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A public viva voce
 A couple of months back, I had a chance to meet up with Dr N Ramanathan of the Madras University’s Indian Music Dept. During the course of our conversation I casually mentioned that next year being the centenary of the publication of the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini, an effort needs to be made to understand, interpret and record the music found in it so that it is available for posterity.
He immediately played me an audio CD containing a rendering of shri mAta of Muttuswami Dikshitar by Smt RS Jayalakshmi on the vINa. He told me that this was a part of a Ph.D. thesis on interpreting the gamaka signs found in the book. Of course one could see how different the bEgada sounded compared to the modern day bEgada, but it was very interesting and one could see some kind of commonality with the bEgada varnam recording of Dhanammal. Though the exercise was interpretative, it was quite exhaustive and laborious.
Last month I had the chance to sing in a concert at the Madras University, and Smt Jayalakshmi who was there immediately invited me to the public viva voce of her thesis. I was quite elated at the prospect of attending that session as it was the first time I could see something like this and the subject also happened to be quite close to my heart.
 So I landed at the Madras University on October 6th along with my violinist friend RK Shriramkumar. The session was presided over by the Chief Examiner, Dr Kausalya from the Tiruvayyaru Music College. Dr N Ramanathan, who was the guide, was also present and so were a number of musicians and music students. Dr Ramanathan explained as to how difficult it was to find a chief examiner with the right qualifications. As the thesis was in Tamizh and the subject involved interpreting gamakas written primarily with the vINa in mind, it required someone with knowledge of Tamizh and the vINa. Fortunately Dr Kausalya fitted the bill and she handled the session very well.
The whole session lasted for about 2 hours. The thesis was an excellent piece of research and scholarship and Smt Jayalakshmi had taken a lot of pains in her study. She made a short presentation and specially played on the vINa and demonstrated the different types of gamaka signs employed by Subbarama
Dikshitar.
There was then a question answer session which was most capably handled. The procedure in these cases is that the thesis is available for public inspection and questions can be raised on the thesis. There were a couple of questions from other examiners including an international examiner. The chief examiner then concluded the session by making a special note that this was an excellent thesis and she herself had to go through it a few times to really grasp the full essence of the work. She was all praise for the scholar’s painstaking work. She was most happy to award the doctorate to Smt
Jayalakshmi.
For someone like me, it was a new experience. Apart form the department’s music students and staff, a few music teachers working in institutions like the QMC were also present. I had a chance to speak with Dr SAK Durga a very senior musicologist. She said that it was very appropriate that someone like Smt Jayalakshmi who is so senior and has so many years of experience in music teaching, took up a Ph.D. thesis. She said that it is only people like this with a mature approach to their subject that can do justice to a Ph.D. thesis. Especially in comparison to some of the younger students who are more keen on the degree than on actually understanding the depth of the subject taken up.
It is quite rare to find a Ph.D. thesis being awarded in the field of music and I was most fortunate to be present when it took place. Smt Jayalakshmi has done an outstanding job. Her thesis was accompanied by an audio CD where she demonstrated her findings. I only hope other musical organisations could use her services to present her research in the form of lec dems. Personally speaking, musicians like me could use pointers from a thesis like this when they endeavour to understand and interpret the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini’s musical notation. It is research like this that really helps in bridging the theory vs practice divide that exists in the field of Carnatic music.
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