Part 2 - Brahmins and Carnatic music
Things always look vastly different when viewed in a narrow context, with glaucomic eyes. Add to it a bit of political manipulation and the matter is blown out of proportion, people get riled up and hell breaks loose, like a perfectly serene blue sky taking on stormy hues. That is what is going on, and if one wants to to understand how it all started, it requires a little study and understanding of the times when a broad movement demanding equal rights, took birth in erstwhile Madras. devotion. Without any doubt, the bonds between many a royal patron, the Brahmin vocalists, and supporting musicians is the reason for the flowering of Carnatic music during the early nineteenth century and Brahmins after the fall of the Royals did nurture the art form and tried their best to keep it pristine. I am only trying to explore the strong caste undertones, in the Carnatic music scene prevalent even today in Tamil Nadu.
To get a picture of the times, I would request readers to
read my article on TM Nair and the formation of the Justice Party. It was the
Justice party, post TMN’s death which Periyar EVR headed. There were clear
reasons why the party was formed and clear pointers to issues created by Rajaji
which exacerbated it. In addition to the usual issues of a minority cornering
major government jobs and controlling thought and legislation, there were
specific aspects related to the art scene. By art, I mean vocal and non-vocal
i.e. instrumental traditions, as well as dance, i.e. the Devadasi Sadir or Dasi
attam which morphed into the modern Bharatanatyam. Let’s look at it, summaries
of fascinating studies on the subject by Sumati Ramaswamy, Lakshmi Subramaniam,
Yoshitaka Terada, Vijaya Ramaswamy, and V Subramaniam.
Governor Mountstuart Elphinstone surely must have shocked a
large majority of learned Brahmin listeners in an 1886 speech, when he
thundered: "You are of pure Dravidian race, I would like to see the
pre-Sanskrit element amongst you asserting itself rather more”. That the Aryan
Dravidian divide was brought in by the very same British is another subject for
more detailed discussion, but it found its supporters then, and still has many.
So, let’s go to the 1910s when people like Annie Besant and
TM Nair graced the volatile politics in Madras, and a lot of people already
disgruntled under the British, were worried about misrepresentation and increasing
unemployment. TM Nair burst on the scene, and having originally chosen the
field of medicine, became a well-known doctor in Madras, then decided that
social work was equally important, and got involved in all kinds of civic and
social matters. During this period, irked by the Brahmin stronghold on jobs and
their control over the Presidency bureaucracy, he took them on, starting what
we know today as the Anti-Brahmin or Dravidian movement, and later co-founding
the Justice party.
As
I wrote earlier - Madras at that time, had a strong Brahmin lobby,
comprising three groups - namely the Mylapore, Vambakkam (relatively minor),
and Egmore groups. The Mylapore Group, the strongest, comprising high-profile
lawyers and journalists, kept Congress in its moderate camp concerning its
political demands and manifesto. Many non-Brahmin Hindus and the depressed
classes, for this reason, criticized the Indian National Congress for being the
representative of Brahmin interests leading to the rise of a retaliatory faction,
i.e., the Egmore Group - which took a more extremist stand on various subjects.
The “Egmore group” comprised both Brahmans and non-Brahmans. C. Sankaran Nair
and Dr. T. M. Nair were among many other prominent Brahmins. Even though Nair
was not anti-brahmin and did admire some of their educated and good qualities,
he maintained that the non-Brahmin who could be as good, or better, was
unnecessarily kept down. Soon Nair was frequenting stages with his popular and
strident anti-Brahmin tirade which many thousands attended, and that was the
start of the Dravidian movement of 1916.
In Nov 1916, some 30-odd leaders, including T M Nair and P
Tyagaraja Chettiar, formed the South Indian People's Association, to express
non-Brahman grievances. That was the start of the Justice Party. Nair never
attacked religion but always focused on representation. With the Montague
reforms, Nair had a minor victory, but the representation percentages were too
low, so he proceeded to London in 1918 to argue the case. Sadly, he passed away
suddenly, during that trip. After Justice won the election and got into power,
they initiated several egalitarian moves such as the upliftment of women and
the marginalized, access to water (for the lower castes) from public ponds,
women’s suffrage, abolishment of the Devadasi system, regulation of college
admissions, etc.
And then there was the Christian Vedanayagam Sastri (the
person we discussed in the previous post) who brought up the aspect of
Tamil - Tamil gave birth to us; Tamil raised us; Tamil sang lullabies to us
and put us to sleep; Tamil taught us our first words with which we brought joy
to our mothers and fathers. Tamil is the first language we spoke when we were
infants. Tamil is the language which our mothers and fathers fed us along with
milk; Tamil is the language that our mother, father, and preceptor taught us.
The language of our home is Tamil; the language of our land is Tamil.
The language was one of the first issues brought up by the
Dravidians, and the initial murmurings centered around which language was
preeminent, Tamil or Sanskrit (Sanskrit was considered Aryan, and leaders such
as Rajagopalachari had promoted Sanskrit as a national language) and the 'Tani
Tamizh Iyakkam’ which started inherently as a nationalistic movement, targeted
Sanskrit and Hindi (Vadakku Mozhi) imposition. Writings of that period targeted
Sanskrit, those who spoke it - the Brahmins, accusing them of being on the side
of the British and so on. Periyar’s self-respect movement was consolidated into
the Justice Party which became the DK or Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944. This over
time, split into the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Anna Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK).
The above tells you a bit about the political scene but let
us look at the setup and transformation of the musical scene in Tanjore and
Madras. It started with two broad traditions vocal and melam (Periya and Chinna
melam), following the standard musical traditions of Raaga & Tala. The
latter were instrumental accompaniments for festival sand marriages, comprising
the Nadaswaram, Tavil, Cymbals, and the Sruti Petti. The Carnatic vocal
tradition focused on the solo vocalist accompanied by background instruments. In
this setup, the vocalists were almost always Brahmins, and the instrumentalists
(melakkar) were usually Isai Vellalans. Why so? It was due to the ritual
pollution connected with instruments – the use of animal hair, skin, and so on,
in the instruments.
As TMK puts it, It was from the aesthetic interactions
between the Isai Vellalars, Deva dasis, and the Brahmins that Karnatik music
evolved into its present form, but the socio-political swings of the early
twentieth century changed the nature of the music and its practice, resulting
in Karnatik music becoming almost a monopoly of the Brahmins. His article ‘Classically
yours’ in the Social Scientist is a must-read, to understand the nuances of
casteism, which has been and is in practice.
Now a reader might pipe up and ask – How did the Brahmins
get into a muddle in the music scene? V Subramaniam explains in his paper -
It was with the Saivite-Vaishnavite revival which started in the 7th century AD
that Brahmins in the South came on the ascendance. By combining music, poetry,
and propagandist ability they rose to assume the leadership of the new Bhakti
movement, under the last of the kings. However, after the feudalistic order
collapsed, the Vellalas and richer non-Brahmins held more control, and the
middle class came into being. But they (Brahmins) had one big advantage, they
boasted of higher learning and proficiency in the art world, something they had
no plans of letting go, in either the administrative echelons of the
bureaucracy or the art scene.
In addition to all this, Brahmins constituted many a musical
patron as well as listener (i.e., those who could understand the languages
Sanskrit, and Telugu as well as the sciences involved in the composition).
Various evolutions took place, Carnatic performances in the temple grounds
moved to the king’s courts, and Chinna melam which was accompaniment for dance
(dasiattam or sadir which grew to become today’s Bharatanatyam) developed.
Y Terada explains the Brahmin context as follows - Public
discourse concerning South Indian music culture is generally advanced from a
Brahman perspective. The Brahman orientation of public discourse is partly a
result of their domination of music scholarship and journalism, through which
their view has been amplified and authenticated, and of what may be termed the
dynamic mechanism of domination in which the perspectives of subordinate groups
are excluded or left unarticulated in public domains of communication. The
uniqueness of the caste relationship in music culture derives from its reversed
numerical constitution.
Brahmans comprise the majority of patrons of classical
music traditions (both Karnatak music and Periya Melam music) and the majority
of Karnatak musicians, while they constitute only a fraction (estimated at
three percent) of the entire population in Tamil Nadu state…. the caste
conflict in music is at least partly a result of Brahmans' continuous attempt
not only to portray classical music as their own tradition but also to invest
their ideological ideal in it for the maintenance of their identity, against
the non-Brahman musicians' perception that their contribution has been
indispensable to its artistic merit. …
Terada also focuses on another important aspect; Bhakti
devotional music was constituted carefully and around the Tanjore trinity and
Brahmins. The concept of music as a devotional path, exemplified in the
Trinity's personal relations and commitment to music, serves as the ideological
ideal of music-making in general. The projection of these three Brahman
composers, often referred to as "saint-composers," as the culmination
of South Indian music not only belittles the significance of others including a
number of non-Brahman composers, but it also serves to legitimate Brahmans'
dominant position by virtue of their caste affiliation.
The projection of themselves as artistic descendants of
one of these three saint-composers by allying themselves to their lineage
compensates for the lack of saintliness in contemporary musicianship, thereby
easing the tension between the projected ideal and reality. For Brahman
musicians, it functions as a kind of behavioral and emotional code in addition
to providing legitimacy for occupying a central place in the Karnatak music
tradition.
Lakshmi Subramaniam adds - The difference lay in the
significance inscribed on the higher tradition and its reclamation as being
classical together with its attendant markers: composition in Sanskrit and
Telegu, the principal musical languages of the tradition; and a shared continuity
with the lineages of the celebrated saint composers of the 18th century,
namely, Thyagaraja, Dikshitar and Shyama Sastri. The relegation of Tamil songs
and the compositions of the chinna melam to a lower status in the hierarchy, on
the grounds of its sensual content and non-classical resonance, was very much
part of the Brahmin-sponsored project of recasting the classical tradition and claim
its custodianship. For the Brahmin community, consumption of classical music thus
became an integral element in its cultural self-definition, a marker of status
and taste, and a cementing agent for a collective identity and presence that
had no longer the same visibility in active political life.
As the Tanjore royalty and their powers declined,
performance arts moved to urban centers, such as Madras and Bangalore, to serve
new patrons. Musicians migrated to those regions and concert hall recitations
took over from court performances. With the concentration of temples remaining
high in Tanjore, most of the melakkars remained in Tanjore, while Carnatic
vocalis became centered in Madras.
After the British colonial state came into being and frowned
upon Nautch dancing, the Devadasis too sought social reform, but also saw their
exclusive dance art form, and a revenue stream, opening to the upper castes,
who took to art. They (For those who may not be aware, the male children born
to Devadasis took to playing the nadaswaram (Periya melakkar), while the female
children took to the profession of their mothers) joined up to form the non-Brahmin
association - the "Isai Vellalar Sangam" and thereby created a
political unified identity.
Periyar EVR did have a hand in trying to force change, and
was stridently anti-Brahmin, as explained previously – He criticized the
monopoly of classical music by Brahmans as part of the Brahman domination of
South Indian society in general. As early as 1930, he encouraged non-Brahmans
to teach music to their children and to patronize non-Brahman musicians who,
according to him, were denied due recognition by Brahmans, and he sponsored a
series of concerts by non-Brahman musicians. He argued that non-brahmin
musicians were deliberately undervalued, denied respect and honors, and
humiliated while their Brahmin peers, even if younger in years and lacking in
talent, had been encouraged by the Brahmin press. The Self-Respect movement took
up the cause of non-brahmin musicians as its own and organized music
conferences alongside to honor and encourage lower caste artists.
Now let us see how it all affected Carnatic music. Closely
following these movements was the creation of the Tamil Isai Sangam, by
Annamalai Chettiar in 1942. This was a counter organization to the Madras Music
Academy founded in 1926 by Brahmins. The Tamil Isai Sangam extended its
patronage mostly to non-Brahmins and emphasized Tamil music as well as Periya
melam.
This was also the point of time when women of the Devadasi
community started to make a mark in the field of Carnatic music. M.S.
Subbalakshmi, M.L. Vasanthakumari, Veenai Dhanmmal, and her nieces Brinda and
Mukta came mostly from the Isai Vellalar community which had historically been
associated with the Devadasi tradition. Balasaraswati, one of the greatest
exponents of Bharatnatyam was also a niece of Veenai Dhanammal and hailed from
the same community.
In Madras, the music academy was formally inaugurated on 18
August 1928 by Sir C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, at the Y.M.I.A. auditorium before a
large and distinguished gathering, with an intent to encourage and propagate
Carnatic music on proper lines. One of the first challenges to the leadership
at the MMA was the demand to include Tamil compositions. The MMA though
agreeing to encourage this, did not take kindly to the suggestion of pruning
the classical repertoire or of introducing the language issue into the field of
classical music. It maintained that the point was not about the fact that the
bulk of the compositions were in Telegu or Sanskrit- the languages favored by
18th-century composers like Thyagaraja, Dikshitar, or Shyama Sastri, but it was
also an issue of introducing divisive regional and linguistic considerations
into the larger realm of the South Indian classical tradition.
Subramaniam explains - In 1941, the Madras Academy passed
a resolution endorsing the opinion of the conference of experts at the Academy
that it should be the aim of all musicians and lovers of music to preserve and
maintain the highest standards of Carnatic music and that no consideration of
language should be imported as to lower or impair that standard. The realm of
the classical, thus, remained with the Brahmin elite represented by
associations such as the Madras Academy and the repertoire it had developed and
refined over the years.
If somebody has doubts about the dominance of Brahmins in
the field, you only need to look at the MMA awards. A large majority, over 75% were awarded to
Brahmin musicians. One might argue that
nobody else was up to it and might even add - we did allow KJ Yesudas to sing
in 1954. That argument looking at the above statistics and in a para which
follows providing statistics, is quite lame.
I hope this gives you a summary of the situation in Madras
1920-1950, when conversations of Brahmin and non-Brahmin hold over Carnatic
music and instruments raged and larger issues such as the Dravida movement
changed the political thought and perception. Then, there was a clear divide
between the castes, and Periyar, the leader of the DK made inflammatory
comments about Brahmins. After Tamil Nadu was formed, leaders such as MGR, and Karunanidhi
(an Isai Vellalar from Tanjavur), mostly persons who were involved with the
Periyar movement, ruled it thenceforth.
Some insist on statistics - Looking at a 1983 study by Kathleen
L'Armand and Adrian L'Armand - Amongst those musicians identified by caste,
there has been since 1928-29 a consistent 65/20/15 distribution (Brahmin
percentage which was 86% in 1898 flattened to the 60-65% after 1928, while the
Pillai’s rose from 6-18% and the others remained flat at 15-16%) between
Brahmins, Pillai’s, and other castes among professional musicians. The
"other" caste names fall into two categories: musicians who are typically
high-status non-Brahmin castes, for whom music is not a traditional occupation;
and caste names from outside Tamil Nadu. Notwithstanding the above, the MMA
Sangeetha Kalanidhi statistics reveal the following - Of the 95 odd Sangeetha
Kalanidhi awards, some 80 went to Brahmins, 14 to Isai Vellalas, and one to a Muslim,
at a rough tally.
Tamil Brahmins were and are around, and the MMA continues to
function, but with a Brahminical tilt, usually favoring pedigree and like these
weeks, hot discussions crop up now and then on the robust Madras Carnatic scene.
This is all natural but remember that the underlying cause for discomfort was
caste discrimination and larger politics. The tug of war will continue till
there is parity between the numbers of musical scholars and awardees. Now one
can ask, is there a place for caste in today’s world? Unfortunately, yes, it
continues to be part of India’s social fabric and is manipulated, massaged, and
retained by the political powers of the country, just like religion is. Now and
then a righteous cry of anguish comes up against such practice, and as you all
saw, there was an outpouring of comments for and against it.
Carnatic Music will continue to be enjoyed by the
connoisseurs and over time, more of the regular folk. I would suggest those in
doubt, just look at the robust popular Tamil film-music scene – you have all
religions and castes, singing & composing in brilliant harmony, to a public
patron. Rahman, Ilayaraja, Iman, Harris Jayaraj, and so many more… they turn
out fascinating and divine music just like an MS Viswanathan did long ago. They
were not Brahmins, and likewise, a Brahmin singer would not balk at singing a Sufi
number composed by ARR on a stage, these days.
To sum it all up, it was Interestingly, Sir C Ρ Ramaswamy
Iyer who warned the Brahmin community by insisting publicly that the Brahmin
should take the initiative in giving the qualified non-Brahmin his due and
more, without patronizing, and should withdraw from the marketplace if need be.
He was as I always said, a knowledgeable man, despite some flaws of character, and
foresaw all this.
Ah! Well, I guess the protest season as I may call it, will
soon fade off, and sense and sensibility will prevail.
In Part 3, I will focus on ‘The Music of the Melakkar’
References
T. N. Rajarattinam Pillai and Caste Rivalry in South Indian Classical Music - Yoshitaka Terada
Classically yours (Social Scientist, July–August 2016, Vol. 44, No. 7/8)– TM Krishna
Passions of the Tongue - Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891-1970 - Sumathi Ramaswamy
Ramaswami Naicker and the Dravidian Movement - Mohan Ram
Court to Academy: Karnatik music - Lakshmi Subramanian
The reinvention of a tradition: Nationalism, Carnatic music and the Madras Music Academy, 1900-1947 - Lakshmi Subramanian
The Tamil Isai Iyakkam and the Politics of Custodianship – Lakshmi Subramaniam
Towards a non-brahmin millennium from Jyothee Thass to Periyar - V. Geetha and S.V. Rajadurai
One Hundred Years of Music in Madras: A Case Study in Secondary Urbanization - Kathleen L'Armand and Adrian L'Armand
Related articles
Part 1 Caste
ingress into the Musical Realm, The story of Vedanayagam Sastri
Part 2 Caste
conflicts – Carnatic Music, Brahmins and Carnatic music
Part 3 The
Music of the Melakkar - The Melakkar and the breach of the Isai Vellalar
borders.
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