The Indian music therapy scene is fairly underdeveloped when compared to the progress made in the west after decades of serious and creative experimentation. But there are pockets of excellence saving the day for the inheritors of AUM, the first sound ever that led to Creation, according to the Rig Veda. Said Swami Vivekananda: “Brahman first manifested itself as Sound, and then as Form.” The Bible also mentions that the cosmos was created through sound: “In the Beginning, there was the Word. And the Word was God.”
So whether one refers to it as Aum, the Word, Big Bang (as scientists would have it), it seems that everything begins with sound and Creation, including music therapy.
The love of music was the pivotal force for Dr Manjula Devi, which made her study medicine and specialise in psychiatry. Now Assistant Professor of psychiatry in National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), she prescribes music therapy for most of her patients. It is essentially an adjunct to mainstream medicare.
With formal training in music from the age of three, Dr Devi went on to complete a diploma in music before embarking on study and a career in conventional medicine. “People with a musical background cope better with stress and tension when compared with those without any footing in music,” she says with conviction.
In her private consultation, Dr Devi recommends music therapy to patients. She has also donated cassettes of assorted compositions to the cancer ward at a hospital in Mumbai. “Patients who are insomniacs, mentally challenged and those who are sexually dysfunctional have been successfully treated with music therapy,” she says.
But, she insists, that music therapy is not a cure in itself. It has to be associated with psychotherapy and other oral medicines. “Moreover, one shouldn’t practise this therapy without assistance from experienced musicians or therapists because one might just end up aggravating the pain or the disorder.”
Dr Devi is not alone. She is part of a select band. A neurosurgeon, Dr Lakshmi Narayanan, also prescribes music therapy to patients with mental and neurological disorders and those in a coma. He says, “Music helps the pace of recovery and we use it when the patient is in coma.”
Prakash Sontakke, a classical singer and instrumentalist, however feels that, “One should definitely have a grounding in music and should harbour some affinity towards music for the therapy to work.” Sontakke has worked with several organisations in implementing music therapy. His father Raja Bhau Sontakke, also a renowned singer, runs a music institute in Bangalore. His guru was the great Omkarnath Thakur, who, during his visit to Rome, it is believed, made a profound impression on Benito Mussolini, curing II Duce of insomnia.
Bharathamuni in his book, Natyashastra, has mentioned 108 karmas, each of them dealing with a human disorder and its cure. The Vedas have also mentioned different ragas to cure many ailments. Legend has it that Sushrutha, the Father of Medicine in India, used music to dull pain during surgery. Experts in the field insist that almost all ragas have a corresponding human organ that works when the ragas are used.