This is with reference to the ongoing debate regarding Thyagaraja and the fusion music concert held in Chennai recently. I think its time we stop trying to inject half-baked intellectualism into poor and anemic arguments and have the courage to take a stand on an issue. We time and again exhibit our ‘middle of the road’ mentality in that we have no pride or guts to explicitly criticize an outrageous trespassing.

It is, undeniably, the foundation of the kritis of the trinity that have given carnatic music its form today. Thyagaraja was a composer par excellence and his compositions have widened the canvas of kirtana rendering, sangatis and niraval. Let us remember that there are nearly 750 kritis of his with us today but only a few hundreds are in vogue.

Almost every concert will feature at least one of his 1 ½ (ondrai edam) kriti among other masterpieces. If Thyagaraja chose to compose Varaleela in a band tune that was his prerogative. We do not know if any specific instance motivated this – maybe he did it for some students who could not sing Gamakas?! A person who was so highly talented and inspired would have surely had his reasons and it seems rather irrelevant a point as to whether this tantamounts to‘narastuti’. However, does that give me the liberty to sing ‘ eti janma’ in Kuntalavarali or ‘evarimata’ in Kadanakuthuhalam? Copyright laws are very strong in the western world.

Because we have come in the line of a fantastic oral tradition, do Thyagaraja or Dikshitar deserve to be mutilated just because the offender can go unpunished? Sa regards Gnana mosagarada or Seethamma mayamma, we do not know how the change happened. I must mention here an interesting incident that happened a few years back. At a function held in memory of the mridangam maestro palani Subramania Pillai, a musician was rendering ‘paratpara’ – horror of horrors, he sang it consistently with a suddha rishaba.

The song was rendered sincerely in Ramapriya instead of Vachaspati! The singer was evidently oblivious of the faux pas. I am sure his sishya parampara will religiously follow this and say ‘ this is my pathantaram’! Isn’t that a brilliant excuse—when something cannot be explained, just say—‘ idu enga gurunathar vazhi!’ The guru never said to pack up your brains and become a parrot. Every student of an eminent guru who has made it big has used his head and added his own individuality to the existing style.

However, the point is—while it is not justified, these changes were perhaps inadvertant. But, Mari mari was a blatant, defiant sacrilege. I have not heard of anyone paying homage to ones chosen ‘idol’ by a deliberate mutilation of his composition.

Ilayaraja is such a fantastic musician in his own right. He could’ve always composed a fresh song in praise of Thyagaraja. Is Ilayaraja a better judge than thyagaraja that Mari mari will sound better in Saramathi than in kambodhi? Maybe tomorrow we’ll feel that Kaddanuvariki  will sound better in Kamala manohari or Swara raga in Vasantha? Who are we trying to fool? Yes, we have the liberty of adding sangathis—without changing the overall song structure and raga bhava.

That is the beauty of our music—creativity within a structured framework. And, yes, I do not think it wrong to sing only one or two charanams of a song and not all of them. The charanams are extensions of the song and its meaning. I do not think Thyagaraja or Dikshitar presented their songs in concerts. Theirs were inspired outpourings.

In a concert, art music takes precedence.You are presenting the grandeur of carnatic music through alapanas and compositions. The purpose of the composition is different here. It is sufficient to render one or two charanam. It would be helpful here, if learned musicologists could list out songs that need to be rendered in its entirety so that the meaning is not distorted. It would be a happy coordinated effort by musicians and musicologists!
Now, coming to Madam Raman—this is the zenith of blasphemy and cannot be condemned sufficiently.

I was troubled enough to lose sleep for a few days after listening to her Cd. One can experiment with ragas—no problem. You want to infuse words, no problem. There are plenty of lyricists who can pen brilliant sahitya to suit the purpose. But to mutilate Mahaganapathim and Manasuloni-- it calls for an abysmal lack of values, respect or any vestige of cultured behaviour to tamper with these compositions in such an unholy manner. Not only songs, even sacred mantras have not been spared. Susheela Raman cannot fall lower. One could easily dismiss her as an upstart. How the hell does it matter who she is? But, to project thyagaraja and Dikshitar in such a manner is atrocious and misleading and needs to be arrested.

I cannot believe it that we have scholars and rasikas who can allow and further justify a crime like this. A crime is a crime that needs to be punished, precedent or no precedent.( Sorry, Dr.Ramanathan).
There are many musicians like me who take utmost care regarding Sahitya and Sangita. Because there are a few who do not, let us not generalize the exception.