Lakshmi Subramanian - Veena Dhanammal: The Making of a Legend

Series Editor: DilipM.Menon
Department of History, University of Delhi

This series explores the intellectual history of South Asia through the lives and ideas of significant individuals within a historical context. These pathfinders are seen to represent a break with existing traditions, canons and inherited histories. In fact, even the idea of South Asia with its constituent regions and linguistic and religious divisions may be thrown into crisis as we explore the idea of territory as generated by thought. It is not cartographic limits that determine thinking but the imagining of elective affinities across space, time and borders. These thinkers are necessarily cosmopolitan and engage with a miscegenation of ideas that recasts existing notions of schools of thinking, of the archive for a history of ideas, and indeed of the very notion of national and regional limits to intellectual activity. The books in this series try to think beyond the limited frameworks of colonialism and nationalism for the modern period and more generally of histories of societies that are told through the prism of the state, its institutions and ideologies.

These slim volumes written by leading scholars are intended for the intelligent layperson and expert alike, and written in an accessible, lively and authoritative prose. Through telling the lives of celebrated names and lesser known ones in context, this series will expand the repertoire of ideas and individuals that have shaped the history and culture of South Asia.

Also in the Series

Javed Majeed
Muhammad Iqbal: Islam,Aesthetics and Postcolonialism
ISBN: 978-0-415-44578-8

The Making of a Legend

First published 2009
by Routledge
912-915 Tolstoy House, 15-17 Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi 110 001

Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Transferred to Digital Printing 2009

2009 Lakshmi Subramanian

Typeset by
Star Compugraphics Private Limited
D-156, Second Floor
Sector 7, Noida 201 301

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-415-44611-2

abhinaya Facial expression of a sentiment in dance and drama; the art of mime

abhysa gna Music lessons, rudimentary exercises in the form of short songs

akra sdhakam Vocal exercises around the vowel a

aksara Syllable

lpana/lp Improvised exposition of a melody

nanda Vikatan A popular Tamil weekly

Aamalai University Established in 1929 by Dr Sir Rajah Aamalai Chettiar, it was intended to promote classical scholarship in Tamil and adopt a modern approach to learning.

anti-Nautch A movement launched in 1882 against the practice of dedicating young girls to temples. Public performances on official occasions by dvadsi dancers were criticised and subsequently banned.

anusrai The upper secondary string of a via

roha/roha An ascending series of notes making up a type of melody

arudi Lit. stop; also means a phrase that concludes a movement or section

sthna vidwn A musician attached to a palace or court establishment

avarohaa A descending series of notes used to characterise/ identify a rga

bi/pi A musical style, sometimes associated with a specific family or lineage

bhgavatar An honorific prefixed to a celebrated musician; also means music teacher

bhva Feeling, emotion, sentiment

bn North Indian v, also known as the Rudravina. It is a stick zither an instrument type with a long and illustrious history in India. It has two large gourd resonators attached below each end of a straight, hollow bamboo or wooden body.

cinna mam Small ensemble, dance troupe attached to temples

dvadsi A female dancer belonging to a community of hereditary ritual practitioners attached to temples

dhrupad The oldest surviving form of north Indian classical music, it has a complex and elaborate grammar and aesthetics.

gamaka Embellishments based on individual notes or groups of them, used primarily to bring out a whole range of microtonal differentiation. Its use is characteristic of certain styles which, in turn, emphasise extreme melodic sensitivity in musical interpretation and treatment.

gyaki In Hindustani music, the term refers to a type of instrumental music endowed with vocal qualities. In south Indian classical music, the term refers to the ability of the instrumentalist to maintain the integrity of meaning and feelings in a composition based on lyrics.

Ghanam A style of singing which celebrated musicians like Bobilli Kesaviah and Ghanam Krishna Iyer specialised in; associated with stillness and grandeur

harikath Musical discourse on a religious theme

jvai A love poem set to lilting music; used in dance

kaccri Public concert

Karaka Sangta The classical music system of southern India, whose most conspicuous features are the 72 fundamental scales as well as an intricate system of rhythm

Karik The anglicised word for Karaka Sagta

khyl A modern vocal genre in north Indian classical music

krtana/kriti Musical composition

kuam Lit. pot; the wooden resonator of a v

lakaa Lit. definition or scope; characteristic features of a rga

lakya Lit. perceptible or example; phrases found in compositions illustrating the features of a rga

laya The rhythmic aspect of Indian music

mandaram(m) Lower octave

magaam Auspiciousness

magaavandulu The caste appellation used by C. R. Day to describe the members of the temple orchestra

mlakart A system of scales designed to help musicians and composers to deal with several hundreds of melodies by distributing them between a number of distinct and designated scales

meu Musical structure of a song

mdagam Double-faced drum

murai Way of life

ndabrahm Musical sound perceived of as divine consciousness

ndasvaram A family of double-reed instruments used on auspicious occasions; the longer, more common bari and the shorter, high-pitched timiri

ndopsana Worship through music

Nyastra The earliest and best-known Sanskrit treatise on drama, dance and music