By Rekha Bala

If there is any medium unfettered by the barriers of culture, race or language, it has to be music. A westerner need not know the nuances to enjoy Hindustani music or an Indian, Arabic to enjoy the foot-tapping strains of Habibi or Nari Nari. Music in itself is divine and will warm the hearts of any music lover's art, never mind the language.

What if you go one step further and are itching to discover the similarities between the kind of music you love and the music, which is growing on you, thanks to the place you live in? Then, if you are Shyamala Vinod Kumar, a Carnatic music teacher at Indian School Muscat, you put in seven years of solid research and unravel the oneness in two forms of music, in languages as different as chalk and cheese.

Shyamala has done just that. Her thesis for Phd, A Comparative Study of South Indian Classical Ragas and Classical Arabic Maqamat is the first study of its kind which delves into the commonalities of the basic structure and composition of Carnatic music ragas and the classical Arabic equivalent of the same called Maqamat.

The results of the study are astounding. Shyamala has established that 14 melodic scales are common to both forms of music, though the application of these ragas is different. Rekha Bala spoke to Shyamala about her quest into the unknown and the path-breaking nature of her study.

"I had completed my M Phil in India and after my arrival in Oman, I was itching to do something, some sort of a study. Since I am interested in all kinds of music, I started listening to Arabic music. Though I didn't understand much, my knowledge and study of music helped me realise that there is something common in the approach and wanted to probe it further."

Shyamala then went to India and registered as a student for PhD at Sri Padmavati Mahila University, Tirupati under the able guidance of Dr Prapanchan Sita Ram, the Head of Department of Music and a famous flutist in his own right.

Now that she had her subject registered, she was on the lookout for an able guide to Arabic classical music and her search ended in one of the best, Dr Mohammed El Sayed Yaqout, a prominent musicologist.

"It was a difficult task, but definitely enriching. There are no books on the theory of Arabic music and each did not know much of the other's music. At first, it was a learning process, the mutual exchange of cultures," says Shyamala.

"We started looking at the differences in music which is of course, nature and then got down to the common features."

The process took many number of years with Shyamala painstakingly travelling to Mawaleh to meet Dr Mohammed with husband and infant in tow to complete the study. "It was difficult. But I was determined and being a perfectionist, I was not willing to compromise on anything never mind if it took more time," she says.

It is here that she mentions husband Vinod Kumar in the most glowing terms. "My husband was the driving force behind my study. He would accompany me on every appointment with Dr. Mohammed, diligently go through the notes, help me draft them and was responsible for the whole thing as it came out, path-breaking."

For Shyamala, thanks is also in order for colleagues at Indian School Muscat and the unstinting support of the principal Dr. Joshi. "Dr Joshi was very encouraging and used to keep on reminding me of the task at hand," she says.

It was on July 17, 2002 that Shyamala received her doctorate but not before receiving a standing ovation at a public viva at the university in Tirupati. Recollecting the incident she says, "I was jittery since it was a public viva and lots of people were fielding different types of questions at me on the subject. At the end of the whole thing I received a standing ovation."

In an e-mail interview, Dr Mohammed also relived his part of the story. "Of course I was very happy when Shyamala first came to me with the topic because this is the first study of a kind." The process, according to him began with 'teaching each other, it was fun, and Shyamala was a very good student and I think I was'. "I think that this research is just a beginning in the field and I hope that both Shyamala and other researchers should work hard in this field and I will be very happy if any supervision is needed."

This PhD apart, Shyamala has been no stranger into venturing into the unknown. Her thesis for Mphil at Madras University was, An examination of the disputes regarding the authorship of musical compositions with special reference to the composition of Swathi Thirunal, a fact which was quite controversial at that time.

"We had people questioning the existence of Swathi Thirunal and the problem had even gone to court. But I was able to prove through study of mid-19th century work that Swathi Thirunal did exist," she says.

Interestingly, Shymala started taking formal training in Carnatic music only from the age of 15 though she started singing on stage from the age of ten when she was quite taken up with Hindustani and semi-classical music.

A meeting with singer Yesudas changed her perceptions about music and her voice. "One day I just rang him up out of the blue. I met him and he made me sing. He said that I had a mellifluous and sweet voice, ideally suited for light music and bhajans." In Muscat, apart from teaching at ISM, Shyamala takes music lessons too. Many of her students like Manjari Babu and Nitin Rajaram are child prodigies.

From a student of music, how does it feel to be a teacher?

"Great! I love teaching and learning music helps me teach well! And with every student, my learning process has just begun." At this point, Shyamala takes a piece of paper and graphically describes the high and low notes of the raga she is singing. And I am mesmerised! "I want my students to know both science and melody. So I teach them the learning technique through voice control exercises and the theory but ask them never to compromise on melody," she explains.

Now that she has the ultimate feather in her cap, what are her plans next?

"I plan to publish the results of the study in a concise form which will help students in the field. I sincerely hope my work will pave the way for students to explore hitherto unknown areas in music."

"Music is the closest art to the emotion and a person who is in complete love with his music can go places."

And that's exactly what Dr Mohammed too echoes.

"Besides the 14 equivalent ragas and maqamat there is an equivalent spirit that combines the two cultures together. And music is the binding force, be it in whatever language."

Rekha Balakrishnan is a journalist based at Muscat and work as a reporter-cum-sub editor for the entertainment section of the Times of Oman newspaper. Rekha, who hails from Mattanchery, Cochin is married and is living in Muscat with her husband & son.