Date: 21.12.2024 – Saturday – 8.05 – 8.50 a.m.

Speaker : Dr Arathi Rao

Title : An examination of ālāpa and ṭhāya

Abstract:

The exposition of rāga, devoid of meaningful lyrics and unbound by tāla, is one of the most interesting concepts of Indian Music, and dates back several centuries. Two musical forms pertaining to such exposition, that have been described in the 17th century works – Caturdaņḍīprakāśikā and Saṅgīta-sudhā, are ālāpa and ṭhāya. While both these texts describe the structure of the two, Saṅgīta-sudhā gives the details of ālāpa in several rāga-s prevalent at that time. There are hundreds of musical notations of ālāpa and ṭhāya in palm leaf manuscripts preserved in the Thanjavur Maharaja Serfoji's Saraswati Mahal library (TMSSML). In the Saṅgītaratnākara, the 13th century magnum opus of Śarṅgadēva, there are descriptions of two forms of rāga exposition: 'ālāpa-s' of grāma rāga-s and rāgālapti of dēśī rāga-s. This paper attempts to examine the similarities between these descriptions and the ālāpa and ṭhāya of the 17th century,
based on both the lakṣaṇa descriptions as well as the TMSSML musical notations. The paper also questions the view of modern scholars who link the structure of the modern rāga ālāpana to the ālāpa of the 17th century.

Keywords: ālāpa, thāya, rāgālapti, ālāpana