Ṭhāya – A Pre-Modern Era Musical Form – With Special Reference To Its Adaptation Into The Classical Dance Tradition Of Karnāṭaka

The south Indian classical music forms of the pre-modern era were based on four forms namely Gīta, Ālāpa, Ṭhāya, and Prabandha. “The earliest textual mention of the four melodic forms in one sequence is available in Ramamatya’s Svaramēļa Kalanidhi of 1550 A.D.”. (Seeta 46: 1979).  All genres of classical music were classified under these four forms exclusively. Later Venkatamakhi, the musicologist of the 16th century called the four musical forms as the ‘Caturadaṇḍi’ or four pillars of south Indian music. 

The ṭhāya as a composition with a specific structure was used for perfecting a raga. Tulaja’s Saṅgīta Sārāmruta illustrates the usage of ṭhāya under various ragas. The manuscript collection of TSSML demonstrates the illustrative formats of ṭhāya with ‘Nam tom’ syllables. It seems to have been performed as a nṛtta composition as per historical records in the courts of the Nayaks of Thanjavur along with the above mentioned three forms.
Parallelly, the Karnāṭaka Gurus adapted the ṭhāya into the dance performance format and modified it into a nṛtya composition by adding a lyrical structure. As the melodious rendition of ṭhāya created a devotional ambience for a temple dance offering, it was included in the ālaya repertory. The ṭhāyas have traversed in the oral tradition to the 20th century in the Kolar sampradāya of Karnāṭaka classical dance heritage. A few examples are found in the 19th century manuscripts of its preceptor Yajmann Kolar Kittanna. 

Dr. Padmini Shreedhar. (2024). Ṭhāya – A Pre-Modern Era Musical Form – With Special Reference To Its Adaptation Into The Classical Dance Tradition Of Karnāṭaka. Smṛti - A Bi-annual Peer Reviewed Journal on Fine & Performing Arts, 4(1), 1–11.