In India, Alankar or Alankara means ornaments or
adornments. In the context of Indian classical music, the
application of an alankar is essentially to embellish or
enhance the inherent beauty of the genre. The earliest reference to
the term Alankar has been found in Bharata’s Natyashastra
written sometime between 200 BC and 200 AD. This treatise on
dramaturgy mentions 33 types of Alankars. Subsequent musical
treatises like Sharangdev’s Sangeet Ratnakar in the thirteenth
century and Ahobal’s Sangeet Parijat in the seventeenth century
mention 63 and 68 types of Alankars respectively.
The Shastras or ancient texts have categorized alankars into
two broad groups – Varnalankar and Shabdalankar. The former
comprised the varna based alankars of earlier times. The four
Varnas, sthayi, arohi, avarohi, and sanchari were arrangements of
notes in a particular sequence or four kinds of movements among
notes. Sthayi refers to halting at a single note, arohi to an upward
movement, avarohi to a downward movement and sanchari is a mixed
(upward and downward) movement. This classification of alankars
related to the structural aspect of a raga. The latter
classification, Shabdalankar, comprised the aesthetic aspect. It
referred to the sound production technique utilised by either the
human voice or on an instrument. Shabdalankar had a wide connotation
and would actually include everything that a performer wove both
melodically and rhythmically outside the periphery of the fixed
composition. In other words, all the extempore variations that a
performer created during a performance within the raga and tala
limits could be termed as alankar, because these variations
embellished and enhanced the beauty of the raga, the tala and the
composition.
But going by current performance practices, printed and audio
material and the personal opinions of musicians and musicologists
over the last 100 to 150 years, the definition and gamut of
shabdalankars seems to have changed. Besides the raga, the tala and
the bandish which are the fixed portions in a performance, the
process of elaboration has been divided into several angas or
stages. These stages comprise the alaap-vistaar , behelawa, bol-bant,
sargams, taans, in vilambit laya and drut laya in case of khayal and
Alaap, jod and gats in case of instrumental music. These may further
vary from one gharana to another. Therefore, when we talk about
alankars today, we specifically refer to embellishments to a
swar or a note.
In Indian music and especially in raga sangeet, staccato or straight
isolated notes are almost unheard of. In instrumental music too,
with the exception of some instruments, the notes are never static
either. Each note has some link with its preceding or succeeding
note. It is this extra note or grace note that lays the foundation
of all alankars. The shrutis or microtones that are so
important in raga sangeet demand this ‘mobile’ nature of the swaras
in Indian music.
In the Shastras, a grace note has been referred to as alankarik
swar. When a group or cluster of notes embellishes another swar,
they form the alankarik pad. The alankars in practice
today and those that have been earmarked for this page include both
types.
The alankars in common use today comprise Meend (varieties of glides
linking two or more notes), Kan (grace note), Sparsh and Krintan
(both dealing with grace notes - especially as applied in plucked
stringed instruments), Andolan (a slow oscillation between adjacent
notes and shrutis), Gamak (heavy forceful oscillations between
adjacent and distant notes), Kampit (an oscillation or a vibrato on
a single note), Gitkari or Khatka (cluster of notes embellishing a
single note), Zamzama (addition of notes, with sharp gamaks) and
Murki (a swift and subtle taan-like movement).
A word of caution from our gurus, however : the definitions provided
are widely accepted but not sacrosanct. Interpretations other than
the ones given may also exist and like so much else in Raga Sangeet,
definitions and illustrations may also vary from gharana to gharana.
Alankars other than the ones featured may exist - we have selected
those that are unique and comprehensible and commonly used by
practicing musicians. And finally, our gurus advise that many of
these alankars are raga and form-specific (to a khayal, thumri,
instrumental music etc.) and their wrong or excessive application
may mar an entire rendition or performance.
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