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Brahmins for Bharathanatyam and Saastriya sangeetham

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At present the Brahmins are dominating in the field of Bharathanatyam and Saastriya sangeetham. In olden days Bharathanatyam (Sadir attam) is meant for certain community of people only and they claimed monopoly over it. But it has faded now and their interest have gone to other areas. Only Brahmins excel in it all through history. One of the deciding factor to be a Brahmin should be based on the expertise in the fine arts of Bharathanatyam and Saastriya sangeetham. What is your take on this?
 
Gana,

The claim to dominate an art is something that I think, we should avoid. Art, by its very nature, universal and the right arts cross cultures and ocean, and shine wherever they reside.

The reflection on the antecedents of bharatanatyam, speaks more of the smallness of minds of our society, than of the art itself. if the tamil Brahmin girls strut themselves to the various abhinayams, in front of strange men, and this does not bother the parents or ‘elders’, then it is a reflection of current attitudes. Our granparents would not have done this. they would have married off their daughters pre puberty, and handed over her to the inlaws after the first menstruation.

Should we be proud now? Should we be ashamed of our grandparents? I think neither. These are reflection of times. bharatanatyam is a legacy of the rich tamil culture, and I wish to say that sri lankan tamil girls in Toronto have taken to it like fish to water. Not so, the TB girls that I know. Let us not put caste based ownership on art.

The same goes for saastriya sangeetham. I find it sad that since the trimurtis, the rich legacy of tamil carnatic music has been abandoned. One only has to look 100 years ago, and notice the number of naidus, pillais and mudaliars among our carnatic musicians, along with chembai and all of them sang proudly in tamil. With the so called domination of TB, we have deliberately shed the tamil roots and opted for telugu or Sanskrit. Not saying there is no beauty in those, but are we not TAMIL Brahmins? This is always a peeve of mine, and the sad fact, is that the trimurtis are so ensconced in the current popular psyche, there is no place for tamil songs or composers. A sad state indeed.
 
Wherever money is their Brahmins are entering. It is purely materialistic.

Both Bharathanattiyam and Singing will lead to cinema where money is large.

Vaijayanthimala, Hemamalini are all graduated to cinema through bharathanatyam.

Lot of brahmin musicians are singing in films.

Money is the motive behind all these things.

So called moral and ethical are all secondary.

This is my view

All the best
 
if money is the criteria,then arts is not the profession now.but we do see singers,dancers,actors & actresses,all flock for the love of it.in the bargain,they attain wealth,glory,fame which is only becoz of their dedication and skill,and above all patronage.tambrahms have loved it all,and doing what they can contribute with all their might at their disposal.kalakshetra produces excellent artistes which complement their talent.
 
[FONT=l. With the so called domination of TB, we have deliberately shed the tamil roots and opted for telugu or Sanskrit. Not saying there is no beauty in those, but are we not TAMIL Brahmins? This is always a peeve of mine, and the sad fact, is that the trimurtis are so ensconced in the current popular psyche, there is no place for tamil songs or composers. A sad state indeed. [/FONT][/QUOTE]

Dear Kunjappu,

Is it really? Look at this song penned in Tamil by a TB. (Rajaji) It was tuned by a TB(I think By Kadayanallur Venkatraman Not sure) and sung by MS accepted into TB family" குறையேதுமில்லை மறைமூர்த்தி கண்ணா " and presented to international Audience predominantly non Tamil with tremendous ovations. Did it not go well with them? This is the history in recent past This song has had the highest reach next to her Suprhabatham.Practically in every Katcheri by any artists this song is a must. Then why fault TB?

There was a great opportunity last month completely missed. The title song of செம்மொழி மாநாடு penned by MK( sort of அவியல் of quotation from ancient சங்க இலக்கியம் ) Why this was not tuned in Tamil classical tradition where the Audience were mainly Tamil . Why it was tuned by Oscar winner A.R. Rahaman in "Pop Music" variety? Now who is at fault? . Ponder Jambu:noidea:
 
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No dominance - it is divided

It is true that Tamil Brahmins do well in the performances. Generation is not an issue here for Vyjayanthimala of that day to Swarnamalya of today did not had any problem both from their family and society. Unfortunately the chauvinist male Tamil Brahmins also live in all the times and pass message of 'Dance and Music are anti Brahmin culture'. But the reality is that Brahminhood cannot be called as complete without sensible exposure to fine arts.

But people of other communities also continue to contribute significantly. For example the art form of 'Nattuvangam' is still dominated by a community that had rich past heritage in Bharathanatyam. Almost all Bharathanatyam teachers of merit are from this community. Similarly the patrons who do monetary contribution to all the Sabhas and Temples are from yet another community. Nalli Kuppuswami is not a Brahmin, but without him there will not be any Sabhas in Chennai now!
 
Dominance of any profession by Brahmins is a myth created to discredit them when the pioneers and top grades in any profession happened to be Brahmins I like the expression Brahminhood. It rhymes well with Robinhood whom I adore from my childhood Brahmins dominance if any is only in Priesthood! Jambu:sad:
 
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Jambu

You are so witty and funny,just love your posts a lot.Have so much of smiles for the day.

Regarding ARR this is what masses want,and the organisers dont like carnatic music,as its a religious based glory f god.Morever ARR is a muslim,which automatically organiser love and like more than christians or hindus,imho.
 
How can we forget the great contributions of Oothukadu Venkatasubbiyer, Maha Vaidyanathan Sivan(who composed 72 mela ragamalika and was the first initiator), Ramaswamy Sivan, Neelakanta Sivan, Gopalakrishna Bharathiyar, Mahakavi Bhrathiyar and Papanasam Sivan, Mayuram Viswanathan sastry to name a few, who have composed great songs.

We had MS, DKP and MLV who were in the fore front of singing tamil songs popularising many a songs. Maharajapuram santham has immortalised oothukadu songs and continued till date. MLV has sung both Tirupavai and Thiruvembavai in traditional manner.

One can see and enjoy huge collection of tamil songs popularised by the present singers. Papanasam sivans, oothukadu venkatasubbiyer, Gopalakrishna bharathiyar and Mahakavi songs are hugely popular even nowadays.

Sangeetha Mumurthis will always have their own fixed place in the carnatic music tradition because of their greatness of their songs with devotion, lyrical beauty, composition to ragas. It is all spoken, written and researched facts. They are unique in their own respects.

It is a great irony that at the first moment, people are jumping to criticise TB.
If we are not going to appreciate the great contributions of our own folk and who else will?

As Shri Nachi mentioend, it is their dedication and talent that is making them popular. & shri Jambu is right about the reach of the MS song. Evergreen.

If not for the great Tamizh thatha DR U VE SA, many of the great tamil literary works would have never come to light.

I feel a book on the contributions of Tamil Brahmins by Shri.Lakshminarayanan is a must read for all of us to make US understand about the FACTS about Tamil Brahmins.
 
jayamani<

i may have missed my point. undboubtedly the people you mentioned are great carnatic musicians and i agree 100% to your post. but you might have noticed, that their audience was a small section of the population.

in today's world, unless a medium has impact on the majority of the people, it has no impact. gone are the days, when elitist art, patronized by the ruling or upper classes, could rule the society. today's tunes are a reflection of the winds of change blowing in our society.

it is interesting to note, that bombay jayashree, in a recent interview, commented how much she enjoyed singing movie songs as well as gazals. this, from the #1 carnatic musician of today.

i know for sure, in recent concerts, jayashree has made efforts to have majority of her repertoire in tamil. i attended one such wedding concert. however, in the minds of most of my relatives, it is the telugu songs of trimurtis that define the essence of carnatic music. tamil isai, to them is only secondary. this attitude is what i have been pointing out, as sad.

you do not hear of bengalis treating rabindra sangeeth as secondary. only us tamil brahmins, have no hesitation in shedding our language when it comes to classical music.

again, to repeat, i do not look down on the contributions of TB to carnatic music. but only the late tendency to tilt towards telugu and sanskrit at the expense of tamil. what is a fair deal? minimum 50% of concert in tamil.
 
I understand your view from your personal experience.

I have also come across of few of marriage concerts wherein tamil songs of the stalwarts i had mentioned were asked for. certain occasions demand certain songs.

Nowadays, in the present concerts, tamil songs are sung regularly.
Every year in Chennai, there is a tamiz isai festival wherein our folks sing exclusively tamil songs only. I have been fortunate to attend the same for quite some time. The best of singers in the field are there. One can enjoy brilliant compositions in tamil.

Thirupugazh, sweetest of all, takes the pride of place. The classical music singers have to follow the tradition followed over the years and they sing not only Trinity songs, but also tamil songs, purandaradasar, Abhangs, Annamacharya, Bhajansalso to give a complete feel to the concert. But, things are changing with times. Present musicians are singing in tune with the popular requests and it is very much needed.

& yes, the reach of the tamil songs will be more and it is in the interest of the classical music too. Naturally one will enjoy the songs in their mother tongue more. & one great contribution our singers are doing is clear diction and ensuring the beauty of the language. sure, it will be great to see more and more tamil songs in the concerts.

What I wanted to impress is that we were/are no way lagging behind others in contributing to and patronizing tamil.
 
The thread suggests that that Tamil Brahmins cultural identity should include Bharathanatyam and Saastriya sangeetham today for it is no more a taboo among the Brahmin community to perform on stage. These art form do have contribution from other communities. But it is good for TBs to identify with this more passionately and contribute more creatively. Brahmins have many identities but only the language Tamil remains the identity for TBs. Also the art forms of Bharathanatyam and Saastriya Sangeethams needs badly support from quality Rasikas today and TBs alone could fill that void. It is unfortunate that just one in twenty concerts in Mylapore has got audience more than one in twentieth capacity. This does not happen to Cinema, even if it is a badly made one like Ravanan! It is sad a Brahmin made it!!
 
See beyond apples

Dominance of any profession by Brahmins is a myth created to discredit them when the pioneers and top grades in any profession happened to be Brahmins I like the expression Brahminhood. It rhymes well with Robinhood whom I adore from my childhood Brahmins dominance if any is only in Priesthood! Jambu:sad:

Tamil Brahmins continue to dominate as CAs and Brahmins once upon a time dominated as lawyers and teachers. Reality becomes myth if there is no realization. Robinhoods should see beyond the apples! Today there is absolute dominance of Brahmins as performing artists but only MKs grand daughter gets opportunity to play Veena in grand occasions! There is no mechanism in the community to facilitate eminence for the artists and thus the artists have to depend on other means!
 
May be true Most of the CA ICWA & ACS etc may be Brahmins A big crowd of them Reason? Simple There is no reservation like getting in to colleges and the exams a bit tough with that aggregate pass percentage is low and you slog really . Is dominance measured by or equated to the number of people crawling around in the profession? I thought that emerges out of eminence and reflection of that." There is no mechanism in the community to facilitate eminence for the artist and thus artist have to depend on other means" I thought again eminence is the result of dedicated hard work and not facilitated and your suggestion that artists have to depend on other means looks or suggests some bypass to hard work is there to reach eminence ! Could you enlighten on the alternate route to eminence? Robinhood sees only apple as "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" others are not healthy way. Jambu:confused:
 
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Tamil Brahmins continue to dominate as CAs and Brahmins once upon a time dominated as lawyers and teachers. Reality becomes myth if there is no realization. Robinhoods should see beyond the apples! Today there is absolute dominance of Brahmins as performing artists but only MKs grand daughter gets opportunity to play Veena in grand occasions! There is no mechanism in the community to facilitate eminence for the artists and thus the artists have to depend on other means!

MK belongs to artist family. Traditionally they belong to playing Nadaswaram and Thavil.

Late Nadaswaram great Rajarathnam pillai belongs to the same community.

Once Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer told the audience with MK at stage that he would have been an `emperor' if continued his music tradition and is only a Chief Minister by changing the tradition. MK also gracefully acknowledged the compliment.

Even today relatives of MK are performing Nadaswaram/Thavil at Tiruvarur.

`Core competence' in any profession will help in getting into greater heights. No profession is inferior and every profession is important in life.

Brahmins as a community is changing professions over generations.

Medical and Legal professions were once dominated by brahmins.

Administrative services in Government was once dominated by brahmins.

In 70's and 80's, Public sector was dominated by brahmins. In the same period, CA, ICWA, ACS was patronised by brahmins but it is being vacated now due to corruption in Tax departments.

Software, BPO and Call centre are the main focus for brahmin boys and girls now. Getting into an engineering college or doing MCA is not at all difficult for our community.

Off late I am seeing lot of people opting for Financial services though MBA programs.

Nowadays Artists are patronized by expatriates in a big way. Artistes fly to USA, Canada, Australia and Gulf with ease and make money in Dollars. So it is being patronised by our community.

If we have to sum up, it is just money which matters. Most of our community members doesn't violate law of the land. If they keep moral and ethical standards also, then there is no problem in pursuing any profession.

I wish our boys and girls avoid Cinema/TV which are not our cup of tea.

All the best
 
I wish our boys and girls avoid Cinema/TV which are not our cup of tea.

All the best

Dear RVR

I hope your wish doesn't turn to be wishful. In fact Cinema/TV seems to be a jug of vine so addictive:spit: you can see that by their numbers in those media in all capacities. I am not trying to be funny or பன்னி (Puny) Brahiminhood nicely rhymes with Kolliwood and Bollywood as well Cheers! :cheer2:Enjoy Jambu
 
Dear RVR

I hope your wish doesn't turn to be wishful. In fact Cinema/TV seems to be a jug of vine so addictive:spit: you can see that by their numbers in those media in all capacities. I am not trying to be funny or பன்னி (Puny) Brahiminhood nicely rhymes with Kolliwood and Bollywood as well Cheers! :cheer2:Enjoy Jambu

Indian film Industy is already losing heavily. For every single success, there are atleast nine failures.

A half yearly report of the Hindi film industry - bollywood news : glamsham.com

It means only one in ten succeed and repeatability of success is not guaranteed.

It is our duty to advice our boys and girls to avoid films altogether since chances of failure is very high.

All the best
 
Indian film Industy is already losing heavily. For every single success, there are atleast nine failures.

A half yearly report of the Hindi film industry - bollywood news : glamsham.com

It means only one in ten succeed and repeatability of success is not guaranteed.

It is our duty to advice our boys and girls to avoid films altogether since chances of failure is very high.

All the best

rvr ji
u r right , now vijay is going to compensate for the repeated failuers of his filims.
 
Friends,

This is an interesting thread. At the outset I wish to say that no one community or group can claim monopoly over any particular Art or Music. Both are gifts of nature (or God). In olden days when Caste had grip over the community, it was difficult to change from one profession to other. Now due to expanding communication facilities the shackles of caste is off. The teaching systems have also changed. Now knowledge is not passed from father to son, or Guru to sishya with in the community alone. The economic factor has also changed. There is money in Art and Music. If we read epigraphical translations of Emperor Raja Raja Chola engraved on the foundations of Tanjore Big Temple, we come to know that he had brought Devadasis from various places in his domain to serve his new Temple. It was the same with Sivacharyas to perform Puja in the Temple. It is all because of the strong grip of the Caste in social fabric during his time.

Now all professions are open to all people. Nonetheless it is a fact, that the nature selects its own people of excellence in Art and Music.

The subject chosen for this tread will open up interesting facets of opinions. I wish to join again after reading more posts from knowledgeable members.

Regards,
Brahmanyan.
 
If we have to sum up, it is just money which matters. Most of our community members doesn't violate law of the land. If they keep moral and ethical standards also, then there is no problem in pursuing any profession.

Dear Mr RVR,

I fully agree with your views, especially the end part of it.
I wish to add a few words to it. Now that all avenues for earning with in India are getting closed due to reservation policies, Brahmins, who do not have permanent anchorage, search and successfully find new pastures for their livelihood outside the Country. And they take their cultural excellence to other parts of the world with them.

Regards,
Brahmanyan.
 
High Moral Ground

Dominance sure doesn't come by number. The number of Brahmins among CAs have not done anything for deriving advantage for community. Similarly there are a quite substantial number of Brahmins still in IIT - Madras. But still it has not yielded any benefit. Brahmins out numbering other community members in any field or institution just gain that status by the culture of inbreeding. The incumbents see to that some of their family members gets in. Nepotism! But such things do not work with Bharathanatyam and Saastriya sangeetham. These art forms will help the community to attain again the high moral ground and hence the community has to take advantage of the prevailing situation.

Jambu sir, think what Robinhood will be if he had missed the apple. He would have taken his son to the Doctor. Isn't it? Does a Doctor guarantee health or disease? Please answer such questions in separate thread.

Is dominance measured by or equated to the number of people crawling around in the profession? Could you enlighten on the alternate route to eminence? Robinhood sees only apple as "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" others are not healthy way. Jambu:confused:
 
Bad Brahmin ways

Brahmins also dominated passing AMIE, AMIETE and AMIME type of exams to become engineers about couple of decades back. Just as CA and ICWA - this is a non corrupt and straight forward route to qualify for a profession. But why is that not happening now? The fate that dawned on AMIE etc through Private Engineering Colleges is waiting to happen for CA etc through MBA Finance patronage. The fact is that the Brahmins are the first to switch to corrupt ways for it is a soft way. The fact today is that none of the Brahmins who got qualified through Private colleges are in a position of Power or Authority in Government or Public Sector services. But somehow they earn a high salary at least for a very brief period for their family in IT like sectors. This only indicate that we have lost high moral grounds. I feel that this thread suggest ways to regain our strong ground. This has to be achieved in Cinema industry also for there is no use in shying away from such a powerful media. Bharathanatyam and Saastriya sangeetham are the right tools for it.
In 70's and 80's, Public sector was dominated by brahmins. In the same period, CA, ICWA, ACS was patronised by brahmins but it is being vacated now due to corruption in Tax departments.

Software, BPO and Call centre are the main focus for brahmin boys and girls now. Getting into an engineering college or doing MCA is not at all difficult for our community.

Off late I am seeing lot of people opting for Financial services though MBA programs.

I wish our boys and girls avoid Cinema/TV which are not our cup of tea.

All the best
 
harini,

cinema is like any industry.we have mani rathnam,suhasini,kamal hasan,trisha,vidya balan,....etc to just name a few then in tv artistes are plenty...i just don't get it,when ppl think movies industry is immoral?or did i mis-read some posts?dunno.
 
Jambu sir, think what Robinhood will be if he had missed the apple. He would have taken his son to the Doctor. Isn't it? Does a Doctor guarantee health or disease? Please answer such questions in separate thread.

OK let us drag Robinhood in a different thread as requested . Doctors never Guarantee health or cure as bound by their oath of Hippocrates(circa 460 - 360 BC?) but promise to do to the best of their abilities. But diseases do guarantee the doctor wealth!


"This has to be achieved in Cinema industry also for there is no use in shying away from such a powerful media. Bharathanatyam and Saastriya sangeetham are the right tools for it".

I am in total agreement with you when I said Brahminhood rhymes well with Bollywood and Kolliwood as well.

But what about the enlightenment requested about the other ways? Jambu
 
jambu
But diseases do guarantee the doctor wealth!

more than the diseases,its the patients will to survive longer promotes wealth for doctors who make a living,on such unfounded fears.as death is a certainty,no god or doctor can prevent it,only athma is eternal,imho :)
 
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