Eternal India Encyclopedia

MUSIC

The best exponents of the sarod are Ali

Akbar Khan, Amjad Ali Khan and Sharan

Rani.

Ustad Allauddin Khan (1862-1972), fa-

ther of Ali Akbar Khan, who was born 1871,

in Shibpur village in Comilla District of East

Bengal, learnt his music from his guru, Ustad

Wazir Khan, court musician at the court of the

Nawab of Rampur. After many years of rigor-

ous training he went to Maihar in Madhya

Pradesh where he became the principal court

musician and stayed there till his death. He

created many new ragas, namely, Hemant,

Hembehag,

Prabhakali,

Subhawati

and

Kaushik Bhairava. He not only developed but

greatly enriched the art of sarod playing. He

enriched the Sarod Baaj by adding Krintan,

Zamzama and other ornamentations mainly

used on sitar by some sitarists. He also added

four strings on the side for special effective

resonance.

He designed several new instruments- the

chandra sarang, sitar banjo and nal tarang

which were used in orchestra experimentation

on the Maihar Band, a small chamber orches-

tra created by him at Maihar in the 20s. He was

also a sitar player and Pandit Ravi Shankar,

who later married his daughter, Annapurna,

learnt the sitar from Allauddin Khan at Maihar.

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, one of India's

greatest living musicians and the foremost

exponent of the sarod, was bom in 1922 in

East Bengal. He used to accompany his fa-

ther, Ustad Allauddin Khan to music confer-

ences and played for the first time at the Al-

lahabad music conference in 1936. He estab-

lished the Ali Akbar College of Music in

Calcutta in 1956. He has performed in Lon-

don, Edinburgh, New York, Washington, Brus-

sels, Paris and other capital cities. His LP

Gramophone record was introduced by

Yehudi Menhuin.

Sharan Rani is the first woman to take up

sarod professionally and is also India's first

ranking woman sarod player. She is India's

first woman instrumentalist to receive a civil-

ian award, the Padma Shri, in 1968.

Other Eminent Sarod players

: Hafiz Ali

Khan, Zarin Sharma (L).

VEENA

The South India veena has seven strings

and 22 fixed frets. It is an instrument of great

virtuosity, subtlety and restraint. The veena,

an ancient musical instrument, is associated

with Saraswathi, the Goddess of learning and

music who is invariably shown playing a

veena.

The Sangita Ratnakara speaks of 10 dif-

ferent kinds of Veena and its species prevalent

in India from 11-13th C. A.D. They are known

as 1. Eka-tantri, 2. Nakula, 3. Tri-tantri, 4.

Chitra, 5. Vipanchi, 6. Matta-Kokila, 7. Alap-

ini, 8. Kinnari, 9. Pinaki, 10. Nishanka-vina.

It is one of the oldest musical instruments

of the past and was in great use even in Vedic

age for the fulfilment of chants of hymns of

the Vedas.

The veena of South India (also known as

the Saraswati veena) is made entirely of wood.

The long hollow finger-board is also of wood,

though separately made and attached to the

neck. But in special cases the whole instru-

ment is carved out of a single log of wood. A

veena thus made is of very high quality.

The South Indian veena has strings to play

the raga, it has the drone and. these strings are

so placed that tala can also be played on them.

It is a self-contained instrument having in

itself swara, raga and tala.

The veena is held horizontally. The

musician sits crosslegged on the floor. The

large kudam is placed on the ground with the

other gourd resting on the lap.

Miraj is famous for the manufacture of

Saraswati Veena. Mysore and Tanjore are

noted for the production of Rudra Veena.

Eternal India

encyclopedia

Eminent Veena players :

Karaikudi Sambasiva

Iyer, L. Subramanya Sastri, K.S. Narayanaswami (L),

Devakottai A. Narayana Iyengar, Emani Sankara

Sastri, S. Balachander, Tanjavur K.P. Sivanandam

(L), Raajeswari Padmanabhan (L), R. Pichumani Iyer

(L),

Chitti

Babu

(L),

M.K.

Kalyanakrishna,

Bhagavathar

(L),

Kalpagam

Swaminathan

(L),

Veena Seshanne (L), M. Dhanammal (L), Mayuram

Sabesa Iyer (L), V. Gayathri (L), Dr. Suma Sudheen-

dra (L)

GOTTUVADYAM

The

gottuvadyam

of South India is

similar to the veena but without frets.

There are four main strings on which melo-

dies are played. There are three more

strings on one side meant for giving the

drone and tala. The plucking of the strings

is done as in the veena. A small cylinder of

ebony or wood is moved along the strings

for playing a melody. This-piece is called

the kodu or batta (slider). The name of the

instrument is derived from this. It is an

extremely difficult and delicate technique to

adjust the pressure of the kodu as even the

slightest change in pressure introduces de-

viations in pitch. In ancient times this in-

strument was called Chitra Veena.

Eminent Gottuvadyam players

: Budalur

Krishnamurthi Shastri, Ravi Kiran (L)

VIOLIN

The violin, a Western instrument, has be-

come popular in India especially the South,

since its introduction in the 19th century by

Baluswamy Dikshitar, the brother of

Muthuswami Dikshitar. The violin in North

and South India has emerged as a solo instru-

ment.

It has four strings of different thickness

and they are tuned as under.

The first string from the extreme left or

the thickest one Ma or Pa (lower F or G).

The second string from the left, Madhya

Sadja (C of the middle octave).

The third string from the left. Madhya

Punchama (G of the middle octave).

The fourth string from the left or the first

string from right. Tara Rsava or Sadja (C

or D of the third register).

Some of the greatest violin maestros have

come

from

South

India.

Dwaram

Venkataswarni Naidu, Mysore T. Chowdiah,

Rajamanickam

Pillai,

Mayavaram

Govindaraja Pillai, Lalgudi Jayaraman (L)

T.N. Krishnan (L), M.S. Gopalakrishnan

(L), M. Chandrasekhar (L), Chalakudi

Narayanaswamy (L), V.V. Subrahmanyam

(L), R.K. Venkatarama Shastri.

Vioiin (Hindustani) players

: Gajananrao