OLA Session #2
Dr. Mahulikar selected five of the arts to elaborate on the kalā aspects. Saṅgīta, the first, is called a gāndharva-veda and is both grāma-gāna and araṇya-gāna which corresponds broadly to contemporary urban and folk music.
In the kauṣītakī-brāhmaṇa, Śilpa is any form of art, hence śilpī is someone who is a creative artist – be it painting, sculpting, singing… hence includes, nṛtya (dance), gīta (singing) and vādita – musical instrument skills. As we can see the varieties of saṅgīta were described as early as the kauṣītakī-brāhmaṇa.
How one should recite is also governed in the śikṣā texts. Be it for self-study, to teach or to implement (i.e., chant as worship) the speed varies. For self-study one must recite fast; While teaching, slow. Interestingly, Pañcatantra has numerous references to the science of music, musicology.
Pañcatantra? Seriously?
Yes. Pañcatantra is not about animals but fables created by Viṣṇuśarmā to teach the princes of King Amaraśakti. The story goes that the three princes had absolutely no interest in studies and the King had declared them dullards. Frustrated by his many attempts to educate them, he asked his courtiers for help and that was how he was suggested the services of Viṣṇuśarmā.
The King asked Viṣṇuśarmā to make the boys wise and incomparable in art. Viṣṇuśarmā declined all generous rewards and promised to teach the boys. Viṣṇuśarmā then sat and composed numerous stories using animals and birds as the main characters through which he explained the everyday insights necessary in politics and practical wisdom. Since then the stories of the Pañcatantra have travelled worldwide, teaching and entertaining.
So what came first? Dance? Instrumental music? Or singing? Dr. Mahulikar says singing came first because it is vocal. So first gīta; then it needs a beat, so karatāla (beat with the hands), then the ghanavādya, tantrivādya (string instruments), then comes nṛtya. This is the order given in the Saṅgīta-ratnākara, a Sanskrit Musicological text composed in the 13th century, and clearly, this is how these arts evolved.
When we think ‘dance’, we automatically think ‘adornments’. As far back as the Harappan period, 3rdmillennia BCE, we see beautiful accessories worn by dancers as seen in the archaeological reliefs found from that era. That would mean, the art of making jewellery too goes that far back in time.
Talking of archaeological reliefs brings to mind idols and images. How long ago does this date? Dr. Mahulikar cites an anecdote from the Rāmāyaṇa, wherein Śrī Rāma comes to his mother Kausalyā’s chambers to take her leave, prior to His exile. Kausalyā, says Vālmīki, is praying to an idol of Lord Viṣṇu!
The sculpting of idols as an art form is seen via another very interesting anecdote found in Mahākavi – Bhāsa’s Pratimānāṭakam . In the third act of this play, we see how Bharata comes to know of King Daśaratha’s death. Bharata has returned from his maternal uncle’s home and is waiting outside the city for the auspicious time to enter Ayodhyā. There, he enters the Hall of Statues and sees the statues of all his ancestors… and then… comes upon the pratimā of King Daśaratha’s! Bharata is confused. He asks the gṛhapālaka, “Are living people also cast in stone śilpa-s?” The gṛhapālaka replies, “No, mṛtānāmeva! Only the dead are cast into śilpa…” Thus, it was that Bharata found out about his father’s demise, albeit a dramatised version.
Dūtavākyam is another of Bhāsa’s plays in which we see subtle references to art forms, tucked into the play. Like in Bhāsa’s Dūtavākyam, when Kṛṣṇa goes to Hastināpura carrying the message of peace to Duryodhana, the latter does not receive him well. To drive home his seeming indifference, Duryodhana is shown busying himself examining a painting (citrapāṭha) of Draupadī-vastraharaṇa. And thus we infer the existence of paintings and sketching in that era!
Sculptures, art, paintings are also the media through which we gather information about other art forms, even fashions prevailing in the earlier eras. For instance, a most intriguing sculpture in the 11th century Rāmappa Temple in Warangal, Telangana, shows a woman of the Kākatīya dynasty in high heeled shoes!
Dyūta-viśeṣa or the art of gambling was a taught art form, probably to ensure that it is played for the joy of the art than for profiteering. As long as it is art, says Dr. Mahulikar, it is celebratory. But when art changes to addiction, then it becomes a vice and brings ruin. This reference is seen in the ṛg-veda [maṇḍala 10, Hymn 34: 13] which says the rattling sound of the dice drags the gambler to the dyūtaśālā where he loses everything. The description of the man who returns from dyūtaśālā, wasted and depleted, whose wife does not look at him, who feels so consumed, that he sleeps in the outhouse like a dog, is most picturesque. To him the Rg says,
“Play not with dice, [but] cultivate your corn-land.
Enjoy the gain, and deem that wealth sufficient.
There are your cattle, there your wife, O gambler:
So this good Savitr himself has told me.”
Called the Gambler’s Lament, an extract here will show us the depth of ancient learning:
2. She never vexed me nor was angry with me, but to my friends and me was ever gracious. For the die’s sake, whose single point is final, mine own devoted wife I alienated.
namāmimethanajihīḷaeṣā śivāsakhibhyautamahyamāsīt, akṣasyāhamekaparasyahetoranuvratāmapajāyāmarodham.
3. My wife holds me aloof, her mother hates me: the wretched man finds none to give him comfort. As of a costly horse grown old and feeble, I find not any profit of the gamester.
dveṣṭiśvaśrūrapajāyāruṇaddhinanāthitovindatemarḍitāram, aśvasyevajaratovasnyasyanāhaṃ vindāmikitavasya bhogham
The poem then describes the lure of the dice:
4. When I resolve to play with these no longer, my friends depart from me and leave me lonely. When the brown dice, thrown on the board, have rattled, like a fond girl I seek the place of meeting.
anyejāyāṃparimṛśantyasyayasyāghṛdhadvedanevājyakṣaḥ pitāmatābhrātaraenamāhurnajānīmonayatābaddhametam
In verse 13, the poet addresses the gambler in an attempt to reform him, invoking the god Savitr.
13 Play not with dice: no, cultivate thy corn-land. Enjoy the gain, and deem that wealth sufficient. There are thy cattle there thy wife, O gambler. So this good Savitr himself hath told me.
akṣairmādīvyaḥkṛṣimitkṛṣasvavitteramasvabahumanyamānaḥ tatra ghāvaḥkitavatatrajāyā tanme vicaṣṭe savitāyamaryaḥ
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_Lament
Then Dr. Mahulikar took up the most interesting kāvya-samasyā-pūraṇa or solving enigmatic verses, glimpses of which we saw in the beginning. Also called samasyāpūrti, the problem is posed by presenting one line of a verse or one part of a whole composition, leaving the contestant to compose the rest of the composition.
Dr. Mahulikar takes us into the reign of King Bhojawho it is said, did not allow fools to live in his kingdom, and on the flip side, even thieves could compose extempore verses! Equally, it also tells us that in our country arts, literature, music, dance… were all woven into study and recreation.
So it happened that a brahmin once came to King Bhoja’s palace. The generous King was known to reward poets well, but this brahmin was so very tired that he was able to recite only one line:
सहस्रशीर्षा पुरुषः सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात् ।
sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ| sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt||
That is all. Another poet, seeing the Brahmin’s plight stepped in to complete the verse for him. In an instant, he completed the verse as follows:
सहस्रशीर्षा पुरुषः सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात् । (what the brahmin had said)
sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ| sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt||
चलितश्चकितश्छन्नस्तव सैन्ये प्रधावति | (how the poet completed it)
calitaścakitaśchannastava sainye pradhāvati|
It means, ‘The 1000-eyed (sahasrākṣaḥ) Indra was surprised when 1000 headed śeṣa moved; who is mightier than me? He wondered. And sahasrapāt (the thousand footed/rayed Sūrya) got covered by the dust raised by the marching feet of your army!’
In other words, O King Bhoja, when your army marches full speed, then the 1000-headed ādiśeṣa, (on whose head this entire universe rests) shakes and shudders!
We may not have had the opportunity to explore our heritage during our student days, we may not be able to wade through the wealth that sits in our vaults, but we can enjoy its greatness through Dr. Mahulikar’s most enchanting lectures that encompass history, literature, entertainment and knowledge.
Read Part 1 here: https://blog.cvv.ac.in/64-kala-s/
