Lakshya-pradhanam khalu gita-sastram' is the basic dictum enunciated in all musical treatises of our sages and seers.  Lakshya is the life, lakshana the body, of the art.  In fact, it is out of lakshya that lakshana originated.  Lakshana helps the artist to seek vistas of beauty around traditional forms of our music embodying  rasa in out music.  Soul-stirring music can emanate only from the artist who, firmly established in the accepted lakshana, stretches his hands towards the flowers and the fruits of lakshya.  

Classical Indian music is essentially creative (manodharma) music, and not recitative music.  The classical Indian musician is therefore born, not made.  Music must be in his breath since birth.  So we rightly consider the musical faculty (at the high classical level, of course), as a God-given gift.  

"Sangita-gnanamu Dhata vrayavalera" says Tyagaraja. It is such a gifted person who can give meaning to the word lakshya.  He has a keen musical ear from childhood, taste and discrimination capable of imbibing the best in the musical air around him, and is nourished by it.  He must have good opportunities to hear great vidvan-s of his time.  It is by such an exposure to good music that he gradually blossoms into a good musician even without his knowing it.  Four important aspects are recognized in musical learning - inborn gift, formal learning (gurukulavasa) , practice (abhyasa) and lastly teaching others.  Of these four, it goes without saying, the first, namely the inborn gift, occupies the pride of place.  Classical music should be learnt only by the gifted ones and not by all and sundry.  

As far as I know, in the olden days, the teaching of music consisted in imparting directly in person to the pupil the lakshya enshrined in our musical forms such as Sarali-jhanta-varisai-s, gitams, varnam-s, tanam-pallavi and kalpana svara.  Incidental grammatical explanations and the technical instructions formed the body of lakshana or Musicology: instructions for good tone production, correct intonation, shades of svara-s, gamaka-s, distinctive phrases of ragas, correct tempo, rhythmic beauties in sarvalaghu, etc.  Thus the musicology of old sought to supplement and not supplant the music that was meant to be taught. The teacher used always to relate grammatical and technical points that arose in the course of teaching, to the needs of Lakshya.  Books, written or printed, did not play as large a part as today.  The few that were, were in the hands of experts who could interpret the treatises sensibly and guide others in correct lakshana without detriment to lakshya.  For, in the nature of things, all the things that go to make for a true understanding of music cannot be put in words or other symbols.  Thus the teachers of old recognized the limitations of musicology and gave precedence to the practical aspects of music.   

Performing musicians on the concert platform were the products of such a climate.  When they sang or played before an audience they were concerned more with their own artistic experience (atmartha).  Theory, grammar and technique, having been quietly absorbed in the lakshya, did not show off, nor did they inhibit the musician.  On their part the listeners looked to the musician with great reverence, and even veneration.  They entered the music hall as they would enter a holy place.  Though a few of them knew something about the theory of music, they were conscious of their limited knowledge and would not consider themselves 'judges' or 'critics'.  Thus they too contributed to the relaxed and harmonious atmosphere of the music hall.  

During the past many years, however, a big change has come over the relationship between music and musicology.  This is mainly due to the growth of music institutions where classical creative (manodharma) music is sought to be taught on a mass scale.  It cannot be said that only the gifted pupils are admitted.  For the sake of the non-gifted, evidently, too much is written and spoken than sung or played.  The spirit of gurukulavasa which instils lakshya is missing.   

Toeing the line of other subjects, too many written examinations are held in music.  As a consequence of all these, we have now more grammarians and technicians of music than artistes.  Even gifted pupils who join institutions are made to tread the same path as others.  The mind of the student and performer is made to stray farther and farther away from the aesthetic elements of music.  And so it is with the listener.  Discussions and criticisms generally centre more and more around non-essentials.  These, in their turn, have an inhibiting effect on the performer, and he is seldom able to sing to himself in contemplation.  

These are some of the disquieting features of our musical climate today.  If music should thrive as an art we could restore the balance between music and musicology.  In my view, only that is musicology which helps the growth of creative artistic music.  I think we should restore the spirit of gurukulavasa to the teaching of music, whatever be the form, institutional or individual, it may take.  
  

These pages are maintained by Chitra Vasudevan in Chennai, India.   
Last updated 12 May 1998  

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