Ranjani Govind    

What have royal paraaks of the erstwhile kingdoms(eulogical verses to hail the king) to do with the Carnatic genre of music? Stretch your creative imagination and see if one can sing these verses for people to know more on these literary royal salutations that were so much a part of the royal courts’ rendering in gusto to usher in for resonating praises of the King. The other side to it was the imaginative, inspired and lyrical beauty entrenched in these artistic renderings in chorus during dynastic rule.

 Now, why not have these verses come back to us in melodic form and not remain as just another documented treasure of the Palace records? After the classical Carnatic musician TM Krishna chose ‘The Edict Project’ to sing the lines of Emperor Ashoka (who had them engraved on rock and pillar millennia ago) in a stunning endeavour to create awareness on peace and harmony a few months ago, it is now the turn of a notable musician in Karnataka, Deepti Navaratna, to bring in another creative endeavour as setting to music the lines from the paraak of the erstwhile Mysore Royals.

Why did Deepti choose such a rare project? “It has been part of a quest for imagining something new in a familiar idiom,” says Deepti, whose has also brought out a researched material ‘Maverick Maharaja’ a narrative on the life and times of the Maharaja. “As for the paraak in melody, I wanted to do something novel for Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, who as a multifaceted royal persona was a writer, composer, pianist and a musical innovator himself!” adds Deepti as part of her month-long celebrations ‘The Maharaja’s Durbar’ where she is releasing her first of the Paraak’s in melody on July 18 on her social media handles.

Deepti, a Neurobiologist, vocalist and connoisseur of arts, is the Director of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts -Regional Centre Bangalore (IGNCA-RCB). The vocalist, after her postgraduate study in neuroscience at Harvard University pursued her passion for inter-cultural music that took her to the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, to study world music. Through her ‘Carnatic Alchemy Project’ she explored new sound configurations for her Carnatic vocabulary. In a parallel universe, as the founder of ‘Raaga Laboratory’ as part of her IGNCA project in Bengaluru, she continues to research the neuroscience ingrained in Indian classical music. 

Deepti Navratna spoke in an exclusive interview to Avadhi Mag about her new melodic project ‘Paraak in melody,’ the first one to be released for JC Wadiyar (1919-1974) who reigned over Mysore as a constitutional monarch from 1940 to1950.

Excerpts of the interview…

Can you explain what a Paraak is, and its development during the dynastic rule?

Paraak is a literary piece composed as a royal salutation to a king when he enters a public durbar. Royal bards would often write such eulogical verses to hail the king. The content usually involves details on his pedigree, lineage, qualities, virtues, stories of exploits amongst others. For example, this paraak I have sung refers to the Mysore Royal Emblem of ‘Gandabherunda’ as Makara Sharabhasalva Gandabherunda’ – this is telling the story of the succession of power from Hoysalas (makara) and sharabha (cholas) to the Wadiyar dynasties.  Most of these end with rousing exclamations of “Paraak! paraak! Bahuparaak!”

Are there different varieties for different occasions as available in Palace records? 

In the past, specific paraaks have been composed for major kingly occasions like coronation, birth of a child and victory announcements during the reign of all the Maharajas of the Mysore royal kingdom. Usually a male songster would initiate the paraak and he would be joined in spirit by all present.

What was the response to this from the family of the Mysore Royals for this exercise?

The son-in-law of JC Wadiyar, Shri Rajachandra ji shared this particular piece of paraak. I have excerpted from that to compose music for this tribute offering. Yes, of course, they were initially pleasantly surprised, and very pleased that I was taking up this unique experimentation to have them reach out to public in a new melodic formatting.  

Comment on the aesthetic flavour (rasa) present in the poetic paraak, surely the imagery, rhythm, density of sound and the lines come together to convey the couplets that hailed the Maharajas?

The paraak is usually recited loudly, is not written always in a metre or chandas for use in musical composition. To adapt this paraak to music, I have chosen phrases that allow exposition musically. Another interesting feature of this experiment is that the compositional approach is inspired by the Western idea of a Fugue. In Carnatic terms, the paraak here is composed in raga Todi with grahabhedas or tonic shifts to four ragas – Hindola, Madhyamavathi, Mohana and Shuddha Dhanyasi. Since the text was relatively non-musical, I have tried to explore the musical complexity in terms of raga, compositional approach and the grahabhedas. The challenge was to compose in such a way that the rasa is not lost while such explorations are done. 

In its make-up the paraak is not so different, for that matter, than a eulogical shloka or ugabhoga. But it is not always a group announcement in design and is not composed to any song form that this experiment dilutes or interferes with. In fact, it is a beautiful challenge to use Carnatic vocabulary in a new idiom and for another genre. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Why did you zero-in on a paraak to render it in a musical form? What was the idea?

Often, as Carnatic musicians, we are not aware that we are voicing history. Music is a short-hand to history, it carries so many stories about the time, place, people and ethos who produced and consumed that kind of music. The paraak is just one such powerful story. Sheathed in its lyrical cadences are imageries from the past, which when voiced again, brings back in celluloid color a vibrant past. In choosing the paraak form for musical exposition, I was trying to revive a literary form into the gamut of Carnatic performance.

I did not want to tune it like a simple shloka or ugabhoga because that would not create a separate identity for this new lyrical exploration. So, I decided to approach composing it using a Western classical idea of a Fugue, where an initial idea, theme or motive is repeated in the piece in different harmonic contexts or instruments. Maharaja JC Wadiyar was a pianist and has composed several Carnatic kritis with such harmonic ideas, so I thought my experiment will be a tribute to his adventurous thinking in spirit as well. The Maharaja had a penchant for the new, which had its roots in the traditional. It is his aesthetics that I have tried to bring into this piece, a quest for imagining something new in a familiar idiom. These ideas have shaped this experiment. In many ways, the paraak was a practice in living the musical ideals that the Maharaja himself adored in his life.

How can musicians use this ‘paraak in melody’ on platforms, can it be used like a start-off to taking up a Maharaja’s composition?

Absolutely, it can be used like a bright, breezy starter to a concert of his compositions, it can be used in audio-visual documentations of the Mysore legacy. It is available for all kinds of responsible use.

‘The Maharaja’s Durbar’ – curtain-raiser details…

The video will ‘paraak-in’ the Maharaja into ‘The Maharaja’s Durbar!’ the special one-month community wide celebrations of his creative genius, explored through curated talks, performances and panel discussions.

The Curtain Raiser event of ‘The Maharaja’s Durbar’ on July 18, 4pm –  organized by Deepti’s The Carnatic Alchemy Foundation, The Ganesh Shivaswamy Foundation and Maya  – is to celebrate Maharaja JC Wadiyar’s legacy with a panel discussion on ‘Mysore and Culture’  participated by Ganesh Shivaswamy, Maya Chandra and Deepti Navaratna in the august presence of Mysore Maharajakumaris Indrakshi Devi, Kamakshi Devi and Shri. Rajachandra Urs. (https://www.facebook.com/ganesh.shivaswamy.foundation – www.deeptinavartna.com)

The month-long weekly programme will discuss and contemplate on Wadiyar as a pianist, his Indian and Western compositions, and his new raga innovations. As part of the celebrations Deepti will interview scholars who have studied Maharaja’s music, his books and his administrative successes. His contributions in democratizing art of that era, promoting western classical music and culture of that period will be remembered and re-invoked. Deepti will be presenting lecture-demonstrations to provide insight into new ragas and kritis he composed. 

www.deeptinavaratna.com