Music with divinity.....Carnatic Music

Vidhushi MS Subbulakhshmi

 I was in vellore for my check-ups. This time the place felt much familiar to me. Moreover, it was my sixth visit to this place and I just hoped that it would be the last one.
      One thing which attracts me the most in the southern part is their temples. The religious, serene, musical environment of the temples just attracts me the most. The temples and the sweet, melodious carnatic music being played at a low volume make the environment perfect to take someone in a musical trance. The magical voice of the Carnatic singers keeps the listeners in a awe stricken trance. The famous Kanchi Kailasanathar temple in Kanchipuram is considered one of the oldest structures, the temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva.The credit of the building of this temple has been given to the rulers of the Pallava dynasty.The temple has a beautiful structure to look at. To add to the beauty of temple is the low volume played Carnatic music.I heard a Shiva bhajan in some sweet, divine and melodious voice.
 The voice was mesmerizing and had magnetic power in it which was attracting me. Later I found out the voice was of no other but of Bharat ratna MS Subbulakhshmi. I had heard Carnatic music quite a few times in past but it had not fascinated me the way it did this time.MS Subbulakhshmi is considered one of the finest vocalists India has ever produced. She is the first musician to be conferred by the Bharat Ratna in the field of music. Awarded with a numerous other awards she holds the pride of getting the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, which is considered as the Nobel Prize of Asia. The mastery of her presenting the ragas and the bhajans has made a lot of people the fan of her pristine voice.
This incident has made a Hindustani classical music lover a permanent Carnatic Classical music lover too.

Mridangam

Later, I got an opportunity to listen to some of the prominent doyens of Carnatic Music like-Vidhushi Karaikudi Mani and Vidwan TN Krishanan. The aura, the atmosphere created by this music is such that it cannot be explained in words. The five modern states of India-Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the states; this music is roughly confined to. The reasons for the differentiation between North, and South Indian music are not clear. After a lot of thinking and reading about this I concluded that the difference in the music just represents the fundamental cultural difference between two distinct geographical areas. Numerous musicians and composers have enriched the tradition of this music. Some notable personalities were; Papanasam Shivan, Gopala Krishna Bharati, Swati Tirunal, Mysore Vasudevachar, Narayan Tirtha, Uttukadu Venkatasubbair, Arunagiri Nathar, and Annamacharya. Vocal music forms the basis of South Indian music.  Although there is a rich instrumental tradition that uses vina, venu and violin, they revolve around instrumental renditions of vocal forms. Like tabla in

Pt M Balamurali Krishna

Hindustani Classical Music performances, Mridangam is the main instrument that provide rhythm and ragga to Carnatic Music performances. Pt M Balamurali Krishna is one of the leading vocalist of the current generation.He has been conferred by Padma Vibhushan for his contributions towards the Indian Art.I often heard him in jugalbandis with prominent musicians like- Pt Bhimsen Joshi,Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia.Whenever I heard these jugalbandis or say the jugalbandi of Hindustani Music and Carnatic Music makes me a greater fan of both the music forms.

Someone has correctly said- "Carnatic music is synonym to salvation and eternity."


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