Ancient tamil music had a standard notation to represent swaras and thalas. But our understanding of this standardization is limited
Two inscriptions preserve the notes system. One is at kudumiyanmalai and has not been deciphered to the satisfaction of all. Another one - Kudumiyanmalai's equivalent - existed in thirumeiyam. This was very unfortunately chiseled off and a pandiya inscription was inscribed. With modern technologies I am not sure if we can reconstruct this lost inscription
Maamandur has a very interesting inscription of mahendra. It says something like this - in order to match the high pitch of his wife who was a wonderful singer, mahendra introduced additional strings (or increased the tension - I am not sure). Paving way to parivadhini veena.
if you go to thirumeiyam you can see the portions of this ins even now
The veena we see today (Thanjavore style) was standardized by none other than raghunatha nayaka. This veena is held by hanuman in ramaswamy temple in kumbakonam. Nowhere else in india do we see hanuman with veena.
> > The veena we see today (Thanjavore style) was standardized by none > other than raghunatha nayaka. This veena is held by hanuman in > ramaswamy temple in kumbakonam. Nowhere else in india do we see > hanuman with veena.
any idea when the veena was first associated with ravana?
> any idea when the veena was first associated with ravana?
Thirumurais frequently refer to this. So this concept should have been established by then.
Considering strong references to ramayana in silappadhikaram(Ayichiyar kuravai) we can guess that the idea got its roots by the time of Ilangovadigal even though direct references are not forthcoming. Not sure if early chalukyan schools (earlier than saint appar) have sculptural representations of ravana. In badami there are none - as far as I can remember.
Well, dating is relative; if one date gets shifted, the rest follow(or lead?) I will not be surprised if the dates are shifted by an order of magnitude (by adding a zero). It is better to keep both horses tied to the yoke - the traditional/faith/puranic dates and the archeological/linguistic/astronomically derived dates as two horses. One at least is steady and unchanging while the other needs frequent taming and correction. Even carbon dating is under a cloud now! Sampath
Ravanan when tried to move Kailasa Parvatham, he failed and trapped under Kailasam and was crying for 1000 seasons' time. Vageesa Munivar, a well wisher of Ravanan, advised him to sing Samagana with Veena and then he was released. (This Vageesa Munivar was then Tirunavukarasar, with a name Vageesar and punished for some years with Stomach pain for he was associated with Ravana. His many devara poems ends with some news about Ravanan). Veena is the symbol of Ravanan in his flag. Ravaniam is the name of a music literature by Ravanan.
what do the thirumurais refer to as the name of the instrument?
i always felt the yal was the precursor of the veena. but with mahendra inventing a veena and soon thereafter sambandar using a 'pan' called yal muri I think both must have existed simultaneously or were two names of the same instrument
> We are repeating the same word what English east India told. > > Our culture dates back to B.C. 25,000.
HI the east india company had nothing to do with the discovery of mohenjo daro. beleive it or not ( i was surprised too)the archeological survey of india discovered it. it was rediscovered in 1922 by Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay , an officer of the Archaeological Survey of India. He was led to a mound by a Buddhist monk, who believed it to be a stupa. In the 1930s, massive excavations were conducted under the leadership of John Marshall, K. N. Dikshit, Ernest Mackay, british archeologists dated the egyptian and mesopotamian cultures. they were fiercely independent men who strived to bring to light the past.if they did no wrong in egypt or sumeria i dont know why they should do any intentinal wrong here. toys discovered in mohenjo daro had wheels attached. Most authorities regard the wheel as one of the oldest and most important inventions, which originated in ancient Mesopotamia in the 5th millennium BC (Ubaid period), originally in the function of potter's wheels. so it is likely that any civilisation that used the wheel was after this.
> > > HI > the east india company had nothing to do with the discovery of > mohenjo daro. beleive it or not ( i was surprised too)the > archeological survey of india discovered it. > > regards > venketesh
The same ASI also discovered Dwaraka which is older than Mohenjo dara. Why no mention of that in Indian History?
Hi, It becomes quite evident that during Tevaram period the Veenai and Yaazh co-existed. They are two different instruments. In general, the broader definition of the term 'veena' goes to that instrument in which each string can produce different note, either by creating tension on the string or relaxing the same. This is similar to a LUTE. Since human voice box is one organ which can generate very many notes, the human voice is called as 'gaatra veena' or 'shareera veena'. In case of a yaazh each string can produce one note only. Each string is tuned to one note. So yaazhs were pann specific, that is - one yaazh is used to play one pann. This is similar to HARP. Hope this could through little light on the differenciation between Veenai and Yaazh.
Wow! I never knew that different yazhs were needed for different panns. Thanks for sharing.
If you have a wide repertoire of panns to sing, you probably need a room full of yazhs!! No wonder there are a small number of popular panns. Has anybody seen/heard a real "yazh" somewhere?