|
The original Bhairavi
 Mudicondan Venkatarama Iyer was a highly respected musician and a scholar of the earlier generation. He has written extensively for the Music Academy journal and elsewhere on a variety of subjects.
I recently came across an article of Mudicondan on the Bhairavi raga, published in 'Shanmukha' magazine. This was republished from the Mudicondan Centenary Volume. The article is most informative and raises a lot of interesting issues regarding modern trends in the handling of the raga.
For the purpose of this article, I would only restrict myself to his views on the Bhairavi-Manji issue. I have written in the past about the view held by Tiger Varadachariar on Bhairavi and Manji. Tiger said what Bhairavi musicians were singing was only Manji and that the original svarupa of Bhairavi has been lost. Mudicondan's views also more or less correspond in some aspects.
Here is what Mudicondan says on this: "Venkatamakhin calls Bhairavi the 19th mela and classifies it only as an upanga raga with predominant use of shuddha daivata. Catushruti daivata has only a limited place in this. It is only over a period of time, with use by musicians, that catushruti daivata is more prevalent in Bhairavi. On the other hand, Manji uses only catushruti daivata in the arohanam. But the increasing use of chatusruti daivata in Bhairavi has literally made Manji blend with Bhairavi completely. Thus, it makes it impossible for us to know the true nature or lakshana of
Manji."
Mudicondan further goes on to state that when singing Bhairavi, there should be only shuddha daivata usage and that the usage of catushruti daivata can be only a rare instance. What should be an upanga raga with the rare instance of catushruti daivata has become a bhashanga raga with instances of both
daivatas!
To some extent, these views seem correct if one were to observe the Manji kriti 'Brovavamma' where there is a predominance of catushruti daivata. Of course, Mudicondan remains silent on the added antara gandhara that finds place in some versions of Manji.
Powered by Sangeetham.com
|
