COVER STORY

KARAIKUDI MANI A rhythm of his own V. Karpagalakshmi

Master Mani’s mridangam debut at Pudukotai Krishnamoorthy’s veena concert in Karaikudi

Mridangam maestro Mani was born on 11 September 1945 in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu. His father T. Ramanatha Iyer, who hailed from

Ganapati Agraharam near Kumbakonam, taught English and mathematics at the Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar High School, Karaikudi. His mother R. Pattammal belonged to Budalur, and was related to well-known gottuvadyam vidwan Budalur Krishnamurthy Sastri.

Ramanatha Iyer, who had learnt music from Mazhavarayanendal Subbarama Bhagavatar as well as Swaminatha Iyer of Ganapati Agraharam, was a keen music enthusiast, well-versed in the bhajanai paddhati. Their home in Karaikudi was right opposite Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar’s. In fact, Iyengar’s disciples K.V. Narayanaswamy and B. Rajam Iyer regularly partook of the simple breakfast of pazhaiyadu or rice soaked overnight in water and buttermilk, at Ramanatha Iyer’s household. The Nagarathars of Chettinad often sponsored concerts by the leading vidwans at Karaikudi; Ramanatha Iyer not only did not miss a single concert but also cultivated the friendship of the musicians and invited them home.

It was but natural for Mani to be initiated into Carnatic music by his father, that too as early as at the age of three. By the time he was four, Mani had learnt all five of Tyagaraja’s Pancharatna kritis. In the month of Margazhi, father and son regularly woke up at the crack of dawn to join the bhajanai at the Koppudai Amman temple. During temple festivals, Ramanatha Iyer carried young Mani aloft on his shoulders to watch nagaswara vidwans Karukurichi Arunachalam and Vedaranyam Vedamurthy and tavil artist Nachiarkoil Raghava Pillai lead the procession around the four mada veedis – the streets around the temple. It was during these processions, which began at nine at night and often went on into the early hours of the morning after, that Ramanatha Iyer discovered that his son had a penchant for rhythm. Perched on his father’s shoulders, Mani kept perfect time to the beat of the tavil – on his father’s head!

Ramanatha Iyer arranged for Mani to learn mridangam from Karaikudi Rangu Iyengar, a disciple of Karaikudi Muthu Iyer, and chalked out a rigorous daily routine for him: Mani was woken up at five every morning to practise vocal music and mridangam and then study, for forty five minutes each; it was only afterwards that he was given his morning refreshment. As an incentive, he received pocket money of a quarter anna every week to watch a movie.Ramanatha Iyer bought mridangams of different srutis for Mani and

Rangu Iyengar

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made him accompany the concerts broadcast twice daily by All India Radio, Tiruchi. Each concert lasted an hour and a half, and it was quite a challenge to play to pre-recorded music, but young Mani rose to it gamely as he could sing and was familiar with many of the kritis played.

When Mani was about seven, the renowned devotional singer Pithukuli Murugadas visited Karaikudi to perform at the kumbhabhishekam of the Siva temple there. Staying at Ramanatha Iyer’s house, he noticed the array of mridangams there and suggested that Mani play along with him at his bhajanai the next day. That is how ‘Master Mani’ came to accompany Pithukuli Murugadas along with the regular percussionist Sikkil Vadivelu. The concerts began only around 9.30 pm, Mani often fell asleep and had to be woken up by Murugadas who would slip a toffee into his mouth. Mani admits that he often pretended to sleep just so he could get that toffee!

When he was all of eight, Master Mani performed his first full-fledged concert. With his guru Rangu Iyengar on the khanjira and Karaikudi Ramanathan on the violin, he accompanied the veena playing of Pudukotai Krishnamoorthy and his guru Srinivasan at the Koppudai Amman temple in Karaikudi.

An ardent aficionado of Carnatic music and a tireless promoter of talent, it was Ramanatha Iyer who had first recommended the violinist Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan to senior vidwans at the Pudukotai Narasimha Jayanti concerts, and organised Flute Mali’s concerts at his school, ensuring that students paid an entry fee of three quarters of an anna. It was said that he attended concerts in Karaikudi holding his son with one hand and carrying a small mridangam in the other. If Mani got to play and the main percussionist lost his place as a result, Ramanatha Iyer was quick to compensate the vidwan by giving him Rs. 5 out of the Rs. 10 paid to young Mani.

Mani recalls being scolded by his teachers for his frequent absences from school in order to play at concerts. Later on, of course, they were to realise how wrong they had been in this. He was encouraged in his fledgling career by the Nagarathars. Swatantra Party leader Sa. Ganesan, Tamil patron Raya Chokkalingam, and music aficionados Narayanan Chettiar and Thirunavukkarasu Chettiar, all supported and promoted the youngster. After every concert, he was presented a gold coin. Soon he collected as many as 55 such coins.

Mani and his family often spent their summer holidays at Madras with his mother’s sister at Nallathambi Mudali Street, Triplicane, close to

mridanga vidwan Thinniyam Venkatarama Iyer’s house. Ramanatha Iyer, who knew Venkatarama Iyer, once took his son there, hoping for a few advanced lessons. However, all Mani learnt were errands and household chores, not music.

It was around this time that their famous neighbour Ariyakudi suggested that Mani attend the Tyagaraja Aradhana at Devakotai (customarily held right after the festival at Tiruvaiyaru). Ariyakudi even offered to introduce him to the maestro Palghat Mani Iyer at an opportune moment. At the Devakotai Aradhana, the first four of the Pancharatna kritis had been sung but young Mani was yet to play. Just as he was beginning to grow anxious, Ariyakudi sought Palghat Mani Iyer’s permission for the young man to exhibit his talent. None of the well-known mridanga vidwans present was willing to lend Mani his instrument, so Palghat Mani Iyer gave him his own and asked him to perform. The maestro’s was a heavy kappi vadyam which Mani was not quite used to, yet he managed to play well for the kriti Endaro mahanubhavulu.

Afterwards, when Ariyakudi escorted the boy to Palghat Mani Iyer and recommended that he teach him, the maestro advised him to complete his schooling first. The next time Palghat Mani Iyer visited Karaikudi, Ramanatha Iyer informed him that his son had completed his SSLC. This time, the maestro said that since the boy was educated, he was likely to be ill at ease waiting upon a guru and attending to his personal needs in the manner of a sishya in gurukulavasam. Sensing that he was possibly being evasive, Ramanatha Iyer did not pursue the topic further and left it at that.

Meanwhile, having completed his SSLC in 1961, Mani joined Alagappa College, Karaikudi. At that juncture, ghatam maestro

Mani playing the mridangam with U.R. Chandra and Kamakoti Bai (vocal) and Kunnakudi Sarada (violin). His father is seated behind him.

With his mother

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Vinayakram, on a visit to Karaikudi to accompany Ariyakudi at a concert, was invited home by Ramanatha Iyer. When Vinayakram learnt about Mani, he suggested that he be sent to Madras to learn mridangam from his father Harihara Sarma, who had started a school. Earlier, Mani had spent some time at the Theosophical Society, Madras, where his sister’s husband Krishnamurthy worked as chief pharmacist. Despite the restrictions on the campus, Mani had been granted special permission to practise on the mridangam for a couple of hours every day. In those days, Kalakshetra, where vidwans of the calibre of Mysore Vasudevachar, Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer and Vittala Iyer taught, was situated within the Theosophical Society campus. Once Rukmini Devi Arundale herself came to consult Krishnamurthy, heard Mani play and advised him to join Kalakshetra. However, this idea did not find much favour with Ramanatha Iyer, who had his reservations about Kalakshetra’s co-educational system. It was then that he acted on Vinayakram’s offer and Mani went on to learn from Harihara Sarma.

Harihara Sarma was impressed enough to promise to teach Mani all that he had learnt from Tanjavur Vaidyanatha Iyer; at the same time, he believed that Mani’s fingering technique had to be reinvented from scratch. “You are already playing so many concerts,” he said, “so don’t lose heart that you need to start all over again.” Mani spent days, and often nights, at Sarma’s

household, learning his art afresh. Sarma and his wife Neelambal treated him like a son along with their four children. Vinayakram had a fine collection of long playing records which Mani listened to in slow speed in order to understand and analyse the intricacies of Palghat Mani Iyer’s or Palani Subramania Pillai’s technique. He mastered the new fingering

technique within three months, and at the end of six months, Sarma told him, “I have taught you all I know and all that I have learnt from Vaidyanatha Iyer. From now on, you must evolve on your own.”

In 1963, Sarma advised Mani to enter the annual national-level competition conducted by All India Radio. The winners were not only directly graded B by AIR without any audition, but also featured in a special concert, and would receive the President’s award at a glittering function organised at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Mani aced the preliminary rounds with ease, and soon appeared for the all-India final, where the judges included P.V. Rajamannar, Mysore Chowdiah, Palghat Mani Iyer

and Musiri Subramania Iyer. Mani won the first prize for percussion, followed by Mullaikudi Sriramamurthy as runner-up. The winners in other categories that year included violinist L. Subramaniam (whom Mani would later accompany regularly), and vocalist Rajeswari – a visually challenged singer from Kumbakonam.

Mani also won a Government of India scholarship to pursue music full-time under the tutelage of K.M. Vaidyanathan, another disciple of Harihara Sarma. With this, he quit college studies once and for all. The scholarship amount of Rs. 250 (of which Rs. 150 went to the teacher), along with his earnings from concerts, was enough to assure him a decent living. Presently, Ramanatha Iyer and Pattammal sold their house in Karaikudi and joined their son at Madras.

K.M. Vaidyanathan may have been an established ghatam artist, but the guidance he gave Mani on the norms to follow and the means of composing new permutations on the mridangam proved invaluable. “Like kindling the wick of an oil lamp, he nurtured and deepened my skills. Before every new concert, he taught me new ideas and nuances to suit the artist I was to accompany. What’s more, he attended the concert and encouraged me. It was his encouragement that helped me compose new patterns and evolve a bani of my own later.”

“Each one of my gurus taught me something new,” muses Mani, adding, “they were all so fond of me. I was more than a son to Harihara Sarma and his wife Neelambal; I had the blessing to be with her and attend to her when she breathed her last.”

Mani recalls how he first met K. Rajagopalan of Madras Refineries (who co-founded the sabha Nadopasana along with his friends Markandan, Narasimhan, Srinivasan and Subramaniyam) at Harihara Sarma’s place. Much impressed by Mani’s playing, Rajagopalan predicted that the youngster would one day become famous and bring laurels to Sarma’s school. “At a time when I was not too sure about taking up music full-time, Rajagopalan introduced and recommended me to many senior vidwans like Semmangudi, MDR, M.S. Gopalakrishnan, T.N. Krishnan and Mali. Before accompanying each of them, I prepared as if for the IAS exam; I attended their concerts, took notes and practised according to their style of manipulating the talams.”

K.M. Vaidyanathan

Harihara Sarma