PALLAVI SVARA KALPAVALLI. By Tiruvorriyur Tyagayya.
Editor Meenakshi Krishnan. Co-Editor Sumithra Vasudev. Translation by Archana Bharadwaj.
In English. Published by The Music Academy Madras. December 2023. Pages 440. Price Rs. 300.

The book titled Pallavi Svara Kalpavalli and described as “The most useful book for music (including svaravali and gita prakaranas)”, was first written and published by Tiruvotriyur Tyagayyar (1845-1917 CE), son of Vina Kuppayyar, in the year 1900. It is interesting to note that at that time the price per copy was just Two rupees and the postage Four rupees! As copies of the original work in Telugu with notation were not available, vidvan Terezhundur V. Ranganathan painstakingly translated it into Tamil and this became available in 1971.

The Music Academy Research Centre has been working on several old publications, and this re-edition of Pallavi Svara Kalpavalli is based on the original Telugu version. It mainly documents the compositions of Vina Kuppayyar — a direct disciple of Tyagaraja.

This book, as mentioned in the Editor’s Note, is broadly classified into five chapters termed as prakarana — Svaravali gita prakarana, Varna prakarana, Kriti prakarana, Pallavi prakarana and Raga prakarana. These chapters contain traditional gitas, varnams of Vina Kuppayyar and Tiruvotriyur Tyagayyar, kritis of Kuppayyar, svaras for pallavi and two ragamalikas. As a significant portion is devoted to chitta svara for pallavis, the book highlights the importance of svara prastara in the Carnatic music tradition.

Sangita Kala Acharya Dr. Ritha Rajan’s crisp article provides insights on Vina Kuppayyar and his son Tiruvotriyur Tyagayyar. This edition of Pallavi Svara Kalpavalli, diligently put together, will indeed be a valuable addition to the library of musicians, researchers and students of music.

S. JANAKI