The Tamil Padam: A Dance Music Genre of South India

Description

This book is a study of the Bharata Natyam dance genre "padam" focusing on its patrons and composers and its formal structure, texts, and music. It examines the "rewriting" of South Indian dance and the decades-long debates over the classicization and ownership of South Indian music. The control over the representation of the arts is a subject that should resonate with scholars working in a wide variety of genres and across many countries. The study is diachronic (historical) and also synchronic (examining padams’ organizational structure as a system). Importantly, the text includes 30 Tamil language songs, minutely translated and annotated together with a documentation of their performance history in the 20th century. Classical and modern music composers and performers, ethnomusicologists, librettists, singers, choreographers, art historians, dancers, dance scholars, and dance teachers will find them useful in giving students a deep contextual understanding of Bharata Natyam. The book will find an enthusiastic readership with dance teachers who are actively training Bharata Natyam students. It will also attract a scholarly audience as an anthropological and historical study of an artistic form which has a high profile in South Asia and has become prominent in the growing fields of ethnomusicology, dance ethnography and "world dance." Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures List of Plates Maps Preface Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1: Hinduism 1.1.1: Devi–The Goddess 1.1.2: Saivism 1.1.3: Murugan 1.1.4: Vaishnavism 1.2: The Two “Love Rajas” and Two Languages 1.3: Padams and Dance 1.4: Padams and Gender 1.5: Padams and Family 1.6: Previous Scholarship 1.7: Goals, Methods, Limitations 1.7.1: A Living Repertoire 1.8: Selection of Core Group 1.9: Synopsis Chapter 2: Kings, Devotion, Patronage, and Padams 2.1: Emergence of Tanjavur as a Center for the Arts 2.2: The Colas 2.2.1: King Raja Raja Cola, Nambi Andar Nambi, et al. 2.3: The Nayak Period in Tanjavur 2.4: Shift to Vaishnavite Patronage 2.5: Nayaks of Tanjavur 2.5.1: Sevappa 2.5.2: Achyutappa 2.5.3: Raghunatha 2.5.4: Sringara Padams: Early References 2.5.5: Vijayaraghava 2.5.6: Padams at Court 2.5.7: Denouement of the Telugu Nayak Line 2.6: The Maratha Rajas of Tanjavur 2.6.1: Venkoji/Ekoji I 2.6.2: Sahaji I 2.6.3: The 18th Century: A Word about Padams 2.6.4: Serfoji I 2.6.5: Tulaja I 2.7: The Period of Anarchy 2.7.1: Pratap Singh 2.7.2: Tulaja II 2.7.3: Reverend Schwartz 2.7.4: Amar Singh at Tiruvidaimarudur 2.7.5: Serfoji II 2.7.6: Sivaji II Chapter 3: Composers of Tamil Padams 3.1: To Compose 3.1.1: Changes Over Time in Melody and Text 3.2: Biographies of Composers 3.3: Composer: Muttuttandavar 3.3.1: Dating His Life 3.3.2: His Life Story 3.3.3: Transmission of Muttuttandavar’s Songs 3.3.4: Publication of Muttuttandavar’s Songs 3.3.5: Early Tamil Kritis and Padams 3.3.6: Rhythmic Aspects of His Kirttanams 3.3.7: Without Understanding 3.3.8: God Coming in Procession 3.4: Composer: Papavinasa Mudaliar 3.4.1: His Life 3.4.2: Transmission of His Compositions 3.4.3: Papavinasa Mudaliar and Tiruvarur 3.4.4: His Oeuvre 3.4.5: Flowering of Ninda Stuti 3.5: Composer: Marimutta Pillai 3.5.1: The Central Narrative 3.5.2: His Work 3.5.3: Ninda Stuti 3.6: Composer: Uttukkadu Venkatasubba Ayyar 3.6.1: The Village of Uttukkadu 3.6.2: Transmission of His Songs 3.6.3: Revival of His Compositions 3.6.4: The Dancing Krishna 3.7: Composer: Arunacala Kavirayar, Sirgari 3.7.1: Story of His Life 3.7.2: The Poet and the Musicians 3.7.3: Arankerram (Premiere) 3.7.4: Caveat 3.7.5: His Work and Its Popularity 3.7.6: The Musical Settings of His Songs 3.7.7: Discovery of Five Additional Songs 3.7.8: Padams and the 19th Century 3.8: Composer: Ghanam Krishna Ayyar 3.8.1: Kumbakonam and its Surroundings 3.8.2: A Mid-Point Between Worlds 3.8.3: His Youth 3.8.4: The Ghanam Style 3.8.5: Three Patrons and Three Songs 3.8.5.1: Patron 1: The Moopanars at Kapistalam 3.8.5.2: Patron 2: Raja Amara Simha at Tiruvidaimarudur 3.8.5.3: Patron 3: Kaccirangan of Udaiyarpalaiyam 3.8.6: Kacciranka’s Nod of Assent 3.8.7: Padams on Vishnu and Murugan 3.8.8: On Ranganatha of Srirangam 3.8.9: Third Caranam of Engumayamana 3.8.10: Murugan at Palani 3.8.11: Murugan as the Holder of the Spear 3.9: Composer: Kavikunjara Bharati 3.9.1: Family and Early Life 3.9.2: Madura Kavi Bharati 3.9.3: The Composer at Court 3.9.4: An Elephant Among Poets 3.9.5: The Aragar Kuravanji 3.9.6: His Padams: Tone, Tune And Tamil 3.9.7: Geography and Repertoire 3.9.8: Two Padams and Two Legends at Kunrakkudi 3.9.8.1: Cur, the “Mango Demon” 3.9.8.2: Valli and Devayanai, Murugan’s southern and northern wives 3.9.9: The Kuravanji Dance Drama 3.10: Composer: Vaidisvarankoil Subbarama Ayyar 3.10.1: Sources 3.10.2: “The Book” 3.10.3: Subbarama Ayyar’s Possible Guru 3.10.4: Subbarama Ayyar’s Possible Patrons 3.10.5: Velur: The Place of Subbarama Ayyar’s Padams 3.10.6: Authorship 3.10.7: On Murugan as Muttukkumaraswami of Velur 3.10.8: On Murugan as Kumaresar of Parani 3.11: Composer: Gopalakrishna Bhara 3.12: Other Songs in the Study Chapter 4: Texts, a Quiet, Private Corner 4.1: A System of Texts 4.2: The Ashta Nayakis (Eight Heroines) 4.3: Classical Tamil Poetry: Akam and Puram 4.4: Bhakti Poetry 4.5: An “Export and Reimport” of Erotic Bhakti? 4.6: A Triad of Characters 4.7: Directions of Address 4.8: Evolution of Three-Part Structure from Two-Part Structure 4.9: The Number of Caranams 4.10: Progression Through the Form in Performance 4.11: Pallavi, the Sprout: Throwing the Idea 4.12: Anupallavi, “The Lord Whose Fame Ever Grows” 4.13: Murugan Atop His Mountains 4.14: Caranam: “In My Tender Youth” 4.15: Presentation of Compositions by Group 4.16: Discussion: A Corpus with Fuzzy Edges 4.17: Organization of the Repertoire: The Indirect Stance 4.18: Weaving of Akam and Puram Elements 4.19: Conclusion Chapter 5: The Musical Organization of Tamil Padams 5.1: Principle of Selection of Material 5.2: Qualities of Raga 5.2.1: “Major” Ragas 5.2.2: Rakti Ragas 5.2.3: Ghana Ragas 5.3: Varnamettu: Setting a Tune 5.4: Autobiographical 5.5: Astonishment at Recognizing a Phrase 5.6: The “Border Lines” 5.7: Product and Process in Genre 5.7.1: Opening up the Notion of Genre 5.8: Three Ragas 5.8.1: Bhairavi 5.8.1.1: The music academy of Madras 5.8.1.2: Raga classification as a living process 5.8.2: Kambhoji 5.8.2.1: Yadukula Kambhoji: A fellow janya 5.8.3: Todi 5.8.3.1: Conservative usage 5.8.3.2: Expanded usage 5.9: Varnamettu in the Literature and Musicians’ Conversation 5.9.1: Composer or Artisan 5.9.2: Varnamettu Vis à Vis Phrase and Alapana 5.9.3: Varnamettu and Hindustani Chalan 5.9.4: Varnamettu and the Folk 5.9.5: Varnamettu: A Snap Shot of Raga 5.9.6: Varnamettu in Terukkuttu 5.9.7: Melody and Meter in Mettu 5.9.8: Tala in the Padams 5.9.9: Padams Set to Multiple Talas 5.9.10: Varnamettu Across Four Tala Cycles 5.9.11: Music Chapter 6: Conclusion 6.1: Epilogue 6.2: The Hindu of Madras 6.3: Dance Programs 6.4: Old and New Worlds Bibliography Appendices Index