Ravikiran sets music to Tirukkural verses in record time

Tirukkural, the classic Tamil sangam literature by Tiruvalluvar consisting of 1330 couplets or kurals is rarely associated with music. But Chitravina N Ravikiran decided to go off the beaten path and set music to the verses in record time of 50 hours! He not only emerged successful but managed to achieve the feat in less than 17 hours. The musician has managed to create a world record in composing. He began his work on January 12 at the International Institute of Tamil Studies in Taramani. The unique tuning session was open to scholars, musicians, students, media and the general public.  

Ravikiran, who has been acclaimed for his award-winning world music concept, Melharmony, wants to make Tirukkural global. “People have tuned kural verses in various styles including classical, contemporary and in films. From what I have seen, most times it is very difficult to find a seamless interplay between latter day melody, rhythm and Valluvar’s lyrics.  This is why setting to tune something not intended to be tuned is more difficult than composing everything ourselves! I wanted to see for myself if I could get into kural musically,” says N Ravikiran and adds, “My primary aim was to create a platform for these immortal verses of timeless values to be performed more frequently in classical concerts by both vocalists and instrumentalists and also be choreographed in traditional dance forms like Bharatanatyam and Kuchippudi.” 

The musician is not new to trying achieving the impossible. He stunned the world including legends like Pt Ravi Shankar and MS Subbulakshmi when he identified and demonstrated 325 ragas and 175 talas at age of two at the Music Academy Madras and many prominent venues across India. 

Ravikiran has also given vocal concerts from the age of five before switching to Chitravina concerts at 11. He performed non-stop for over 24 hours without food/water or break when he was 18. So how did he prepare towards achieving this unique feat? “Honestly the only ‘research’ I have done on this vast ocean of the great Tiruvalluvar is when I set to music 34 verses for an event by Shri Gopal Gandhi recently. I just tuned most of those in free form verse ( viruttam ) style but tried to see if I could adopt a different approach in a couple of them. So, my research was more into the metre, rhyme and flow of Tirukkural from the perspective of their musical potential. I also heard a couple of samples of earlier tuning efforts and was inspired to approach it with an ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking,” says the musician.

Sharing his biggest roadblocks in achieving his current record, N Ravikiran said, “Valluvar’s couplets have a unique meter with the second line shorter than the first. I found inspiration to not only employ the popular talas but I also tried relatively rare yet traditional talas like Mishra Triputa, Mishra Mathya, Sankeerna Mathya and Sankeerna Chapu to ensure that the melodic beauty, rhyme, meter or meaning will be projected better. It was a big challenge.  

To find ragas that are attractive and also have very good scope and natural aesthetic appeal and can yet project the theme appropriately was also challenging. And finally to sing all these continuously over so many hours without trace voice or mental fatigue was a big concern.” N Ravikiran is absolutely thrilled to have achieved this great feat. “I am thrilled and hope Tirukkural will be performed by artistes more often,” he concludes.