All about mela ragas

PHOTO: K.V. SRINIVASAN

FLOOD: Musicologist S.R. Janakiraman fields questions from eager children.

Loga Padmanabhan, a student of the Government Music college, is at the gate directing visitors to the programme venue, where Dr. S.R. Janakiraman is about to deliver his lecture on Melas and Mela ragas. Loga takes me to meet third year students of th e college, who decided what topics they wanted discussed at the programme. S. Babu says they wanted an explanatory concert on Mela ragas, because they are only taught some ragas as part of the syllabus.

The academic programme leaves them little time to venture beyond the syllabus in class. None of the ragas in the first chakra, for example, finds a place in their syllabus. “Although we are taught ragas like Kalyani, we wanted to learn how to handle the raga in concerts. That’s why we chose this topic for the lecture,” Babu explains.

Lecture-demonstrations are aplenty — at the Music Academy and elsewhere other places — during the December music season. So where is the need for a programme like Svanubhava, I persist. “We’d be too inhibited to ask questions there, because those lectures are attended by scholars. Here we feel more at ease, because the audience consists entirely of students,” says Babu. B. Sudhakar, a second-year student, concurs.

The question-answer session is fully utilised. There are students from outside Chennai attending the programme. One of them, Yugendhar, who is from Sri Venkateswara College, Tirupati, wants to know if there is a scheme for talas similar to the Melakarta scheme. “There are 72 talas, modelled after the names of the melakarta ragas, but not the conceptual basis of the melakarta scheme,” clarifies Dr. Janakiraman.

The documentary on MLV offers interesting facts. We learn that MLV could also play the piano. Daughter Srividya says her mother was fond of all kinds of music, even rock!

Violinist Kanyakumari recalls how once, while playing Shanmukhapriya, she strayed beyond the boundaries of the raga, and the audience liked it. But MLV glared at her angrily, indicating her displeasure at the transgression. MLV would never veer from tradition and was an inspiring teacher, says Kanyakumari.

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