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‘Treat the raga with respect’
T
Kamakshi Mallikarjun
he lilting Chandrakauns tarana in the Music Today
cassette compilation Tarana – Flights of Melody
was the first time I heard Veena Sahasrabuddhe. I was mesmerised and longed to attend her concerts.
Thereafter, during periodic trips to Chennai, I used to
search for her cassettes and CDs and continue to hope
that one day I would be able to attend her concert.
In 2008 I heard that a local organisation called Sangeet
Society was arranging a Veena Sahsrabuddhe concert
in New Jersey. At a gathering at my friend’s house
for Ganesa Chaturthi, I bemoaned that here was this
golden opportunity to listen to Veena but it was too
far for me to drive, but not only did I find a ride to the
wonderful concert, my friend introduced me to Suraja,
one of the organisers. Suraja informed me that Veena
Sahasrabuddhe would be staying with her. She was
arranging a workshop and invited me to attend that as
well.
Veena was that rare avatar: a great performing artist who
was also an excellent teacher with a passion for igniting
a greater understanding and appreciation of Hindustani
classical music amongst students. In every facet of this
workshop, she would come back to the guiding principles
– ultimate respect and devotion for the great art of
classical music, dedication, integrity and daily, diligent
practice. Her dictums, explanations, corrections and
clarifications were so lucid and struck such a deep chord
in me that I came back home and wrote it all down.
Here are some excerpts of what she shared with us:
v Ascending the stage is like entering fire. If you want
fast results, input-output, it won’t happen.
v ���������������������������������������������
All of you are singing because it makes you
happy; if you have the slightest desire to perform, I will
not proceed further till you get the ni re ga ma phrase of
this raga correct. I want it 100% correct every time. No
hovering around the note; if that is where the note is, that
is where it should be. You need to repeat each phrase at
least 50 times.
v ���������������������������������������
I don’t understand why people ask me, “Do
��������
you
still practise?” Of course, I still practise – for three or
four hours every day. A marathon cannot happen of a
sudden. In your work, if you decide to not do anything
for five days or just spend half an hour here and there,
will it work?
v �������������������������������������������������������
In every raga, you need to learn at least ten songs or
bandishes as a starting base for understanding the raga.
My father used to make me sing every bandish I learnt
26 l SRUTI August 2016
while playing the tabla myself; I also had to showcase
all the embellishments for the bandish while playing the
tabla.
v �������������������������������������������������������
Alap has patterns of symmetry like drawing a rangoli –
if there is a loop here (lower octave), there is a loop there
(higher octave); a double loop there, double loop here.
v We
������������������������������������������������������������
must treat the raga with respect – the raga is in front
of us and we pay respect, we are not in front. We cannot
utter things that don’t make sense.
During the workshop, when Veena tuned the tanpura
and strummed it, the reverberating nada brought tears
to my eyes. We started with singing notes and akara for
raga Yaman – traversing the notes from the lower ma to
the higher pa. Our teacher also took the extraordinary
and completely unexpected step of having each of us
take turns strumming her tanpura, as she would have
done for her full time students in India. The entire
experience was indeed a magical glimpse of
gurukulavasam and, for two spellbinding hours, my
dreams were no longer daydreams.
She next taught us Pooriya Dhanasree, taking the
unusual step of responding to repeated pleas from many
participants in the workshop to teach something other than
Yaman. She did admonish us repeatedly for that sentiment
saying that more than a lifetime is needed to master
Yaman.
The choice of Pooriya Dhanasree was perhaps a
masterstroke to get these pivotal points across to every
student in the workshop. In the raga, there is no safety of sa
or pa in the ascent and hence the akara phrases for ni re ga
ma, re ga ma ni are fiendishly difficult and slippery. And
yes, it did become crystal clear to everyone why there is a
prescribed progression to the ragas that beginners are
taught.
Veena Sahasrabuddhe said that since our primary
focus was a better understanding of Hindustani
classical music and singing for the sake of personal
enjoyment and not professional aspirations, she
would still teach us the bandish. She then taught us the
hauntingly beautiful bandish Tere daras ki and also
shared with us the notation written in her own hand. (See below).
Even though I had been an avid listener of Hindustani
classical music for several decades, understanding
of the grammar and innate intricacies came only
after listening to Veena’s Language of Raga Music CDs and later the more comprehensive online
lecdems at IIT Mumbai/ IIT Kanpur. These lectures
are structured meticulously, the explanations
articulate and poetic and the demonstrations sublime.
They progress from the fundamentals of swara, laya,
raga to gamakas, tala, bandish, alap, and gharanas. In addition to the grammar of Hindustani
classical music, Veena illustrates the aspects of
improvisation and embellishments in the singing of
alap and bandish.
In a concert the previous evening in Philadelphia,
one of the ragas featured was Chandrakauns. As she
Veena and Kamakshi
explained in her lectures, Veena sang three pieces in slow,
medium and fast laya, starting with a mesmerising Chandarki
chandini (it was a full moon night) and ending with a
tarana in Chandrakauns.
In an interview for The Hindu – With ragas in her
heart, Veena Sahasrabuddhe said – “My father taught
not just music but every other skill that a singer needs;
writing, reading notes, the basics of each instrument...
I try to do the same with my students, even though
they are spread out all over the country and the world.”
Veenaji will be an eternal guiding beacon of light in our
lives.
(The author is a computer scientist and music lover)
27 l SRUTI August 2016