Thus Spake the Divine - Gandharva Veda

Thus Spake the Divine

Gandharva Veda

In this Chapter, Poojyasri Maha Periyava explains in a very humorous manner as to how art can be expressed.

There is an old saying for a person who claims to have achieved something unachievable, “Oh! He has turned things upside down!” If you give a deep thought to this statement, you will realise that “turning things upside down in a systematic way” results in significant outcome. Most art forms take shape only through “turning things upside down!”

Only when we turn or rearrange alphabets in an orderly manner can we form sentences, thereby produce great works, and thus print famous books. English alphabets are just 26 as compared to our Tamil’s 30. Those with knowledge of English have used these 26 alphabets commendably and created innumerable books. Thus, when there is orderliness and methodical rearrangement of things, there emerges an art! A poet is one who repositions words and creates beautiful poems. People celebrate such poets. That’s why it is said, “Each alphabet is worth one lakh in value”.

The art of drawing and painting also works in the same way. If an artist uses colours and brush in a particular way, turning the brush up and down, he can make thousands of beautiful pictures. Music is also similar to ‘turning’ things upside down. All of us make sounds. If these sounds are turned into reverberating swaras, we get good music. We pay high remuneration to an expert who turns sound into music. If we merely make sounds, people will pay us to shut up our sound!

We can create vibrations through our throat. This vibration is common to all musical instruments. Drums, Miruthangam, Kanjira are all instruments utilising vibrating animal skins. Veena, Tanpura, and fiddle etc., are string instruments, whose rhythmic vibrations provide us melodious music.

If parts of our body are ‘turned’ with a rhythm, there emerges the art of dance. We listen to music through our ears and feel happy hearing the words within the ragas and the meaning they convey. In a dance-cum-song, we derive happiness from understanding the meaning of the song, the melody of raga and feel the pleasure of rhythmic movement of the body.

There is an art form called “Nirutham”, which is one of the 64 upacharas (courteous treatments) offered to God. Nirutham’s bodily movements in a rhythmic manner evolve into happiness. In a keerthana, there is voice, meaning and rhythm, all blended together to give pleasure. In a raga aalapana, only the sound provides bliss.

All these art forms are known as Gandharva Veda. Gandharvas are amorous hedonists, who celebrate life with music and dance. Since all arts bring happiness and enthusiasm within the hearts of people, these are also called Gandharva Veda. Gandharva is also a name used for distinct heavenly beings in Hinduism and Buddhism; it is also a term for skilled singers in Indian classical music. Gandharva Veda is the ancient study of all art forms, including music, dance and poetry. This Vedic text contains information about the laws and ways to practice music as well as how music works as a therapy to heal the body and soul. Gandharva Veda uses the music of nature to restore balance within the body and mind.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.

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