"A Karnatak Meditation on the Dao" - Cory Maxwell

This presentation by Cory Maxwell, an undergraduate student at Harvard University, was created as part of his final project for a course on classical Chinese ethics and philosophy. Cory began studying Karnatak music in the autumn of 2024 at Harvard University and later undertook a six-week intensive training in vina and vocal music with Dr. Karaikudi Subramanian at Brhaddhvani in the summer of 2025. Following a note by Dr. Karaikudi Subramanian, Cory speaks about how this experience, along with his academic studies, inspired this project.

The backdrop of this work spans Cory's formative encounters as a freshman at Harvard. University, where he was introduced to South Indian classical music, through the Karaikudi Vina tradition, by Prof. Richard Wolf, alongside studies in elementary and intermediate Tamil with Prof. Jonathan Ripley. Drawn deeply to the vina, he travelled to Brhaddhvani for Gurukulam study, spending 6 weeks training in the fundamentals of Karaikudi vina tradition, in an environment shaped by shared interests and values, sustained attentiveness and disciplined listening leading to rigorous musical practice alone and along with senior students.

After returning to university, he composed this tune as part of his class in Chinese philosophy and presented it to me. I was silently amused when I saw this title for Cory’s project. I say silently amused because, without my recounting an incident in which the veteran Carnatic singer Sandhyavandanam Srinivasa Rao once spoke at Brhaddhvani in the midst of other great masters of Carnatic music, about Śadja Dhyānam, (meditation on the primary note-Sa). I found myself wondering how this young American had so intuitively grasped the essence of Karnatak music and connected it with Daoist thought.

It moved me deeply, for I have long reflected on the idea of connectivity in Karnatak music. To me, the philosophy of Indian musical culture is universal: it connects one’s life with the inner self, and with the cosmic energies that surround us - and to which we respond.

In this video, one can see the child within him, meditating on the universality of the meditative Māyāmāḷavagauḷa. The work reflects a mode of learning grounded not in cultural assertion, but in receptivity and expression through sound, language, and the literary imagination that binds music and poetry. His multi-faceted experiences of music, language and thought across cultures found convergence in this work, as an instance of “emotion recollected in tranquillity”.

- Karaikudi Subramanian

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This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to travel from the U.S. to Trichy to study vina and vocals with Dr. Karaikudi Subramanian at Brhaddhvani. Although I had already been introduced to Carnatic music and the Karaikudi tradition through a class at Harvard with Professor Richard K. Wolf, experiencing the tradition first hand in a gurukulam was a truly inspirational experience which helped me deepen my understanding of music of all types. During my time there, Sir taught me the basics of the tradition: the Sarali and Jantai Varisais and the Alankaram.

Going into my 2nd year in university, I took a vina home with me and continued online lessons with Sir. During that semester, I took a class about classical Chinese ethics and philosophy in which we read texts from various classical Chinese thinkers such as Confucius, Mozi, Mencius, Laozi, and Zhuangzi. Through the texts we explored grand themes like how one should live and perceive the world around them, the role of government and authority, as well as human nature. However, the texts that stood out to me most were the Daodejing, written by Laozi, and Inward Training, both of which belong to the Daoist school of thought.

These classic Daoist texts are rich in meaning despite their passages being short and pithy. In this way, they are profound and full of mystery. Furthermore, they carry spiritual messages that are delivered in a very poetic way. At Brhaddhvani, Sir also taught me to recite and sing the poetry of Sir Vaidheeswaran for Sarali Varisai. Thus for my final project for this class, I was inspired to write a short composition in Raga Mayamalavagowlai, Tisra Eka Tala, with the lyrics as the Daoist texts. For me, the shortness of the Daoist verses mirrors beautifully the lyrics of a typical Carnatic composition which allow for meditative repetition through sangatis. Furthermore, their poetic and spiritual nature also made me think that they were well-suited for a Carnatic-style composition.

I am thus calling my composition “A Karnatak Meditation on the Dao”, and I have chosen three passages from these texts that all have the theme of the Dao, which means “the Way” in Chinese, symbolizing the mysterious force and eternal order of the world. In this way also, the choice of Raga Mayamalavagowlai thus symbolizes the primacy of the Way, since it is the first raga most musicians learn. I start by meditating on the first line of the first chapter of Laozi, which says “A Way that can be followed is not a constant Way. A name that can be named is not a constant name.” For me, as the first two sentences in the Daodejing, and perhaps one of the most mysterious, they hold the most importance, and so I spend much of the first few minutes of the song singing them with sangatis, and each section of the song ends with them as a refrain. In each section also I have repeated every few sentences within each passage in order to allow the listener to meditate and come to a greater appreciation of the mystery and depth of the Way.

For this project I owe immense gratitude to my guru, Sir Karaikudi Subramanian, for giving me not only one, but often two lessons a day, as well as providing me with a meditative environment in which I could dedicate myself to this music all day. Through his tutelage and influence, I not only ascertained the basics, but came to a holistic understanding and appreciation of the aesthetics of Raga Mayamalavagowlai. Thus, through my stay at Brhaddhvani, I was inspired to undertake this project and equipped with the proper understanding of the raga to do justice to its gamakas and melodic possibilities.