Singing To The Divine: The Sopana Sangeetham Of Kerala

This article throws light on the indigenous Sopana music offered as part of ritual tantric pooja in the temples of Kerala and how art has been considered a path to the Divine in the Indian tradition.

- Sulini V. Nair

Just as Vedanta accepts Brahman as the upadana or proximate cause of creation, Sarngadeva, the author of the 13th century treatise Sangitaratnakara, for the first time declared that nada Brahma was the upadana of music. Sangita has been accepted as the means of the four purusharthas and also as an end in itself. Tyagaraja, the great musician saint of the 18th century, sings, ‘Knowing the musical sound born from the muladhara – that is ecstatic liberation! To distinguish the proper home of the seven notes amidst the great tumult – listen, O mind, that is moksha! Devotion steeped in the nectar of melodious tones and modes, that is the final beatitude, O mind!’ (Svara raga sudharasa). His life was an illustration of how musical knowledge coupled with devotion enables one to experience the bliss of spirituality amidst the dissonance of the illusory world, culminating finally in moksha — the ultimate goal of life. Such has been the status accorded to music and the arts in India — as paths to divine realizations.

In India, we have both the margi and desi arts. Margi arts are the classical forms based on specific rules and structures laid down in the Natyasastra (200 BCE-200 CE) of Bharatamuni. Desi arts are regional creative expressions born of the unique tastes and preferences of people in different regions. These two arts are different from each other in tone and structure, use and effect, but never mutually hostile. In fact, a continuous give and take of values between Margi and desi has been the norm. As early as the 9th century the Brhaddesi of Matanga dealt with the music of the various regions of the Indian subcontinent.