And the Teesta Flows- A Book Review

 

And the Teesta Flows

A Book Review

And the Teesta Flows is a famous book authored by the passionate photographer and the pharmaceutics couple from West Bengal. It is the biography of a mountain river born from the icy womb of Glaciers – The Teesta who reflects the soul of the author and how much he loves to the Teesta. The book is written in the diary, sketch the passage of the river from its origin, Tso Lhamo nearly 17,210 feet from the sea level in Northern Sikkim, to the point where it blends with the huge flow of Brahmapurta and merge towards the Bay of Bengal. 

The book also encompasses the diversity of the nature and the humanity lies in her course.  As apart of keen and curious observation, the book reflects the contrast as well as parallels between the cultures of different communities that live along the river. It is the wide arena of socio-cultural structure of Sikkim and North Bengal. The concept of the formation of book was born with the unfortunate loss of their child, a daughter named after the river. The passionate of rock climbing and photography become subjected to write a book on tribute to their child named Teesta whose springs was dusk in her early age of thirteen because of pernicious disease. 

The Chapter names- "The birth of Teesta"- "The growing Girl", and "the lady"- Further serve to emphasize the resemblance of her presence in abstract. The book is perfectly compiled with the numerous photographs of the places that the authors took while writing the book. The colours of diverse photography flourished the extend meaning of the book having its worthy ever. An interesting observation that will come across to the reader through the book is the hospitality of the people from where they travel throughout the journey. The book presents the Teesta as an emblem for life. It is not just a river anymore, the canvas they sketch with aliveness together born a new baby again whispering for them with the same loveliness which they lost some year before.

 It resemblance the life sketch of human like the morning, the days, the evening and finally disappear in the mouth of infinitive Sea, embracing the arms of forgetfulness, as the end of the life. I have turned each pages of the book to explore the story of Dawn and Dusk of the Teesta, the incredible journey from the icy glaciers to the infinitive Sea and the liveliness of the little daughter. 

The book is also the reflection of mother's love, Father's devotion and the nature grievance, parallel to the human life. It is too the story of birth, childhood and womanhood of the female whose life blends with the Himalayan desert, hard rock, ferrous hills, crossing the stable plans to the mouth of sea to mingle with the final sleep. The book's foreword is written by the novelist Kunal Basu. It is available in all the leading bookstores at the price of Rs-1495.

Kumar Sargam

Former Guest Faculty (Assistant Professor)

Department of Music

Sikkim University

 

 

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Modern Influence and Commercialization in Sacred Music of Caste Musicians in India

 

 

Modern influence and Commercialization in Sacred Music

 

The commercialization of Indian music began in the last seven decades after establishing Independence in 1947 A.D. The caste system was finally declared as a punishable crime if discriminated by any caste or race in law passed in 1955 A.D and renamed in 1976 A.D as the law of Civil rights which meaning of untouchable means punishable by Law. The traditional musician from several castes then started forming bands and musical groups instead of a traditional way of performance.

The socially depressed group Dalits and other several caste musicians always struggle from hand to mouth. The traditional way of patronage is not sufficient anymore to survive in society having a family and children. To come out from poverty and show their talent by means of selling the craftsmanship of music-making, the Dalits forms musical groups and start working as a professional music band rather than the homely patronage system. The commercial trade of talent on any occasion in cash makes their life easier. The musical essentiality among the Brahmans and other higher communities cannot be minimized so they are offered for religious and ritual practices. The increasing media, modernity, urbanization, and globalization in music expand their profession to elaborate to large extent and spread the craftsmanship of traditional music-making for sustainable development of their earning beyond the circumstances of the traditional patronage system.

Modern musical influence is often a reflection of recorded and tempered music. This may be from the cinema, Jazz, Blues, and pop music. Today, modern music continues to reflect perceptions of the ills that permeate society and the injustices that the sector of the population view as an endemic part of the nation.

          Of the various genres of modern music that one part that can most closely be associated with segments of the Dalits population is film music, which often emphasizes romance and indecency. The traditional and folk musicians adopt film music as well as popular music instead of folk music to survive in urban life. The rural musicians are also somehow less affected by modernity but the urban life is confined only to the modern musical genre, mostly dependent to film music. The local clients or the patrons for whom they play auspicious music frequently asked for Bollywood music instead of traditional repertoire, even in Shehnai, Sarangi, and other folk instruments.

The audio CD, VCD, DVD, radio and television, Mass Media, Social media, and growing popularity of YouTube also blur the raw musical tradition of Dalits. They are losing the patrons because there are numerous options to entertain rather than the social conjunction through music. Because of modernity Folk Artists completely lost their patrons, Tradition musicians are depending on westerners losing supremacy playing Shehnai and Dholak, and Nagara in any rituals activities.

           India has a huge Cultural variety with lots of traditional and folk culture from various people from various states so a new genre of music was introduced to the people that fused Indian folk songs and folk tunes with other musical genres of west and Indian film music. During that phase, the traditional caste musicians accepts and adopted light music sufficiently distinctive to the society. Hindi films songs and other ensembles affect the folk tradition after the media like Radio, FM, and T.V. rooted in common society during the 40s -50s and 60s of 20^th century.

          At present, the Typical Instruments, Shehnai, Dhol, Nagara, and Sarangi and the traditional musicians are highly familiar with world music. They appreciated and blended the imported music in traditional instruments to sustain their life with the help of music. It is Sad to say that people are less concerned about traditional music in comparison to the popular music genre.  The Caste Musician in Varanasi and Allahabad can be seen singing western songs in Sarangi, a substitute than Kajari or Chaiti. Dhol- Nagara has almost vanished in cosmopolitan life if heard also then, the songs from Hindi films, Bhojpuri Film Music, Punjabi Popular music and other popular music are played during the rituals rather than the traditional auspicious music. The people are also least aware of the tradition and culture that we belong to. The process of changing in the folk genre may be the cause of the vanishing of the identity of common people with the folk music repertoire and also the survival of caste musicians who are best known for the auspicious music maker in Indian Society.

 

Written By

Kumar Sargam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Raga- Ragini Classification in Indian Classical Music

 

Raga -Ragini Concept

Raga- Ragini in Indian Classical Music is considered as the concept of classifying the Raga since the Vedic period. In the initial period of pre-Vedic time, the terms used to recognize the melodic structure were named Sam Gayan, or the Archik or Gaan. Later the melody was structured as Gram and their Merchants. Jati Gayan, Margi Sangeet, and Deshi Geet were the few among this classification. Raga Word is firstly used by Matangmuni in his Book Brihaddeshi and illustrated the Raga and melody systematic. The term Raga classification was started with the Narad in his Book Sangeet Makarand in the 8^th Century where he classified Raga in terms of Purush, Stri, and Napunsak Raga. Further, he classified these characters on the basis of Rasa. Those Raga of Shringara and Karun Rasa were classified as Stri(Female) Raga. Raga of Veer and Raudra Rasa are of Purush Raga and those Raga having the character of hasya and Bhayanak and Adbhut rasa are classified as Napunsak Raga.

Here Raga is considered as the Male character and Ragini is the female character so the concept of Six Raga and Thirty-six or Six Raga Thirty Ragini. It is quite hypothetical to assume the beginning of the origin of Raga- the Ragini concept. But it is supposed that Lord Shiva has created the Five Raga from his Five Mouth and the Sixth one is created by Goddess Parvati. One thing we have to understand, these all concepts are assumed because the Raga word is firstly used in the 8^th century and the connection to Lord Shiva is a long way from ….. In the medieval era, few musicologists sketch a concept of Raga-Ragini classification of six raga thirty-six Raging and Six Raga and Thirty Ragini. The four different styles were Shiv Mat and Krishna Mat of 6 Raga 36 Ragini. Hanumat and Bharatmat established the concept of  6 Raga and 30 Ragini. In these four different Mat Raga are supposed as Husband and Ragini are supposed to be Wife of particular Raga. This means each Raga has either six wives or five wives as per the classification. Pandit Damodar and Pandit Lochan are among those writers who illustrated these classifications in their respective books Sangeet Darpan and Raga Tarangini.

Raga – Ragini classification  

◦         There are 4 concepts of the Raga Ragini Division in Indian classical Music

◦         Raga is supposed to be called Male

◦         Ragini's are supposed to be the female and wife of Raga

◦         The Main Raga are Supposed to Originated from the Tongue/Speech of 5 different mouths of Lord Shiva

◦         East Mouth- Bhairav

◦         West- Hindol

◦         North- Megh

◦         South- Deepak

◦         Akash Mukh – Raga Shree

◦         From Maa parvati-Raga kaushik 

Sangeet Darpan is the first text to describe Raga Ragini Vargikaran written by Pt. Damodar

Adhovaktra Mukh- Rag Shere

Vamdev Mukh – Vasant

Aghori- Bhairav

Tatpurush- Pancham

Ishaan – Megh

Natnarayan Raga from Devi parvati during Lasya Nritya

4 Major division

◦         Shiv Mat—6/36

◦         Kallinat mat         6/36

◦         Hanumat     6/30

◦         Bharatmat  6/30

Raga Tarangini by pt. Local where raga-Ragini division are inputted in a different angles.

Shiva Mat :

◦         Shree-         Malshree gauri kedari trivani pahadika , madu-badhavi

◦         Vasant-       lalita, Hindooli barari, todika, devgiri, desi

◦         Bhairav:      Sindhavi, bagali, ginkari, ramkiri, gurjari bhairavi

◦         Pancham:    Karnati, Bhupali Vibhasha, Patmanjari, Malwai, Nathansika

◦         Natnarayan:     Abhari, Kalyani, Kamodi, Nadhawi, Sarangi, Natika

◦         Megh:         Sawari, Sorathi, Mullari, harprangar, Gandhari, Koushiki

Hanumat

◦         Bahirav

◦         Kaushik

◦         Hindol

◦         Deepak

◦         Shree

◦         Megh

Krishna Mat

◦         Shree

◦         Vasant

◦         Bhairav

◦         Pancham

◦         Natnarayan

◦         Megh

Bharat Mat

◦         Bhairva

◦         Malkoush

◦         Hindol

◦         Deepak

◦         Shree

◦         Megh

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Raktokorobi: A Play by Rabindranath Tagore

 

Raktokorobi

    Raktokorobi a symbolic drama of Rabindtanath Tagore. The play was written at the hilly resort of Shillong in the year 1923.  At that time, it was given the title of Yaksapuri. It was renamed Raktokorobi when it was published in the Ashwin 1924 issue of the periodical Prabasi. The play depicts how human greed denies the beauties and naturalness of life, makes it a mere machine and a necessary ingredient for production, and what shapes human protests take against such a state. The story in brief of this play is as follows.

Raktokorobi: Theme and Characters of the play

•      Yaksapur Kingdom

•      King

•      Pandits

•      Coolies and Mineworkers

•       Nandini

•      Ranjan 

•      Citizens

•      The royal ideal of the king of Yaksapuri is an exploitation of the citizenry; he has an insatiable greed for money. The coolies of the gold mine get burnt in the fire of that greed. In the eyes of the king, the coolies are not human beings, they are mere tools for acquiring gold; they are only small parts of machines bearing signs and numbers like 1, 2, or 3 and so on.

•      They do not have any value as humans. Here, humanism and humanity are by the shackles of machines. There is no expression of life at Yaksapuri. Nandini is a symbol of life's complete expression' of love and beauty. Under the spell of his greed, the king of Yaksapuri does not feel the touch of joy in Nandini; the ascetic does not feel it because of his craving for religious reform; the pandits do not get it due to his scholarly and slavish instincts. Nandini, the symbol of love and beauty' beckons everybody from outside the iron net of Yaksapuri. Everybody becomes excited in a moment at this mirthful touch of free life.

•      The king wants to get possession of Nandini, similar to the manner in which he extracts gold by force. But love and beauty cannot be obtained in this way. So the king cannot get Nandini despite her being within his reach. Similarly, the local leader and pandit, Kishor, and Kenaram all extended their hands beyond the net out of their eagerness to live in life's abundance. But Nandini loves Ranjan and has therefore awakened the feeling of love in him.

•      But Ranjan is tied to the bond of the machine. This machine delinks his love from his life; the poet believed that this was the characteristic of a mechanized life. Nandini's lover has to be sacrificed at the altar of mechanization; and through this, life triumphs in order to search and get back love once more. Such point of view has been reflected in many poems, plays, and stories of Rabindranath. The poet searched for a balance between materialistic mechanization and the nature of life in the play Raktokorobi.

 Nandini as the Feminist Character

        The play is mostly confined to the beauty of the lady Nandin and the greediness of the king. The narrator wants to show, how lust was the king that he always thing about her. The king is used as the symbol of absorbent whereas the young lady is symbolized as the reflection new year, a change, or an opportunity that drives to a new world. The pandits and other alliances of a king are the symbols that always support the bad trend to germinate false culture which creates a means of destruction.  Workers are reflected as the normal citizens who are always deprived from opportunity and exploited in terms to generate revenue. Ranjan is characterized as the new possibilities but he is still attached with the typical thinking and webbed with lots of mechanisms. He lost himself in these traditional and conservative and fail to accept the beauty of the dawn. The play mostly revolves around Nandin and her character seems bold and challenging. She denies the king and loves the citizen, a worker, who never understands her. The play is sometimes a replication of contemporary scenarios and the social structure that every person traveled through. Gurudev has shown the connection of society with Lust and Love, greediness and charm, changes versus exploiter.  

The female character Nandin is so bold and courageous that she revolt against King and denies his lustiness. She also satire the pandits and other alliances refusing their proposal.  Gurudev creates the admirable and feminist character in Nandini. She is not only beautiful and charming but also the character to revolt against the bloodsucker. She is a symbol of dawn and the arrival of a new era. She tried her lover to pill out from traditionalism to modernism but he is stuck in such a way that he feels good with nails in his knees and can’t find a way to come out from the trap.

By Kumar Sargam

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Valmiki Pratibha : A First Musical Drama by Rabindranath Tagore

 Valmiki Pratibha

A First Musical Drama written by Rabindranath Tagore with a large variety of musical intonation and fragrance of Rabindra sangeet is called Valmiki Paratibha. It was the firstly written in 1880 and drama performed at Jorasako in February 1881. Rabindranath Tagore himself take an initiative to perform in this play as the leading actor – Valmika. He was just 19 years when he wrote this Musical Drama.  The play is blended with music dialogues, melody of raga crowned with emotions and aesthetics, and the proper rhythmic structure to convey the timing of the dialogues. In this play Gurudev replicated the story of Daku Ratnakar and his transformation of becoming the Sage Valmiki. The social message of the play is, worst man like Daku Ratnakar can transform to a kind Sage because of the inspiration and the worship so whoever are worrying about the negative side of their life can create a positive life if they wish to alter and mold himself/ herself and faith on god. The Drama also reflect the contemporary scenario of Bengal during 19^th century.  It is a kind of Social message to the people that how a worst man become Valmiki with determination and faith with a small inspiration from the Widow and couple of Birds.  

Characters in Valmiki Pratibha

Daku Ratnakar (later Valmiki)

Fellow Dakus

Widow

Dove Couple

Hunter

Goddess Kali, Saraswati and Laxmi

Summary of the Play

•      Daku Ratnakar with His friends was wandering in the Jungle. His basic motive is to loot and rob the landlords and the citizens. He is also the great worshiper of Kali so one day he offer Bali to Maa kali and told his daku friends to bring a human for the same. The Fellows daku find a widow, a helpless woman and caught her forcefully for the Bali.

•      One day Daku Ratnakar saw a Hunter killing a birds while his exile in jungle. The Bird hunted was one from the couple so the survivor birds was crying in search of her partner. She was in deep misery and died in sorrow of her partner. Seeing this all in front of him and remember the words of widow he determine not to continue the worst way and walked Meditation of goddess Saraswati.  

•      Daku Ratnakar let her go after seeing her sorrow and misery. That changes his mind and he leave all the robbery and went for meditation and worship of goddess Saraswati and one day he blessed with her

Conclusion:

A robber, looter, Daku Ratnakar changes his life and become the most prestigious Sage Valmiki with inspiration from the sorrow that he had faced during the Bali and bird hunting. This play is a replication of Ramayan story but Gurudev has connect this story with contemporary situation of Bengal. It was a social message that if you wish to convert yourself from worst to best than you have to determine and trust on yourself as well faith on almighty.  It is a story basically confined with a concept of transforming from Robber to Sage. A social message to become a good human with novelty is the main theme of the Play.

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 Kumar Sargam

  

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