Rhythms of Kerala

Rhythm is an experience that our mind perceives and body reacts to, when a pattern of events is repeated with some sort of regularity (the event is most commonly, a beat – a lay person typically relates rhythm to ‘beats’.). The intellect perceives the symmetry, beauty and cleverness of the rhythm while the body gets an impulse to move in synchronism with the pattern of repetition –to bring down the hand and beat it on a surface, to nod the head, or to tap the foot or shake the whole body. Rhythm can unify people because their enjoyment is externally visible through body movements and a large gathering of people can gradually synchronize into a collective behaviour of body movements. In folk tradition, tempo of the body movements can gradually accelerate and result in loud clapping of hands, jumping (dancing) and ecstatic utterance of sounds (vaaythaaris).

Experiencing rhythm is a basic pleasure of human beings. They experience it both internally and externally. Breathing, walking, running, climbing steps swimming, sexual intercourse etc are all rhythmic activities. Externally, humans perceive rhythm in nature. Repetition of days and night, seasons etc are examples. Humans imbibe these into a circadian rhythm which regulates the sleep–wake cycle and repeats every 24 hours. Humans also perceive rhythm in machines of their own making – the train, stitching machines, the clock etc. Let us see what a non-rhythm is. Imagine a sound being produced without any change, continuously. It could be a word “One”, which’s ending syllable is sustained forever: “Oneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…” Imagine that we sit in a closed room and listen to such a sustained sound, it would be not only boring (and causing headache ?), but it would give us no sense of time and pleasure. If we introduce a repetition, suddenly rhythm emerges and sense of time emerges: “One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One…” We can use any word or sound as the chosen event. The following is more appropriate as an example of rhythm: “Tik, Tik, Tik, Tik, Tik, Tik,Tik, Tik, Tik,Tik, Tik, Tik,Tik, Tik…”

We can synchronize our body with rhythm by beating our hands on a surface, at each event: One could argue that “1,2,3, 1,2,3, 1,2,3, 1,2,3” is beat-wise the same as “1,1,1,1,1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1”. Theoretically this is true, but in practice it is not so. While the pattern “1, 1, 1. . .” prompts us only to beat at every occurrence of 1, the sequence “1,2,3, 1,2,3…” prompt us to beat after every 3 events, thus creating a super structure over the simple repetition of an event. Such super structuring is very natural (Just watch how people tell us their mobile numbers, which are 10 digits. But one person may use the style of 949590- 4578, while another person may say 94-95- 90-45-78 and yet another person may say 9495- 90-4578. It is in this super structuring that rhythmic diversity is built. It is in this super structuring that Kerala rhythms stand apart.

Basic Structure of Rhythm

Adi-Thalam is one of the most popular rhythms of Carnatic music and is defined by a pattern of events made with the body. These events are mainly: Beating of the palm on the thighs or any surface – denoted by B, Waving of hand away from the surface on which the beating was done – denoted by W, Counting of fingers as 1,2,3, along with beating. Adi Thalam has 8 events. These events are chosen to help us to easily recognize the sub-segment of the rhythm. Event1 Event2 Event3 Event4 Event5 Event6 Event7 Event8 Beat Count1 Count2 Count3 Beat Wave Beat Wave We can define sub-events for each event. This is called Gathi/Nadai and creates different tempo for each count of sub-events. The most popular sub-events are 3,4 and 5 and represesnt gathi/nadai/tempo. See below how the sub-events are different for the different Nadais. B 1 2 3 B W B W Total 8 events Gathi/Nadai=3 123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123 Total 24 subevents Gathi/Nadai=4 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 Total 32 sub-events Gathi/Nadai=5 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 Total 40 events Malayalam poetry uses the above Nadais in lyrics by using laghu letters to mark an event and a Guru syllable to fuse two events into one or use silence in their place. For example, the Gathi/Nadai=5 (Khanda Nadai) is linguistically existent in the following lines in Adhyathma Ramayanam (the four segments have 5 laghus =5 mathraas and the last has G-L-G which also is 5 mathraas) Ka-dha-ya-ma-ma Ka-dha-ya-ma-ma Ka-dha-ka-la-thi Saa-da-ram L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L G L G

Ragas and Thalas of Kerala

Ragas and Rhythms are related, but distinct concepts. Kerala has its own unique tradition in both areas. However, the traditional ragas of Kerala are not much in vogue. Indalam, Puraneeru, Indisha, KaanaKurunji, DukhaKhandaram etc are not even well-defined and sadly, not recorded. The earliest description of these ragas are seen only in western notations given by Samuel Mateer and Fox Stangeways. In the absence of full details, many of these ragas are now considered as minor variations of popular Carnatic Ragas (Puraneeru is Bhoopalam, KaanaKurunji is Neelambari/ Sankarabharanam etc). Even Swathi Thirunal did not compose songs in ‘Kerala ragas’. Today, the Sopana Sangeetham style in which these ragas were rendered has mostly been transformed into Carnatic style. There are rare scholars/musicians like Kavalam Sreekumar who are capable of bringing out the subtleties of Sopana style over Carnatic Music. Compared to the case of Ragas, rhythms of Kerala have survived to the present. The Chendamelams have been one the major reasons for their continuation to the present. Adantha, Muriadantha Chempada, Panchari, Champa, Kumbha, Kundanachi, Lakshmi, Marma etc are the famous Kerala Thalaas. We have authentic details of at least some of these rhythms through their description by the great Kunchan Nambiar. He indicates their structure through linguistic rhythm. For instance, definition of Kumbha thala in “Hareneerwayanvaraa” Seethankan Thullal as follows: laghu laghu laghu laghu laghukkalum, druta yugalvum, legu moonnu druta dwayavum, laghu guru guru laghu leghukkalum, laghu laghu laghu athumoonnumsabdhamitham. (PC: Ganga Studio, Ambalappuzha)

Kerala rhythm in Present Times

The Melam that continues to the present at Trichur Vadukkanthan temple is an example of dynamic existence of Kerala rhythms. It is an orchestra of five instruments viz. ChendaEdamthala, Valanthala, Kombu, Kuzhal and Elathalam. A thani avarthanam in a Carnatic concert pales in front of the “Thala Prastharam” in these melams, which bring thousands of connoisseurs to a synchronous frenzy. Like the raga malikas Kerala percussionists are capable of performing Thala malikas in their performances. I must hasten to add that we can find correspondence of the underlying structure of most of the Kerala Thalas with established Carnatic Thalas in the Saptha Thala scheme (7 basic patterns x 5 Jaathis = 35 Thalas. With 5 nadais/tempo for each, we have 175 thalas, Chappu Thalas are considered separately). In modern times the major Kerala Thalas are treated as equivalent to Carnatic Thalas as follows: Adantha is AtaThala; Muriadantha is Triputa Thala; Champada is Adi Thala, Sanchari is Rupaka Thala and Champa is Jumpa Thala. Even though the general structures are equivalent, how the “angaas” are defined varies subtly.

Vocalisation of Rhythm

In all musical systems, Rhythm can be represented by Vaaythaari (vocalization of rhythmic patterns). Often it mimics sounds of instruments such as Chenda, Mridangam or Tabla (In modern times it is known as “Indian Vocal Percussion” or scat singing). Kerala also has its own style in this, which varies from the Carnatic syllables. Here is a Chenda Vaythaari: Gi… Kam… Na.Ka. Tha.Ra. Kaam… Dha.Ri. Ki.Da. Dhi.Ka. Tha.Ra. Kaam… Na.Ka. Tha.Ra. Kaam… Dhi.Ki. Na.Na. Kaam… Dhi.Dhi Dha.Ri. Ki.Da. Dhi.Ka. Tha.Ra. Kaam… Folk tradition also exists in this regard. Chappu Thala could be described as “Tha Ki Ta, Tha Ka Dhi Mi” in Carnatic style. Folk style in Kerala is “Thitheyyam Theyyam Theyyam”

Shadkalam

The visit of Shadkala Govinda Marar to Thyagaraja’s musical sabha is famous. He is believed to have sung the Jayadeva Ashtapathi “Chandana Charchitha” in six kaalams (tempos). There have been many interpretations on this. It would be very unlikely that 6 tempos each of which at double speed, was sung. If it were so, either the slowest tempo would have been boringly slow, or the fastest tempo would have been unintelligible. Music Director, late G Devarajan hypothesises that 3 speeds were sung, first in chathurasra nadai and then in thishra nadai. Late Sri B Sasikumar, Violinist opines that it would have been not doubling speed in each step, but increasing by small measure as done in Sopana singing, called “Paadi Murukkuka”. This is in vogue today in Bhajana singing.