At the attic- Not at all asking "Indendu vachitira" (why have you come here?)

The one good lesson I have learnt in the many years now of interaction with scholars, pandits and great people is a precious secret of how we find sources. Often when I meet younger students they ask me how I go after my sources and where to begin etc. While that is a very complex question and the answer would vary from person to person, quest to quest, there is one simple truth of an answer in it. As my guru Sekeezaar Adi-p-podi Dr.T.N.Ramachandran sir told me years ago, when we persevere and go relentlessly after a fact or source, it may evade us now. It will. And it is at that point that we must invoke. We invoke a deeper sense and connection that we believe we have with the truth that is around us in this universe. Then, when we least expect it, these truths or leads or sources will start hounding us. They will reach us. The story below will explain this phenomenon.

The year is 1998. I am a young teenager who is learning dance and a very active performer on stage under my guru Sarasama. One day, from her rich repertoire she chooses to teach me a beautiful padam in Telugu "Indendu vacchi tira". True to her style of teaching for me, she familiarized me to the music and imbibed in me the musicality for Suruti (the ragam of the padam) and the misra chapu (seven beats) in its rhythm. At which point she told me "listen, go fetch the meaning and other details of the song from TSP mama for yourself". Now, who is TSP mama. When I met him in the earlier part of 90-s he was a young 75 year old man! Full of zeal for karnatik music, Indian dance (all forms), harikatha, bhajana sampradaya, history, archaeology, and what not. He was a polyglot, musicologist and a great friend of the arts and the artistes. He was the secretary of Music Academy then (with 30 years of service) and  was instrumental in bringing many a scholarly volume for us. I, from the age of 12 was his disciple! 72 would teach a 12 to spell and write words like "Natyasastra", "Abhinayam" etc. Such was our bond. He was my best friend, my confidant, my mentor, my motivator and much more. 

When I ran into his house one day announcing proudly that I have learnt the famous  "indendu" he said "aiyaiyo! (alas) you are in for trouble." I was shocked obviously and asked him what the matter was. When a dance guru from the hereditary community teaches any composition they would simply without much ado jump into its performative intricacies. There would be no discussion on the raga, tala, mode of the song, or any such academic analysis. The dancer no matter how old or young would simply watch and repeat and learn. It has a meditative quality to this process where the entire communication is non verbal and intuitive. Whereas, when a musicologist teaches anything they would begin with a long discourse on the context, history, date, name of the composer etc before teaching us the meaning or comprehensions of the song. I had the rare fortune of learning almost each piece from both these angles. What questions I couldn't ask Sarasama I would bombard TSP mama with. So, when I put a pen to paper mama told me, Indendu is a controversial padam. People usually say it is a Kshetrayya Padam but it is not, he said. Kshetrayya padams always will have the mudra (signature) of "Muvva gopala". This songs has none, also it uses a name Kasturi Ranga, therefore it has to be a composition of Kasturi Ranga perhaps, he concluded. As an obedient student of mama I believed that it was Kasturi Ranga, the composer. But slowly as the years rolled by and Indendu became an often repeated composition of my repertoire and as my own acedemic comprehensions started widening, , my mind would wonder as to how come there are no other compositions by Kasturi Ranga, if he was after all the composer of this famous padam? My TSP mama had passed away by then. Without a brain to storm this with, I let the internal conflict about the authorship of this most beautiful padam rest within me. 

Years rolled by. Many Indendu performances too. One day, I was sitting at my desk reading some manuscripts of a Telugu yakshaganam for my research. I was also simultaneously scribbling the geneologies of various Kings, their contributions, the vageyyakaras (poet musicians) whom they patronized. 

This King in the line of the Madurai Nayaks was Kasturi Ranga Nayaka (15th century). He was a weak but nevertheless patronizing king and was an early contemporary of Vijayaraghava Nayaka (the Tanjore Line) in whose court  was patronised Kshtrayya. When I was writing this down, it suddenly struck me that Kshetrayya traveled to the court of Madurai and Srirangam many times during his lifetime. More importantly I found enough evidence (with many many other examples) to understand that Kshetrayya did not use his mudra Muvvagopala while writing eulogy compositions (padams ) on Kings but only when he addressed the hero to be his favourite Krishna, Muvva gopala. I sat at my desk at 3 am. (yes I work those timings)  wondering if this solves my long quest for an answer of whose composition Indendu was. It could very well be Kshetrayya's. Subbarama Dikshitar is right, I thought to myself! We can vouch Kshtrayya quality in this padam with the lovely language and musicality. But if he didnt sing it on Kasturi Ranga, the King, he perhaps sang it on Kasturi Ranga (the Utsavar of Sri rangam- The Azagiya Manavalar)!!!One way or other, it is Kshetrayya with historical context. Not a improbable, evidence less some random Kasturi Ranga (TSP mama would have been thrilled with this revelation of mine with evidence, I thought)

"Mandara giri dharudaina Kasturi rangesa..."

In all, TSP mama gave me the puzzle and TNR sir helped me find a vision to perhaps find an answer to it.

Dr.Swarnamalya Ganesh   www.facebook.com/fromtheatticcomingsoon

At the attic- Not at all asking Indendu vachitira (why have you come here)

Please listen to this beautiful rendition of Indendu is the Veena Dhanammal Patandaram...it is a stunning visual of what musicality is rendered...