Aditya Prakash – Karnatik Roots (Yarlung Records, 2023)
Aditya Prakash, a highly talented musician hailing from India, masterfully unveils seven mesmerizing ragas on his album Karnatik Roots. A raga is typically a melodic framework that has traversed the corridors of time. A raga transcends mere notes and melodies. Significantly, it represents sentiments and moods. Prakash’s rendition of these ragas not only pays homage to their age-old heritage but also breathes new life into their essence, infusing them with a contemporary vibrancy that seamlessly bridges the temporal divide.
To be more specific, Aditya eloquently clarifies that a raga assumes the form of a melodic entity, akin to a harmonious song, adorned with a phraseology that has matured over the passage of time. This melodic construct finds its definition through the tapestry of existing compositions and the profound legacy of virtuosic practitioners who have intricately woven the raga’s distinct identity through their compositions and improvisational skill. However, Aditya admits that to him, “a raga is a personality, a living being, a friend, or partner that I must become intimate with in order to freely enter its world and even begin to explore it.”
In this case, the seven musical pieces rooted in Carnatic music are all truly exquisite, delivering impeccable musicianship. Aditya Prakash’s expressive and moving voice elegantly intermingles with the beautiful violin melodies and transfixing percussion to form an irresistible and compelling auditory experience.
Musicians: Aditya Prakash on vocals; Kamalakiran Vinjamuri on violin; Rajna Swaminathan on mridangam; and Vini Sundaram on acoustic tambura (drone).
Aditya provides his reflections on the seven ragas on the liner notes:
Raga I: Jayantasena
The album begins by introducing each artist and instrument individually in a short improvisation before we perform together in Raga Jayantasena. This is not customary in a Karnatik concert. I begin by singing a poem in the Kannada language written by the 12th Century female mystic author Akka Mahadevi from Karnataka. I offer a rough translation:
Like stillness inherent in the ground Like flavor inherent within the fruit Like gold inherent within an ornament Like oil inherent within a seed
Like fire inherent within wood
God or Love is inherent within the feeling of our hearts
This introduction is completely improvised based on the raga Jayantasena, the only raga composed by Thyagaraja (more formally known as Kakarla Thyagabrahmam) born in 1767 and considered a saint. Thyagaraja revolutionized and repopularized Karnatik music and was thought to have written over 20,000 pieces during his lifetime. Following the introduction we launch into Vinata Suta, also by Thyagaraja which praises the god Rama. Following the composition, we improvise briefly on the swaras (solfège) of the raga, but return again and again to the main refrain of the song; this is known as kalpana swara singing. Lyrics: Akka Mahadevi and Thyagaraja, Language: Kannada and Telugu.
Raga II: Hamsadwani
The composition we rendered in this raga is often considered the most famous Karnatik composition, Vatapi Ganapatim.
Composed by the prolific Muddusvami Dikshitar born in 1776, this song has been popularized so much over the last century that it has almost gone out of vogue and is no longer performed so frequently. Too much of a good thing, perhaps. When revisiting and relearning this song from another one of my mentors, R K Shriramkumar, he taught me the version of the song that was written in the text known as Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini (SSP) and this approach breathed fresh new life into the song for me. This SSP remains a primary source of detailed notation for Muddusvami Dikshitar’s compositions. As mentioned earlier, many Karnatik musicians and practitioners add their own flair and flavor to compositions, adding more melodic motifs to the existing structure provided by the original composer. The results of such over- embellishment can result in works of great beauty, but can also result in the composition veering far from its original intention. When I relearned Vatapi Ganapatim in the way it is notated in the text, its simplicity, stillness, and beauty appealed to me greatly. Our version tries to capture this much slower, refreshingly simple and meditative experience. I expand upon one of the lines and improvise (while keeping the lyrical meter intact) as I develop the melodic content. This style of improvisation is known as niraval. Following niraval I take up kalpana swaras as in our first track.
Lyrics: Muddusvami Dikshitar, Langauge: Sanskrit.
Raga III: Shifting Sa
This is an original composition and concept of mine and this track offers our most experimental approach to Karnatik music on this album. Bob said it is one of his favorite tracks in our recording. The constantly moving tonal center can be destabilizing when singing a raga, a challenge I welcomed in this piece. The sound of the tambura (drone instrument which you heard open both the previous songs) is a quintessential part of the Karnatik sound and provides the tonal center, which usually does not shift during a performance. As you may notice, there is no tambura in this song. Instead, Kamalakiran on violin provides the tonal center, which shifts throughout the piece.
Modal jazz fans will recognize a strong contemporary influence in Shifting Sa. When performing this piece, the three of us must maintain the identity and phraseology of the densely ornamented ragas: Todi, Simhendramadyamam and Vasanta, while shifting the tonic constantly. This shifting nature also affects the way in which Rajna plays her mridangam. The tonic pitch, which is the primary stroke that resonates in her drum, must be masked or hidden when the tonic shifts. This piece is non-linguistic and is heavily improvised vocally.
Raga IV: Kiravani
This piece is a confluence of four different improvisational styles: virutam singing (using poetry and raga together), kalpana swara as in our first track, then tanam (rhythmic but non-cyclical singing using the words “ta nam” in different formations), and finally niraval. The seamless blend morphing from one style of improvisation to another is one of my favorite achievements in this piece, and this blending is rarely done in Karnatik music. This blend took form when I was creating and experimenting with a piece of mine called “Lord of the Cave” for Aditya Prakash Ensemble, arranged for voice, guitars, and drums. Our version of Kiravani also allowed for a unique interplay between mridangam and voice. Here Rajna’s mridangam moves fluidly between pulses and time signatures while simultaneously providing the tonic bed, allowing me to harmonize and blend with the mridangam. Later in Kiravani, I asked Rajna to embed a drum solo within a one line composition known as a pallavi. Lyrics: Apayya Dikshitar, Language: Sanskrit.
Raga V: Brindavani, Khamas (Thillana)
I wanted to include a purely instrumental piece in our recording, even though such “modernism” is atypical for a Karnatik vocal recital. I asked Kamalakiran on violin and Rajna on mridangam to combine two different compositions based on two different ragas. This melding is also uncommon in a Karnatik concert. By linking the occasionally similar phrases and notes of the very different sounding ragas, we wanted to achieve a uniquely cohesive sounding composite of the ragas. I think Rajna and Kamalakiran succeeded brilliantly. These classical ragas evolved over time, as they all do, and Kamalakiran honors the great Karnatik musicians Patnam Subramaniam Iyer and Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna with this Thillana composition.
Raga VI: Ragamalika alapana, Brindavana Saranga (Soundararajam)
Soundararajam is another masterpiece composition by Muddusvami Dikshitar. Similar to Vatapi in Hamsadwani on track 2, most performers present this song today with myriad changes from the original. Our version follows the exact notation in the SSP. It feels transcendent and sublime to experience the simplicity and stillness of each note as I sing it. To introduce this song, we offer an improvisation known as an alapana (free of a time cycle and rhythmic accompaniment) in various ragas. I chose these ragas carefully; they are all ragas normally part of the Hindustani style, which influenced Muddusvami Dikshitar greatly. Dikshitar was specifically influenced by the Drupad style in Hindustani music. Muddusvami Dikshitar traveled widely in the Indian subcontinent, and he was fearless and bold in his experimentation and adoption of “foreign” musical styles, thereby increasing the diversity and musical palate in the Karnatik world. Lyrics: Muddusvami Dikshitar, Language: Sanskrit.
Raga VII: Natabhairavi
This composition, typical in Hindustani concerts and known as a Tarana, is a counterpart to Thillana in Karnatik music. (Thillana makes up an important part of Brindavani, Khamas, as heard in track 5.) Natabhairavi pays homage to sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, with whom I had the pleasure of singing and touring. Mr. Shankar took the scale from this Karnatik raga: Natabhairavi and played it in his distinctive style, which we honor in this performance. Absorbing Karnatik music was not unusual for Ravi Shankar. His performances revealed many Karnatik influences, rhythmic as well as melodic. Natabhairavi was born out of the melakarta raga classification system, which dates as early as 1550. I so enjoy Ravi Shankar’s brilliance, blending melody and rhythm in a simple, catchy way. He was a true gift and I very often recollect my memories with him, which I cherish. Singing this piece always gives me a burst of joy, energy and fun, and it was a treat to end our concert and recording in this fashion.
Buy Karnatik Roots.
Author: Douglas Sanders
