Caste Conflicts - Carnatic Music

Part 2 - Brahmins and Carnatic music

Things always look vastly different when viewed in a narrow context, with glaucomic eyes. Add to it a bit of political manipulation and the matter is blown out of proportion, people get riled up and hell breaks loose, like a perfectly serene blue sky taking on stormy hues.  That is what is going on, and if one wants to to understand how it all started, it requires a little study and understanding of the times when a broad movement demanding equal rights, took birth in erstwhile Madras. devotion.  Without any doubt, the bonds between many a royal patron, the Brahmin vocalists, and supporting musicians is the reason for the flowering of Carnatic music during the early nineteenth century and Brahmins after the fall of the Royals did nurture the art form and tried their best to keep it pristine. I am only trying to explore the strong caste undertones, in the Carnatic music scene prevalent even today in Tamil Nadu.

To get a picture of the times, I would request readers to read my article on TM Nair and the formation of the Justice Party. It was the Justice party, post TMN’s death which Periyar EVR headed. There were clear reasons why the party was formed and clear pointers to issues created by Rajaji which exacerbated it. In addition to the usual issues of a minority cornering major government jobs and controlling thought and legislation, there were specific aspects related to the art scene. By art, I mean vocal and non-vocal i.e. instrumental traditions, as well as dance, i.e. the Devadasi Sadir or Dasi attam which morphed into the modern Bharatanatyam. Let’s look at it, summaries of fascinating studies on the subject by Sumati Ramaswamy, Lakshmi Subramaniam, Yoshitaka Terada, Vijaya Ramaswamy, and V Subramaniam.

Governor Mountstuart Elphinstone surely must have shocked a large majority of learned Brahmin listeners in an 1886 speech, when he thundered: "You are of pure Dravidian race, I would like to see the pre-Sanskrit element amongst you asserting itself rather more”. That the Aryan Dravidian divide was brought in by the very same British is another subject for more detailed discussion, but it found its supporters then, and still has many.

So, let’s go to the 1910s when people like Annie Besant and TM Nair graced the volatile politics in Madras, and a lot of people already disgruntled under the British, were worried about misrepresentation and increasing unemployment. TM Nair burst on the scene, and having originally chosen the field of medicine, became a well-known doctor in Madras, then decided that social work was equally important, and got involved in all kinds of civic and social matters. During this period, irked by the Brahmin stronghold on jobs and their control over the Presidency bureaucracy, he took them on, starting what we know today as the Anti-Brahmin or Dravidian movement, and later co-founding the Justice party.

As I wrote earlier - Madras at that time, had a strong Brahmin lobby, comprising three groups - namely the Mylapore, Vambakkam (relatively minor), and Egmore groups. The Mylapore Group, the strongest, comprising high-profile lawyers and journalists, kept Congress in its moderate camp concerning its political demands and manifesto. Many non-Brahmin Hindus and the depressed classes, for this reason, criticized the Indian National Congress for being the representative of Brahmin interests leading to the rise of a retaliatory faction, i.e., the Egmore Group - which took a more extremist stand on various subjects. The “Egmore group” comprised both Brahmans and non-Brahmans. C. Sankaran Nair and Dr. T. M. Nair were among many other prominent Brahmins. Even though Nair was not anti-brahmin and did admire some of their educated and good qualities, he maintained that the non-Brahmin who could be as good, or better, was unnecessarily kept down. Soon Nair was frequenting stages with his popular and strident anti-Brahmin tirade which many thousands attended, and that was the start of the Dravidian movement of 1916.

In Nov 1916, some 30-odd leaders, including T M Nair and P Tyagaraja Chettiar, formed the South Indian People's Association, to express non-Brahman grievances. That was the start of the Justice Party. Nair never attacked religion but always focused on representation. With the Montague reforms, Nair had a minor victory, but the representation percentages were too low, so he proceeded to London in 1918 to argue the case. Sadly, he passed away suddenly, during that trip. After Justice won the election and got into power, they initiated several egalitarian moves such as the upliftment of women and the marginalized, access to water (for the lower castes) from public ponds, women’s suffrage, abolishment of the Devadasi system, regulation of college admissions, etc.

And then there was the Christian Vedanayagam Sastri (the person we discussed in the previous post) who brought up the aspect of Tamil - Tamil gave birth to us; Tamil raised us; Tamil sang lullabies to us and put us to sleep; Tamil taught us our first words with which we brought joy to our mothers and fathers. Tamil is the first language we spoke when we were infants. Tamil is the language which our mothers and fathers fed us along with milk; Tamil is the language that our mother, father, and preceptor taught us. The language of our home is Tamil; the language of our land is Tamil.

The language was one of the first issues brought up by the Dravidians, and the initial murmurings centered around which language was preeminent, Tamil or Sanskrit (Sanskrit was considered Aryan, and leaders such as Rajagopalachari had promoted Sanskrit as a national language) and the 'Tani Tamizh Iyakkam’ which started inherently as a nationalistic movement, targeted Sanskrit and Hindi (Vadakku Mozhi) imposition. Writings of that period targeted Sanskrit, those who spoke it - the Brahmins, accusing them of being on the side of the British and so on. Periyar’s self-respect movement was consolidated into the Justice Party which became the DK or Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944. This over time, split into the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK).

Periyar continued his ideological attacks on Brahmins as well as patriarchal institutions perceived to be social representations of Brahmanism. According to Mohan Ram - The Justice Party leadership was not anti-religious or anti-Hindu. But Naicker's movement went further, seeking the liberation of the non-Brahmin masses from the cultural domination of all upper castes including the Brahmins…His anti-Brahminism had to be anti-Hinduism because the protest against Brahminism extended to the entire Hindu order spearheaded by the Brahmins. Naicker, an atheist also urged his followers to stop using Vibhuti marks on the forehead, boycott ceremonies and the use of Brahmin priests, the ceremonies of upanayana, widow remarriage, and inter-caste marriages, terming them as ‘opiates by which the Brahmins had dulled the masses so that they might be exploited and controlled’.

The above tells you a bit about the political scene but let us look at the setup and transformation of the musical scene in Tanjore and Madras. It started with two broad traditions vocal and melam (Periya and Chinna melam), following the standard musical traditions of Raaga & Tala. The latter were instrumental accompaniments for festival sand marriages, comprising the Nadaswaram, Tavil, Cymbals, and the Sruti Petti. The Carnatic vocal tradition focused on the solo vocalist accompanied by background instruments. In this setup, the vocalists were almost always Brahmins, and the instrumentalists (melakkar) were usually Isai Vellalans. Why so? It was due to the ritual pollution connected with instruments – the use of animal hair, skin, and so on, in the instruments.

As TMK puts it, It was from the aesthetic interactions between the Isai Vellalars, Deva dasis, and the Brahmins that Karnatik music evolved into its present form, but the socio-political swings of the early twentieth century changed the nature of the music and its practice, resulting in Karnatik music becoming almost a monopoly of the Brahmins. His article ‘Classically yours’ in the Social Scientist is a must-read, to understand the nuances of casteism, which has been and is in practice.

CR Day was the first to define the control of music by upper castes - The higher branches of the musical profession were formerly confined to either Brahmins (Bhagavatars) or to men of very high caste. Music being of divine origin was regarded as sacred, and it was considered impious for any but men of the sacred caste to wish to acquire any knowledge of its principles. It was and still is called the Fifth Veda. Hence, the ancient Brahmins of the country would have excommunicated any of their numbers who would have so far presumed as to betray the sacred writings to any but the elect, whose mouths were only esteemed sufficiently holy to utter words so sacred. Indeed, it was the knowledge of which they were possessed that was the chief cause of the reverence and adoration paid to the Brahmins of old, and which gave them the power and influence that they prized so much.

Now a reader might pipe up and ask – How did the Brahmins get into a muddle in the music scene? V Subramaniam explains in his paper - It was with the Saivite-Vaishnavite revival which started in the 7th century AD that Brahmins in the South came on the ascendance. By combining music, poetry, and propagandist ability they rose to assume the leadership of the new Bhakti movement, under the last of the kings. However, after the feudalistic order collapsed, the Vellalas and richer non-Brahmins held more control, and the middle class came into being. But they (Brahmins) had one big advantage, they boasted of higher learning and proficiency in the art world, something they had no plans of letting go, in either the administrative echelons of the bureaucracy or the art scene.

In addition to all this, Brahmins constituted many a musical patron as well as listener (i.e., those who could understand the languages Sanskrit, and Telugu as well as the sciences involved in the composition). Various evolutions took place, Carnatic performances in the temple grounds moved to the king’s courts, and Chinna melam which was accompaniment for dance (dasiattam or sadir which grew to become today’s Bharatanatyam) developed.

Y Terada explains the Brahmin context as follows - Public discourse concerning South Indian music culture is generally advanced from a Brahman perspective. The Brahman orientation of public discourse is partly a result of their domination of music scholarship and journalism, through which their view has been amplified and authenticated, and of what may be termed the dynamic mechanism of domination in which the perspectives of subordinate groups are excluded or left unarticulated in public domains of communication. The uniqueness of the caste relationship in music culture derives from its reversed numerical constitution.

Brahmans comprise the majority of patrons of classical music traditions (both Karnatak music and Periya Melam music) and the majority of Karnatak musicians, while they constitute only a fraction (estimated at three percent) of the entire population in Tamil Nadu state…. the caste conflict in music is at least partly a result of Brahmans' continuous attempt not only to portray classical music as their own tradition but also to invest their ideological ideal in it for the maintenance of their identity, against the non-Brahman musicians' perception that their contribution has been indispensable to its artistic merit. …

Terada also focuses on another important aspect; Bhakti devotional music was constituted carefully and around the Tanjore trinity and Brahmins. The concept of music as a devotional path, exemplified in the Trinity's personal relations and commitment to music, serves as the ideological ideal of music-making in general. The projection of these three Brahman composers, often referred to as "saint-composers," as the culmination of South Indian music not only belittles the significance of others including a number of non-Brahman composers, but it also serves to legitimate Brahmans' dominant position by virtue of their caste affiliation.

The projection of themselves as artistic descendants of one of these three saint-composers by allying themselves to their lineage compensates for the lack of saintliness in contemporary musicianship, thereby easing the tension between the projected ideal and reality. For Brahman musicians, it functions as a kind of behavioral and emotional code in addition to providing legitimacy for occupying a central place in the Karnatak music tradition.

Lakshmi Subramaniam adds - The difference lay in the significance inscribed on the higher tradition and its reclamation as being classical together with its attendant markers: composition in Sanskrit and Telegu, the principal musical languages of the tradition; and a shared continuity with the lineages of the celebrated saint composers of the 18th century, namely, Thyagaraja, Dikshitar and Shyama Sastri. The relegation of Tamil songs and the compositions of the chinna melam to a lower status in the hierarchy, on the grounds of its sensual content and non-classical resonance, was very much part of the Brahmin-sponsored project of recasting the classical tradition and claim its custodianship. For the Brahmin community, consumption of classical music thus became an integral element in its cultural self-definition, a marker of status and taste, and a cementing agent for a collective identity and presence that had no longer the same visibility in active political life.

As the Tanjore royalty and their powers declined, performance arts moved to urban centers, such as Madras and Bangalore, to serve new patrons. Musicians migrated to those regions and concert hall recitations took over from court performances. With the concentration of temples remaining high in Tanjore, most of the melakkars remained in Tanjore, while Carnatic vocalis became centered in Madras.

After the British colonial state came into being and frowned upon Nautch dancing, the Devadasis too sought social reform, but also saw their exclusive dance art form, and a revenue stream, opening to the upper castes, who took to art. They (For those who may not be aware, the male children born to Devadasis took to playing the nadaswaram (Periya melakkar), while the female children took to the profession of their mothers) joined up to form the non-Brahmin association - the "Isai Vellalar Sangam" and thereby created a political unified identity.  

Periyar EVR did have a hand in trying to force change, and was stridently anti-Brahmin, as explained previously – He criticized the monopoly of classical music by Brahmans as part of the Brahman domination of South Indian society in general. As early as 1930, he encouraged non-Brahmans to teach music to their children and to patronize non-Brahman musicians who, according to him, were denied due recognition by Brahmans, and he sponsored a series of concerts by non-Brahman musicians. He argued that non-brahmin musicians were deliberately undervalued, denied respect and honors, and humiliated while their Brahmin peers, even if younger in years and lacking in talent, had been encouraged by the Brahmin press. The Self-Respect movement took up the cause of non-brahmin musicians as its own and organized music conferences alongside to honor and encourage lower caste artists.

Now let us see how it all affected Carnatic music. Closely following these movements was the creation of the Tamil Isai Sangam, by Annamalai Chettiar in 1942. This was a counter organization to the Madras Music Academy founded in 1926 by Brahmins. The Tamil Isai Sangam extended its patronage mostly to non-Brahmins and emphasized Tamil music as well as Periya melam.

This was also the point of time when women of the Devadasi community started to make a mark in the field of Carnatic music. M.S. Subbalakshmi, M.L. Vasanthakumari, Veenai Dhanmmal, and her nieces Brinda and Mukta came mostly from the Isai Vellalar community which had historically been associated with the Devadasi tradition. Balasaraswati, one of the greatest exponents of Bharatnatyam was also a niece of Veenai Dhanammal and hailed from the same community.

In Madras, the music academy was formally inaugurated on 18 August 1928 by Sir C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, at the Y.M.I.A. auditorium before a large and distinguished gathering, with an intent to encourage and propagate Carnatic music on proper lines. One of the first challenges to the leadership at the MMA was the demand to include Tamil compositions. The MMA though agreeing to encourage this, did not take kindly to the suggestion of pruning the classical repertoire or of introducing the language issue into the field of classical music. It maintained that the point was not about the fact that the bulk of the compositions were in Telegu or Sanskrit- the languages favored by 18th-century composers like Thyagaraja, Dikshitar, or Shyama Sastri, but it was also an issue of introducing divisive regional and linguistic considerations into the larger realm of the South Indian classical tradition.

Subramaniam explains - In 1941, the Madras Academy passed a resolution endorsing the opinion of the conference of experts at the Academy that it should be the aim of all musicians and lovers of music to preserve and maintain the highest standards of Carnatic music and that no consideration of language should be imported as to lower or impair that standard. The realm of the classical, thus, remained with the Brahmin elite represented by associations such as the Madras Academy and the repertoire it had developed and refined over the years.

If somebody has doubts about the dominance of Brahmins in the field, you only need to look at the MMA awards.  A large majority, over 75% were awarded to Brahmin musicians.  One might argue that nobody else was up to it and might even add - we did allow KJ Yesudas to sing in 1954. That argument looking at the above statistics and in a para which follows providing statistics, is quite lame.

I hope this gives you a summary of the situation in Madras 1920-1950, when conversations of Brahmin and non-Brahmin hold over Carnatic music and instruments raged and larger issues such as the Dravida movement changed the political thought and perception. Then, there was a clear divide between the castes, and Periyar, the leader of the DK made inflammatory comments about Brahmins. After Tamil Nadu was formed, leaders such as MGR, and Karunanidhi (an Isai Vellalar from Tanjavur), mostly persons who were involved with the Periyar movement, ruled it thenceforth.

Some insist on statistics - Looking at a 1983 study by Kathleen L'Armand and Adrian L'Armand - Amongst those musicians identified by caste, there has been since 1928-29 a consistent 65/20/15 distribution (Brahmin percentage which was 86% in 1898 flattened to the 60-65% after 1928, while the Pillai’s rose from 6-18% and the others remained flat at 15-16%) between Brahmins, Pillai’s, and other castes among professional musicians. The "other" caste names fall into two categories: musicians who are typically high-status non-Brahmin castes, for whom music is not a traditional occupation; and caste names from outside Tamil Nadu. Notwithstanding the above, the MMA Sangeetha Kalanidhi statistics reveal the following - Of the 95 odd Sangeetha Kalanidhi awards, some 80 went to Brahmins, 14 to Isai Vellalas, and one to a Muslim, at a rough tally.

Tamil Brahmins were and are around, and the MMA continues to function, but with a Brahminical tilt, usually favoring pedigree and like these weeks, hot discussions crop up now and then on the robust Madras Carnatic scene. This is all natural but remember that the underlying cause for discomfort was caste discrimination and larger politics. The tug of war will continue till there is parity between the numbers of musical scholars and awardees. Now one can ask, is there a place for caste in today’s world? Unfortunately, yes, it continues to be part of India’s social fabric and is manipulated, massaged, and retained by the political powers of the country, just like religion is. Now and then a righteous cry of anguish comes up against such practice, and as you all saw, there was an outpouring of comments for and against it.

Carnatic Music will continue to be enjoyed by the connoisseurs and over time, more of the regular folk. I would suggest those in doubt, just look at the robust popular Tamil film-music scene – you have all religions and castes, singing & composing in brilliant harmony, to a public patron. Rahman, Ilayaraja, Iman, Harris Jayaraj, and so many more… they turn out fascinating and divine music just like an MS Viswanathan did long ago. They were not Brahmins, and likewise, a Brahmin singer would not balk at singing a Sufi number composed by ARR on a stage, these days.

To sum it all up, it was Interestingly, Sir C Ρ Ramaswamy Iyer who warned the Brahmin community by insisting publicly that the Brahmin should take the initiative in giving the qualified non-Brahmin his due and more, without patronizing, and should withdraw from the marketplace if need be. He was as I always said, a knowledgeable man, despite some flaws of character, and foresaw all this.

Ah! Well, I guess the protest season as I may call it, will soon fade off, and sense and sensibility will prevail.

In Part 3, I will focus on ‘The Music of the Melakkar’

References

Tamil Separatism and Cultural Negotiations: Gender Politics and Literature in Tamil Nadu - Vijaya Ramaswamy
T. N. Rajarattinam Pillai and Caste Rivalry in South Indian Classical Music - Yoshitaka Terada
Classically yours (Social Scientist, July–August 2016, Vol. 44, No. 7/8)– TM Krishna
Passions of the Tongue - Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891-1970 - Sumathi Ramaswamy
Ramaswami Naicker and the Dravidian Movement - Mohan Ram
Court to Academy: Karnatik music - Lakshmi Subramanian
The reinvention of a tradition: Nationalism, Carnatic music and the Madras Music Academy, 1900-1947 - Lakshmi Subramanian
The Tamil Isai Iyakkam and the Politics of Custodianship – Lakshmi Subramaniam
Towards a non-brahmin millennium from Jyothee Thass to Periyar - V. Geetha and S.V. Rajadurai
One Hundred Years of Music in Madras: A Case Study in Secondary Urbanization - Kathleen L'Armand and Adrian L'Armand

Related articles

Part 1 Caste ingress into the Musical Realm, The story of Vedanayagam Sastri

Part 2 Caste conflicts – Carnatic Music, Brahmins and Carnatic music

Part 3 The Music of the Melakkar - The Melakkar and the breach of the Isai Vellalar borders.

Please note – I am tracing all this from a historical aspect – No disrespect or offense is directed to any community in any comment or statements made. Should any reader feel so please send a specific note with suggested corrections to the author for review. As such the article is based on historical events, and referenced sources with effort put in, to make it readable and provide some brevity