The music of Hindostan - Ibiblio

83 LEGEND, HISTORY, AND THE PRESENT DAY
.8ra.
Ramaehandra of Trivandrum, who was suffering i'lom rheumatism,
could not play for long together. He had the expressiveness of
Subbanna without his invention, and the smoothness of Seshanna
without his execution. He used the lower strings more than either
of them; his fingers went down firmly on the strings and gave
a clear and precise tone. His favourite ' grace ' was the ' Slide ',
whereas Seshanna's was the ' Deflect '.^
Next to the expressive v^id comes the dignified surhahar, which
I heard only in Calcutta, where it was played by Sourendro Banerji.
Its lower strings, which are freely used, have to be struck hard in
order to produce the after effect of namak
Ex.
174.w
^¥^^ X±5I
which is a favourite opening ; and this gave it a rather ponderous
sound. Its frets are but slightly, it at all, moved ; and there are
no ' settings ' {fJidlt) for the different modes as on the satdr. Consequently
much more is left to be done by gaiuak, especially the
'
Deflect
•*
[ml/ifl, called in Bengal vnrli), and this contributes to its
grave and dignified tone.
There is also a mandolin stroke, double,
with the forefinger and little finger each armed with a plectrum
{misrah), which, though no less
irritating as a continuance than the
mandolin itself, provides a good occasional contrast. Banerji was
fond of contrasting his gamakked and his fretted note, as a violinist
likes to contrast his open and his stopped E. The clianferelle is
away from the player\s body, i. e. nearest his fingers (it is the other
way on the ?^/^«), and this seemed to give better opportunity for the
Deflect. Altogether there was much more mystery in the sound
of this instrument than in that of the rather commonplace satdr or
1 See Chapter VII.