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Book Review
Anthology of 'Kritis'
CORE OF KARNATIC MUSIC: A. D. Madhavan; Music Zone, P.B. No. 125, 430/XVII, N.H. Bye Pass Road, Aluva-1, Kerala. Rs. 650.
THE AUTHOR, has brought out this anthology of popular Carnatic music Kritis of great composers with their meanings, to enable listeners to appreciate not only the songs, but also the emotions of the composers.
Of the 404 songs that find place in this publication — 118 are of Thyagaraja, 75 of Muthuswami Dikshithar, 31 of Shyama Shastri, 39 of Swati Tirunal, 23 of Purandaradasa, 23 of Annamacharya, 19 of Papanasam Sivan and 72 more compositions of Uthukadu Venkatasubbaiyer, Mysore <243>Vasudevacharya, Sadasiva Brahmendrar, Narayana Theertha, Kanaka Dasa, Muthaiah Bhagavathar, Arunagirinathar, Subramania Bharathi, K. C. Kesava Pillai, Iraiamman Thambi, Kutti Kunju Thangachi, Narasingh Mehta, G. N. Balasubramaniam, Lalitadasar, Balamurali Krishna, Neelakanta Sivan, Pallavi Gopala Iyer, Arunachala Kavirayar, Patnam Subramania Iyer, Bhadrachala Ramdas, Ilango Adigal, Paramacharya Chandrashekara Saraswathi of Kanchi, N. S. Chidambaram, Mayuram Viswanatha Sastri, Jayachamaraja Wodeyar and Suddhananda Bharathi.
The compilation of the songs in several languages such as Telugu, Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, arranged alphabetically, makes it user friendly and facilitates instant access to any composition.
The names of the Raga, Tala, composer, language and the Raga's ascending and descending scales are clearly indicated. Group Kritis like Tyagaraja's Pancharathna, Dikshithar's Abhayamba, Kamalamba, Navagraha and Ramavibhakthi, and the Navarathri songs of Swati Tirunal are some of the musical gems included.
The text of each song is given in Devanagari, English and Malayalam, and its gist in English and Malayalam. The transliteration scheme is crystal clear.
An anthology of this kind with so many kritis in numerous Ragas by 33 composers is perhaps the one of its kind, and all credit to the compiler for his monumental labour of love.
The small flies in the ointment are quite a few sahitya lapses in some of the Tamil songs. Some of the instances are, "Kantanaal" by N. S. Chidambaram should read "Kandanaal", in the Madhyamavathi song "Saravanabhava", it should be "Maal Marugane", not "Maal Muruhane", the error in "Enna Thavam Seidanai", is "Uralil Ketti", but it is "Uralil Katti".
The index indicates that Uthukadu Kavi's "Alai Paayudhe" is in raga Kannada, but it is Kaanada that is entirely different from Kannada.
The numbering of the pages goes awry at the end, and Arunachala Kavi's "Yaro Ivar Yaro" in Bhairavi, although mentioned in the contents, does not find a place in the mainstream of the book.
However, for an effort of this magnitude, these slips may be condoned, but care must be taken that they do not occur in future publications.
SULOCHANA PATTABHI RAMAN
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