Shrutis...

Smt. Vidya Shankar – veteran vainika and a storehouse of knowledge – gave a lecture demonstration on 22 shrutis titled “Shrutiranantam” at Raga Sudha Hall, Mylapore in July 2008.

INTRODUCTION

• shru means “to hear”. “shrUyatE iti shrutihi”. That which is heard or perceived by the ear is shruti.
• Shruti means vEdAs. The sacred knowledge of the vEdAs was not written down. shru means ”to hear”, sru means “to remember”. Lip-ear method of teaching was prevalent (vEda adhyayanam) in the earlier days. Notation as a guide to memory started appearing much later.
• Shruti in music basically refers to pitch.

SHRUTIS IN CARNATIC MUSIC

• All music in this world is made out of the seven swaras – shaDjam, rishabham, gAndhAram, madhyamam, pancamam, dhaivatam and nishAdam. These may be known by different names in different systems of music. Of these, shaDjam (sA) and pancamam (pA) are “prakriti” swarams or “acala” swarams. There is no shaking in these swarams. The rest five swarams have different varieties. Ex. rishabham (R ) has R1 and R2, gAndhAram (G) has G1, G2 etc. Thus there are 12 swara sthAnams (2 acala swarams along with 2 types each of the remaining 5 swarams).
• Raga is the soul of Carnatic music. Ragas are created with the permutation/combination of these swara sthanams. But, every raga has a swarUpam. Our ancestors have handled each raga in many ways. They have shown how the same swaram can be reached in different ways. They created 2 additional types for each of the 5 swarams to get 4 types for each, thus giving 22 swarams (2 prakriti swarams and 5 x4 = 20 other swarams).
• Just like the seven colors of the rainbow, these shrutis come in different shades and also merge into each other. Infinite shades of shrutis are possible and hence the topic of the lec dem “Shrutiranantam”
• About 2000 years back, Bharata in his Natya Shastra has ascertained these 22 shrutis by doing experiments using chala veena, dhruva veena etc. He has also ascertained 81/80 as the pramANa shruti.

EXAMPLE OF CALCULATION OF SHRUTIS

The calculations of frequencies are done with the values of svayambhu svaras (harmonics?). These are heard when we play the shadja string of the veena and damp it at the positions corresponding to 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 and 1/5 th of its length to give shaDjam, pancamam, sudha madhyamam and antara gAndhAram.
The brief calculations are as follows:
• 1/2 position: The vibrating length is half. Therefore, the frequency of this note relative to the shaDjam is 1 divided by 1/2 i.e, 2 (tArA sthAyi shaDjam)
• 1/3 position: The vibrating length is (1 – 1/3) i.e, 2/3. Therefore the frequency of this note relative to shaDjam is 1 divided by 2/3 i.e, 3/2 (pancamam – P)
• 1/4 position: The vibrating length is (1 – 1/4) i.e, 3/4. Therefore the frequency of this note relative to shaDjam is 1 divided by 3/4 i.e, 4/3 (sudha madhyamam – M1)
• 1/5 position: The vibrating length is (1 – 1/5) i.e, 4/5. Therefore the frequency of this note relative to shaDjam is 1 divided by 4/5 i.e, 5/4 (antara gAndhAram – G2)
When we play M1 followed by P, we are playing 4/3 followed by 3/2. This is similar to playing S and then catushruti rishabham (R4). Since shaDja is 1, a similar ratio would give R4 as 3/2 divided by 4/3 which is 9/8. This is the value for catushruti rishabham (R4)
When we play catushruti rishabham followed by antara gAndhAram, we are playing 9/8 followed by 5/4. This is similar to playing shaDja followed by trishruti rishabham (R3). Since shaDja is 1, a similar ratio would give R3 as 5/4 divided by 9/8 which is 10/9. This is the value for trishruti rishabham (R3)

RISHABHAM

• R1 (Ekashruti rishabham) is very close to shaDjam (S). So we approach it from S. sAvEri means “sA vE rI than” – sA itself is rI. We have to keep our fingers at S and touch R1 as closely to S as possible. (She played the sAvEri varnam as an example where all Rs in the start are played close to S). There are many varieties of the R in sAvEri itself. At the start the kriti rAma bANa of Sri Thyagaraja, we play R at much higher frequency than usual. The approach to R is from G through a jAru. But the fact that even this R comes from S is shown in the opening verse of Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar’s kari kaLAbhamukham
• A slightly higher R is found in gauLa. Example – srI mahAgaNapatiravatumAm of Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar. This R is a different shruti. In pADi rAgam kriti srIgurunA pAlitOham, we play the R a bit higher.
• R3 and R4 are trishruti and catushruti rishabhams respectively. Trishruti is lesser and catushruti is a bit higher. Bhairavi raga has a lot of trishruti rishabha prayogams. When Sri Sabesa Iyer was teaching the bhairavi aTa tALa varnam viribONi to my father, he asked my father not to play the S and P strings simultaneously while playing the R as the finger playing R will unconsciously rise up to touch catushruti level which merges very well with P, but destroys the rAga bhAvam of bhairavi. trishruti rishabham does not go along with pancamam.
• kharaharapriyA involves a lot of catushruti rishabha prayOgams and an example is the Thyagaraja kriti cakkani rAjamArgamu. This rishabham can be played along with pancamam.
• Just like R4 has a good relationship with P, R3 has a good relationship with M1. Example of this is the starting verse of Sri Thyagaraja’s upacAramu in bhairavi. Whenever rishabham comes with this madhyamam, the rishabham will be trishruti. This is why this madhyamam has been given a high place in bhairavi and figures in a lot of places in kritis in this raga. Such an importance to this madhyamam is not given in any other raga as its presence is essential for R3 to come in bhairavi. Other kriti examples where we can see this association are mArubalka and brOcEvArevarE (shrIranjani).
• When we give a shake to trishruti rishabham to take it slightly higher, we get madhyamAvati. Examples are the kritis alakalella ADagagani and dharmasammardhani. When we render this rishabham heavily and with oscillation, we get madhyamAvati. In the kriti alakalella ADagagani, the dangling of Sri Rama’s locks on his forehead (ADagagani) has been beautifully captured by the shaking of this rishabham by Sri Thyagaraja.
• A different oscillation to R3 is given in kalyAni (example is the kriti himAdrisutE). This cannot be seen in shankarAbharaNam where rishabham is played with a stress.
• A yet different oscillation is seen in dEvagAndhAri.
• R4 without any shake is seen in kAmbhOji in the varnam sarasijanAbha
• Thus we can see that a swaram (example rishabham), when played differently as different shrutis gives us unique prayOgams of different rAgAs.

GANDHARAM

• sadharana gAndharam is an oscillated catushruti rishabham in varALi. gAndhAram shouldn’t go above this level for this rAgam
• A slightly higher level but still an oscillation of catushruti rishabham is seen in tODi. There are so many approaches to playing gAndhAram in tODi. We can approach gAndhAram from rishabham or from madhyamam and there are a variety of gamakams that can be employed.
• In Anandabhairavi, when we play “G-M-P”, G reaches almost the rishabham levels as the gamakam is played on the rishabham fret. In rItigauLa, G is sharper and often comes with a janta prayOgam. The second of the two Gs in a janta prayOgam is always a bit higher than the first one.
• A still higher G is found in hindOLam. This G is played close to M1.
• The purest G is the antara gAndhAra. Summation of tones of a tambura is antara gAndhAram. It is a perfect note – a svayambhu swaram. You cannot shake this G in shankarAbharaNam. This G is the mahimA of shankarAbharaNam. The moment you oscillate this G, it becomes kalyANi. Similar usage of plain antara gAndhAram is seen in the kriti eLiyEnai in yadukula kAmbOji.
• A higher level of G is seen in mErusamAna (mAyAmALavagauLa). mEru goes high and so does the G there.

MADHYAMAM

• madhyamam is sung in a sudha manner without oscillations in kuntalavarALi (kritis kalinarulaku & shara shara samarai)
• Some ragas get a beautiful color with the use of a lower M. Ex. nIlAmbari (kriti ambA nIlAmbari)
• begaDa’s madhyamam is generally said to be higher than sudha madhyamam. But there are many kinds of madhyamams that are played in bEgaDa. M can be approached from P and played higher or played as sudha madhyamam also. A lower M occurs in the kriti nAdOpAsana
• varALi has prati madhyamam – very close to pancamam. But kalyANi’s M is not played as high as varALi M. M in any prati madhyama ragam comes from pancamam. It is played/sung very close to the pancamam
• Children must be taught gamakams while they are being taught alankArams. We can see all kinds of shakes with the madhyamam in the shankarAbharaNam alankAram

DHAIVATAM

• suddha dhaivatam is played as oscillation on pancamam
• Sri Thyagaraja has created about 30 kritis in tODi and has shown different ways of handling the dhaivatam in these kritis . In Emi jEsitE – D is played very close to P. The kriti starts with P. In enduku dayarAdurA we stand at D and shake it.
• There are so many types of D that are played in tODi. Every D is played differently. The number of shrutis that get covered are innumerable.
• sAvEri also uses sudha dhaivatam
• A flatter version of chatushruti dhaivatam occurs in kAmbhOji. If we shake this, we get the D in kannaDA
• A still more shaken D occurs in vasantA. Absence of P in this ragam implies that the D is played higher up.

NISHADAM

• Kaisiki nishadam is an important note called the septimal seventh. suruTTi uses it.
• bhairavi has a lower N. We approach it from D. In fact bhairavi has many Ns. In sari evarammA, Sri Shyama Sastri lifts the N to show the higher status of ambAL. When saying nI daya jUDavamma in the next phrase, he brings N slightly down. This is just one example of how the Trinity have used swarams with lot of care in their compositions. There is a lot of emotional appeal for the swarams as is evident from their compositions
• kAkali nishadam – In the muktAyi swaram of the Adi tALam kalyANi varnam vanajAkshi, N is held higher. In shankarAbharaNam and kurinji, N almost touches S.

Thus we can see that there is infinite number of shrutis for each note itself.

Some other points made in the lec dem and in the Q&A session post that:

• Music and mathematics go together. There is no art without science and vice versa. It is said that the researchers aim at an aesthetic perfection in their research. Art and science go hand in hand
• While responding to handling of notes and ragams in Hindustani and Carnatic music …… Intonation of notes itself causes differences in the two systems of music. RE and RI are different in terms of shruti. Hindustani musicians would stand at G at the same shruti for a long time in kAnaDA. We will keep shaking the G in our kAnaDA. Their approach is very different because of playing notes flatter for longer duration
• While responding to whether a keyboard is suitable for Carnatic music …… People told the same thing about the Clarinet 50 years back what they tell today about the keyboard. The Music Academy had lot of skepticism about the use of Clarinet years back. This year’s Sangeetha Kalanidhi is a Clarinet player. (Pitch bender and fingering) techniques have helped people try to play Carnatic music on keyboard, but not with perfection. The perfection of gamakams on a veena is almost impossible to achieve in a keyboard (today). We should appreciate the effort of keyboard players if they play well. But we should also know what people would able to play on keyboard and what they wouldn’t.
• Just as a color has many shades, a swaram has many shades/shrutis. It is a matter of experience, rather than analysis, to realize the intricacies of the shrutis. The veena is a very good instrument that helps us in this experience.

The transcription of the lecture was done by Ramkumar who writes about music related issues in his blog.