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Literary Works
The genius of the people of Kerala for music could be seen from
the days of 'Chilappatikaram'.
'Chilappatikaram' was originally conceived as a treatise of isai (music) which had two divisions; pan (full fledged raga) and
tiran (its off shoot or Janya raga). There were innumerable varieties of tunes
of ancient music created as a result of the combination of these pans and tirans.
'Chilappatikaram' (epic of Anklets), is a great integrative work. The author
was a Chera Prince. The musical culture revealed in the work is very advanced.
Vocal music had evolved to a high aesthetic sensitiveness and great technical
sophistication. A variety of stringed instruments and percussion instruments are
mentioned.
The rulers of the land managed to be adept in music. Kulasekhara of the fourteenth century and his brother Aditya Varma were great
musicians. Aditya Varma has to his credit, the Vadasseri inscription of 1333
and also the fine message poem-' Unnineeli Sandesam'. Veera Kerala Varma, the
great soldier- litterateur of the seventeenth century, translated
Valmiki's 'Ramayana', composed a beautiful hymn of eight stanzas which has
dexterously woven into its lyrical text the names of two dozen ragas.
Lyrical and musical masterpiece of the twelfth century, Jayadeva's
'Gita Govinda' drifted down to south and provided some stimulus to the rise of the
dance-drama, Kathakali. In the eighteenth century, Ramapurath Warrier translated
it into Malayalam. In many songs, he has scored the lyrics to the same ragas and
talas as in the original, but in some cases he has attempted innovation.
The eighteenth century ruler of Travancore, Balarama Varma wrote an
important treatise on music and dance entitled 'Balarama Bharatam'. He follows
Bharata and the accent in his analysis is on dance, for which music is an
indispensable accompaniment and embellishment. The treatment of music is
detailed, especially valuable being descriptive classification of percussion,
string and wind instruments. Texts like the 'Sangita-Santram', the 'Sangita-Chudamani', the
'Sangita-Manjari', the 'Svarata-ladi-Lakshanam' etc belong to much
earlier epochs. The publication and translation of these works will greatly
enrich Indian musicology. There is a wealth of material in these texts. The 'Sangita-Chudamani' describes ninety ragas, several of them, have one hundred and one
talas. Kunchan Nambiar created the dance recital form known as the Thullal. He
composed many ragas like Mohana, Dvijavanti, Ananda Bhairavi and a variety
of talas.
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