Pann
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PaN (
PaNs in literature
There are several references to music and PaNs in the ancient pre-Sangam and
The Sangam landscape was classified into five regions to describe the mood of the poem and to describe the intangibles of human emotions. While describing life and romance, the poets employed the background of the natural landscape and used the paN specific to that landscape to provide the mood. The Neital (seaside) landscape, which is employed to convey the grief of separation of lovers had the associated sevvaḻippaN expressing pathos.
Malaipaṭukaṭām mentions ViRaliyar singing KuriñcipaN when offering worship to the deities of the mountainous regions. It also refers to ViRali singing MarudappaN before singing the eulogies of kings. Malaipaṭukaṭām also refers to the people trying to overcome their fatigue by singing MarudappaN after working in the fields. There is a very interesting reference to paNs and birds/insects in Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai. It says that the beetles liked to listen to KuriñcipaN played on Vilyaḻ thinking it to be the voice of its own kith and kin, while they hated to laNen to PālaipaN played on the flute. There are also references to the pāNar taking delight in mastering the NaivaLam paN.
Evolution of PaNs
In the post-Sangam period, between the third and the fifth centuries CE, Tamil music evolved to a higher sophistication.
Development of scales
One of the first scales employed by the ancient Tamils was the MullaippaN, a
style.MullaippaN further evolved into sempālai, a scale based on seven notes by the addition of two more notes, ma and ni to the pentatonic scale. SempālaippaN corresponds to the Carnatic raga Harikambhoji. In ancient Tamil, the seven notes were termed kural, tuttam, kaikkiLai, uḻai, iLi, vilari and tāram. The seven basic notes are then developed into twelve swaras corresponding to the twelve houses of the zodiac.
The ancient Tamils also derived new paNs by the process of modal shift of tonic and by the process of reallocating the pitch and beat of the notes. Cilappatikāram has an example of this in the chapter ArangēRRukkādai, where the PaN MeRcarupalai is changed to derive a new Pann. By the model shift of the tonic (பண்ணுப்பெயர்த்தல் - PaNNuppeyarttal) the ancient Tamils devised the seven major palais. Using the process of the cycle of fifth (called āya palai) or the cycle of fourth, five semitones were developed. For example, if the cycle is started with kural (sa), the fifth note will yield iLi (pa), the sa-pa relationship. In the cycle of fourth, kural (sa) will give uḻai (ma), the sa-ma relationship. These five semitones were added to the original seven notes giving 12 notes of the ancient Tamil musical octave. Among the 12 notes, the flats were called kuRai (குறை) and the sharps were called niRai (நிறை).
The seven major palais or parent scales of the music of the ancient Tamils are: Sempalai (corresponding to the present Harikambhoji), Padumalai Palai (
The four original paNs of marutappaN, kuriñcippaN, sevvaḻi and saDari thus evolved into 103 paNs with varying characterisations. In all of these PaNs, Uyir SurangaL (Jīvasvarams: Life Notes) exist. The life note of a PaN is embellished according to the notes that appear immediately before and after. This is called Alankāram (Gamakam). Taking into consideration all these special notes, PaN Isai is different from Carnatic Music. Carnatic Music as two variations of each of the variables; Ri, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni. PaN Isai has 4 variations of each of the 5 variable. Plus the 2 constants; Sa and Pa, there are 22 variations of the 7 basic notes. The ancient name for Rāgam is Niram. Mēlakarta was called Thāi Niram and Rāgams born from there were call Sēi Niram. The ancient name for TāLam is PāNi. For example, Rūpaka Tālam was PāNi MūnDRottu. Before Sa, Ri, Ga... Tamils used the 12 Tamil Vowels. Looking at a keyboard, they would've used the 5 KuRil (Short Sounds) for the black keys and the 7 NeDil (Long Sounds) for the white keys.
Some of the paNs and their equivalent Carnatic ragas were:
- Pañcamam – Ahiri
- Paḻam Pañcuram - SankarābharaNam
- Mēgarāgakkuriñci - Neelambari
- Paḻantakka Rāgam - Arabhi
- Kuriñci - Malahari
- NāTTa Rāgam – Panthuvaraali
- Intalam - Nadanamakriya
- Takkēsi - Kambhoji
- Kausikam - Bhairavi
- NāTTappadai – GambhīranāTTai
- Gāndhāra Pañcamam – Kedara Gowlai
Panns in Saivite hymns
After the
See also
References
- ^ Adiyarkunallar's commentary to the Aychiyarkkuravai, the seventh canto of the second book of Cilappatikaram gives the number of Srutis and how they were allotted among Seven notes. Rowell 2000, pp. 138–144
- Rowell, Lewis (2000), "Scale and Mode in the Music of the Early Tamils of South India", Music Theory Spectrum, 22 (2): 135–156, JSTOR 745957
- Varadarajan, Mu. (1988), History of Tamil Literature, Madras: Sahitya Akademi, translated from Tamil by E.Sa Visswanathan.