Here is what I consider to be one of the most erudite and scintillating articles on Palghat Raghu which appeared in the Deccan Herald a couple of years ago.The writer is N.Manu Chakravarthy.A professor of English at Bangalore's NMKRV college,he has closely followed Palghat Raghu all through his brilliant career.Mr.Chakravarthy ,incidentally ,also has the distinction of being one of the foremost cultural critics in Karnataka.A collection of his articles and interviews entitled 'CONVERSATIONS AND CULTURAL REFLECTIONS'has been brought out by the BR PUBLISHING CORPORATION in collaboration with NMKRV college.Here is the piece reproduced in its entirety with the author's permission.: __________________________________________________ FROM RAW SOUND TO STRUCTURED PATTERNS -On Palghat Raghu Eliot's comment that "Expression is altered only by a man of genius", far from being a tribute to the individual, is actually a vital insight into the nature of a serious and profound relationship between an artist and his medium. A rigorous analysis attempting to highlight the significant aspects of an art form will inevitably have to underline several phases as crucial junctures when the genius of a single individual transformed its entire conception and structure. Such an endeavor does not merely draw attention to the genius of an outstanding artist, but, quite appropriately, offers new perspectives that question outmoded conceptions, and more importantly, generate fresh ideas by which new modes of understanding come into being. It was Palghat Mani Iyer who brought about such a tremendous transformation in Karnatic music. The amazing genius of Mani Iyer pushed the Mridangam to the foreground, offering laya as a great structural dimension, not just as a time-marking measure, with patterns as significant as those of the main performer. The Mridangam at the hands of Mani Iyer, was not an instrument that would just mark time through the Jatis, but an indispensable ally that enhanced the beauty of the fabric of the main piece and, at the same time, a challenge that, if accepted would carry the main performer to extraordinary heights that he could never have reached on his own. This only meant that it became impossible to dissociate the main performer and his music from the mridangam and its structures. After Mani Iyer it was not just the position of the mridangam and the aspirations of the main performer that had changed, but also the expectations of the listener-at least the sensitive one- who began to demand a high combination of raga and laya. It would not be wrong to say that Mani Iyer's greatest achievement was in the perfect fusion he brought about between raga and laya on the concert platform that mridangists earlier had not been able to. The change was, essentially, creative and not theoretical, its value greater in imaginative than in intellectual terms. The second phase of this transformation is equally noteworthy. If Mani Iyer unleashed new structures forcefully, and at times wildly, it was Palghat Raghu's genius that ordered, shaped and beautified them. It was through Raghu that the imaginative and creative aspects of Mani Iyer's vision became crystallized into highly contemplative, deeply thought out and very finely chiseled images. Mani Iyer's profusion of ideas, uncontrollable and raging at times, had to necessarily evolve further in terms of acquiring balance, restraint and architectural order and beauty. The mridangam gained all these through Palghat Raghu who furthered -both on intellectual and aesthetic planes-the dimensions opened up by his great teacher. The mridangam in Karnatic music thus further entrenched his position. The great master's vision gained a new dimension, as it needed to, through his greatest disciple. The manner in which Palghat Raghu achieved this is revealing. Raghu introduced into Mani Iyer's massive and expansive structures, at times rhetorical and merely dazzling, little strokes that etched the sound more deeply and closely, eliminating strokes that were superfluous and even out of place. A close study of Mani Iyer and Raghu would certainly establish the fact that Raghu's "texts" are more intricately knit, highly sophisticated in texture and weave a pattern where the selection of strokes is strictly determined by principles of structural order and cohesion. Mani Iyer's bani, however, drew more from the power of the sound than from a notion of structural unity. The advance made by Raghu over Mani Iyer is remarkable and it must be acknowledged unequivocally, has been possible only because of Mani Iyer's astounding supporting base. An important aspect of Raghu's genius that must be mentioned is that one discovers in it the vision to integrate Mani Iyer's breath taking sweep with the gentler but deeper touches of Palani Subramaniam Pillai which issue out a resonance and subtlety that establish a perfect concord between power and restraint. The most outstanding "texts" of Raghu interthread Mani Iyer and Palani Subramania Pillai to create a combination that a man of lesser genius would never be able to dream of, let alone produce. It is only an intensive study of Raghu's playing during the neraval , the kalpana swaras and the rendering of the anuloma, viloma and pratiloma of the pallavi that would bring all these to light. The other great measure of Raghu's genius is the thani avarthanam which is an outstanding representation of all the shades of feeling and thought of the main piece. Raghu's thani avarthanams are, essentially, perfect objective correlatives of those images produced by the main performer. All these are possible only because Raghu produces swaras and not lifeless jathis on the instrument that measure upto, and on occasion even go beyond, the patterns of the main artiste. It is again only a deep study that helps one comprehend the truth that Raghu does not accompany passively, but literally moves with the artiste at the center in great unison, creating patterns of great tonal variety, effecting the subtle shifts between the left hand side and the right, projecting a mosaic that is a perfect whole unifying a variety of combinations of richness and depth, punctuated throughout by wonderful variations, in the nadai. Serious listeners of Karnatic music, who are conversant with the nuances introduced by the great mridangam players, would not hesitate to state that it achieves its greatness only through performers who blend the fine aspects of laya with their conception of the raga. It is an imperative in Karnatic music to unfold the range and depth of a raga not just through the rendering of alapana but, more importantly, in discovering its infinite possibilities in the combinations created through the neraval, the swaras and of course, in the rendering of the pallavi. The form of Karnatic music, so different from Hindusthani music in organization and movement, where the role of the percussionist is essentially secondary in nature makes it virtually impossible for one to create a great piece without depending heavily on the laya scheme. When the Sruti Foundation launched the Ragam Tanam Pallavi series some years age, K.V.Narayanaswamy, in the inaugural concert, was paired with Raghu.KVN took up a piece in Todi with a take-off point that was quite complex. In the course of his delineation, at the momentous part, KVN could not reach the sama correctly even after three or four attempts. The rendering thereafter gained substance and solidity only when Raghu took over and guided KVN-a fact KVN himself acknowledged later on elsewhere. The magnificent manner in which laya operated throughout the rendering was a great tribute to Raghu and a clear demonstration of the value of laya in Karnatic music. A couple of months ago, at a chamber concert, T.K.Govinda Rao went through a similar experience while singing a kriti- and it was the mridangam that eventually balanced him out. Govinda Rao acknowledged this debt to Raghu at the end of the concert. These are not isolated incidents that draw attention to themselves, but on the contrary, support the position that as far as the scheme of Karnatic music is concerned, laya is the determining base. Karnatic music is perhaps at its lowest point now. The greatest indication of this is the fact that even big names prefer mridangam players who churn out convenient inane sarvalaghu patterns that have neither substance nor meaning. The presence of a great artiste like Raghu, however, assures us that all is not hopelessly lost and gone forever. It is only in bringing the soul of laya back to the center that we can restore the vibrant vitality of Karnatic music. It must be recognized by those who still care for Karnatic music that they cannot talk of its greatness if it sacrifices its most vital component-laya. The future of Karnatic music is in a very big sense, wholly dependent on what the present does with the genius of men like Palghat Mani Iyer,Palani Subramania Pillai and Palghat Raghu.