India Study Group

(click here for more information on the India Study Group)

Text by Amy Grennan, participant and class of 1997

The ten students from Colgate who resided in Madras from August 29 until December 19 studied various subjects with some of the finest gurus of Madras. Among these subjects were yoga, philosophy, Hinduism, dance, the art of Batik, and a general seminar on the culture of India. A major part of this seminar included traveling throughout South India. Although these courses were demanding and required many hours of meetings per week, the focus of the program was music. Not only were the students exposed to live Indian music performed by renowned musicians, but each student took on the challenge of learning an Indian instrument.

Every Wednesday night at 7 p.m., the Colgate students would hail a rickshaw orwalk the city streets, which were lined with cows, palm trees, wagons of fresh fruit, and people in every direction. The students were on their way to 50 Luz Church Road where musicians were tuning up in a small auditorium with a thatch roof and walls made of bamboo. The female students would be wearing saris or salwar kameeses with bindis on their foreheads and jasmine in their hair. The males wore Indian styled shirts, sometimes complimented by a dhoti (a piece of cloth wrapped around the legs). The students heard vocalists, flutists, and nagaswaram and mrdangam players. Sometimes the musicians accompanied a storyteller or shadow puppet theatre.

The music was difficult to become accustomed to at first, but soon the students became fascinated by the integral role of improvisation in Indian music and the complex rhythmic patterns of the compositions. At the concerts, the students were expected to keep tala (meter/beat) and also to be able to identify the raga (mode) of the piece.

At six in the morning, mrdangam (an Indian drum) lessons were held on the other side of town. Seven students learned this instrument and met with their guru every other day. Two students took vina (a stringed instrument) lessons and three took voice lessons. On December 17th, the students performed for each other in a concert for all of their teachers and friends in Madras. The four Colgate student dancers, who had lessons every day, started off the evening and each performance were superb. It was astonishing how well the students could learn an instrument of a musical style that was so unfamiliar to the western ear.