A Concert on Traditional
Tukkadas
Carnatic Music and
TUKKADAS - how many of you have heard the word 'TUKKADA' in the context of
food?
For those of you who may
not have heard, it is a fried snack made from maida, with salt, chilli
powder , aesofotida to add to the flavour and butter for crispness. !! A bowl
of tukkada could vanish in less than 5 minutes ( of course if its made well !!)
For all my several years
of association with Carnatic music, I'm yet to get a convincing answer as to
how the term TUKKADA got associated with a Carnatic concert.
Perhaps it was the
genius of some special brain that popularised the word, like we get to hear the
term 'MAIN' and 'SUB-MAIN' today or the work of a gourmet also a music lover
who drew parallels between food and music !
Whatever be the
etymology or reason for the genesis of this word in Carnatic music, it suffices
to say that a large part of the audience wake up to the tukkadas. As always,
with time there has been a confluence of various cultures, tastes and people
resulting in a discussion on the traditionality and non traditionality of
tukkadas.
In a day and age when
tukkadas have come to mean just a bhajan or may be an abhang, it does perhaps
make sense to refresh peoples' memories to the fact that there is something
called 'traditional tukkadas' as it was meant to be and this is what was the
theme of the concert by Kiranavali Vidyasankar at Arkay Convention Centre,
Mylapore on Saturday the 21st December, 2013.
She rendered the
compositions with a small synopsis about the composition and the group
classification that it falls into.
Traditionally tukkadas
comprised of Tevarams, Tirupugazhs ( with complex chanda tala patterns),
Tiruppavai, Tiruvembavai, Tarangams, Vachanas, Viruttams -(slokas, uga bogas, prabhandams
or pasurams sung in a free flowing style with multiple ragas), Padams, Javalis,
Dasar padas, Keertanas ( from Tyagaraja's Divya Nama Sankeertanam or
Utsava Sampradaya Keertanams, Annamayya and other composers), Kavadi Chindu,
Magudi, Ashtapadis and Tillanas. Slowly bhajans of various other composers like
Mirabai, Surdas and other contemporary compostions got added to the list.
Kiranavali rendered the
unique and beautiful Kshetragnya padam 'Tamarakshi' in Yadukulakamboji,
Oothukadu's Kannan varunginra neram in the Kavadi Chindu format, Viruttam,
Tillana, Tevaram among others.
This impressive list not
only provided a variety of repertoire that is available for singing in the '
tukkada' section but also threw light on a variety of aspects about the
musicality and structure of the compositions.
Wish more and more
performers and listeners appreciate that 'tukkada' is not some easy light
melody number, but one that tests the mettle of the performer in all aspects of
bhava, tala and creativity, for a boring viruttam or a badly sung padam can be
like eating ‘wet tukkadas’ !!
