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Abhinavagupta, Music and Puriya Kalyan by Markji

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Screen Shot 2014-03-05 at 7.58.53 PMCentering, Equilibrium, Madhyama, equipose, point of repose – There are the words that come to our mind when studying Abhinavagupta’s contribution to Indian thought, music and Natya sastra (Abhinavabharati). While being a master in propounding the dynamism of the observable and unobservable universe, he constantly comes back to the mystic core of repose. The “Hrydam” he often refers to, balances the otherwise seemingly fleeting fluctuations of the opposites of manifestation and involution.

In his translation of Paratrisika Vivarana, Dr. Jaideva Singh explains how the 16 Kalaas, i.e. The phonemes  ‘A’ through ‘Ah’ are called Svara on the account of their revealing the delightful mental state.

“Thus the word Svara means those which trasmitting the essential nature to the highet experient (i.e. anuttara) offer  themelves ie. get dissolved in anuttara (as vowels, in the aspect of Samhara or withdrawal) and offer their form as consonants like “ka” etc externally (in the aspect of Prasaara or expansion)…. Thus everyone in all kinds of knowledge, these phonemes from “A” to “Ksa”, ingenious in bringing about varied acts, coming together in their several, distinctive forms, fundamentally appearing without succession displaying the transition of forms one after the other by their effectuating powers bring about spatial and temporal distinction” (Dr. Jaideva Singh, Paratrisika Vivarana).

Abhinava applies this integral vision to musicology. In his paper (Abhinavagupta’s contribution to the solution of some problems in Indian Musicology), Dr. Jaideva Singh explains beautifully Abhinava’s point of view on Svara.

vayaṃ tu śruti-sthānābhighāta-prabhava-śabda- prabhāvito’nuraṇanātmā snigdha-madhuraḥ śabda eva svara iti vakṣyāmaḥ |

“The natural tendency of the mind is only towards plain sound. A musical note or svara has the power to obtrude itself on the mind, to set aside its natural tendency towards mere sound, and by its excess of pleasantness makes the mind susceptible to emotion, and thus imposing itself on it makes its presence felt. This is not a literary tour de force on the part of Abhinavagupta. He has drawn our attention to a patent psychic state aroused by a musical note, and in this consists his originality.”

Finally, when introducing Taala, Abhinava describes

I offer threefold praise to this octoform body (Shiva), whose essence is illusion, holding a token of enjoyment, in whom there is perfect equilibrium of all worldly activity by means of divisions (kalaa), time (kalaa), and rest (laya). Abhinavagupta, Abhinavabharati 31.1 (trans. Rowell, p. 188).

One can see how the master is packing his core philosophy into music and his introductory verse on Taala. Equilibrium seems to be the focus and raison de’erte of  his thinking which encompasses the divided activity of tone divisions (srutis), timing and the rest in between.

Hope this provides a taste of Abhinava’s genius in applying a consistent and cogent narrative to all areas – philosophy, music, drama etc.

With this in mind, we present you a very special music delight from Markji. The recording is bit dated and not of best quality but  Markji’s virtuosity is fantastic. We welcome you to download and immerse yourself in the Abhinavan universe.

1. A short introduction and speech by Kishor Kumar Misra, the great tabalist who worked as a faculty at The Center for Performing Arts for over 30 years and now retired
2. Raga Puriya Kalyan – Full performance
3. Raga Bhairavi – Short performance

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Development of Tantras in the Context of Buddhism and Upanishads

 

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“The mother is glorious, she is the ever new creation, and her foundation the pure energy of consciousness that manifests manifoldly”

Trident3On June 15, 2010, Dr. Dyczkowski gave a talk at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. In the talk, after his introduction, he covered the first verse of Tantraloka, followed by short but some fantastic readings on the Tantra of Three Headed Bhairava, 12 Kaalis and concluding with a Q&A.

In the introduction, he presented a birds eye view of how the tantric traditions provided a philosophical system which ultimately became an exegetical model through which subsequent tantric traditions developed a theory of consciousness, a theory of self and a theory of deity that can be considered as the most sophisticated analytical model that developed in the Indian sub-continent.

To elucidate this, he presents how the Shaiva masters had to fully leverage the tools of classical Indian philosophy to tackle the objections of Buddhists while accommodating the best of Upanishads.

To sum up, the thinking can be categorized into process theories of reality and the non-process theories of reality. We can associate non-process theories (Upanishad) with space and process theories (Buddhism) with time. Kashmir Shaivism bridges these two. One, the insubstantial indefinable that developed in some schools – a kind of streaming consciousness that is engaged in perception that constantly streams until it stills in a condition that is ineffable and that is insight. And on the other side the other view in which consciousness is a fundamental empirically indefinable pure witnessing consciousness that also escapes the relationship between subject and object ultimately and comes to rest in the ineffability of its absolute nature transcending empirical definitions. Both of these views mostly led to understanding the world as being transitory, phenomenal and its phenomenal nature inexplicable, equated in some way not fully real.

At this point, by this time, by the 6th 7th century AD when these discourses had developed to quite a complex level and had been understanding each other and variously criticizing each other and stimulating one another, the Tantras developed. That presupposed a kind of implied notion and perception of reality, the nature of reality which draws dynamic self regenerating manifesting kind of perpetually in an amazing proliferation of forms, divine forms, and at the same time remaining without contradiction as it were insubstantial, formless and non-empirically definable and both of these situations considered simultaneously to be deity.

ATK is delighted to present the first 35-minute of the audio recording to fellow seekers.

OM SAUḤ PARĀYAI NAMAḤ

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