Music blends with warp and weft

HAS THERE been any effort to make music, say, the ragas seen? Apparently not. But in a metaphysical sense, yes. Ancient Indian rishis have seen music; not only music, but many other things that ordinary men cannot. That is why they are called seers. At a mundane level too, such a vision is possible for gifted artistes and artisans.

In the past, some painters tried to give a form to select ragas. One such was presenting the Hindola raga with a painting of Lord Krishna playing amidst gopikas. This commendable feat of rendering ragas for ocular perception of the ordinary man has been performed by a small band of Tamil Nadu's weavers, the reputed RmKV silk shop in Tirunelveli!

The duo, Viswanathan and Sivakumar, curiously, does not belong to any music family; they are third generation textile traders. Anxious to be different, they devote themselves to a medium transfer of art, taking paintings and sculptures, even poems to the looms, to present every precious Indian product of the past as silken epics.

The brothers made their debut in theme sarees with poet Subramania Bharathi's song ``Chinnanchiru Kiliyae'' in dance poses on the pallu and the border; it was their debut and they have come a long way now, with several unique theme sarees.

For the past two years, they have won national awards for weaving sarees of excellence in the silk sector with their ``Aiswarya Pookkal'' and ``Hamsa Damayanthi'', the former a silken reproduction of motifs in the Padmanabhapuram palace in Thakkalay; the latter a reproduction of Ravi Varma's painting of the epic heroine Damayanthi, sending Nala, the hero of hamsa (swan) as her emissary. This year's theme sari of RmKV pertaining to the music field is Ragadeepam.

According to musicologists, classical Indian tradition counts basic ragas as six, Bhairava, Dipika, Sri, Malkauns, Megha, and Hindola are meant to be sung during the six seasons of the year - summer, monsoon, autumn, pre-winter, winter and spring. The ragas, pentatonic in scale are considered male and those of a heptatonic scale are taken as female.

Each of the six principal ragas has five raginis, wives and eight sons, ragaputras. Bhairava is a musical manifestation of Lord Siva.

Tradition assigns Ragadipika, to the reign of emperor Akbar where the court musician was asked to sing a tune to cause fire.

This fired the imagination of several painters later. In the subdued form of the flame of a lamp, this facet is associated with Deepavali. That is what the RmKV brothers have done on the pallu of the ``Raga Deepam'' sari. The saree portrays on the border 16 manifestations of the raga family such as Bhairavi Ragini, a lady worshipping Siva, a lady and the lotus for Malasri Ragini, Krishna at the spring festival, Vasantha Ragini, and a lady playing on the veena to lure a deer in the forest, Todi Ragini.

The ``Raga Deepam'' sari, which comes out in seven colours, carries a price tag of Rs. 11,450, according to M. Sabesan, Project Consultant. On seeing the sari which breathes music in every inch, one is all appreciation for the promoters, and the artisans at the looms who could translate their vision so exquisitely into silk and zari, making the audible music visible.

From conception to execution, it has taken a few months to get the first sari out of the looms. But the splendid product is a confluence of art and form and justifies the time and energy spent in the transcreation. Once the looms are set, it just takes a week to weave a theme sari.

The other theme sari of Deepavali portrays the Buddhist religious symbol Amirtha kalasam, a reproduction of the famous Sanchi Stupa and its motif on its pallu - that is verily the weavers' tribute to the sculptors of the past.

That apart, the sari also projects religious harmony and national integration.

The northern chisel led work on stone is translated into silk and zari in the southern warp and weft.

Yet another wholesome transfer of substance and form is the depiction of the Krishnapuram sculptures on a silk sari. Krishnapuram is a small village, near Tirunelveli.

The Vishnu temple there has exquisite sculptures, excelling those of Ellora. The temple was renovated recently.

It took six months for the RmKV brothers and their team of weavers to bring alive the Krishnapuram sculptures on Kanchipuram silk.

One is awe-struck by the sculptures in their silken version. Sculptures so depicted are those of Rati, Manmadhan, a lady looking at her image in a mirror, a monkey breeder, a cavalry cadet; all presented with grace and gloss in silk and zari.

Much planning goes in depicting properly the chosen theme; and then they go through the meticulous process and technicalities of preparing the design punch cards with the help of computers.

Next, they tutor the weavers to adhere to the nuances of the new pattern and then come the chores of supervising the process for exactness when the prototype is being woven.

To the brothers these appear to be exercises all through the year; because by the time they bring out one theme sari, they are on the hunt for more.

R. NATARAJAN

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Entertainment
Previous : Video show