Devotional music in Mysore

Abstract

I examine the motivations and rewards concerned with participation in performances of devotional music in Mysore, India, whilst the vaohana and devaranama traditions are considered, I concentrate upon the sangita, or 'art', form of devotional music.The motivations and rewards are expressed in terms of indigenously-conceived corresrondances between musical exper iences and experiences in sadhana. I examine the 3et of religio-philosophical ideas and meditational practises involved in sauhana and conclude that all forms can be conceived in terms of three procedures - viz. 'purification' (i.e. experience of the 'real self'), 'participation' (i.e. mergence with 'alter') and 'transcendence' (of the conceptual frameworks employed in thought).Indigenous aesthetic theory conceives of three separate components of musical experience - viz. sah it.ye. bhava (i.e. the 'emotional' effect of the literary text). raga bhava (i.e. the 'emotional' effect of the rags) and ganam (i. e. the 'aesthetic' effect of musical form). I examine each component and conclude that the bhava components amount to 'participation' whilst the ganam component amounts to 'purification' and 'transcendence'. I conclude that the mechanisms by means of which the music produces its effects are those of 'absolute' and 'referential' musical meaning and that 'referential' meaning may be conceptualised in terms of 'image processes', 'moods' and 'connotations'.I conclude that the participant's motivations and rewords ; ay be defined in terms of the capacity of the music to promote the maintenance of his emotional and mental equilibrium and that the social significance of the institution of devotional music derives from its capacity to adapt the participant to cope more successfully with his/ her reactions to life in society.