Bhairavi, symbol of Shakti
GARIMELLA SUBRAMANIAM
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Violin maestro Kunnakudi Vaidhyanathan chose Bhairavi to commemorate a special moment in his life and career.
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A MILESTONE IN HIS MUSICAL JOURNEY: Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan with the ensemble of artistes. PHOTO: K. PICHUMANI.
Ragam Bhairavi is taller than the family tree called Natabhairavi, proclaims violin virtuoso Kunnakudi Vaidhyanathan. There is a sense of personal pride when he says that Bhairavi, a derivative of Natabhairavi, should be better known because of its special attributes. It is an article of faith with him and his father Kunnakudi Ramaswami Sastri that Bhairavi is the embodiment of goddess shakti.
The Bhairavi bond has a legend. It enabled Vaidhyanathan revive ailing father Ramaswami Sasthri, Sanskrit scholar and Harikatha exponent. The boy was barely 14 years when the desperate family doctor urged Vaidhyanathan to play Bhairavi and more Bhairavi on the violin.
The manifold power of Bhairavi was the theme of Vaidhyanathan's marathon three-hour demonstration to commemorate a milestone in his musical journey. The completion of painstaking study and dissemination of 60 Carnatic scales. The choice raga for the special moment had to be Bhairavi.
Source of inspiration
What the multifaceted musician left almost unsaid was that the source of inspiration behind the `raga research centre' he has nurtured is a more contemporary symbol of woman power. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has been a source of strength and support to Vaidhyanathan's tireless endeavours since the centre's inception back in the mid 1990s.
Sangeetham and sahityam, as Vaidhyanathan eloquently portrayed with examples from masterpieces, are somewhat like identical twins. If they are not indistinguishable, they are surely inseparable. If Arunachala Kavi chose to dwell upon Sita's awe and wonder during prince Rama's visit to Mithila, then he was inexorably led to bhairavi to give musical expression in `Yaro ivar yaro.' Rajeswari, former principal of the Central college of Music, made a case with persuasion why given the particular theme, the tune is a gradual progression from the lower to the higher notes.
But the song is an exception to the Bhairavi rule, notes Vaidhyanathan, that a majority of the songs in the ragam take off on the higher notes. This is because Shakti, Vaidhyanathan says, showers bounties only upon those who claim it as a matter of right as it were. Therefore, a tune must reflect the appropriate emotion. Very often, the same inspiration to compose on the attributes of female deities inexorably led composers to Bhairavi.
The idea was amply illustrated from the kritis of Syamasastri, Tyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshitar. Sugantha Kalamegam, Geetha Raja, Geetha Rajasekher and others backed Vaidhyanathan's hypothesis and elaborate explanations with meLlifluous renditions of the kritis.
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