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The dilemma of Odissi music

While the Odissi dance form is classical, its music is still searching for classical recognition. LEELA VENKATARAMAN

Dance and music share the same name, Odissi, making the issue of the relationship even more confused, for while the dance form is recognised as ‘classical’, the music known for its regional characteristics, remains in the indeterminate ca tegory. But Oriyas are constantly striving to convince the public about its classical credentials. “When our dance is ‘classical’, how can the music accompanying it be less so?” is the angry query. Any Odissi music scholar will intone away about the specialised regional forms of champu, chhanda, chautisha, bhajan, janana and so on. And the lyrics based on regional poetry, in what are called ‘traditional tunes’, are countless. If, right from the 16th Century texts like Geeta Prakasha, Sangeeta Muktabali, Sangeeta Kalpalatika, Sangeetarnaba Chandrika and others have been attributed to authors from the region, the classical background would seem to be firmly established. Then, whatever happened to the dance/music togetherness?

For this one has to go into the history of the dance form in its present ‘avatar’ – a post-1950 creation. The endeavours to consciously create a concert format for the stage made musical demands which the existing music repertoire could not satisfy. For abhinaya, there were lyrics in plenty but dance needs a strong base of abstract music for pure nritta items, and here the heritage had little to offer.

The early pallavis known as ‘tarijhams’, were, apart from the ‘Sa re ga ma’ pallavi of the Gotipuas, just tunes of traditional songs, used without the sahitya. Thus the Kalyan pallavi was based on the mettu of the song “Dekhiibo para asare”, Bilahari pallavi was “Ajamu dekhili goshtachandramaku”, and so on. Catering to the element of virtuosity, the later pallavis were special intricate compositions for dance. And here both the then musical maestros Balakrushna Das and Bhubaneswar Mishra, trained under Hindustani ustads and Carnatic bhagavatars like Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu respectively, brought in the influences of their training into the compositions.

Singhari Shyam Sunder Kar and Durllav Chandra Singh, the earlier music contributors, were trained as much in Odissi music as in forms like Dhrupad and it is only in the singing of Malashri that one gets a clear picture of the classical Dhrupad ang in Odissi. Barring singers like Ramahari Das, today one hardly gets to listen to this quality of music.

Orissa’s geographical position attracted both Hindustani and Carnatic musical influences. Traditions like Prahlada Nataka still carry the ‘Dakhiniya’ influence.

Today, in the conscious search for classical recognition, elements of punditry foreign to Odissi music are being brought in. While new pallavis, largely in the Hindustani ragas, keep emerging, the music for the dance is becoming more and more mixed in style. What comes as a natural process of evolution cannot be ejected. But an apparent effort to make Odissi music into what it was not is also unnatural.

There have also been attempts to go back to the old ragas. But as the late Premlata Sharma maintained, “Ragas are not created by reading texts. They have to be sung, and if Yaman today occupies that colossal space in the Hindustani scheme, it is because of the tapas and musical imagination which have gone into the singing of this raga. Text comes after practice, not vice-versa.”

And what of the thin-voiced falsetto which now characterises the music by the female singers? “That is due to the high pitch of the mardal,” is the explanation.

Can this not be changed?

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