The Objective of templepujari.com here is to share some of the knowledge on
Indian Classical Music, specifically, Carnatic Music. We at templepujari.com
are by no means experts on the subject but will make every attempt to find
and post related material, and will endeavor to bring a Q&A session with
some of the Senior Carnatic Musicians of India.

As a beginning, we bring to you the following basics about South Indian
Classical Music - Carnatic Music, with plenty more to follow in the near
future.

South Indian Classical Music ( Carnatic Music)

Raagam and Taalam are the most important and basic elements of Carnatic
music. Raagam being the scale of notes and Taalam being the time measure.

Sa (Shadjam), Ri (Rishabham), Ga (Gaandhaaram), Ma (Madhyamam), Pa
(Panchamam), Dha (Dhaivatam) and Ni (Nishaadham), are the Sapta Svaras or
the seven notes of Carnatic Music.

The Carnatic Music scale originally was made up of 22 microtones called
Shrutis or also known as Svara Sthanas. It has evolved into a scale of 12
shrutis or notes. The Sa and Pa notes are fixed notes, but there are three
types of Ri's, three types of Ga's, two types of Ma's, three types of dha's
and three types of ni's leading to 16 svaras.

There is an important feature to the raagams in Carnatic music, namely the
appropriate gamakams (microtones) associated with many raagams. Gamakams are
of ten types and their mastery is a must for effective portrayal of certain
raagams.

The other fundamental element of Carnatic music is taalam, the time-measure.
Taalas always occur in cyclic pattern. The basic building blocks for taala
are angas. Various combinations of these angas give rise to various taalas.
There are 35 principal taalams. The most common taalam is the Adi (first,
foremost) taalam. Its pattern is (4+2+2), a repeating measure of 8 beats.

The father of Carnatic Music is believed to be Purandara Dasa, and he
apparently codified the teaching of Carnatic Music. His teachings and more
so the methodologies have survived the times, and are prevalent even today.
Purandara Dasa was a great composer, primarily a Kannada composer, and has
to his credit several thousand songs. Among others are the famous founders (Sangeetha Mummurtigal) Saint Tyagaraja, Sri Muthuswamy Deekshitar and Sri Shyama Sastrigal.
Another well known and revered musician Venkatamukhi invented the system of
Melakarta Raagas or parent scales in the early 17th century AD. In these
raagas, the sapta svaras are present in their proper order, both in Arohana
(ascending note pattern) and Avarohana (descending note pattern).

Another very significant composer in Carnatic music world was Swati Tirunal.
There are various other composers who have left a visible mark in Carnatic
music but of importance are Annamacharya, Uttukadu Venkatasubbaiar, Mysore
Vasudevachar, Narayana Teertha, Gopala Krishna Bharati, Arunagiri Nathar and
Papanasam Sivan.

Although instruments play a very important role in Carnatic Music the Vocal
element is central to Carnatic music. This is significantly due to the large
number of kritis handed down over the centuries. Notable vocalists in todays
world are Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi, Smt. D. K. Pattamal and Sri. M.
Balamuralikrishna. In recent years, youngsters like Nityasree Mahadevan,
Sudha Raghunathan, P. Unnikrishnan, Bombay Jayshree etc. have come the fore
and carry on with the traditions of the seniors.

The prominent instruments and instrumentalists of Carnatic Music are Violin
( Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman), the flute ( Dr N. Ramani ), the Veena ( Veena
Gayathri ),and more recently, the Mandolin ( U. Srinivas), not to forget the
Saxophone ( Kadari Gopalanath) have found acceptance in Carnatic Music
circles.