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begun on 1-10-2019
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THIS SITE IS ABOUT CARNATIC MUSIC COMPOSERS AND MUSICOLOGISTS
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Have a look at
COMPOSERS-QUICK OVERVIEW
https://sites.google.com/site/4carnaticmusic/composers-quick-reference
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PURANDARA DASA
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INTRODUCTION ( by RSR)
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Traditionally, History of Carnatic music begins with saint-poets Purandara dasa and Kanakadasa who lived in the reign of Krushna Deva Raya. of Vijayanagar Empire. (around 1500 AD).
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King Krishnadevaraya was an accomplished Telugu scholar and wrote the celebrated Amuktamalyada. ("One who wears and gives away garlands") narrates the story of the wedding of the god Vishnu to Andal, the Tamil Alvar saint poet and the daughter of Periyalvar at Srirangam
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Mogul Emperor Babar who defeated the Lodi king of Delhi Sultanate ) was reigning in Delhi and northern regions of Deccan ,were ruled by five sultanates( Bijapur, Golkonda, Bidar, Ahmadnagar, and Berar)
of remnants of Bahmani kingdom, which became tributaries to Mogul empire. later ( to be verified).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan_sultanates
Krushna Deva Raya 's kingdom included the entire Southern part of Deccan including the Pallava, Chola and Pandyan kingdoms.(1509–1529.)
( For about 50 years, even the sacred Madurai of Meenakshi Amman had been occupied by Muslim Sultans
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In 1378, Bukka Raya I, one of the founding rulers of the Vijayanagara Empire and his son Kumara Kampanna Udaiyar conquered the Madurai Sultanate, re-establishing Hindu control over the city of Madurai. The story of this conquest is legendary and has been epitomized in the Sanskrit poem Madhura Vijayam by Kampanna’s wife Gangadevi.
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a good quote here from quora
link
https://sites.google.com/site/4carnaticmusic/home/madurai-under-sultan-rule
in 1529, Vishwanatha Nayaka was appointed as another representative from the Vijayanagara empire.
The Nayak kingdom was divided into three regions ( roughly corresponding to present day Pallava ( Vellore) , Chola (Tanjore) and Pandya ( Madurai).
Subsequently, the Vellore area fell to Muslim rule and Arcot Nawab took over. Thus the chain of authority spread out from Mogul empire , through Hyderabad Nizam to Arcot Nawab.
Even the Mysore area fell to Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan.
But, at the reign of Aurangazeb, the Mahrattas under Sivaji,(1700) regained much of the Hindu deccan and were rulers at Vellore as well as Tanjore.
When the Trinity were creating history in Carnatic music, the East India Company had assumed total control of all the areas in present day Tamilnad, Kerala and Karnataka and Telengana and Andhra.
They allowed local zamindars but the administration was in the hands of the Company.
Due to such political turbulence , most brahmin scholars had left the Andhra and Karnataka regions and sought and got the patronage of Nayak, and Mahraatta rulers in Tamil country, especially Tanjore and Sethupathy zamins of Puthukkottai, Sivagangai, and Ramanathapuram, Ettayapuram and Madurai areas. and in Trivandram in present day Kerala.
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Thus we find that all the famous composers in Carnatic music lived during the times of Vijayanagar empire, Nayak rulers in Tamilnad, Mahratta rulrers in Tanjore and other zamindars under East India company's control.!
We have come upto 1850.
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The last 90 years of this survey, 1857 to 1947 , ( post-trinity period) falls under
direct rule by British government.
During this period, Mysore, Thiruvananthapuram, Sethupathy zamins and Ettayapuram zamin played a major role in the history of development of Carnatic classical music.
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Thus we have covered 1500 to 1950!
( 450 years).
One noteworthy feature is that almost all the composers were deeply religious and all the creations were in praise of Hindu pantheon ( Vishnu, Devi, Kumaran, Ganapathy, and Siva) .
Because of the existence of Temple dancer tradition, classical music suitable for such dancing also was developed alongside and patronized by zamindars but the lyrics were often explicitly vulgar and banal and such composers ( like Kshetragnya) do not fall within the main stream Carnatic music .
It can be asserted confidently that CM composers were totally of Bakthi sampradhaaya. ( devotional ) /
Hence, we cannot segregate Hindu religion and classical carnatic music. especially Vishnu and Sakthi worship!
Almost all the major composers were under Vaishanavite tradition, especially of Madhvacharya (Uduppi)
MADVACHARYA
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However, mere lyrics cannot mean Music. Classical music is essentially a matter of Ragam . Secondly of Layam or TaLam. and only finally on theme and Lyrics.
We can have exquisite carnatic music in Instrumental play as in Flute, VeeNa and Nagaswaram. No words but only Ragam and TaaLam.
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But human mind cannot remember a tune without words and it is better that such words are of a kind that diverts our attention from animal instincts towards spiritual ideals,
Carnatic music has always held that ideal.
We cannot have 'secular' music. and vulgar dance music masquerading as ' offering to deity'!
Carnatic music then is a means for getting freedom from the four evils of 'lust, hatred, avarice and attachment'
(kaamam, krodham, lobam, moham)
,through the medium of pure music with divinity-oriented lyrics.
chronological order
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