From: srini@engin.umich.edu (Srinivasan Pichumani)
Subject: Re: Melakarta system (was Re: Koteeswara Iyer's krithis in all melakarta) ragams
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 11:34:34 EST
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

In article <1dmjiqINNmfo@gap.caltech.edu> cco.caltech.edu!vidya (Vidyasankar Sundaresan) writes:
>
>The introduction by TSP is correct. Though the Melakarta system is  
>popularly attributed to Venkatamakhi, it was Govinda Dikshita who refined  
>the structure and made the system in use today. (Something like  
>Mendeleev's periodic table in chemistry!)

There is some confusion here regarding the names of personalities. 

Govinda Dikshita was a minister/priest to RaghunAtha
nAyaka(reign 1600-1634), and a musicologist/Advaitic scholar. There is a
village named after him, Govindapuram, in Tanjore Dt. As I mentioned in
an earlier posting, the current ParamAcAryA of Kanchi Kamakoti Math 
belongs to his lineage.
A musical work by name SangIta SudhA is attributed to the ruler RaghunAtha
Nayaka; however, Govinda dIkShita's son Venkatamakhi (author of the 
Caturdandi PrakAshika, whose actual name was Venkatesvara dIkShita)
mentions that the work was actually written by his own father.

Venkatamakhi wrote the Caturdandi PrakAshika during the reign of 
VijayarAghava nAyaka (1634-1673): he mentions this  --
"vijayarAghava bhUpAla preritasya venkateshvara dIkShitasya krtau
caturdaNDI prakAshikAyAm adhyam vInAprakara(Na)m"
approximately means -- "Catur. Prak., created at the request of king/ruler
Vijayaraghava nAyaka by Venkatesvara Dikshita, the vINa chapter thereof"
In this work and a subsequent work called rAga prakaraNa/rAga lakshaNa
attributed to him, V expounded his theory of 72 scales, using various
mnemonics..

GovindA (aka GovindAcArya) was the author of Samgraha CUDAmaNI, in which
the term mela and melakarta is used in its modern connotation. (an older
meaning of the term melam is the system of tuning the vINa -- hence
the terms RaghunAtha mela vINa, shuddha-mela vINa etc). 
Nothing is known clearly about his time/lineage/disciples except that he
lived probably in 1700-1760 timeframe.
He did give the "kanakAngI-ratnAngI" nomenclature (which has a few
deviations from the age-old katapayAdi rule of Vararuci) and postulate
the complete/in-order heptatonic structure for the 72 scales.

However, whether it is a "refinement" is open to question. Without doubt,
it has opened some new frontiers. But, sometimes,
one thinks that the 72 melakartA system has become a baton in the
hands of many to beat others with in a "mine is better/more-intellectual
than yours" argument, and has little to do with musicality. 
And the very fact that even great composers who attempted to use 
these scales did so very judiciously; and introduced various elements
that contribute to "rakti" (or feeling -- used in a musical sense here)
like omission of notes, "vakra" or crooked arrangement of notes, even 
when they were dealing with a "melakarta", has to be taken into perspective.

>Venkatamakhi was a contemporary of Pachimiriam Adiappayya, the composer of  
>the famous Ata tala varnam Viriboni in Bhairavi. He was the first to make  

This is incorrect. Pacchimiriam Adiyappayya flourished in the court of 
Tulaja II (1763-1787), almost a full century after Venkatamakhi.

--Srini.

Sources: Tanjore as a Seat of Music (in the 17th,18th, and 19th centuries)
		by Dr.S.Seetha, Professor&Head, Department of Indian Music
		University of Madras, 1981.
	(an excellent book dealing with the historical antecedents and
	events relating to music -- a voluminous book too. The author is
	a very respected musical scholar)
	
	Samgraha CUDAmaNI of Govinda -- edited by Pt.S.Subrahmanya Sastri
		The Adyar Library 1938.
	A thorough edition of this treatise based on many manuscripts ...

	The Mela Raga Malika of Maha Vaidyanatha Sivan -- edited by
	Pt.S.Subrahmanya Sastri published by The Adyar Library 1937.
		gives a life sketch of this great musician who lived
	from 1844-1893. And gives the musical notation/lyrics for 
	the rAgamAlika.

	Musicological Literature -- by Emmie Te Nijenhuis. A Dutch scholar
		of Indian music. This slim monograph is part of a larger
		series of Indian literature published from Leiden,Netherlands.

Comment: These books should be available in most "big" universities in this
country like Wisconsin, UCLA, UCBerkeley, UPenn, Harvard, UIllinois-UC,
which are recipients of books under the Library of Congress Foreign Exchange
program & under the PL-480 program. Please take the time off your busy
schedules to go "treasure-hunting" in your libraries and I am sure you
will be amply rewarded.
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical