From: cco.caltech.edu!vidya (Vidyasankar Sundaresan)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
Subject: Re: Violin Accompaniment
Date: 11 Nov 1992 02:49:02 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: scratchy.caltech.edu
Originator: vidya@scratchy

In article <10NOV199209355295@ctrvx1.vanderbilt.edu>  
vijayas@ctrvx1.vanderbilt.edu (VIJAYAS) writes:
- Hi!
- 
- I am posting this for a friend (Name: P. Sriram) who does not have  
access to
- the net. This posting is regarding violin accompaniment in the south.  
Let
- me first give the refrences.
- 
- 1. Music in India - The Classical Tradition : Bonnie C. Wade
- 2. Indian Music Journal (1955)  : T.K. Jayarama Iyer
- 3. The art of violin accompaniment in south indian classical vocal music
-          -L. Shankar in his thesis (1974)
- 4. Prof. R. Satyanarayana in Sruthi, India (reprinted in Sangeetham,  
Summer '91)
- 5. Lalgudi Jayaraman in Sruthi, India (Reprinted in Sangeetham, Summer  
'90)
- 6. Music and Musical Instruments of South India : Captain Charles Day  
(1891)
- 
- In 1891 Captain Day writes "the use of Sarangi discontinued and violin  
is 
- becoming popular (in south)"
- 
- * This implies that sarangi was in use before violin was introduced  
contrary
- to the belief that veena could have been the accompanying instrument.  
This also
- may not have been practical as veena is not a very loud (well, loud  
enough !) 
- without a pick up etc. (This is strictly my opinion -Vijaya)

In my earlier post on instrumental accompaniments before the advent of the  
violin in S. India, I had not mentioned the Veena simply because of this.  
It is possible that vocalists and Vainikas may have played together, but  
the general view, at least among Vainikas is that the Veena is an  
independent instrument and not a pakkavadyam. I completely agree with the  
fact that the Veena is not loud enough to be a good accompaniment to vocal  
music, without a good pick up which is in contact with the Veena's body.  
Even normal mikes don't amplify the Veena sound to any satisfactory  
extent. In fact in any Veena concert, the mridangam generally drowns out  
the sound of the Veena, so it is quite improbable that the Veena was  
extensively used as accompaniment at any point of time. Isolated cases do  
not make a norm. 

However, it is "traditional" for Veena players to sing along with their   
playing, though it is not the practice today. "Paadinde vaasikkanum" is  
told as yet another general platitude. 


- 
- Apparently there is a painting (18th century) depicting a violinist  
(somewhere
- in Mysore or so). There is also this theory (according to Jayarama Iyer  
and
- Satyanarayana) that violin was adapted into karnatik music my  
Deekshithar's
- brother (born in 1786). However, the painting predates (approx. 1750) 
- Deekshithar's brother (I think it is Baluswamy Deekshithar). 
- 

It is quite possible that the Mysore court encouraged Indian musicians to  
learn the violin from the British people. But the credit for popularising  
the violin in Carnatic music probably still goes to Baluswamy Dikshitar,  
given the influence he could exert in the music commuinity then. 


- According to Lalgudi, there was a bowed instrument in Buddist time  
called
- Ravanastram.

Lalgudi's reference to the Ravanastra was just to point out that bowed  
instruments originated in India. This was in response to some questions by  
people as to why India which had developed so many stringed instruments  
which are plucked, had not come up with a bowed instrument, which would  
give better continuity in melodic expression. His answer was just to show  
that India was not unaware of bowed instruments, and that as in many other  
things, the violin had an Indian ancestor, though its present design was  
European.

Anyway, the Ravanastra is quite a primitive instrument consisting of a  
gourd and a long stem which has one string and is played with a bow. This  
is still found in use in folk music in rural India, especially Rajasthan,  
Gujrat and Madhya Pradesh. Those from Bomaby will probably remember the  
beggar who used to play this one-stringed bowed instrument on suburban  
trains. Somehow, there was no great level of development of this  
instrument to meet the demands of the more sophisticated classical music. 
On the other hand, many stringed bowed instruments were also probably  
known in ancient times going by the references to a "Pinaki Vina" i.e. a  
Vina played with a bow. Note that in ancient Sanskrit texts, the word Vina  
is used generically to mean any stringed instrument, and is not  
necessarily the same as the Veena of today. Thus you find words like  
"saptatantri vina" (seven-stringed Vina), "sahasratantri vina" ( harp,  
known in S. India as the Yazh) etc.

- 
- There is a lot of info in Wade's book with a chapter on Melody  
Instruments.
- 
- Vijaya's Note: Thanks to Sriram for searching through his music books.
- There is also a Malayalam movie titled "Swathi Thirunal" with english
- subtitles where the tanjaore quartet visit the maharaja of travancore
- and Vadivelu plays the violin for Swathi thirunal. 
- 


It is a fact that the sarangi was used in N.India by singers who later  
more or less abandoned it for the harmonium. I am still not very convinced  
whether it was used extensively as an accompaniment by vocalists in S.  
India. I say this because the sarangi is quite sophisticated and if it was  
at all extensively used, there is no reason why it became extinct all of a  
sudden as far as popular usage is concerned. It must have definitely been  
known, the way the sitar and tabla were known, primarily due to the  
Maratha rulers of Tanjore. But it is a fact that neither the sitar nor the  
tabla were used in mainstream Carnatic music till modern times. More on  
this later. 



S.Vidyasankar