble).
I hope at least Prof Baluswamy will acknowledge HR&CE
Episodes from the live of Gnanasambandar - a slide from a PPT
A painting of Portuguese horse trade
Photographer Narasimhan -Documenting
the paintings
Our long time dream is getting
fulfilled. I must acknowledge one who has not been acknowledged by other
speakers. Mrs Baluswamy approved all the great expenses involved. Two types of
people visit Baluswamy, those who go to learn and those who go to plagiarize.
Amutharasan came forward to publish
the book. This pre publication is a special effort.
The technology to document was
brought to us by Sarangan and Baskar.
Tiruppudaimarudur is a rare temple
to still have original Nayak Era paintings. Most temple paintings have suffered
great change. We have documented Alagar Koil paintings. They are valuable
historical evidence. Baluswamy's effort to understand the paintings has been
phenomenal. Investigating the Tamraparni war took four years. Lots of
discussions with Sanskrit scholars to understand historical narrations of the
war. Retired Supreme Court Justice
Ratnavel Pandyan has been wonderfully helpful in this research.
We held several conferences to
convey the importance to students and public. We ran a workshop at Srirangam
for temple executive officers to our preserve sculptures and paintings.
One of the quite but wonderful
servants of the documentation of this book is Mr Uthraadam, a PhD student of
Baluswamy. This books is a milestone in tamil history.
MV Baskar - Visual documentation
Thirteen years of Hard labor.
Documentation is not mere photography but Archaeometry. Digital cameras of
8Megapixels entered India in 2003. Now we shoot with 80Mp cameras. We composed
each photo of A4 size, so a wall painting will be photographed as sixty
different shots. Lighting is uneven so the same red may show up in different
shades in adjacent shots. We used gray cards to give us color context.
Most people shoot the most
photogenic scenes. We shot everything even the missing pieces which had only
damaged wall or even graffiti, so we can reconstruct the painting. All
paintings tend to be narrative paintings in temples, not pattern paintings.
Vasanta mandapam of Alagar Koil has lovely Ramayana depiction. Tirugokarnam has
Ramayana as we exit the temple, a structural narrative.
We had two photographers just for
paintings and two for all other aspects. Digital tempts them to shoot
limitlessly. We threw away two days worth of photos because we could not put
them together.
So we had to shoot after planning,
by mapping the pictures first. Cameras have no file structure. We had to map
and key in advance and then collate photos in that order.
This is scalable vector art,
machine readable. I worked with a Kalamkari artist from Andhra. We need pigment
analysis and such equipment is only in Aurangabad and Bombay. We picked up all
the fallen paint flecks and put them in zip lock bags.
Every painting in every temple has
been over painted. They can only be seen with infrared photography. An infrared
camera is twenty thousand dollars. Now it is much cheaper. We can rig one. I've
shot Ladakh Buddhist monastery paintings with infrared cameras and they are
also multi layered over time.
Academically, art and design
schools lack tangible programs to educate students. We need multiple accredited
programs at respected colleges to do this. Paintings also are accompanied by
inscriptions or text.
The paintings depict several
musical instruments. We recorded sounds from such musical instruments to create
a multi media presentation.History
can be far more engaging than only Archaeology. Money shortage is no longer an
issue.
I'm delighted Art Painting has
finally come to Tamilnadu. This is quite popular in Bombay Delhi etc but so far
unsuccessful here. Hotels ask for paintings but haven't paid and ran some
people bankrupt. But that is changing
----End of Lecture notes---
Acknowledgement I downloaded some photos of Powerpoint presentations on screen at the lecture, taken by VK Srinivasan during the book release and posted in the comments of my Facebook and added them in this blog. I presume the original photos used in the Powerpoint are by photographer Narasimhan, who was one of the speakers.
I attended the India Science Festival held at IISER, Pune
January 20 and 21, 2024. One of the lectures was by Prof Alan Harvey, University of
Western Australia, titled “Why does music exist?” These are my notes from that lecture.
---------------------
Alan Harvey's lecture at ISF pandal, Pune
Why does Music exist? Speaker - Alan Harvey
Music is a science,not an art. Maybe we shouldn't think of
art and science as different things
How do I remember so many songs but don't remember much
prose ?
Theres something special about music, which fires the
communication stream, and oxytocin is major factor. Oxytocin is involved in the plasticity of memory, which
works with music in a way language alone doesn't.
The human species is the only one that sing in harmony and
move synchronised like in dances.
Music fires different regions of the brain as can be seen in
MRI scans that scrambled noise fires.
There may be an evolutionary reason why the ability for
music evolved, and we have several conjectures, but nothing has been proved.
A slide from Alan Harvey's lecture
You shouldn't use the word music unless you refer to modern
music whichdistinguishes compositions
with song and instrument distinct from language. To call birdsong or tweets of
insects or other creatures as music is absurd.
Music is different from just poetry, even poetry with
rhythm, even poetry with pitch changes.
But scientists have not studied or recorded brain patterns
based on poetry, as much as with music, and it's worth exploring.
I attended a lecture by Prof Wayan Dibia, a scholar and choreographer
from Bali, Indonesia, at the CP Ramaswamy Iyer art gallery on Saturday January 6,
2024. He gave a very brief introduction on Balines temples, their layout and dances
at the temples. Dance is a very important part of the ritual worship in Bali it
seems. Bali is an island in Indonesia with nearly 95% Hindu population. Indonesia
is the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, but is fairly
cosmopolitan and celebrates its Hindu past.
These are notes from Prof Dibia’s lecture.
----------------
Balinese Hindus greet each other with the phrase “Svasti
Astu”, a Sanskrit phrase which means “May
you be well”. Rather than namaste or namaskaram, the common Hindu greeting in
India.
A typical Bali temple
Bali is refered to as Island of the gods. Every house has a family shrine. People pray at these family shrines every day and visit the temples on important occasions.
There are four types of temples in Bali:
1. khayangan jagat,. Worhsipped by all Hindus.
2. Khayangan Desha , three main temples in each
village(desha) worhsipped by villagers
3. Pura Swagina, worhsipped by people of same profession
4. Pura dadia or Pura kawitan worhsipped my members of same
clan
Each temple has three shrines - one each for Brahma, Vishnu,
Shiva. Only if all three temples are present can a settlement be called a
village. Brahma and Vishnu temples are in middle of villages. Siva temples near
graveyard.
Temples usually have three sections, uttama mandala, madhya
mandala and jaba mandala. Basically there are three courtyards in the temple.
Odalan is a Bali tradition; it involves rituals requiring
sacrifices and offerings of many types at temples. The entire group of villages wearing tradition attire, goes in procession to a temple carrying fruits, flowers and other offerings. Musicians and dancers usually follow at the tail end of the procession.
A 1971 seminar was conducted by Bali Provincial government
to categorise dances as sacred vs tourist entertainment.
The seminar declared that the three major types of Balinese
dances are:
·Wali dance, which is performed in main courtyard
of a temple.
·Babali dance, performed in second courtyard
·Balih balihan dance, which may only be performed
outside the temple.
There are Rejang dances performed by women and baris dances
performed by men
Babali dances usually tell a story and are dramatic. They
have selected dancers. The story is usually Ramayana or Mahabharata.
There is custom called Sidhakarya with a history. A priest
from Kalinga (Odisha state in India) came to Bali, in 16th century. The king
ignored him, but then several aspects went wrong with ceremony. The king then
recalled the priest, regretting his rudeness. Since then a priest is always
involved in ceremony calledTopeng
Sidhakarya.
Some temple dances are declining. Some are extinct or very
commercialized. Most temples don't have vigrahas of the murthys because they
are kept in the house of the priests. Only during odalan ceremony is the
vigraha brought out and kept in the temple.
Icons in temples
The above photos were snapped by me from the slides on the screen during the lecture.
Audience Q&A
Smt Nandita Krishna, who runs the CPR center, said she was
not allowed into a Bali temple with salwar kameez or saree, the two popular costumes
among Hindus in India. They expected her to wear the Balinese costume which she
said she didn't have. Ravishankar Thiyagarajan, of Tamil Heritage Trust, said
they were given some sarong and costume to enter the temple on their recent
Bali visit.
Mohan Krishnamurthy of Gandhi Center, T Nagar, and THT, asked
whether Bali temples had agamas. Nandita Krishna replied that they basically
follow Indian agamas and traditions only, but Prof Dibia didn’t comment.
Sri Mohan also asked about rice given to devotees at temples.
Prof Dibia said rices is sacred was offered as prasad. Their troupe will perform a Balinese dance at the Music Academy, Madras, on January 15, 2024, on the this very theme Arisi (Rice)
Sri Sowndarrajan, also of THT, asked why some gates have
just two pillars. This is just an architectural affectation, was the reply.
To a question about what kind of music and songs were
played, a friend and colleague of the speaker said that they start music with
nattai ragam and end with surutti ragam. But they mainly play instrumental music.
Bali unlike India, Bali didn't have bhakti movement, which produced a lot of
poetry set to music. So in Balinese dances, there was no sahitya (words and
poetry) for the music, only melody.
Login
