reminiscence of a musician
TRANSCRIPT
A MUSICIAN'S REMINISCENCES
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram, Sangeetha Kala Rathna, Karnataka Kala Tilaka, Ganakala Rathna
Prof. Mysore Sri. V. Ramarathnam
Smt. UMA PRASANNA
Saraswathi Puram: Mysore 570 009
First Edition: 2005
Printed at : G.S. Nagendra, Kamataka Press
21, Swimming Pool Road, Sarswathipuram, Mysore 570 009
“rendering needs to be instructive to the layman and the learned alike. Every sangati and neraval and swara should have a defined purpose and the layman should feel the bhava laden music”
…Sangeetha Shastra Visharadha Mysore K Vasudevachar
“The Acharya is the upholder of music tradition. He is an expert in painting beautifully the raga’s complete picture. In his singing jaru gamakas (slitting) and Kampitha gamakas were prominent. We are really fortunate to listen to this divine singing.”
… Sangeetha Rathna Mysore T Chowdiah on Vasudevacharya
‘‘Whichever composition you learn, you must practice it intensely to bring about the beauty of the raga. Unless this is done, it will be of no use’’
…. Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar
‘‘These are not ordinary men. These are the asura’s of the music field. If I sing one concert, I need to rest the whole of next day.’’
…GNB on witnessing Chembai render 3 major concerts on a single day
“in the age old tradition, famous Nadaswaram players like Ponnuswamy and others used to learn vocal music from well known vocalists. Vocal music has its own style. The vocalist has to foster it. Instrumental music has its own style and method. Whenever a composition has to be rendered, its raga has to be elaborated suitably. This has to be borne in mind all the time. Similarly regarding raga elaboration for pallavis, neraval and swara singing, there was no tradition of singing to exhibit Nadais. Swara and nereval singing should be full of feeling. Differences between each tempo has to be very clear.’’
.. advice & guidance I received from Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyegar
‘I do not wish to say it is enough. Is there any one who can elaborate the raga traditionally, singing enchantingly to a suitable part of the song and singing rare and imaginative swara combinations, showing the raga’s personality and its necessary prominent gamakas like you?’’
Vidwan Ralapalli Ananthakrishna Sarma on Tiger Varadachar
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Contents 1 A New Chapter in My Life............................................................................. 29 2 My Guru Mysore T. Chowdiah (1895-1967) ................................................. 32
2.1 AYYANAR COLLEGE OF MUSIC ............................................................ 36 2.2 DISCIPLES OF AYYANAR COLLEGE OF MUSIC .................................. 36 2.3 SRI BIDARAM KRISHNAPPA’S PRASANNA SEETHA RAMA
MANDIRAM .............................................................................................. 36 3 My close acquaintance with some famous musicians.................................. 38
3.1 Mysore Vasudevacharya (1865-1961)...................................................... 38 3.2 MY MEETING WITH TIGER VARADACHAR (1876-1950) ...................... 40 3.3 Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar (1896-1976) ...................................... 43 3.4 Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar (1890-1967) ................................................ 45 3.5 Karaikkudi Brothers—Subbarama Iyer (1883-1936) and Sambasiva Iyer
(1888-1958) .............................................................................................. 50 3.6 Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer (1896-1970) ......................................... 51 3.7 Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu (1893-1964) ............................................ 53 3.8 Musiri Subramanya Iyer (1899-1974) ....................................................... 55 3.9 Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer (1908-2003) ................................................. 57 3.10 G. N. Balasubramanyam (1910-1965)...................................................... 61 3.11 Madurai Mani Iyer (1912-1968) ................................................................ 63 3.12 Mudikondan C. Venkatarama Iyer (1897-1975)........................................ 63 3.13 Alathoor Brothers - Srinivasa Iyer (1912-1980); Sivasubramanya Iyer
(1916-1965) .............................................................................................. 64 3.14 Chittor Subramanya Pillai (1898-1975)..................................................... 65
4 Some contemporary musicians of Karnataka............................................... 66 4.1 Chintanapalli Venkata Rao (1875-1969)................................................... 66 4.2 N. Chennakesavaiah (1895-1984)............................................................ 67 4.3 Titte Krishna Iyengar (1902-1997) ............................................................ 68 4.4 L. S. Narayanaswamy Bhagavatar (1908-1970)....................................... 68 4.5 B. K. Padmanabha Rao (1903-1966) ....................................................... 69 4.6 Bangalore Tayappa .................................................................................. 70 4.7 K. S. Viswanatha Sastri (1911-1968)........................................................ 70 4.8 Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sharma (1893-1979) ....................................... 71 4.9 Veena Sundara Sastri (1885-1935) .......................................................... 72 4.10 C. Rangiah (1895-1984) ........................................................................... 72 4.11 R. S. Keshavamurthy (1903-1982) ........................................................... 73 4.12 M. S. Selvappillai Iyengar (1915-1993)..................................................... 73 4.13 R. K. Venkatarama Shastri (1910-1993)................................................... 74 4.14 Swaramurthi V. N. Rao (1917-1980) ........................................................ 74 4.15 Other Musician Friends of Mysore............................................................ 75
5 A NEW CHAPTER IN MY LIFE.................................................................... 76 6 I BECAME A COMPOSER........................................................................... 81 7 MY LIFE AFTER RETIREMENT .................................................................. 82
7.1 Sangeetha Kala Rathna Award from Bangalore Gayana Samaja ............ 85 7.2 My Gratitude to the U.S.A......................................................................... 88 7.3 My plan for a tour of Europe ..................................................................... 89
8 A Call From the U.S.A. ................................................................................. 91 8.1 Introduction by Toronto Venkataraman, President, Bhairavi Fine arts ..... 91 8.2 Musician’s Musician Prof. Mysore Sri V. Ramarathnam Honored at
Cleveland & Acceptance Speech ............................................................. 92 9 Books By The Author : Prof. V. RAMARATHNAM .................................. 94 10 MY COMPOSTIONS.................................................................................... 94
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10.1 rAga – tODi, tALa – rUpaka – Composition in Kannada.......................... 96 10.2 rAga - sAveri, tALa - Adi – Composition in Sanskrit ............................... 99 10.3 rAga – bhairavi, tALa - Adi – Composition in Sanskrit ............................ 103 10.4 rAga – aabhEri, tALa - Adi – Composition in Sanskrit ............................ 106 10.5 rAga – aabhOgi, tALa - Adi – Composition in Kannada......................... 109 10.6 rAga – reetigauLa, tALa - Adi – Composition in Sanskrit........................ 112 10.7 rAga – suraTi, tALa - miSra laghu (CApu) – Composition in Sanskrit .... 115 10.8 rAga kEdAragauLa, tALa Adi – Composition in Kannada..................... 118 10.9 rAga – aThANa, tALa - Adi – Composition in Kannada .......................... 121 10.10 rAga – pUrvikalyANi, tALa - misra chApu – Composition in Sanskrit ..... 124 10.11 rAga – ShaNmukhapriya, tALa - Adi – Composition in Telugu ............... 127 10.12 rAga – vAcaspati, tALa - Adi – Composition in Sanskrit ......................... 130 10.13 rAga – kalyANi, tALa - khaMda chApu – Composition in Telugu............ 133 10.14 rAga- Hindola tAla- Adi – Composition in Kannada ................................ 136 10.15 Raga- cHrakavaka tAla: Adi Composition in Sanskrit............................. 139 10.16 Raga: karaharapriya tAla: Adi Composition in Telugu ............................ 142 10.17 Raga: ManirRangu, tAla: Adi Composition in Sanskrit ........................... 144 10.18 Raga – kAmboji – tAla – misracApu – Composition in Sanskrit ............. 147 10.19 Raga – yadukulakAmboji, tAla – rUpaka – Composition in Sanskrit ...... 150 10.20 Raga – nAtakuranji, tAla – rUpaka - Composition in Sanskrit ............... 153 10.21 Raga – SaMkarABaraNa, tAla – cApu, Composition in Sanskrit ............ 155 10.22 Raga – aAraBi, tAla – Adi- Composition in Sanskrit ............................... 159 10.23 Raga– SaMkarABaraNa, tAla – Adi, Composition in Sanskrit ................ 162 10.24 Raga – kAmavardhini, tAla – Adi Composition in Sanskrit ..................... 165 10.25 Raga – latAngi, tAla – Adi, Composition in Sanskrit ............................... 168 10.26 Raga – madyAmAvati, tAla – Adi, Composition in Sanskrit .................... 171
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PREFACE
More than three decades ago, I happened to be in Mysore and attended a Carnatic vocal concert in the city center at the Ganavisharada Bidaram Krishnappa Prasanna Seetharama Mandira. The main concert hall which had its inauguration in 1929 is neither big nor small, but has a very intimate atmosphere. The sanctum at the west end of the hall features a large beautiful painting of Sri Rama Pattabhishekham. The dais faces the sanctum at the other end of the hall. The east wall is decorated with the portraits of the great Acharyas, Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya and Madhwacharya. Bidaram Krishnappa’s portrait is in the august presence of these philosophers. Portraits of musicians and vaggeyakaras from the late 19th and 20th century adore the walls facing north and south on either side of the dais.
The main artist of the day was Prof. V. Ramarathnam. Well before the scheduled start time, the concert hall was packed full of eager musicians and music aficionados. The Professor started the concert with a short varnam in the very unusual raga “Udayaravichandrika”. It charged the whole atmosphere and when the varnam ended, the audience was looking at each other with happy smiles even though most were probably strangers to each other. Even the musicians in the portraits seemed to be looking down at the assembly benignly. The Rama Pattabhishekham painting in the sanctum seemed to have taken on special glow.
This ability of the professor to make such a remarkable impact on the audience in such a short time could not have come by sheer practice alone. It can only happen when the artist gets into the mood of the raga, the composition and allows the laya to time it perfectly. I have not forgotten this experience even after several decades.
True to his personality, the Professor has devoted most of this book to drawing pen portraits of famous musicians who were his mentors and his contemporaries while allowing himself to almost recede to the background. This book is a very valuable study and should be useful to music students and music historians as well.
This book also includes a section that contains the Professor’s compositions in various raga’s complete with text and notation. The compositions are in three languages – Sanskrit, Kannada and Telugu. Not only has Prof. Ramarathnam included brief descriptions of the ragas but also has delineated them morning ragas, evening ragas and those that could be sung at any timeThe documented impressions from his wide travels in the U.S.A, UK and Europe is an added treat to the readers of this book.
We have to be grateful to Dr. Ram Krishna of Yuma, Arizona, U.S.A for having come forward to publish the Professor’s memoirs in both English and Kannada. Grateful thanks are also due to Dr. V.S. Sampthkumaracharya, a well known author, musicologist and long time friend of the Professor for transliterating the book from Kannada to English.
It is amazing to read about the Professor’s commitment to Carnatic music. Even after suffering heart attacks and ailments, the Professor has bounced back with his sheer willpower and has given many two and a half to three hour concerts. In an effort to preserve posterity the authentic and traditional “patantharams” of many rare compositions, the Professor has also written several books on the theory and practical aspects of music. Music students and teachers alike have enthusiastically received these books. A list of publications by the Professor is also to be found in this book.
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The author himself has expressed satisfaction about this book. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to all music students, music teachers, and music lovers.
K. Raghavendra Rao
Director (Retd.) Construction Company, Calcutta Representative - Sruti Magazine,
ISAVASYAM 481, III Block, Jayalakshmipuram
Mysore 570012
Sri Rama Navami April 18, 2005
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Author’s Note
I do not have the desire to write a book depicting my life and to be praised as a great person, ideal musician scholar, etc. I am not a writer of repute either. It is my duty to let the reader know that the key person that persuaded me to write this book is Dr. Ram Krishna, a reputed surgeon and administrator from Arizona, U.S.A. and a close friend of my eldest son V.R. Subramanyam. It is his desire that I document my experiences and interactions with the stalwarts of yesteryears and make it available to music lovers, students and teachers alike.
‘Kalaanam grahanaadeva saubhAgyamupajaayate’ ….. (Rajamanasollasa)
if one grasps the fine arts, he/she is blessed in every way. Remembering great persons will itself result in fulfillment of desires - inspiring words like these has helped me take this project to completion. I have recorded here some unforgettable incidents in my life, and I have sincerely attempted to place them before you, the music-lovers and persons of taste. I have also noted how I was influenced by some of the great musicians of the past and their musical eminence. I have also documented the various musical compositions I learnt from them, their considered opinions, ways of rendering pallavi’s and the salient points I have learnt in my musical career. I have provided information on some of my contemporary musician friends. I have depicted the development of the University of Mysore Fine Arts College during my tenure as the first principal, and my stay in the U.S.A after my retirement and experiences thereof. This project has given me much satisfaction, as it has provided an opportunity to remember some great musicians about whom I have great regard, my close friends, cultured music lovers and those that have helped me in my musical career.
While I was preparing to write this book, my health deteriorated quite unexpectedly and required multiple hospitalizations. An accidental fall while recuperating broke my hip that made my condition even more precarious. My son’s close friend Dr. Ram Krishna came from the U.S.A. and performed the needed surgery at the Vaidehi Medical Centre at Whitefield, Bangalore. This gave me a new lease on life and enabled me to recover. For this, I am ever grateful to Dr. Ram Krishna. I was still quite helpless and at this juncture, my long time friend Dr. V. S. Sampathkumaracharya offered his help to translate my narration into this book. Dr. V. S. Sampathkumaracharya is an author of repute, a fine musicologist and a retired Principal and Professor of Education and has co-authored several books with me since 1964.
I am also indebted to my friend, a well known scholar, thinker and publisher Sri D.V.K. Murthy for publishing this book. I am highly indebted to Dr. Ram Krishna U.S.A., my children, son-in-law Srinivasan and daughter-in law for their cooperation. The well known writer and music critic, Sri. Raghavendra Rao, has crowned this small book with his fine introduction. I am highly indebted to him for his kind words. I would also like to thank my son-in-law’s friend Mr. Vijay Iyengar, a native of Bangalore, now living in Switzerland, for taking up the difficult task of transliterating all of my compositions with notations from Kannada to English using ITRANS.
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I am also thankful to Sri.G. S. Nagendra and his coworkers, who have brought out this book very beautifully in a short period of time.
V. Ramarathnam
Mysore.
March 2006
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Words of Appreciation
I was fortunate to travel alongside the memory lane across the ocean of carnatic music for the past seven decades or so along with Sangeetha kala sagara Prof. Mysore V. Ramarathnam. The book “Reminiscence of a musician” captures Prof. Ramarathnam’s journey in the ocean of carnatic music. It is amazing to witness the Professor’s energy and interest in music and life in general, despite his advanced age, and several major ailments. Just as “Dharmam Rakshati Rakshitaha” Prof. Ramarathnam is a living testimony to” Sangeetham Rakshati Rakshitaha”, music protects those who protect it. This recent work by the professor is a great asset to vidwans and students in the field of carnatic music today.
It is beyond Professor’s physical strength to wield the pen to depict his ideas and experiences of the past eight or so decades. It is at this stage that his long time friend, a well known historian, co-author and musicologist Dr. V.S. Sampathkumaracharya (1925 - ) has given shape to the narration of Prof. Ramarathnam’s memories, experiences in the field of music.
Ramarathnam’s ancestors were of rich, cultured, and musical family. They were great patrons to some of the famous composers such as Pallavi Shesha Iyer. Professor Ramarathnam spent his early years in Chittoor getting education and training in vocal music from his aunt. Following a bout of illness, he migrated from Chittor, Andhra Pradesh to Bangalore, a part of the Royal Province of Mysore, for medical treatment and further education. Though originally from Chittoor, by his dedication and achievement in music, the Professor came to be known as Mysore Ramarathnam.
As a boy living in Bangalore, his inherent love of music running in his veins, blossomed, influenced by concerts of legendary artists at various music festivals. Professor’s ability to absorb the nectar of music, and take up a colorful journey in the path of achievement is a true testimony to the old saying “Oh! Pilgrim! The path is not given, you have to walk and shape it”. This is the description of Prof. Ramarathnam’s colorful yet challenging journey in the musical path. We have to savor it by reading this book. While enjoying the kernel, the reader enjoys the musical flavor of the contemporary musical environment intimately, in addition to the short life sketches of the great musicians and their favorite compositions.
The short notes regarding his acquaintances with great musicians written in a fine meaningful way, serves as a mirror to their genius. His gurus were Sangeetha Rathna Mysore T. Chowdiah and Sangeetha Shastra Visharadha Mysore K. Vasudevacharya. Ramarathnam gained significant knowledge through close associations with legends such as Tiger Varadachar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Musari Subramanya Iyer, Alathoor Srinivasa Iyer and others. Prof. Ramarathnam had intimate contact with all of the famous musicians of the 20th century. This is an example of his thirst for knowledge and a cultured heart. “ Can one get salvation if one does not meditate with devotion Achyutananta” says the sangitha pithamaha Saint Purandara Dasa.
Sri. Ramarathnam has nicely captured the pictures of life and strife of his contemporary musicians. While heartfelt, this brings back to us the statement made by Sri. K. Vasudevacharya - the benefactors of grace from goddess Saraswathi’s usually do not enjoy much grace from goddess Lakshmi. We can understand this, but if in addition, they are the subjected to jealousy, intolerance, and misuse of power, what is to be the
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fate of the artist? Purandara Dasa himself has observed this dark side of human beings in his song – “all is useless, good rule is also useless”.
The Professor is a vocalist par excellence, a true guru, an imaginative composer, an able administrator, a world traveler, is free from egoism and is genuinely affectionate towards others and is himself surrounded by a very affectionate family – such is the life our respected Ramarathnam. Now he is approaching his 90th year. The detached manner in which he describes his journey through life and paints the pictures of his interactions with the giants of music are inspiring. Despite the Professor’s aversion to self-promotion that one can discern from this book, the readers would agree with me that more information about his family tree, role he played in building the University College of Music and Dance, University of Mysore, honors he received, anecdotes and his moments of enjoyment, etc. would have been welcome.
G.T. Narayana Rao
8, ‘Atri’ Kamakshi Hospital Road
Mysore 570009
91-821-2543759
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Portraits of Pictures
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Third row:
First row: T.R. Srinivasan, Prof. Ramarathnam ,
Scond row:
Portrait with my gurus Sri Vasudevacharya & Sri T. Chowdiah and my disciples
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Testimonial from Sangeetha Shastra Visharadha Mysore K. Vasudevachar
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Testimonial from my guru Sangeetha Rathna Mysore T. Chowdiah
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In Concert with Mridangam Vidwan Palghat Mani Iyer – Karnataka Sangeetha Kala Parishath in 1973
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President of Madras Music Academy Sri T.T. Vasu Conferring the “Sangeetha Kala Rathna Award” on Prof. Mysore Sri V. Ramarathnam, Bangalore Gayana Samaja 1983
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“Sangeetha Kala Rathna Award Concert” with Sangeetha Kalanidhi M. Chandrasekar on violin, Sangeetha Rathnakara Vellore Sri V. Ramabhadran on
Mridangam, Smt. Uma Prasanna (vocal support), 1983
Lecture Demonstration on Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi at Bangalore Gayana Samaja with C.R. Mani on Violin and M.L. Veerabhadriah on Mridangam
President of India Sri. K.R. Narayanan presenting Chowdiah Centenary Memorial Award on Prof. Mysore Sri V. Ramarathnam, Chowdiah Hall, Bangalore, 1995
President of India Sri. K.R. Narayanan presenting Chowdiah Centenary Memorial Award on Prof. Mysore Sri V. Ramarathnam, Chowdiah Hall, Bangalore, 1995
“Sangeetha Rathna T. Chowdiah Centenary Award” concert 1995 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall Bangalore Accompanyments: L.S. Sheshagiri Rao –Violin, A.V. Anand – Mridangam,
Bangalore K. Venkataram – Ghatam, Smt. Uma Prasanna & G.R. Jaya (Vocal Support)
Receiving the “Sawara Murthy Award” from the Governer of Karnataka Honorable Mr. H.N. Chathurvedi and Sri I.M. Vittala Murthy I.A.S – Secretary, Forest, Ecology &
Environment accompanied by Vidwan Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, 2004
In conversation with Padma Bhushana Veerendra Hegde of Dharmasthala and Lalgudi G. Jayaraman during Swaramurthy V.N. Rao Memorial Award felicitation, 2004
His Holiness H.H. Viswesa Theertha Swamiji of Udupi Pejawar Mutt felicititating Prof. Ramarathnam in 2004
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B. V. Jagadeesh (Cheif Guest) puts on the gold bracelet as Vidwan R.K.Srikantan looks on, conferring the title of Sangeetha Kala Sagaram to Prof. Mysore Sri V.
Ramaratham, 2005
Prof. Ramrathnam delivers the speech, with V. V. Sundaram, Toronto Venkataraman, A.K.C. Natarajan and B. V. Jagadeesh(Chief Guest) listening in
the background, 2005.
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Off Stage with other Vidwans
Prof. Ramarathnam with Vidwan M. Chandreskar at a concert event in San Jose, California in 2000
Prof. Ramarathnam with Prof. T.N. Krishnan and Trichy Sankaran at a concert event, in San Jose, California 2002
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MY EARLY LIFE
This book is a modest attempt to recollect the key events that have sculpted my life. I have crossed eight decades and I am in the ninth decade of my life. As I look back at my journey, I feel a strong sense of satisfaction. This journey has been one of excitement and discovery with unexpected twists and turns and a guiding light showing me the way during many difficulties. I have strong faith that I am on a satisfied and peaceful path to the end point. To tell my story, I have to begin from the starting point.
The refrain—‘Tirupathi Venkataramana, Sankataharana’ is a very famous one. It has been rendered beautifully in the raga Begade by great musicians of the past. The Tirumala Tirupathi Temples are one of the most famous pilgrimage centers in India. This is located in the state of Andhra Pradesh in South India. Large number of devotees visit this centre throughout the year to have the divine darsan of Lord Srinivasa of Tirumala. To visit this centre by road from Mysore or Bangalore, one passes through Kolar and Chittor in Andhra Pradesh. The name Chittor brings to memory, the great Mysore Sadasiva Rao, an ardent devotee of God, famous musician, composer and a direct disciple of Valajapet Venkataramana Bhagavathar. Valajapet Venkataramana Bhagavathar himself was the favorite student and prime disciple of the great musician saint, Sadguru Thyagaraja. Sadasiva Rao was the eldest child of the couple Ganesh Rao and Krishnabai who lived in Girrampet in Chittor. While Thyagaraja was visiting Valajapet Venkataramana Bhagavathar’s place, Mysore Sadasiva Rao, who was a young boy then, composed the song ‘Tygarajaswamy Vedalina’ in the raga Todi, sang it and received the saint’s blessings. Later, he migrated to Mysore and became the celebrated chief musician of the royal court of Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar of Mysore (1799-1868) and came to be known as Mysore Sadasiva Rao.
I am proud to have been born in Chittor that is also the birth place of the great musician Mysore Sadasiva Rao. I was born on December 20, 1917. Perhaps, this is not a coincidence, especially looking back at the events that shaped me to become a musician later. At first I was referred to as Chittor V. Ramarathnam but eventually became Mysore V. Ramarathnam. My parents were the late Subbaramaiah and Parvatamma. My mother tongue is Telugu. Vuppuladhadium is the name of our family. As per my memory of our family tree none of my ancestors were musicians. However, they were all passionate lovers of Carnatic music. I have been told that my great grandfather Muniratnam was a very rich businessman dealing in jewelry and precious stones. My grandfather Venkaiah was a B.A., B.L. and was a graduated from the Madras Christian College. He was a well known High Court advocate. He was a great lover of Carnatic music. He used to attend the concerts of all the famous musicians of his time without fail. He especially loved the music of Madurai Pushpavanam Iyer, Coimbatore Tayi and others. He would forget himself in conversations that dealt with their music and showered his praises on them. By constant listening to these masters, he had learnt quite a few compositions of Saint Thyagaraja and used to sing them. My father invariably used to accompany my grand father to these music concerts and by his attentive listening he too had learnt several compositions of Saint Thyagaraja and he used to sing and enjoy them. Thus, in my early childhood, through the influence of my grandfather and father the love for music became ingrained in me.
My elder uncle Kodandaramaiah owned a house on Tambuchetty Street in Chennai and lived there for many years. He was my father’s cousin and his co-brother also. My uncle was a great lover of Carnatic music also. In order to learn music, he supported the
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famous musician and composer of his times, Pallavi Sesha Iyer (1846-1908) in his house for many years. Pallavi Sesha Iyer stayed in my uncle’s house itself and taught him music for several years. My elder aunt Sharadamma had a fine voice. By attentively listening to Pallavi Sesha Iyer’s lessons to my uncle and practicing them, she taught herself many songs and Tillanas. These included compositions of Patnam Subramanya Iyer and Muvvalur Sabhapati Iyer. I can remember even now that she used to sing them beautifully. My uncle Kodandaramaiah was very well-off and gave Rs. 3000/- to Pallavi Sesha Iyer and pursuaded him to publish a book of his compositions. Sehsa Iyer was quite unwilling to do so. He kept on dodging the project by saying ‘‘Thyagaraja’s compositions are being spoiled by everyone. Should the same thing befall my compositions also?’’. Inspite of my uncle’s repeated requests, Pallavi Sesha Iyer kept putting off the project. He ultimately spent the money given to him on restaurants and other things. About 30-40 years after my uncle passed away, Prof. P.Sambamurthy published Pallavi Sesha Iyer’s compositions. Pallavi Sesha Iyer was a great musician and a composer, but had a strong egotistical weakness. If musicians committed even a small mistakes in their concerts, he would publicly criticize them and make them very miserable. Most musicians hated him. It was rumored that some took recourse to black magic to ruin his voice.
After my uncle Kodandaramiah’s untimely death, my aunt Shardamma moved to live with us in Chittor. She used to sing with great devotion and her voice remained melodious for quite some time. This musical environment at home had a salutary effect on me and like my aunt, I developed skills to learn music by constant, attentive listening.
My grandfather had cultivable lands in the village Bandapalli about 1½ miles from Chittor. He had a fruit orchard with more than 50 mango trees. He had engaged farmers to cultivate vegetables, paddy, groundnuts, pulses and other cash crops. My grandfather had purchased about 40 cows, several pairs of bullocks and handed over them to the farmer for care and use. The farmer’s sons were looking after his lands and cows. My grandfather used to help the farmers liberally and took care of their welfare.
My father Subbaramaiah was the head-master of a high school in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh. My younger uncle and three sisters grew up under the care of my grandfather, who owned two farms, a house and several villages. Everything about this joint family was quite good and satisfactory. My grandfather was a disciplinarianHe used to get up at 5.30 in the morning, proceed to his farms and would return at 7 a.m. After attending to his routine work, he would get ready at 10 a.m. for his court work and leave for the district court. After returning from the court, he would go on a long walk and return home. I learnt about my grandfather’s disciplined life from my father and was very much impressed by it. Such was the peaceful life of our joint family. But this peace was shattered by a catastrophe. My grand father had kept a large deposit of Rs.1,80,000/- in the Arbothnot Company. This was a very big amount of money in those days. As fate would have it, the Arborthnot company went bankrupt and my grandfather lost his huge investment. This dealt a mortal blow to him. He became very dejected and passed away in despair.
My grandfather’s death was the start of a series of misfortunes and troubles. My uncle forced the family property to be split much against the wishes of my father. This forced my father to leave his job in Kurnool and he settled down in Chittor. He was left with a small house and a some acres of agricultural land. In this house, I would grow up with the rest of the family. I had three brothers and three sisters. I was the fifth child in the family with two older brothers and two older sisters. My oldest brother Nageshwara
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Rathnam worked as an accountant in a book company in Hyderabad. My other older brother Lakshmi Narasimharatnam was a Sub-inspector of Police in Chittor.
During my high school years in Chittor, I along with my immediate older brother got involved with an amateur drama organization called Rama Vilasa Sabha. This theater group was noted for the production of musicals, especially mythological plays. Rao Bahadur Rama Krishnaraju, Advocate Nagari Varadachari, the famous stage actor Bellary Raghavachar, Chittor V. Nagaiah (became a famous cinema actor later), former Governer of Bihar, M. Anantasaynam Iyengar and other well known personalities were members of this Sabha. Except Anantasayanam Iyengar, all the others used to take part in the plays enacted by Rama Vilasa Sabha. My brother Lakshmi Narasimharatnam and myself used to enact the role of Lava and Kusha. While I was studying in the S.S.L.C. class, my health suddenly deteriorated and the doctors recommended that I be moved to Bangalore for obtaining proper care. I could not pursue my studies any further due to my bad health. I stayed with my uncle, M. R. Nageswaram who lived in Bangalore. He enabled me to obtain proper medical treatment.
M. R. Nageswaram was my uncle from my mother’s side. He was the Jahagirdar of Madagonadahalli and nearby villages near Hosur. His grandfather and Dewan Purniah of Mysore were great friends. The account of how he got the Jahagir of 40 villages from the then British Military Chief Munroe is extremely interesting and was narrated to me by my uncle M. R. Nageswaram.
It so happened that the British Military Chief Munroe rode alone on his horse back one day very far into the forest of Denkani Kote. The horse became very tired and thirsty. Froth was coming out of its mouth. Munroe was too thirsty as well. He went in search of water. He saw my uncle’s grandfather drawing water from a well. He got down from his horse and asked for water for himself and his horse. Both did not know each other’s languages i.e. Telugu or English. Conversation was carried on only by signs of the hand. My uncle’s grandfather understood his want, but there was no vessel to give water to Chief Munroe. My uncle’s grandfather showed Munroe to join his palms like a cup so that he could pour water for him to drink. Munroe’s thirst was quenched but he asked for water for his horse. Then my uncle’s grandfather took Munroe’s hat, filled the breathing holes in the hat with twigs, poured water into it and fed it to the horse. Munroe profusely thanked him for the favor and also became quite impressed with my uncle’s grandfather’s smarts. Chief Munroe at once concluded that this smart, resourceful person could be quite useful to the British administration. Chief Munroe made arrangements to have further conversations with my uncle’s grandfather and found a trusteworthy translator to effectively communicate. Munroe came to know that my uncle’s grandfather and Dewan Poorniah were great friends.
This was the period when Tippu Sultan, had usurped the throne of Mysore Wodeyars for whom Dewan Poorniah was a trusted advisor. British military Chief Munroe very much wanted to communicate with Dewan Poornaiah and my uncle’s grandfather facilitated the same. Munroe carried out correspondence with Dewan Poorniah and ultimately through Dewan Poorniah became aware of all the strategic information and routes necessary for the invasion of Tippu Sultan’s headquarters at Srirangapattana. The rest is history . As a grateful token of thanks, Chief Munroe, granted a Jahagir of forty villages to my uncle’s grandfather.
Coming back my ailments, Dr. B.Nanjappa, a classmate of my uncle M. R. Nageswaram, who was the superintendent of Bangalore Victoria Hospital treated me. I became free from my ailment within a short period. Soon, I returned to my native place
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Chittor. After sometime, my ailment reappeared and again I went to Bangalore for medical treatment and my uncle asked me to stay with him for good. My life took a new turn.
1 A New Chapter in My Life
I stayed with my uncle in Bangalore and his house was located in the seventh division of Basavanagudi extension. While staying in Bangalore, I never missed listening to music concerts in the city. In those days, admission to the concerts used to cost eight annas which is about 50 paise now. Concerts used to be 3 to 4 hours in duration. On many occasions when I could not afford the entrance fee, I would stand on the street and listen the amplified music emanating from the concert hall. This required me to concentrate on the music coming out of the concert hall while overcoming the noise due to traffic, people, etc. As a result, my concentration and listening techniques developed extremely well. After a while, I started singing at home and at places around town, as well as participated in dramas in Chittor. While participating in the drama rehearsals of Rama vilas Sabha, Chittor, I also had the opportunity to travel and sing at a music competition at Vellore Gana Sabha conducted by Kanjira Vidwan Vellore Gopalachar (father of my close friend and Mridangam Vidwan Vellore Sri. Ramabhadran). In this competition Musiri Subramanya Iyer and Violin Vidwan Narayana Swamy Iyer were the judges. I was awarded the second prize for my rendition of Vasudevacharya’s composition, Sri Chamundeshwari Palayamam in the raga Bilahari.
Sri H. Rama Rao, a relative of ours was the head-master of National High School and was living across from us in Basavanagudi. He was a lover of music and used to listen to my singing often and appreciated it very much. He was very affectionate and proud of those who could sing and used to strongly encourage them to learn music. He wanted me to be trained by his musician friend. Mr. Rama Rao got my uncle’s consent and took me to the house of Vidwan D. Subbaramaiah of Bangalore who lived in Shankarapuram.
D. Subbaramaiah (1904-1986) had established the first music institution, ‘Karnataka Sangita Vidyalaya’ in Bangalore and was training many disciples in music. He was a famous vocalist and also a scholar in Sanskrit, Kannada and English. He was a fine speaker, had a very scientific outlook and was well-known as Devaranama Subbaramaiah. Rama Rao and Subbaramiah’s conversation that led to my first music lessons is etched in my memory even today.
Rama Rao : Namaste, Subbaramaiah.
Subbaramaiah : Namaste. Head-master Rao has come here unexpectedly. You have brought with you a disciple also. Please sit down. What is the special thing today?
Friendly conversation with his elderly friend ensured for some time.
Subbaramaiah: Who is this boy? What is he studying? Can he sing?
Rama Rao: You see, Subbaramaiah, this boy is related to me and his uncle lives across from my house. This boy has a good voice. Please take him as your disciple and teach him Carnatic music.
Subbaramaiah: Oh yes. You have recommended his case and I will accept him as my disciple. Hey, Ramarathnam, sing a song. Let me see.
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I sang the song ‘Sri Chamundeshwari Palayamam’ in the raga Bilahari.
Subbaramaiah : It is alright. You sing well and you can come for lessons from tomorrow itself.
Rama Rao : Subbaramaiah, you have to teach him for free. He is not in a position to pay any fees.
Subbaramaiah: It is alright Raoji. When you say so, it shall be done.
Thus began my music-learning that continued for 5 to 6 years. Everyday I used to walk from our house in Basavanagudi to my Guru’s music school in Sankarapuram, which was not far. I was then 18 years old.
My Guru Subbaramaiah prepared me to appear for the Senior examination in music. The famous vocalist of those times, Jayappa and my Guru were the examiners. I answered all their questions satisfactorily and sang the compositions they wanted to hear. I passed the examination in first class. This was the first important stepping stone in my music education.
My Guru Subbaramaiah presided over the music conference in Bidaram Krishnappa’s Prasanna Seetharama Mandiram, Mysore, in 1960 and was honored with the title ‘Gana Kala Sindhu’. He was the recipient of many awards and titles such as State Sangita Nataka Academy award in 1963 and Hyderabad’s music Assembly in 1964, etc. He participated prominently in several music conferences, discussions and examination boards all over the country. His younger disciple T.S.Vasanta Madhavi has founded the D. Subbaramaiah Memorial Trust and has been organising the Ragasri Music Festival every year and is awarding titles and honorariums to musicologists and writers.
After some time, I started giving public performances in Bangalore. The well known musician, Someswara Bhagavatar had settled down in Bangalore. He happened to listen to my singing, was very pleased, and called me to his house in Malleshwaram and offered to teach me music further. I used to go to his house and I learnt 5 or 6 Varnams.
L. S. Narayanaswamy Bhagavatar (1908-1970) was also a well known musician from Bangalore. He was a disciple of Kanchipuram Nayana Pillai. He was a vocalist and violinist also. He used to accompany the well-known musician Chintanapalli Venkata Rao, on the violin. His disciple B. Vishwanath was a good friend of mine. He introduced me to Narayanaswamy Bhagavatar and I used to visit the Bhagavathar’s house with my friend now and then. The Bhagavatar was teaching violin to his nephew H. V. Krishna Murthy, who later on became a violinist of repute and later joined Vijaya College in Bangalore as a Professor . I was inspired by the Bhagavatar’s music concerts.
On another occasion, I got acquainted with the leading mridangam vidwan Ayyamani Iyer. In course of time, this acquaintance grew into a close friendship. Iyer was a classmate of the famous mridangam vidwan Palghat Mani Iyer. This noble artist's friendship showed me the way in my musical career. Iyer used to take me to his house and accompany me on the mridangam and helped me in my practice of music. He was also a close friend of the famous violinist Mysore T. Chowdiah and used to play mridangam in his concerts. I had a strong desire to become a disciple of Chowdiah to further my musical education. Iyer was aware of this desire.
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Whenever T. Chowdiah visited Bangalore, he used to stay in the ‘National Hindu Hotel’, which used to be located opposite to Sivananda Theatre. Srinivasa Rao, the proprietor of this hotel, was a close friend of Chowdiah. Once, when the violinist virtuoso was staying here, my friend Ayyamani Iyer, introduced me to him and requested him to accept me as his disciple. Chowdiah asked me to sing a song for him and after listening, he graciously agreed to have me as his disciple.
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2 My Guru Mysore T. Chowdiah (1895-1967)
Among music lovers, it should be a real surprise to come across people who have not heard of the famous Mysore Piteelu Chowdiah. He was born in Tirumakudalu village on the banks of the river Kaveri near Mysore. He became a disciple of Mysore Royal Court musician Bidaram Krishnappa around 1910 and underwent a very rigorous and disciplined training until 1918 in the gurukula system while he stayed with his master. With his devoted practice, Chowdiah became a very great violinist with such fame that the name Chowdiah and the violin were synonymous with each other.
In his early years, he played the four stringed violin, and by 1927 he became an extremely well known violin accompanist. Those were the days when there was no sound amplification equipment and it was rather difficult for listeners who sat in the back rows of music halls to hear him playing the violin. Chowdiah realized this shortcoming and launched upon increasing the sound of the violin. He improvised the violin by adding three more strings such as Tara Shadja - Mandra Shadja, Madhya Panchama - Mandra Panchama and Madhya Shadja Mandra Shadja and after practicing incessantly, he began to use this new seven stringed violin in all his concerts. He experimented, innovated and he practiced to perfection, all without the knowledge of his Guru.
In one of the vocal concerts of his Guru Bidaram Krishnappa in Mysore, Chowdiah accompanied him using his new seven stringed violin. Krishnappa perceived the sound emanating from the violin was louder than usual. He stared at his disciple and his violin and noted that there were three additional strings. He angrily asked him ‘‘what is this contraption?’’ and had an outburst. Chowdiah, in all humility said that he added three more strings and evolved this seven stringed violin so that the sound of the violin could be heard even in the back rows of the concert hall. He was afraid of the Guru’s outburst. Veena Seshanna who was also present and heard this seven stringed violin, was pleased and told Krishnappa that Chowdiah must be allowed to play that violin. Sometime later, Chowdiah accompanied his master again in another concert using this new violin and his master was pleased with it. My Guru Chowdiah brought about a revolution as it were, in the field of music.
With his courage and mastery, my master earned fame, affection and respect from all his great contemporaries. All musicians desired to have him as their violin accompanist. I myself have heard the famous G.N. Balasubramanyam telling sabha secretaries who wanted to arrange his concert that they should look at Chowdiah’s schedule first before looking at his availability. By devoted practice, application, grit and learning, my master rose to Himalayan heights in the world of Carnatic music. To have become a disciple of such a great man is a matter of pride to me.
My guru Chowdiah would not sit with his disciples during fixed hours as used to be the practice in those days. During my tutelage that lasted 7-8 years, I learnt about 8 to 10 compositions and several pallavi’s in Chowkakala. During this period, I used to get up at around 4 am and practice akara sadhana. My master insisted that I be disciplined in practicing this. I used to practice Sarale in six tempos. Only one raga had to be practiced in any given month. This kind of practice was the means of developing voice culture and the knowledge of swaras (i.e. notes). I had to practice varnams in three tempos to his satisfaction. My guru Chowdiah, had instructed me to do so, because that was the method of practice imparted on him by his master Bidaram Krishnappa.
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While I was learning under Chowdiah, my co-disciples included Kandevieri Alagiri Swamy, Palghat C. R. Mani, V. Sethuramaiah, R. K. Venkatarama Sastri and others. I was the only disciple learning vocal music while all others were being trained to become violinists. My guru used to ask me to teach juniors like Kandadevi Alagiri Swamy, C.R. Mani, etc. R. K. Venkatarama Sastri was the oldest amongst all of the disciples. He was strictly orthodox, highly disciplined and was a gem of a person. He was a disciple of Veena Subbanna for four years and then became a disciple of Chowdiah in 1928. Later, Ramanujam, Madurai Venugopal, Chinnappa, H. R. Seetharama Shastri and others became disciples of Chowdiah. I think my Guru trained more disciples than any other musician that I know of. Guru Chowdiah was very affectionate towards his disciples.
Chowdiah used to host many musicians while they visited Mysore. He would house them in a small house that was located next to his huge residence on Bajjanna Lane near the Chamarajapuram railway station in Mysore. He had cooks and servants dedicated to meeting the needs of his guests. He always took care of his personal chores himself and would get really upset if he found any of his students folding his clothes, etc.
My guru Chowdiah introduced me to almost all famous musicians of his times and he insisted that I learn the many nuances of the art of music from them. He always took me with him for his concerts that gave additional opportunities to meet these giants of music. He was in great demand and used to be out of town on his concert engagements most of the time. After each concert where he accompanied the great masters, he would sit with us at home, review the concerts and demonstrate the salient points by singing to us. Whenever we accompanied him on his concert tours, he would make sure that all of us students were well taken care of. The respect and support he commanded in Tamilnadu was amazing. I can’t remember any hotel proprietor ever accepting any money from him for his board and lodging at their hotels. The top officials and leaders of the town would compete with each other to extend him a warm welcome and request him to stay at their homes.
Crowds would swell at the news of Chowdiah being in town. I saw this myself at Tiruvaiyyaru during one Tyagaraja aradhana event. The news of his arrival spread like wildfire and throngs of people rushed to get a glimpse of him. He even had trouble getting to the river to bathe with large crowds rushing to see him. It took some effort to be able to take the holy dip before the aradhana. Many years ago, when I was passing through customs at Chennai airport on my return from the U.S.A., an older gentleman who was a customs officer, on coming to know that I was Chowdiah’s student remarked, how in his days, people would walk up to the concert halls, ask for who the violin accompaniment was and then walk away if they were told that it was someone other than Chowdiah. About ten years ago, a taxi driver in Chennai who was in his seventies, reminisced the great effect Chowdiah’s accompaniment had on the concert. Such was Chowdiah’s reputation; he had captured the hearts and minds of both ordinary listeners and knowledgable people. .
My first concert and the most memorable concert as a performing artist was in 1950 at Sringeri Sharadha peetam inaugural festivities in Shankarapuram, Bangalore. This concert was in the presence of his holiness Sri Chandrasekhara Bharathi (III). My guru Chowdiah’s concert was on the first day of the festival and my concert was on the second day, and it was arranged by my guru. The concert lasted nearly two hours and was attended by more than 3000 devotees. I was accompanied by ace violinist Rathnagiri Subbashastry and M.L. Veerabhadriah on mridangam. The ambience created by so many devotees, and the presence of his holiness Chandrashekhara Bharathi set
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the stage for me to explore my manodharma to the fullest. When the concert concluded after nearly two hours, the joy and happiness in the faces of thousands of devotees, gave me a sense of accomplishment and pride that is etched in my memory for ever. His holiness Sri Sri Chandrshekara Bharathi blessed me with a small Sharadambha gold coin that I carry with me on my sacred thread even now.
My first vocal music concert in Mysore took place at the Dasara Exhibition in the presence of Sangeetha Shastra Visharadha Mysore K. Vasudevacharya, who showered me with his blessings. After his determination that I had sufficient qualification to teach music and with a view to improve my economic condition, my guru Chowdiah asked me to teach music to Smt. Neelamma Kadambi (late) who lived in the Jayanagar area in Mysore. I was paid Rs.25 per month for the lessons. She was my first disciple in a long list of students that I have trained in my teaching career of many decades.
I gave my first concert at the Madras Music Academy in 1957. T.N. Krishnan’s brother played the violin and one of Palani Subramanya Pillai’s students played mridangam. My guru Chowdiah, T. N. Krishnan, Palani Subramanya Pillai, Ariyakudi, Chembai and other senior stalwarts were present in the audience. My concert was very successful and my master expressed his pleasure. Many stalwarts in the audience congratulated my guru Chowdiah on having produced a top notch vocalist. This is an unforgettable incident in my career.
I evolved a concert format based on the valuable knowledge and advice I obtained from the many stalwarts with whom I had close contacts. I would start with a varnam and sing it in at least two kalas. This would be followed by few madhyamakala krithis without much raga alapana or swaras. Then I would take up scholarly krithis with detailed raga elaboration, neraval and swara singing. The emphasis always would be to bring out the bhava, the mood and enable the rasika to feel the inherent rasa in the composition. I made sure that I chose kritis from a spectrum of composers set to different talas. Above all, the goal of a concert as taught to me by my masters i.e. “rendering needs to be instructive to the layman and the learned alike. Every sangati and neraval and swara should have a defined purpose and the layman should feel the bhava laden music”. I would then take up ragam, tanam, pallavi followed by tukudas like devaranamas, padams and javali and complete the concert. I also made sure that I rendered my guru’s compositions in the concerts. I have been fortunate to sing all over the country to the accompaniment of eminent artists such as Palghat Mani Iyer, Vellore Ramabhadran, T.K. Murthy, Guruvayur Dorai, Tanjore Upendran, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, my Guru Chowdiahgaru, V. Govindaswamy Naickar, T.N. Krishnan, and others. Palghat Mani Iyer accompanied me for the first time in a concert organized by Karnataka Gana Kala Parishath in 1970’s. I was accompanied by S. Mahadevappa on violin. This was a concert without any sound amplification. On that day when I started the Ragam, Tanam and Pallavi (4-Kaliai Chowka Pallavi), Palghat Mani suggested me to change the starting point of the pallavi from ½ to ¾ and sing the following four kalai chowka Pallavi in Sankarabharanam:
||,,,AanandaPoornaBoodo||Hm,,,Shi||VooHmSatchhi||
When I rendered the ragam, thanam and pallavi to his satisfaction, his accompaniment on mridangam and the tanyavartham reached great heights and the entire concert reached considerable levels of excellence. Sri. Mani Iyer spoke at length about the excellence of my music and the traditional patantharam, I have received from the masters. I can never forget these incidents and the profound impact they have had
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on my career as a performing artist. I have sincerely imparted this valuable techniques I learnt from my guru’s to all my students; the next generation artists.
When my guru was 55 years old, he thought of producing a film called Vani. He acted in this film and was also its music director. He was the the music director for the film and he composed songs . I used to supply the notations and instruct the orchestra. Shortly afterwards, he got the urge to compose kritis based on his vast experience. He composed two pieces in the Kannada language to start with; MahaMaye-BaThaye in the raga Saranga and another krithi in the raga VijayaNagari. At this time he was acquainted with the well-known scholar and poet BellaVe Narahari Sastri, who was also a middle school head master. With his help, he composed in Sanskrit ‘Vara Ganapate’ in raga Suddha Dhanyasi and several other pieces. But Narahari Sastri included his pen name ‘NriHariSchya’ in them. Chowdiah noticed it. Thinking that if Narahari Sastri composed the sahitya or literary part of the songs, his sole originality will be at stake, he abandoned the previous works and took it upon himself to compose both the sahityas and notations for 25 compositions in Sanskrit, Telugu and Kannada and included his signature ‘Thrimakutavasa’. He also composed many Varnams and Tillanas. The Kannada compositions contain praises of Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar and prayers to goddess Chamundambika. When my master played these compositions in the Mysore royal durbar, he would ask me to sing them and he used to accompany me on the violin.
My stay with guru Chowdiah was fruitful in many ways. Famous musicians Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, G.N.Balasubramanyam, Mahrajapuram, Chembai, Alathoor Brothers and others used to come to his house and also used to stay there. This enabled me to get acquainted with them and I earned their affection. I became closely acquainted with the great senior musician composer Mysore Vasudevacharya and learnt many compositions from him and also from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Musiri Subramanya Iyer, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, Alathoor Brothers and so forth. These contacts and interactions increased myhe knowledge of the many subtle aspects of music.
My guru Chowdiah used to scholarly delineate some pallavi’s (given below) in his solo concerts:
Raga : Hindustani Kapi —Trisra Triputa (Two Kalais)
||, , , ,ri . . Sa , ,Ri , ,MaPaRi – Sa ; , , , Sa – SaNiPaNi PaMaGaRi||
Ban Da Dde LlaBaRa Li . . . .Go Vin..DaNa DaYaNaMa
||GaRiSa||
GiRaLi
Raga Kalyani : Adi (4 Kalais)
||, , , ri , ,Sa , Ri , Ga ,RiGaPaMa – Pa , ; ; PaMa – GaRiGaNi DaPaMaGA||
Ni TyaKa Lya …………… Ni Am……Ba …..Aa …De……..
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||RiSaNi||
Vi…..
2.1 AYYANAR COLLEGE OF MUSIC
After my formal gurukulavasa with my Guru Sri. T. Chowdiah for many years, my thoughts turned to returning to Bangalore to settle down there. It was at this time that my guru Chowdiah founded the Ayyanar College of music, which was first located in the Chamarajapuram extension in Mysore. Mr. K. Puttu Rao, a senior advocate of the city, was the secretary of Bidaram Krishnappa’s Prasanna Seetha Rama Mandiram at that time. Mr. Puttu Rao and my master were close friends. Mr. Puttu Rao suggested to my master that he should move the Ayyanar College of Music to the Rama Mandiram and Chowdiah accepted this suggestion. When my guru heard of my desire to return to Bangalore and settle down there, he offered the vice-principalship of the Ayyanar College of Music in Mysore and asked me to stay. I gave up my desire to get back to Bangalore, settled down in Mysore and thus ended up as Mysore Ramarathnam.
2.2 DISCIPLES OF AYYANAR COLLEGE OF MUSIC
Hundreds of students have been trained in vocal, violin, veena and flute at the Ayyanar College of Music. The college also trained many blind students who were provided the Government of India scholarships. The college charged a monthly fee of just Rs. 20 for each student. I worked in this college for more than 20 years as the Vice-Principal. Well known students of mine from this school include late N.Nanjunda Swamy (vocal music), late Dr B.R. Shyamachar (flute), Late C.M. Madhuranath (flute), Late T. R. Srinivasan (vocal music), Late B. Srinivasa Iyengar (veena and vocal), Late Rangaswamy Iyengar (violin), K. J. Venkatachar (vocal and violin), G. R.Jaya, Indira, Lalita, Padma and others. The students of this college were trained to appear for junior, senior, and proficiency examinations in flute, violin, veena and vocal music. My Guru Sri. Chowdiah who was the Principal visited often and would listen, observe, supervise and give suggestions to students and the administrators.
2.3 SRI BIDARAM KRISHNAPPA’S PRASANNA SEETHA RAMA MANDIRAM
There are many wonderful structures and buildings in the world. Each one of them has its own special story to tell. But the Bidaram Krishnappa’s Prasanna Seetha Rama Mandiaram in Mysore is a beautiful building, unique in itself. A Jahagirdar, or a Raja or a Maharaja did not build it. Instaed, an artist, a musician who was not rich at all, built it. Bidaram Krishnappa built it with his hard-earned money. This is a rare structure that is unparalleled in terms of the musical atmosphere the performing artists and the audience experience, the divine feelings it creates in the performer and the listener and the stimulation it provides performers that causes them to bring out the best. Many great and famous musicians have remarked that the holy atmosphere in this Rama Mandiram has made them forget themselves and they have felt one with Nada Brahman while performing here. Needless to say, some of the greatest concerts in Carnatic music have taken place here in this Rama Mandiram.
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Bidaram Krishnappa spent all his energies and earnings to build this wonderful divine place. He did not get any monetary help from the Maharaja or any person. He strove hard to build this mandiram with sheer grit and strong will.
This beautiful Sri Rama Mandiram is a rare heritage of Mysore City and is located in Shivarampet. The main concert hall can accommodate about 500-600 listeners. Three of the walls are covered with beautifully framed oil paintings of Lord Vishnu’s ten incarnations and portraits of great musicians of yesteryears such as Veena Seshanna, Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer, Patnam Subramanya Iyer, Pallavi Namakkal Narasimha Iyengar, Parameshwara Bhagavatar and others. The wall behind the dais is decorated with fine oil paintings of Bidaram Krishnappa and the three great Acharyas. Directly facing the dais is the sanctum sanctorum, which has a big oil painting of the crowning of Lord Sri Ramachandra. Innumerable music concerts have taken place in this Mandiram during the Ramanavami celebrations in April each year. Bidaram Krishnappa’s Sri Rama Mandiram with its divine touch enables every musician to present divine music that is blissful to the listeners. Great musicians have showered the nectar of music from the dais. Generations of past and present artists have tasted the sheer nectra of music while performing here. As for me, this Rama Mandiram is the only Music Academy that there is!
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3 My close acquaintance with some famous musicians
3.1 Mysore Vasudevacharya (1865-1961)
I am fortunate to have developed a close guru-shishya relationship with the senior most musician and great composer of modern times, Mysore Vasudevacharya. He was known for his simplicity, modesty and refinement. He was also an impromptu poet, writer, and Sanskrit scholar respected by one and all. He was in love with the nectar of nada (musical sound) had a wonderful charming personality and was extremely well versed in the art of music. He was a disciple of Patnam Subramanya Iyer, who was a disciple of Manambuchavadi Venkata Subba Iyer, a direct disciple of saint Sri. Thyagaraja. He was a favorite of his master Patnam Subramanya Iyer (1845-1902). He was the court musician of Mysore for two generations and was also the music teacher of Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar. This great person used to come very often to my master’s house. Over time, my acquaintance with him turned into a close friendship.
As I pointed out earlier, my first vocal concert in Mysore took place in the Mysore Dasara Exhibition. My guru Chowdiah had arranged this concert with H. V. Krishna Rao on the violin and Venkatesadevaru on the mridangam. The Acharya had come to listen to my concert. My master asked me to prostrate before him and told me that I was fortunate to be able to sing in his presence. I prostrated to the great man and sang with respect. I sang the Acharya’s Palukavademira (Devamanohari), and Bidaram Krishnappa’s ‘Amba Brovave (Dharmavati). These were the main items of my concert. Then the Acharya spoke a few words about my concert saying— ‘‘You sing well. You have mastered your skills very well. May you progress well’’ and he blessed me. This was an important event and my first meeting with the Acharya.
I used to go to the Acharya’s house often with my co-disciple C. R. Mani. I used to meet him after 3 p.m. During these visits, the Acharya taught me many compositions. The first one was his own composition—Srimadaadi Thyagaraja Guruvaram (Kalyani - Rupaka). He then taught us Pranatarthiharam (Bhairavi), Mama Hridaye (Ritigowla), Ramabana Traana (Saveri) and other songs that were very dear to him. I also learnt from the Acharya, Anayya’s Bhajana Seyave (Kedara), Grirpainela (Sahana) and many other compositions.
Another very interesting feature of these teaching sessions was how he used to demonstrate the singing styles of stalwarts Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer and others. Once, he sang ‘Chintayamam Kandamoola Kandam’ and demonstrated the nereval for the piece—‘Mangalakara Mandahasa Vadanam’. This was simply a wonderful revelation, full of definite AaHata (wherein music starts before the commencement of the tala) and AnaHata (wherein the tala commences before the music), time measures. It was an unforgettable musical feast. He demonstrated the nereval singing with the prominence of tana singing and told us that it was the way Mahavaidyanatha Iyer used to sing. I can never forget that great day and that great man singing. It gives me goose bumps even now when I recollect that session.
On one occasion, Acharya came to listen to the concert of G.N.Balasubramanyam in Mysore. My guru Chowdiah on the violin and Palani Subramanya Pillai on the mridangam were the accompaniments. GNB sang the Acharya’s composition Brochevarevarura (Kamas), with a fine detailed elaboration of the raga, followed by an emotive singing of the composition with fine evocative swaras. The Acharya was very
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much pleased and said — ‘’Now I understand how fine my compositions is’ and praised GNB’s concert. GNB was the first musician to popularize this composition. The grand success of that day’s concert was also due to Chowdiah’s helpful and supportive role.
In a concert at the Madras Music Academy, the Acharya’s disciple D. Pashupati sang one of the Acharya’s Dvadasanama compositions ‘Mama Hridaye’ and ‘Pranamamyaham. The style of rendering made one feel as if Acharya himself was singing. Kalakshetra’s Rukminidevi was the Chief guest on that occasion.
I have heard many concerts of the great Acharya. Gururajacharya, proprietor of Modern Hindu Hotel in Mysore, used to celebrate Krishnotsava festival for ten days every year. During one such celebration, on the last day of the festival, the Acharya’s vocal concert took place with Chowdiah on the violin and Moogiah on the mridangam. The Acharya began his concert with the varna of Veena Kuppa Iyer set to Atta tala in the raga Ritigowla.. Bhajanaseyave O’Manasa (Kedara), a sloka from Krishna Karnamrita ragamalika and Jayadeva’s Ashtapadi followed next. His concert lasted for over three hours.
I can recollect another concert of the Acharya on the occasion of the Ganesha festival at the Maharaja’s Sanskrit College, Mysore. The Acharya’s accompaniments were my master on the violin and Muthuswamy Tevar on the mridangam. On that day, the Acharya sang ‘Vatapiganapathim’ (Hamsadhwani), Ramaneepaitanaku (Kedara) and then sang his favourite raga Saveri in detail followed by the composition—‘Ramabana Trana’. His nereval on that day was very grand. Then, he sang a sloka, Tillana and Ashtapadi. Speaking on that fine concert Chowdiah said— ‘‘The Acharya is the upholder of music tradition. He is an expert in painting beautifully the raga’s complete picture. In his singing jaru gamakas (slitting) and Kampitha gamakas were prominent. We are really fortunate to listen to this divine singing.’’
The Acharya’s concerts always included the rendering of tana. He used to begin with gambhira tana. He would then take up the pallavi - ‘Eranasaami Pagavaaru’ in the middle tempo and would sing ragas Arabhi, Varali and others in ragamalika (garland of ragas). After 3 aksharas in tala Triputa, he would render the nerval. Ahata and Pratyahata gamakas would be prominent.
The Acharya’s concerts were always highly educative and instructive. It used to be a fine feast to musicians and music lovers. Of late, these types of concerts are very rare. In the past it was the practice to sing the pallavis in the middle tempo. Sometimes, the refrain of a composition would be taken for pallavi singing like Lokavanachatura mampahi, Nee mahima teliya tarama (Sankarabharana) and so on. This used to be the old tradition. Nadai pallavi, Chowka pallavi were rarely heard. These are later developments. Musicians of yesteryears used to sing Ashtapadi, Kshetragya’s padams, and Devaranamas without fail. Singing varnams came later. But now a days singing of Ashtapadi and padams has become very rare.
The Acharya has talked to me on several occasions about his guru Patnam Subramanya Iyer. According to him, Patnam Subramanya Iyer was a specialist in singing ragas like Begada, Narayanagowla, etc. His delineation of the raga Begada had such appeal that people used to refer to him as Begada Subramanya Iyer. Acharya used to reminisce about an extraordinary concert of Patnam Subramanya Iyer in the Mysore Royal Court. Patnam elaborated the Kambhoji raga that lasted the whole evening and continued with the rendition of the tanam the next day. Per the Acharya, violin accompanist Tirukkodikaval Krishna Iyer’s Kambhoji rendering was unforgettable.
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The Acharya used to demonstrate to us the singing of the ragas by Patnam Subramanya Iyer and Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer and would highlight the nuances in their singing. The Acharya had his own creative way of elaborating ragas. He had a fine voice that suited his manodharma and he took special care of his voice all his life. The Acharya was truly a role-model to all. Needless to say I have been very much impressed and influenced by the Acharya and his wonderful music.
I am delighted to find that the Acharya’s compositions are being propagated even in far away lands. When I was living in San Jose with my daughter Rama and son-in-law Srinivasan, I had the opportunity to attend “Vasudevacharya Day” in summer of 2002, organized by Alamelu Iyengar (highly talented drama artist from Mysore and daughter of my close friend, distinguished poet laureate Pu. Ti. Narasimhachar) and M.S. Chadrasekar under the auspicious of bay areas premier sangeetha sabha “South India Fine Arts”. During this occasion Mrs. Anuradha Sridhar (daughter of Srimati Lalgudi Brahmanandam) and her team of four artists rendered following rare compositions of the Acharya:
• Upendra masrayami santhatham in Kamas set to Adhi Tala.
• Hare paripahimam in Kedaram set to Adhi Tala
• Pahi Krishna Vasudeva in Behag set to Rupaka Tala
I was pleasantly surprised at their selection of the rare pieces and the quality of the rendition. Alas, these days the compositions of the Acharya are not heard in Acharya’s hometown Mysore itself. What a pity!
3.2 MY MEETING WITH TIGER VARADACHAR (1876-1950)
Tiger Varadachar was one of the brilliant stars of Carnatic music. He was a tiger in his musical prowess, but gentle as a cow in personality. He was a gentleman unparalleled, full of grace, warmth, solicitude and musical eminence. Among the disciples of Thyagaraja’s disciple Manambuchavdi Venkatasubba Iyer, Patnam Subramanya Iyer, Mahavaidyanatha Iyer and Coimbatore Raghava Iyer were the trinity of Carnatic music. Among the disciples of Patnam Subramanya Iyer, Tiger Varadachar, Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar and Mysore Vasudevacharya were the trinity.
Tiger was a person with great artistic imagination. He strode on the path set by the past composers of music, but never hesitated to tread his own new path. Veena Sehsanna who heard his music called him the Lion and praised him as a musician of imaginative aesthetic creativity and said that it was his good luck to listen to his music. Prof. Sambamurthy considered him as a treasure house of music—Sangita Nidhi. He made a lasting influence in the field of Carnatic music. Such a great personage lived in a house in Katwadipur Agrahar in Mysore for sometime. He used to go to T. Narasipur (also the birth place of Chowdiah) to teach music to some members of Devadasi families there.
I happened to hear his vocal concert for the first time in Bidaram Krishnappa’s Sri Rama Mandiram. I was about thirty years old at that time. That day, my master accompanied him on the violin and Moogiah provided the mridangam support. Tiger began with ‘Salamela’ varnam in the raga Durbar, followed by Vatapiganapatim
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(Hamsadhwani) with nerval and swara singing. Then he took up his favourite compositions of his master in raga Begada ‘Manasunere nammiti’ (Rupaka) and rendered it in a captivativing manner in his own inimitable style. This was embellished with creative swarakalpana. He included the rare usage of swara group—Pa da ni sa—in—Da pa ma pa ga ri sa—Sa ni sa ri da pa daa ni ree sa etc,. This concert was soul-stirring and had all the imprints of the style of his master Patnam Subramanya Iyer. I just cannot forget this concert; it is etched in my memory for good. Then he took up raga Todi for a detailed treatment and rendered beautifully Saint Thyagaraja’s ‘Tappibratike’ (Rupaka). Then he sang Dikshitar’s ‘Upacharadhaye’ in raga Navaroj and concluded the concert with a Javali and Tillana . That day, I heard, understood and realized the tradition of music in him. After the concert my guru Chowdiah reviewing it, said that it was very pain staking to play violin for Tiger that day.
I remember another concert of Tiger Varadachar arranged by the harikatha performer and musician of yesteryear S.Krishna Iyengar for the annual Sri Krishna Jayanthi music festival held at the Bandikeri Srinivasa Swamy temple in Mysore.
That evening, Tiger began his concert with the Adiappiah’s Varnam Viriboni in Bhairavi raga set to atta tala. He sang it in three tempos. Then he rendered his master’s composition ‘Abhimaname’ in the raga Begada in a captivating style. A creative elaboration of the raga Kokiladhwani and the composition of Saint Thyagaraja—’Koniyadedu’, followed. His imaginative swara groups that followed were the most wonderful. He, then sang beautifully the raga Kalyani followed by Dikshitar’s composition ‘Bhajarechitta’, a wonderful nerval, swara combinations, dhatu prayogas, that was full of his expansive creativity that served as a mirror to his wonderful music. Tiger loved the Kalyani ragam and the song ‘Bhajarerechitta’ and used to sing it often. I later came to know that he had learnt this composition from Justice T. L. Venkatarama Iyer of Dikshitar’s lineage. Tiger used to sing Devaranamas wonderfully. Tiger ended that day’s concert after singing a Thillana in the raga Kamas composed by Patnam Subramanya Iyer followed by a taranga ‘Pooraya mamakamam’ in raga Bilahari composed by Swamy Narayana Tirtha.
Tiger’s scholarship and flights of imagination were unbounded. His deep singing produced a massive effect on the listeners. It was full of birkas, gamakas and graces. His music was a veritable feast to music-hungry people. He was a musician for musicians. His music was not for all and sundry. All the famous musicians of Mysore invariably attended his concerts. The Maharaja loved to listen to his concerts. Tiger was invited by the Maharaja every year to sing in the palace and he used to be an honored guest of the Maharaja.
Ralapalli Anantha Krishna Sharma was one of the senior musicians of Mysore, who never missed listening to Tiger’s concerts. Sharma was a professor of Telugu in the Mysore Maharaja’s College. I had a very close friendship with him. One day I was walking from my maternal uncle’s house in Kasipathi Agrahara to my guru Chowdiah’s house along the 100-ft road. Sharma was coming from the opposite direction. On seeing me he stopped me and said— ‘‘Come on, let us go and meet Tiger Varadacharya. I will introduce you to him’’.
Tiger was staying in a room in the Seethavilas Choultry located on the 100ft. road. After I saw him, I prostrated to him. Sharma introduced me to him. Then Tiger asked me to sing a song. I sang Saint Thyagaraja’s composition in raga Todi - Dasarathe - as I had learnt it from Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar and also included four avartas of swaras.
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Tiger said—‘‘It is all right. You sing well. Keep up the practice.’’ and blessed me encouragingly. Then Rallapalli spoke,
‘‘Anna, please sing something.’’
Tiger : ‘‘What is there to listen from this old man? It is all over’’
Ralapalli : ‘‘Anna, I came here to hear you singing. please sing something’’
Tiger : Is that so? Alright.
Then Tiger sang his favourite raga Mukhari elaborately, rendered Saint Thyagaraja’s composition ‘Entaninne’, followed by nereval for the piece ‘Kanulara Sevinchi’ and creative swara combinations lasting for about 45 minutes.
Sharma : ‘‘I do not wish to say it is enough. Is there any one who can elaborate the raga traditionally, singing enchantingly to a suitable part of the song and singing rare and imaginative swara combinations, showing the raga’s personality and its necessary prominent gamakas like you?’’
One important noticeable feature of his rendering was that he was very well aware of singing compositions in tune with the needed tempo and time measure.
Tiger was a member of the Experts Committee of the Madras Music Academy. He contributed much in the deliberations about ragas and dominated wherever he was. He used to demonstrate bringing out for any raga, the emotion, rare applications and the method of using gamakas to evoke wonder among the musicians present. He was such a courageous stalwart. He used to demonstrate the usage/prayogas which were beyond the opinions of Muttiah Bhagavatar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar and Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer. One special feature of such demonstrations was that it was always welcomed and accepted by all the musicians. If he had been endowed with a finer voice, he would have shown many unknown things of music. Cordiality was his hallmark and he would end his talk and demonstrations in a very pleasing manner by saying that he has told them what his understanding is regarding the topic.
Such a music gem of rare brilliance served as an examiner for the Mysore music examinations and his presence enhanced the status of the institutions in Mysore. Dr. M .V. Gopalaswamy a professor of Psychology in the Maharaja’s College, Mysore established the Mysore Radio Station. Prof. N. Kasturi, a famous literary personage and also an assistant professor of History in the same college named this station ‘Akashavani’. The radio station wanted to broadcast Tiger’s performance. At first Tiger did not agree to sing from the centre. Saying that his voice was not good and not suited to the microphone he exclaimed ‘‘You want to listen to this!’’
But after much persuasion by T. Lingappa, the Program Executive of the Mysore Radio Station, he consented. His accompanists that day were Belakavadi Srinivasa Iyengar’s disciple and royal court musician S. Venkataramanaiah on the violin and Ayyamani Iyer’s disciple V. V. Ranganathan on the mridangam. It was an excellent concert. The honorarium paid to Tiger was just Rs.10- along with the traditional coconut and betel leaves!
Tiger was proficient in Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and English. He was a Sangita Kalanidhi, a torch bearer of tradition, servant of art and a fine composer. To quote Mysore Vasudevacharya, he was ‘‘the most celebrated master of bhava-
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bharita Sangitham, endowed with profound scholarship, child like innocence, purity of heart and simple and elegant manners.’’ He has composed varnams, gitas, kritis etc. Cryptic instant retorts and joviality were his hallmarks.
Once he was the chief guest at his friend’s son’s maiden concert. After listening to the rendering of the raga Hamsadhwani, he asked the secretaries to take him home at once feigning immense stomach pain. He was taken to his house and soon after reaching his house, he sat in the chair and began to laugh. The people who brought him were stunned. He said ‘‘It is not Hamsadhwani, it is Himsadhawani’’ referring to the rendition.
Tiger was not an attractive person. He had a natural fascination for the Gandhi cap. He would say ‘‘Before you are capped by others, better do it yourself.’’
The cap ill-suited his figure. He would sometimes look in the mirror and with folded hands would say’’ ‘Anjaneya namo namaha.’
Tiger never hesitated to express his opinion. Once in a concert, he rendered a padam of Kshetragna. A listener got up and said— ‘‘Sir, Amma (Veena Dhanam) sings it in a different way.’’
Tiger : ‘‘Ayya sings like this alone. Go and tell Amma.’’
Tiger had words of wisdom for novices as well as the experienced musicians. Tiger used to stress that time old tradition means full awareness in singing compositions with the required level of raga elaboration and proportioned swara singing. He insisted on a study of the literary part of the composition to render it with important graces of the raga bhava. This knowledge can be acquired by practice alone. Raga alapana must follow the ascending and descending scales. Raga delineation should be limited for madhyamakala kritis but can be elaborated to some extent for vilambakala kritis. Elaboration for ragam, tanam and pallavi should be per the methods set forth in treatises in music like the Sangeetha Samprdaya Pradarshini.
3.3 Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar (1896-1976)
Chembai was one of the top vocalists of the last century. He had a brilliant career throughout. The Chembai, Chowdiah, Palghat Mani Iyer trio has given nearly 3000 concerts. I came to know Chembai extremely well during my training with guru Chowdiah. Whenever Chembai came to Mysore to sing at the Bidaram Krishnappa’s Rama Mandiram during the Ramotsavam he invariably stayed in my Guru Chowdiah’s house.
Chembai had a vigorous, strong, vibrant, ringing and resonant voice that had a rich metallic timbre. , . Chembai’s singing always seemed effortless. He was very disciplined and was an ardent follower of tradition. He was very religious, good hearted and friendly. He had a wonderful sense of accurate kala pramana (time measure). His voice blended perfectly with sruti and worked wonders. I had the good fortune to listen to many of his concerts with my master on the violin and Palghat Mani Iyer on the mridangam.
In his concerts he never failed to sing Vatapiganapatim (Hamsadhwani), Raghuvara nannu (Pantuvarali) and Sri BalaSubramanya (Bilahari). When someone asked him why he repeated these compositions he replied—‘‘It is because each one of these compositions has fetched me lakhs of rupees.’’
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I learnt from Chembai many of his favorite kritis such as Sri MahaGanapthim, Sri Balasubramanya, Raghuvara Nannu, Pallavi Gopala Iyer’s composition Amba naadu, Vinnapamu in the raga Todi, Varnams such as SarasijaNabha in Kamboji set to atta tala, etc. .
‘‘Whichever composition you learn, you must practice it intensely to bring about the beauty of the raga. Unless this is done, it will be of no use’’ was his advice based on his long experience. By encouraging his disciples to listen to his concerts, he encouraged them to progress in their learning. My co-disciple C. R. Mani was also his disciple and a relative of Palghat Subba Iyer. The Bhagavatar used to provide opportunity to C.R. Mani to accompany him on the violin in his concerts.
Chembai was also a fine violinist. He learnt violin in his youth when there was a passing apprehension about his voice. Once he played the violin in Chowdiah’s house and we were all in awe. His violin play was similar to his vocal style. He was also a fine mridangist. Whenever he was in Mysore, he never failed to teach us different teermanams.
Whenever the famous mridangist Dakshinamurthy Pillai was his mridangam accompaniment in his concerts, he used to allow him to play solo (tani) 3-4 times. He had great affection and regard for Chowdiah. He would praise Chowdiah’s performance in his concerts in order to bring out his best.
Chembai also loved the mridangam play of Tanjavur Ramadasa Rao. I heard Tanjavur Ramadasa Rao with Chembai and my master on the violin in a concert at the Pudukote temple. Ramadasa Rao’s playing was soft. His use of the right hand was more than ordinary. He had the innate artistic capacity to bring forth the creative talent of the main artist and the violinist as well.
Chembai was a very versatile person. During a gathering of musicians in Alangudi in 1938, Kaliakudi Vaidyanatha Iyer was requested to sing. Chembai came forward to play violin and another stalwart vocal maestro Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer came forward and took up the mridangam and these two made the concert a roaring success. In 1953, under the auspicious of the Thyagaraja Sangita Vidwat Samaj, Chembai, played the violin and Maharajapuram, the mridangam to the concert of the renowned flautist T. R. Mahalingam.
His accurate grasp of tala and laya was simply grand. Dakshinamurthy Pillai called him—Laya Brahma. ‘‘You should count the time measure and I should play’’ he said. I remember this even today. Though he sang an ordinary pallavi, he would sing it by demonstrating the variety of time measures. Usually, his concerts would last not less than 5 hours.
Chembai has another record as the person who could give three concerts in a day. After his concert at Bidaram Krishnappa’s Rama Mandiram in Mysore from 6 to 9 p.m., he sang his second concert from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the Kunchitiga’s Rama Mandiram and proceeded to Shankara Narayana temple in Chamundipuram for his third concert from 2 am to 5 a.m. Myself, the late GNB and my friend Dr. V. S. S.Acharya are eye witnesses. I remember GNB’s statement the next day —‘‘These are not ordinary men. These are the asura’s of the music field. If I sing one concert, I need to rest the whole of next day.’’
Even Ariyakudi has never sung three concerts in one day like Chembai.
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Chembai spent all his earnings to build a temple in his native place. He was an ardent devotee of Sri Krishna of Guruvayur and instituted several services there. Like Mahatma Gandhi, he traveled in the third class by train. He used to walk 6-7 miles to Valvacode and board the train to travel to his concerts.
Chembai always enjoyed his food and for him pickles with curd rice was a must. Whenever he visited Tiruchirappalli, he stayed in Saravanabhava Lodge and when in Tanjore stayed in an Iyer’s hotel. The hotel owners had great regard for musicians in those days and never accepted payments from the artists. Chembai had admirers everywhere. He has given many concerts, without any remuneration. He always used to sing for the sake of art. In those times, the Bidaram Krishnappa’s Rama Mandiram used to give him an honorarium of Rs.100/- or 110/-. Chembai had his vocal concerts till his last days. He also undertook a concert tour of Sri Lanka. One of Chembai’s last concerts took place at the town hall in Mysore with T.Rukmini on the violin and T. V. Gopalakrishnan on the mridangam. Chembai sang enthusiastically for more than three hours. He was about 76 then. He sang vigorously as always with rich brikas, effortless neravals and swarams. Once during his concert his concert in Jaganmohan Palace, Mysore he spotted me sitting in the back rows of the auditorium. He called me by name and asked me to come and sit in front of him. During the concert he told the audience in his thick voice “you are all truly blessed, you do not have to go out of town looking for a music vidwan. You have Ramarathnam right here in Mysore”. I can never forget the affection he showered on me till his final days. It will be with me for ever.
Chembai had a large number of disciples who learnt vocal music, violin and mridangam. He taught them without any reservations. He cleared the doubts of his disciples without becoming impatient. His powerful voice could be heard by thousands of listeners in the concert hall where there was no sound amplification available. This great person brought to light many aspiring youngsters. After a concert in the Guruvayur Krishna temple he departed this world.
A—favourite pallavi of Chembai is given below:.
Raga: Hindustani Kapi—Misra Jhampe
|| , , ri pa gaa ri sa, ri ma paa ri ,
. . Muru ga vunnai. Nam bi ne. yya
Sa sa - ni da paa || ma ga ri sa
pa .nni rukai …. ve . . la ne .
3.4 Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar (1890-1967)
Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar graced the world of Carnatic music for more than five decades like an emperor. He was the epitome of the elegance, greatness and style of Carnatic music. His concerts were educative to both scholars and lay people. He was the musician of the Mysore royal court. My guru and Ariyakudi were close friends. Their admiration, affection and regard were mutual. Whenever I accompanied my guru on concert tours, I had the fortune to listen to many concerts of Ariyakudi as well as sing in front of him, to his satisfaction.
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Whenever Ariyakudi visited Mysore for Ramanavami concerts, he would stay in my Guru’s house and I used to take him around Mysore city to visit important places. Chowdiah always made sure a Brahmin cook and other servants took care of Ariyakudi and others. Over time, I developed a close association with Ariyakudi. After becoming a musician of the Mysore royal court, Ariyakudi would stay in Mysore for nearly a month each year. I used to meet him almost daily in the afternoon and he used to teach me various kirthanas, and fine tune the compositions that I had learnt from others. During his stays I had the good fortune to listen to many of his concerts with my guru on the violin and Palghat Mani Iyer on the mridangam.
One day Iyengar asked me to sing ‘Sangita Gyanamu’ in the raga Dhanyasi composed by Saint Thyagaraja. After listening to it, he sang the composition himself, corrected me and showed me how to sing and render it in a better way. Whenever I met him he always had some points of guidance and advice for me. I remember his words even today—
‘‘in the age old tradition, famous Nadaswaram players like Ponnuswamy and others used to learn vocal music from well known vocalists. Vocal music has its own style. The vocalist has to foster it. Instrumental music has its own style and method. Whenever a composition has to be rendered, its raga has to be elaborated suitably. This has to be borne in mind all the time. Similarly regarding raga elaboration for pallavis, neraval and swara singing., there was no tradition of singing to exhibit Nadais. Swara and nereval singing should be full of feeling. Differences between each tempo has to be very clear.’’
Ariyakudi used to sing pallavis in 4 kalais. He would sing ¼ avarta and sarva laghu swaras to compositions. There were no repetitions in any item. He would also sing pallavis in 2 kalais.
‘Vundarushanam Kadaikkimo, Shankara - bharananai (a four raga pallavi), Varada Venkata Varada, Kari moralinaleda hare Sri Krishna (Saveri—Chowka pallavi), Nee Mahima teliya Therama (Shankarabharana, middle tempo—rupaka), mayagnwada mudduraugaiah (slow tempo—3 /4 edupu—Bhairavi— Adi), after one akshara in Khandanade Adi, were some of his favourite pallavis. Kangalidetako (Todi), Kandudhanya naadeno (Behag), Yaake bande elejeeva and other Devaranamas were sung during the closing part of the concert. Ragamalika sloka, javali, Tillana, Triuppavai, Tamil padam—Ettanai Sonnalum teriyaadavarudam yen vilangi kolvayi magale—in Saveri —all these would be sung before the end of the concert. I learnt this padam from him.
I learnt ‘Janaki Ramana Dasaratha nandana’ in raga Kapi by listening to him. Apart from the compositions I learnt by listening to his concerts, I have learnt more than 50 compositions from Ariyakudi alone. Some examples are Badalikadheera (Ritigowla), Bhaktibhiksha (Sankarabharana), Ne pogadakunte (Desya Todi), Entanuchu Sairintinu (Yadukula Kambhoji), Raju Vedala (Todi), Kotinadulu (Todi), Entaninue (Mukhari), Dasarathe (Todi), Akshayalinga vibho (Sankarabharana) and compositions in raga Varali, ‘Ramanatham Bhajeham’ (Vasanta—Rupaka), Manasa Guruguha Rupam Bajare in raga Anandabhairavi. ‘Inta Saukhyamani’ in raga Kapi, etc. He popularized Thyagaraja’s composition ‘Inta Saukhyamani’ in raga Kapi by rendering it in his concerts.
Above all, he advised me “that varnams should be sung in three tempos; in the beginning of nerval singing the emotion of the raga should be brought out prominently; swaras have to be sung in the slow and middle tempo in ¼, ½ and 1 avartas. Varnams have to be sung with a little push of time-measure. There should be no repetition at
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anytime. The avartas should be shortened gradually and ending swaras or final swara groups should be short like the tip of the crown “—After advising he would sing and demonstrate each of these concepts to me. I followed his valuable advice and practiced incessantly as I developed my manodharma and style. I have also imparted this valuable training to my disciples.
During one of his visits to Mysore in course of our conversation, he described his experiences in Travancore. When he was a Tiruvanantapuram, he was lodged in the guest house. None other tha the Maharaja came in person and enquired about the arrangements being satisfactory to him. Ariyakudi praised this rare courteous treatment saying ‘‘who wants money? such a courtesy is the most important thing needed.’’
Even today the heirs of the Maharaja of Travancore have kept up the same courteous treatment and inquire personally about the welfare and comforts of guest musicians. I came to know about it from the well-known violinist brothers Mysore M.Nagaraj and M. Manjunath, sons of my colleague S. Mahadevappa. Is this not very rare? In which other place is such a courteous treatment is accorded to guest musicians !
During his visits to Mysore, Ariyakudi would train me by asking me to sing various compositions such as ‘Shive Pahimam’ (Kalyani), NinuvinaGamari and Palinchu Kamakshi of Shyama Sastri, Janakiramana (Suddha Seemantini), Sri Subramanya Namaste, etc. He would correct my singing where necessary and would also demonstrate to me the essentials by singing them himself. I also had the opportunity of singing for Ariyakudi compositions such as MariVere Gatievaramma in Anananda Bhairavi that I had learnt from Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer, Kshethragna’s Padams such as Aligithe in Huseni that I had learnt by listening to great vidwans. He would improve his own rendition after listening to me and also improve my rendition in the process. Ariyakudi used to render these rare padams in concert and popularized them. Ariyakudi was one of the great artists who gave true meaning to the Shubhashitha “Vidya Dhadhathi Vinayam”. It was not uncommon in those days for great artists to learn from anyone including younger artists; such was their thirst for knowledge. This aspect is almost extinct these days. Many years later, my student T.M.Madhuranath (a flautist) whom I had introduced to Flute T.R. Mahalingam for advanced training told me that Mali learnt the pieces SarasadalaNayana (Kamas) and Shivepahimam (Kalyani) from him. I had taught Madhuranath these songs when he was my student. I am struck by the common trait in these great artists – “to learn” from any source possible!
Ariyakudi’s advice on swara singing was “one should not sing swara groups like pelting stones. It should be gamaka oriented, Sarvalaghu swaras should be sung” and he would demonstrate this by singing. This was the path that he led by example. This advice polished my music significantly. I have cherished this close association with Ariyakudi for more than 20 years. As a an artist, teacher, author and composer, my career has been significantly influenced by this great legend of Carnatic music.
I want to share with you the reader, an example of how Ariyakudi would demonstrate his teachings and advice. I can never forget this one concert of his at Coimbatore during the Purandaradasa Aradhana music festival. A gentlemen named Maddur Srinivasa Rao used to arrange Purandaradasa Aradhana music festival every year in the R. S. Puram extension. On that day, artists such as G. N. B., Papa Venkataramaiah, Tanjavur Ramadasa Rao, Palani Subramanya Pillai, T. K. Rangachari, Rajappa Iyer, Rajamanikyam Pillai and other stalwarts were sitting in front, to listen to Ariyakudi. My guru Chowdiah was on the violin and Palghat Mani Iyer accompanied him on the mridangam.
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Ariyakudi always commenced his concert with a Varnam. He began his concert by rendering a Varnam in raga begada, followed by Dasarathe in Todi and other compositions such as EntanuchuSairinchi in Yadukula Kambhoji and took up a pallavi “Vundarisanam Kidaikkimo” in raga Kalyani. His elaboration of the raga and rendition of the pallavi was simply grand. I would dare say that he was at his best and his flights of imagination left the audience spellbound. It was one of his unforgettable concerts, for me as well as other artists.
Another memorable concert of Ariyakudi was at the Malai Sangita Sabha in Chennai. Many I.C.S. Officers and other higher ups were its members. An I.C.S. Officer was its secretary. They would came to the place where Ariyakudi stayed, to inquire about him and others in his party. On that occasion his accompanying artists were my guru T. Chowdiah on the violin and Palghat Mani Iyer on the mridangam. Ariyakudi commenced his concert with the varnam ‘Viriboni’ followed by Sri Subramanyaya namaste, Raju Vedala, Andarama Soundaryam (Kedara gowla—Tamil composition), Chakkaga nee bhajana jesevariki—pallavi in ragamalika—all these were rendered beautifully, and captivated the hearts and minds of every one, and left an indelible impression of a true great artist.
Some pallavis Ariyakudi usually rendered
Raga : Kalyani—Chaturasra Triputa 4 Kalais
This pallavi commences after the above time measures laghu and druta and after passing six aksharas commences in the second druta
|| ,, ,, ,, ,, - , , , , - , , , pa ma ||
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vun da
Ga ri sa ri , Saa , ri , gaa ma - ri ga maa -
ri sa nam ki . dac - kki mo - . no ta
paa ; paa , da paa ; ma ga ma ||
ra . ga . da yaa ne . de ||
Raga Todi - Chaturasra Adi (4 Kalais)
|| , ma , m ni daa paa da pa ma ga maa
. maa . ni ta gu na . . su .
daa saa daa d ni - saa ; ni sa ni da ||
gna - na dhu ree . . na . .
pa ma maa ||
Raga —Saveri —Tisra Triputa Pallavi in the middle tempo
|| , , , pa daa - saa , , - , , , ri ||
va ra tam . . . . . va
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Saa , da , , - pa da ma pa - da ri sa ni
ra . tim . . nee - . pa da raa di ri
pa da ma vara ||
ma na me
Raga —Dhyanasi — Adi —Middle tempo pallavi
|| , , , ga maa - paa , ni - sa da , pa ||
. . . va ra ….daa - ven - . ka . ta ||
||gaa ma
sai la
Raga —Bhairavi —Adi (Two kalai chowka pallavi)
|| , , , ri saa , sa nee da pa ma da nee
. . . cha tu rda saa bhu va naa dee .
saa , , , , da - ni saa sa ri ni da pa
saa . . . ra - vi ko ti sam - kaa
da ni sa chaturdasa ||
. . sa
Regarding the features of pallavis Ariyakudi often expressed his opinion ‘‘The literary part of the pallavis should be meaningful, and pleasing to hear. While rendering nerval and swara combinations, the salient features of the emotional aspect of the raga and variety in laya have to be kept in mind. Pallavi should be rendered without excessiveness according one’s creativity. If the pallavi is of 4 kalai, raga elaboration may be for 15 minutes, tana singing for 15 minutes, and 15 minutes for swara groups rendering have to be reserved. If the pallavi is rendered too elaborately, there is every possibility of loosing its charm. Within an hour or 45 minutes, it would be good to present all the required features of a pallavi.’’ This advice based on his long experience was for our guidance.
Ariyakudi was an unique personality not only in music, but also as a charming individual. He was very humorous in the company of his friends or in concerts. Here, I wish to recollect one or two instances when he exhibited his punning humor.
Once under the Jagannatha Sabha, Egmore in Chennai, a music concert of the renowned vocalist D. K. Pattamal took place. At the close of the concert, the organisers requested Ariyakudi who was present, to speak a few words, Ariyakudi who spoke in Tamil said –
‘‘The lady who sang just now has her name Pattammal. But you do not know one important thing. She is not a mere Pattammal, she is Paatu ammal, Padu Pattammal for music.’’
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Once at the close of his concert in Ramakrishna Ashrama in Palghat, the secretary thanking him said —Ariyakudi has been troubled by us—lots of Shrama. Ariyakudi immediately quipped ‘‘it is not Srama—This is Ashrama.’’
In Mysore, at the end of a concert, the organisers felicitated him and requested him to say a few words. A lover of pun he said —‘‘you have all requested me to speak a few words, because I am an Ariyakudi)(I am from Ariyakudi which means I am knowledgeable person).
Ariyakudi was a very courteous person. On one ocassion, soon after he alighted at Mysore for a concert he asked whether Chowdiah was in Town. The organisers said that Chowdiah was not in station, but asked him if it will be OK to have as his accompaniment R. R. Keshavamurty, another violinist who plays the seven stringed violin.
Ariyakudi—‘‘Why not? I have heard that he plays very well.’’ Palghat Subba Iyer played on the mridangam for that concert. Muttiah Bhagavatar, Mysore Vasudevacharya, Tiger Varadacharya, Venkatagiriappa and other stalwarts of the city were present in the audience. R. R. Keshavamurthy was at his best and played the violin in a superb manner. Ariyakudi frequently exclaimed ‘bhale, bhesh.’ Everyone present was amazed with his courtesy.
During a concert in the Bidaram Krishnappa’s Rama Mandiram, with my master on the violin and Palghat Mani Iyer on the mridangam Ariyakudi went on rendering one composition after another without any gap. There was no chance for Chowdiah to even take a pinch of snuff and tune the violin. Chowdiah said—why is there not a minute’s interval? Should I not tune the violin?’’ Ariyakudi said - Chowdiah, you can play perfectly with just one string.’’
On another occasion, Ariyakudi rendered the composition ‘Evari Kai’ in the raga Devamanohari in a captivating manner. My guru Chowdiah exclaimed—‘‘It seems that Thyagaraja composed this song only for you. May you live for hundred years singing like this.’’
Ariyakudi’s reply was equally praiseworthy. ‘‘Yes, if you play on the violin for so many years, I will surely sing.’’
‘Not too many people may be aware that when Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar was conferred with the tittle of Sangita Ratnakara by the Vellore Sangita Sabha, he was taken on an elephant in procession throughout the town.’
3.5 Karaikkudi Brothers—Subbarama Iyer (1883-1936) and Sambasiva Iyer (1888-1958)
These brothers were hallowed names as models of excellence and eminence. The Vainika tradition of their family had been passed on for eight generations. They were the chosen exponents of the veena, famous as the Karaikkudi Brothers.
My friend Chandramouli was a friend of Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer. I used to meet Chandramouli often. On one occasion, Karaikkudi Brothers were in Bangalore and were staying in the house of Dr C. V. Natarajan who was the Secretary of the Bangalore Gayana Samaja.
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I went to Natarajan’s house along with my friend Chandramouli. It was about 2 p.m. Muttaiah Bhagavatar, Veena Venkatagiriyappa and Karaikudi Samba Siva Iyer were playing a game of cards. My friend introduced me to Samba Siva Iyer. Samba Siva Iyer asked me to sing a song. I was a disciple of D.Subbaramaiah at that time. I sang ‘Manasu Swadhinamaina’ in the raga Sankarabharana that I had learnt by listening. Samba Siva Iyer asked me to sing it again. Samba Siva Iyer blessed me and told me - ‘‘You have a good style and voice. Practice well’’.
I got an opportunity to listen to the duet veena concert of these famous Karaikudi brothers at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja. Dakshinamurthy Pillai supported on the mridangam. I had gone to meet a relative of mine Ratna Sabhapatiah, an advocate in Kurnool, who was visiting his in-laws Mokshagundam Ramachandra Rao’s in Bangalore. Mokshagundam Ramachandra Rao’s daughter (brother of Sir M. Visveswaraiya) was the daughter-in-law of Ratna Sabhapataiah. Sabhapatiah was a great music lover. He asked me to join him to listen to the Karaikkudi Brothers conert. The concert began at 4.30 p.m. It commenced with ‘Sarasiruhasana priye’ in raga Nata. The elder brother was playing the veena holding it vertically. He had a pleasing voice and was an expert in singing swara groups. He rendered on the veena the composition Shobhillu Saptasvara with his own chitta swaras (a set solfa passage in the composition as an extra appendage to enrich the beauty of the composition at the end of the anupallavi and charana). It was a fine reflection of his creativity. After rendering a short sketch of the raga Sankarabharanam, he let his brother elaborated it and the duo rendered Tyagaraja’s composition ‘Edutanilachite.’
Dakshinamurthy Pillai was very enthusiastic and played on the mridangam some what loudly. Then Subbarama Iyer irritably told him ‘Look here, play in a subdued manner’. Pillai in all humility saluted him, played in a subdued manner and received his appreciation.
There were no sound amplification systems for musical concerts in those days and especially at the Gayana Samaja. Of the important audience, Justice Chandrashekhar Iyer was the only person who sat in a chair in the front row. Others sat on the carpets spread on the floor. There would be pin drop silence. The Karaikudi Brithers concert lasted for about 2½ hours and they concluded with an ashtapadi. During Dr C. V. Natarajan’s stewardship as the secretary of at the Gayana Samaja, concerts began at 4 p.m. and ended at 8 p.m. His successor V. T. Srinivasan continued this tradition.
3.6 Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer (1896-1970)
As I have mentioned before, I used to accompany my guru Chowdiah for his concerts and I had many opportunities to listen to Viswanatha Iyer’s concerts. He had a voice that made the listeener feel that it was meant for music. He was a disciple of Umayalpuram Swamynatha Iyer, a disciple of Mahavaidyanatha Iyer. He belonged to the galaxy of great musicians such as Konerirajapuram Vaidyanatha Iyer, Ramanad Srinivasa Iyengar, Madurai Pushpavanam and Palladam Sanjiva Rao. He was shining in the forefront like a king until Ariyakudi.Ramanja Iyengar became a leading star.
His accompanists on the violin were mostly Kumbhakonam Rajamanikyam Pillai or my guru Chowdiah. His music was full of superlative flashes, birkas, innovative embellishments and his hallmark was his incursion into the depths of manodharma or creativity in Carnatic music. As someone has said, “he was an excellent musicians’ musician.”
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Ragas Mohana, Arabhi, Durbar, Mukhari, Athana were his favorites. Mohanarama (Mohana), Nanupalimpa (Mohana), Ksheenamaitiruga (Mukhari), Chalakallanadu (Arabhi), Ilalopranatarthiharudu (Athana), Undedi (Hari kambhoji), Adineepai (Javali) were frequently sung by him. He loved to sing padams and Haridasu (yamuna kalyani) composition and Javalis. With his captivating and enchanting voice, his unique manodharma and birkas, ragas like Kalyani, devagandhari, Durbar, Nayaki etc., were a special delight to hear. He was adept in shading Carnatic music with lilting phrases from Hindustani style aptly. He used to sing Pallavis in well-known time-measures. The pallavi ‘Sarasadalanayana Hare Krishna’ in raga Kamas set to Adi tala was his favourite. My guru Chowdiah and Iyer were great friends.
On one occasion, Viswanatha Iyer had come to Mysore for his concert in the Mysore royal palace. I met him then. He asked me about my years of learning and the items I could sing and asked me to sing some songs. I sang for about half an hour. I sang ‘Entanuchu Sairinchu’ in Yadukulakambhoji raga which I had learnt from Ariyakudi, ‘Ehi annapurne’ in raga Punnaga Varali, which I had learnt from my guru Chowdiah and ‘Durmagachara’ which I had learnt by listening to Madurai Mani Iyer. He asked me to sing two avartas of swara phrases in raga Yadukulakambhoji. I sang four avartas of swara phrases. He called the attention of his son Maharajapuram Santhnam who was nearby and told him —‘‘Hey, listen tohow nicely he sings’’ and asked him to note down this composition. I wrote down this composition as well as Durmargachara and Ehi annapurne for him. I learnt ‘Mariveregatievaramma’ (Anandabhairavi) and ‘Orajupuchu’ (Kannadagowla) compositions from him. He sang them, emphsized the salient features and taught me the same. On one occasion, I sang what I had learnt from Viswanatha Iyer before Ariyakudi. After listening to me, Ariyakudi called K.V. Narayanaswamy who was around and asked him to take down the notations for those two compositions from me. I have always been awed by the thirst for knowledge of these great musical stalwarts and their desire to learn from any source.
Maharajapuram was very witty and quick in his reparte. They were subtle and pregnant with ideas. When someone raised a doubt about the indistinct raga elaboration of another he jocularly quipped - ‘There can be no durbar without Nayaki.’
He was rich in humor and a fine conversationalist. Once he entered the room where GNB and Madurai Mani Iyer and others were conversing. There ensued a hushed silence borne out of regard and the maestro was about to sit on the floor. GNB prevented him and told him - ‘The place for you to sit is higher up-mel (in Tamil). Viswanatha Iyer said ‘I have always been only a male’ to the merriment of others.
He had little respect for critics who repeated the remarks of others without knowing the implication. In particular, he referred to the charge that his rendering of Mohanam was not strictly correct as it contained traces of Bhoop. He said - Here you go, repeating parrot - like what others say but at least you acknowledge your ignorance. I am not bothered about Bhoop and all that poop, I am an original musician and will not hesitate to include strains from Hindustani or Persian or even Chinese music. In any case, what is wrong if I mix in Bhoop when rendering Mohanam? Am I not a Sangita Bhoopati?’’ His wit had no parallel.
Once when Viswanatha Iyer heard a boy with a weak, almost inaudible voice struggling with Bhairavi, he remarked - ‘‘Poor boy, he is trying his best to sing Patala Bhairavi.’’
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Viswanatha Iyer used his wit to demolish the pride of a young mridangam accompaniment’s father who asked him, daringly, why he had not given the lad a chance for playing tani (solo)? Iyer quipped.’’ But he was playing tani (solo) all through.’’
Sometimes Viswanatha Iyer would display his humor even in the midst of a performance. Once, when he found that the violin accompanist was more of a distraction than help, he skillfully took away his bow and kept it under his carpet. The violinist was at his wit’s end, but could not do anything except keep silent. At the end of the concert, Iyer not only returned the bow to him but also thanked him for his cooperation.
During one of his concerts, a listener, requested him to sing raga Darbar. Iyer quipped ‘‘You are already in it.’’ The listener seemed confused by this response and so Iyer replied ‘‘You know I am the Sangita Bhoopati. So this is my Darbar and you are already in it.’’
Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer was like an eagle, symbolizing natural instinct and free spirit. He offered grandeur in his music. What really distinguished him from contemporary musicians was his free imagination that was varied, fascinating and mesmerizing.
Once the jealous wife of an affluent, prosperous person found that the daughter of a neighbor too had taken to music lessons from Viswanatha Iyer. She did not like it. The following conversation ensued :-
‘‘Mama, I am told that house girl too has taken up lessons from you. What is to happen, to the future of my girl?’’
His capacity to control her was profound. He knew how to silence her playing on her own ignorance and vanity. Comforting her with ostentatious solitude, he got rid of her lingering doubts :‘‘Mami, do I not know how to reserve the last to our child alone? If I teach Suddha Saveri to her, I will teach only the ordinary Saveri to the other girl ! Like wise, if it is Suddha Dhanyasi to our child, it will be only mere Dhanyasi to the other.’’
Fully satisfied and elated, the innocent and ignorant lady of the house, would have placed an extra cup of steaming coffee with original flavor fully assured that her daughter alone would conquer the world and reach the summit with his musical legacy!
Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer gave a concert at theJagannatha Bhakta Sabha, Egmore, that was known for its classical outlook in the thirties. Maestro Mysore Chowdiah was on the violin. Vishwanatha Iyer wove out a raga he was to take up. Chowdiah smelt danger and was perspiring. A lesser celebrity would have committed an indiscretion or surrendered. Chowdiah took up his turn, went over the alapana in absolutely similar style, laid down his violin and with a proud smile said, ‘I have done the same.’ Maharajapuram with an air of innocence resumed instantly hinting at the particular raga sending the elite audience into raptures. Maharajapuram enjoyed the right to indulge in musical mischief.
3.7 Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu (1893-1964)
In 1940, I listened to the violin solo concert of Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu in Bangalore for the first time,. In those days, the concert programs of Bangalore Gayana Samaja used to take place in the assembly hall of the Theosophical Society. The hall was not a big one. Tanjavur Ramadasa Rao accompanied the violin maestro on the mridangam that day. Dwaram commenced his concert with ‘Ninne Kori’ of Veena
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Kuppier set to raga Kanada, followed by ‘Anathudanu gaanu’ in raga Jingla, and after elaborating raga Shankarabharana, rendered ‘Swararaga sudha’, making us taste the nectar of Nada. Then he presented an unforgettable Kapi ragam, tanam and pallavi. Dwaram was a connoisseur of Hindustani music. Under its influence, though he played in the Carnatic style he would suitably mix strains of Hindustani music. His violin play was full of remarkable soothing effects. His playing charmed my guru Chowdiah himself.
Another violin solo concert of Dwaram took place in Mysore at Bidaram Krishnappa’s Sri Rama Mandiram. His dignified violin concert was free from tricks, gymnastics and ostentation. He played raga Darbari Kanada with strains of Hindustani music. It was full of gamakas, emotive and again an unforgettable experience.
After Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar ascended the throne, Dwaram came to Mysore on special invitation and stayed in the Palace Guest House. The Maharaja desired very much to listen to the composition ‘Vidajaladura’ of Thyagaraja in raga Janaranjani and sent word to him to play it in his concert. Dwaram had not learnt this composition. At that time, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar was also visiting the Mysore Palace as the asthana vidwan. Dwaram met Iyengar and requested him to write that composition with notation and give it to him. I was visiting Ariyakudi and was there when Dwaram made the request. Ariyakudi said ‘‘I know that composition. But I cannot write in Telugu.’’ I offered my services and requested Ariyakudi that I write it down. Ariyakudi was happy and Dwaram was immensely happy. Then I wrote down composition in Telugu as dictated by Ariyakudi. After completing it, I handed it over to Dwaram at about 10.30-11 a.m. Then Dwaram adjusted the mute to his violin and practiced each part at least 50 times and spent the majority of the day fine tuning his rendering. This shows how Dwaram practiced with fervor to render compositions perfectly. On the following day, he played the composition during the Royal Durbar. The Maharaja was immensely pleased and requested Dwaram to stay for five more days so that he could arrange a few nore concerts of his. Dwaram said ‘‘Please pardon me. It is not possible for me at present. When I come next time I shall do so.’’ Dwaram was an embodiment of humility and courtesy. He never addressed even a boy in the singular. He never criticized others. He always spoke good words about others. I told Dwaram’s daughter Dwaram Mangatayaru when she came for her concert in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A. the above incident at Mysore and also handed her some cassettes of her father’s violin concerts. She just couldn’t believe what had transpired between Ariyakudi and her father and how hard he practiced.
Dwaram was born in Bangalore, Karnataka. His father was a military officer and was also a violinist. Dwaram while young, had very poor eyesight. Hence, he could not pursue his general studies beyond the fifth standard. He took to the violin. His brother Venkata Krishniah gave him practical training. Thus, a musical life was marked out for him. Rapt attention, dedicated listening, keen grasp and sound assimilation and rare intuition were his hallmark. By incessant practice he became an ace violinist. Naidu's Nadopasana and artistic knowledge knew no bounds
The year 1919 was marked with an unusual twist in his life. He went to the Vijayanagaram Music College to seek admission as a student. After the interview, he was admitted not as a student, but appointed as Professor. This incident is a very rare incident in the history of music. He served as the principal of the College from 1936 to 1954.
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Dwaram was very aware of the secrets of nada. He knew its unlimited power as well. He was never worried about his vision problems. He had totally surrendered to the Lord. He played on the violin to give him joy. Earlier in his career he has accompanied Ariyakudi in his concerts. He stopped accompanying others later and became a solist. At Anakapalle, Dwaram had to play on the violin at the concert of Chittor Subramanya pillai. He requested Pillai to restrict his concert to three hours as he was unwell, but Pillai took it with determination to the full five hours and that was the last concert that Naidu played as accompanist.
On his 60th birthday, Justice P. V. Rajamannar at Chennai felicitated Dwaram. Dwaram was presented with a purse of Rs. 60000/-. Dwaram was the only musician in those days that was honored with such a heavy amount. The citizens of Vijayanagaram honored him in 1931 by presenting a diamond ring and a violin made in 1725 by the world’s greatest violin maker Stradivarius.
Dwaram was the recipient of many titles such as Padmashri and other awards. Two universities honored him with honorary doctorate degrees. .
3.8 Musiri Subramanya Iyer (1899-1974)
My guru Chowdiah was the secretary of the Bidaram Krishnappa’s Sri Rama Mandiaram for almost 10 years. During his tenure, he invariably arranged the inagural concert of the Ramanavami season to be that of Musiri Subraamanya Iyer.
Musiri had his initial training under S. Narayanaswamy Iyer, a treasury Officer and also a first class Magistrate at Pudukote. He completed his intermediate college education and furthered his music learning from violinist Karur Chinaswamy Iyer, Pallavi Namakkal Narasimha Iyengar and completed five years’ tutelage under the distinguished Sabesha Iyer. Musari became Sabesha Iyer’s son in law later.
In Bidaram Krishnappa’s Sri Rama Mandiram concerts my guru Chowdiah and Palghat Mani Iyer were Musari’s usual accompanists. Musiri used to sing in the slow tempo. After commencing with a varnam, it was his practice to sing the composition ‘Entavedukondu’ in raga Saraswathi Manohari. He would perform raga elaboration, nereval and swara phrases for about 45 minutes. The other compositions which he usually rendered were—Nee padamule (Bhairavi raga) in slow tempo, Ennaganuramabhajana, and a 4 Kalai Chowka Pallavi. Here is an outline of the pallavis he used to sing :
Raga : Kambhoji—Adi (4 Kalai Chowka pallavi)
|| , , , , , , , , , , dha sa ri ga ma
……………...Kri shna mu raa
gaa ga ga ga ma gaa—Ga ri pa ma
re ke sa va mu raa re—maa dha
ga ga ri sa || ri ga ma ga ri sa sa ni
va ha re mu kun da go vin da mu
da pa
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ra . re
Raga : Todi—Adi (4 Kalai Chowka pallavi)
|| , , sa ri gaa, ma, gaa ri, sa da ni -
. . ne la ta . ma ru lu kon ti
- sa ri , , , , , da- paa maa , pa ma ga ||
ne . . . . . . paa ni kai . chaa ||
ri sa
. .la
He used to sing Govindanadi Mukundanadi enakkavar swantamadi and other pallavis with nereval and swara phrases in three tempos. This would last for not less than an hour. He was an expert in rendering the pallavi in an very scholarly manner. After the pallavi, he would sing —Ettanai Sonnalum teriyadavarudan en vilangi kolvayi magale—a Tamil padam, followed by Marulukonnadira Manimani—in Kamas, a Javali of Ramnad Srinivasa Iyengar, then Devadideva tiruvadisaranam enrum naa nambi vanden, sometimes a sloka and then a ragamalika. Usually, his concerts would be at least four hours long. NaNadinaMata (Janarangani) of Saint Thyagaraja was his favourite composition. I learnt this composition from him. He became very famous with his unique style of rendering for the Thyagaraja’s composition— Nagumomuganaleni.
Musiri used to sing ‘Bhogindrasayinam’ of Swati Tirunal Maharaja in raga Kuntalavarali, notated by Muttiah Bhagavatar in the slow tempo, at the Swati Tirunal Navarathri Mantapam concerts in Tiruvanantapuram. This composition underwent some changes during the time of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and now is sung in the middle tempo.
Musiri used to sing the pallavi ‘Govindanadi’ in the raga Todi in the middle tempo. Moreover, Musiri would sing the ragas of the first chakra of Mahavaidyanatha Iyer’s. 72 Melaragamalika. I have heard all these in his concerts.
The special feature of Musiri’s music was the rich melody and raga bhava delivered in a voice that could traverse great heights. He was more at home and at ease singing in the high pitch. His rendition was the ecstatic outpourings of the heart that throbbed with feelings. He was a master of nereval. His presentation of manodharma and melody was soothing. Hearts melted and the entire audience was swayed and swept by the absolute purity of the emotions conveyed by his soulful melody.
Even prior to the establishment of Akashavani Centers, the gramophone records of H. M. V. Company that were available in the market and these were popular in rural areas also. Nagumomuganaleni (Abheri), Chowdaiah’s ‘Mayetwamyahi’, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar’s ‘Everimata and Anupamagunambudhi’ and other gramophone records brought fame to these stalwarts. Nowadays, it is regrettable to note that very few musicians sing these compositions.
Musiri's rendering of—Tiruvadisaranam, Pahiramachandra Raghava, Taye Yeshode, Palinchu Kamakshi, Sri Viswanatham, Samchrdeyada (Viuttam) in ragamalika have established his inimitable style.
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Musiri has given numerous of concerts with my guru Chowdiah on the violin and Palghat Mani Iyer on the mridangam and also toured Malaysia and Sri Lanka. He also acted in a movie—Tulsidas. He served as the Principal of the Central College of Carnatic Music, Chennai, for more than ten years. Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar of Mysore had arranged his concert for three days and enjoyed them and honored him with expensive presents and a good honorarium. Musiri performed great service as Secretary and Treasurer, Tyagabrahma Aradhana Sabha, Tiruvaiyyar. This cultured and genial musician preserved and developed the best music tradition. He was the recipient of several honors and titles such as Sangita Kalanidhi and others. My close contacts with him and his music helped me develop my knowledge of music for which I am ever grateful to him.
3.9 Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer (1908-2003)
After Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer was the much sought after vocalist. He was a brilliant star for several decades in Carnatic Music. I heard his concert for the first time in the Chennai Music Academy. His mridangam accompanist that day was Palghat Mani Iyer. The concert went on from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. He commenced his vocal concert with Vatapiganapathim in the raga Hamsadhwani and then launched on an elaboration of the raga Ritigowla and rendered Thyagaraja’s composition ‘Dvaitamu Sukhama’ in a charming manner. This was followed by the elaborate singing of raga Bhairavi and the pallavi in 4 kalai— Dasarathabaala Ramachandraiah Dayanidhe’ in three tempos. The concert was excellent.
I have heard a large number of his concerts in Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Mysore and other places. I was closely acquainted with him. He used to say, ‘‘I always listened with great interest Nagaswaram concerts. It was helpful to me later to elaborate ragas. I was inspired by Nagaswaram concerts.’’ This is noteworthy.
Sometime in his career, he developed some trouble with his voice. He cultured his voice for 1-2 years by incessant practice and dedication and again started performing.
Semmangudi’s style was based on keeping in mind the complete picture of the raga and performing nereval in a very crisp, attractive style. His singing of swara pharases was also very fine, attractive but difficult. He was an expert in singing sarvalaghu swaras.
He had immense love and respect for Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar’s vocal music. He regarded it as the finest and most instructive. His answers during an interview with the Illustrated Weekly of India are revealing:
‘‘Do you believe in rebirth?’’
‘‘I have been singing compositions in praise of the Lord thoughout my life. I do not think I will be reborn.’’
‘‘Have you any desires?’’
‘‘All my wishes have been fulfilled. I have no more desires.’’
‘‘If you are reborn what will be your desire?’’
‘‘If I am reborn, I wish to sing like Ariyakudi. This is my only desire.’’
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Interview—Illustrated weekly of India
Myself and some of my friends have witnessed his great respect and affection for Ariyakudi. Once, during the Ramotsavam Music festival in Bidaram Krishnappa’s Sri Rama Mandiaram in Mysore his concert was scheduled to commence at 6 p.m. Listeners had already occupied vantage positions in the hall from 4 p.m. itself.
A vocal concert by a younger musician was planned until his arrival. Ariyakudi along with my guru Chowdiah were sitting in front. There was no sign of Semmangudi even at 6 p.m. Listeners were patiently looking forward to his arrival. At last, Semmangudi alighted from the car near the main gate at 8 p.m. Ariyakudi and my guru Chowdiah went outside to greet him. Soon after he saw Ariyakudi, Semmangudi prostrated before him on the road which had just received a fresh coat of asphalt. Semmangudi was wearing spotless white Khaddar Dhoti and Jubba. Ariyakudi touched him saying—why all this, get up Seenu, you sing very well’’ and helped him get up. We all witnessed this rare and unexpected incident and were awestruck.
Semmangudi said—‘‘Anna, please bless me’’ and got up. His vocal concert lasted till 11. 30 p.m. Needless to say that it was a wonderful one.
I have enjoyed listening to a good number of his vocal concerts. Kharaharapriya, Kambhoji, Sankarabharana, Anandabhairavi, Kamas, Kalyani, Ritigowla, Natakurinji, Mukhari, Neelambari were some of his favourite ragas. By rendering many compositions in these ragas, he made them popular. He was an expert in singing the raga Narayanagowla and he came to be known as Narayanagowla Semmangudi.
Semmangudi used to render pallavi’s in 2 kalais but sometimes in 3 kalais and in three tempos. His popular pallavi’s include ‘Sivoham satatam ananda poornabodham, Eranasamipagavaru, Engal Nattai Kurinji and the pallavis using Sadasiva Brahmendra’s s. Swati Tirumal Maharaja’s ‘Pankajalochana’ (Kalyani), Dikshitar’s ‘Sri Matribhootam (Kannada), Biranabrovaida (Kalyani) of Talagambadi Panchanathaa Iyer, Syama Sastri’s Swarajati in raga Bhairavi, compositions in raga Dvijavanti, of Sadasiva Brahmendra and Bhadrachala Ramadas were some of the songs popularised by him.
Sometimes, he would commence his vocal concert with SwathiTirunal Maharaja’s Devadeva Kalyamite in raga Mayamalavagowla. Some later musicians seem to have given up the practice of commencing their concerts with a varnam keeping Semmangudi as their model.
At the closing part of the concert he would sing Parulannamata, a javali in the raga Kapi, the padam ‘Emiseyudu nnate Enakshi, Sakhiprana of Dharmapuri Subbarayar and Swati Tirunal Maharaja’s ‘Bhavayami’ woven by him into a raga malika adding chittaswaras, in an enchanting style that made the concertmost pleasurable and unforgettable.
Some pallavis rendered by Semmangudi are listed below:
Raga : Bhairavi —Adi (4 kalai pallavi)
(1) || , , ma ga ri sa ri ni sa gaa ri gaa maa-
. . Da sa ra tha baa. la ra ma chan dra .
- Paa, da pa ma ga ma - pa ma ga ri
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yya da . yaa . . . . . ni .
ga ma ga da ri ga
. . . dhe ||
(2) Raga : Kambhoji—Adi (2 kalai)
|| ; nee , daa , paa da ma ga pa daa - saa
. Aa . .nam da pu rna bo dho ham , , ,
; ; , da - saa , ni , , da || pa da
. . shi vo hm
daa nan da ||
sat . chi . .
I have been very much influenced by Semmangudi’s style of singing as to nereval and swara phrases. This is the outcome of much listening and assimilation of a few sangatis. For good assimilation, it is my feeling that one must listen carefully to the concerts of stalwarts. The ideas that they follow should be deeply rooted in the mind. It would be good to learn to elaborate the raga and sing swara phrases proportionately in tune with the composition rendered. There should not be single, unnecessary note. One should get to know when to lower the voice and when to be full throated. These cannot be learnt from any book.
When I was the principal of the fine arts college of the Mysore University, I had arranged a vocal concert of Semmangudi in our college for the benefit of the students. He acceded to my request and came down to Mysore with his own accompanists. His concert in our college was both instructive and enthralling as usual. ‘Listen with devotion and assimilate salient features according to your capacity and develop your art’ was his sagacious advice to the students and he blessed them. You, the reader would be surprised to know the honorarium the University paid him for that day’s concert? It was just Rs.200/- plus his travelling expenses!
In the holy place Nanjanagud, also known as Dakshina Kashi or Garalapuri, about 10 miles from Mysore, at the Nanjundeshwaraswamy Temple, a series of concerts are i arranged each year during the Girija Kalyana festival. Myself, Semmangudi and other artists used to regularly visit, worship and sing at the Nanjundeshwara Temple. During this season I used facilitate concerts by my disciples in the presence of Semmangudi. He would sit and listen to the entire concert of my disciples and bless them for singing very well. He also invited many of them to the Music Academy in Chennai and gave them opportunities to sing.
In 1983, the Bangalore Gayana Samaja conferred on me the title of “Sangeettha Kala Rathna”. I was also invited to give a vocal concert. My accompaniments were Sangeetha Kalanidhi M.Chandrsekar on violin and Sangeetha Kalanidhi Vellore Ramabhadran (Semmangudi affectionately used to call him Nadhabhadran) on the mridangam. Semmangudi was invited by the Bangalore Gayana Samaja to attend Sangeetha Kala Rathna award ceremony. T.T. Vasu was the chief guest and presented me the award. To my misfortune Semmangudi fell ill at that time and could not attend. When I met him
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later at a concert in Chennai, he congratulated me for the award and apologized for not being able to attend the ceremony and the concert.
The memory of such a great musician and his music has remained unsullied and fresh in my mind. He strode like a brilliant star before us in the world of music.
Semmangudi was a very good speaker and had a great sense of humor. Here is an interesting event.
The respected musician (Semmangudi) boarded the first class compartment and was relaxing. The TTE entered and cast a suspicious glance at him.
‘Sir, this is reserved for a doctor, please vacate.’
‘This is reserved for me only. My host verified it too.’
‘I am sorry. I know this is for another. Just a second. He is Dr. Srinivasan, please.’
Dr. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer had a hearty laugh recovering from his initial shock. In his usual humorous way, he said :
“Sangeetha Kala Rathna Award Concert” with Sangeetha Kalanidhi M. Chandrasekar on violin, Sangeetha Rathnakara Vellore Sri V. Ramabhadran on
Mridangam, Smt. Uma Prasanna (vocal support)
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‘Thank you, I am Dr Semmangudi Srinivasan. I understand you. Because of the appellation ‘Doctor’, you had presumed that the ticket holder should be only in full suit! Now you see, that there is a doctor in dhoti in pancha kacche too.’
(The TTE was profuse in his good natured apologies).
Another incident occurred at the Music Academy where Maharajapuram Santhanam was giving a vocal concert. Speaking about Santhanam, Semmangudi jokingly said— ‘‘You see this Santhanam; when he was a child I used to carry him on my shoulder. Is this possible now? He has grown so big!’’ (both in music and physical proportions).
What a tribute!
Semmangudi Dr. Srinivasa Iyer was paying tribute the mridangam maestro Dr. T. K. Murthy. ‘‘If he has a tail, he could be called as Nandi itself’’ (Nandi, the bull mount of Lord Siva, is foremost among celestial percussionists). If he wears a cap, he would be called Hanuman continued the vocal maestro. Dr. Murthy is short in stature..... tribute with a hit.
—Sruti.
3.10 G. N. Balasubramanyam (1910-1965)
I heard the vocal concert of G.N.Balasubramanyam (popularly called GNB) for the first time in my uncle’s house on the occasion of a marriage, which was celebrated in Malleswaram extension of Bangalore. My guru Chowdiah played the violin and Ayyamani Iyer was the mridangam accompaniment.
G. N. B., was young then, perhaps 30-35 years old. Chowdiah very much liked him. GNB used to call him Soundiah! In course of time, many concerts of GNB took place with Chowdiah on the violin. His concerts with my master were always a grand success. He always desired to have Chowdiah as his violin accompanist. Chowdiah loved the fast tempo. GNB had a bracing, resonant and impressive voice. His style was rich with birkas. In course of time he had some difficulty with his voice in the shadja. Chowdiah was very cooperating in covering up this deficiency and so, his concerts were of a high order, successful and popular. Whenever my master was not available his disciple V. Sethuramaiah (7 stringed violinist) or Lalgudi Jayaraman or T. N. Krishnan would accompany him on the violin.
GNB was an expert in singing rare ragas. Emanipogdudura (Veeravasanta), Ragasudharasa (Andolika), Needayatoda (Vasanta Bhairavi), Atukaradani (Manoranjani), Aparadhanlulanorva (Rasali), Vasudevayani and Nidhichala (Kalyani), Etavunna nerehitivo (Yadukula Kambhoji), Neevera Kuladhanamu (Begade) were some of his favourite compositions and ragas. Generally he would sing pallavi’s in the slow and middle tempo. He would not miss singing Tillanas and Javalis. He used to sing some of his own compositions like Sadapalaya, Ranjaniniranjani, etc. that are beautiful pieces.
GNB had great respect for Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar and his style. On one occasion when Iyengar’s concert took place under the auspicious of Parthasarathi Swamy Sabha, Chennai,the organizers requested GNB to speak a few words in the end. Eulogizing Ariyakudi’s style he said— ‘It is not possible for anyone to sing in his style. He is the emperor of musicians.’ The joy of the audience knew no bounds and there was continuous clapping for five minutes.
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During that concert Ariyakudi rendered the pallavi—Dasaratha Bala Ramachandraiah Dayanidhe in raga Bhairavi —a 4 kalai pallavi, very popular in those days. I have heard many musicians rendering this pallavi in the same raga in three tempos. But GNB changed it into 2 kalais, rendered nereval and then made room for the percussionist to play. tani (solo) and established this tradition. He used to sing creative swara phrases in 2 kalais. He was adept in singing Tukadas (pleasing sundries). Dikkuteriyada kaattil and others in ragamalika to the great joy of the audience, especially the younger generation.
He also took the lead role of Dushyanta in the famous Tamil film ‘Sakuntala’ in which the famous musician M. S. Subbulakshmi was the heroine. He played a major role in the films ‘Bhama Vijayam’ and ‘Sati Anasuya.’ He also acted in the film ‘Udayana Vasavadatta.’ I have seen all these films and enjoyed them.
GNB was the son of G.V.Narayana Swamy Iyer, a music lover and Headmaster of Hindu High School, Triplicane, Chennai. He studied in Westerly College while learning music under his father who himself was a disciple of Karur Chinnaswamy Iyer and Madurai Subramanya Iyer. He obtained his B.A.(Hons.) in 1929 and Diploma in Music from the University of Madras. Though he was a graduate in English Literature, he opted to become a professional musician.
GNB is one of the prominent composers of recent times. He has composed 250 compositions in Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil in the well known ragas. He has invented ragas like Chandrahaseetha, Sivasakhi, Amrita Behag etc. GNB became the Royal Court Vidwan of Travancore in 1939 and of Ettiyapuram in 1941. GNB was the deputy chief producer of Carnatic Music A.I.R., Chennai and Principal, Swati Tirunal College of Music, Tiruvanantapuram. The Chennai Music Academy conferred on him the title of ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’ in 1958. Two books of his compositions have been published.
GNB had a graceful personality and ready wit. A large number of his disciples have inherited his style. Prominent disciples to mention are late M. L. Vasanta Kumari, late Tanjavur S.Kalyanaraman, Tiruchur Ramachandran and late T. R. Balasubramanyam.
An interesting incident occurred during the vocal concert by GNB with my guru T. Chowdiah on the violin, at Bidaram Krishnappa’s Sri Rama Mandiram in Mysore. GNB sang the Kalyani raga composition of Saint Thyagaraja ‘Nidhi chala sukhama’ preceeded by beautiful raga elaboration and completed it with a fine nereval and swara phrases. The Secretary of the Mandiram stood up requested GNB to sing raga Kalyani. GNB was taken aback and turning towads Chowdiah said—
‘‘Chowdiah, I have just now sung the raga and composition and concluded it. What shall I do now?’’
‘‘Do you know who he is? He is our pay master. You will have to sing.’’
‘‘Oh ! What shall I do now? Please tell me.’’
‘‘All right ! you sing ‘Manamuleda’ in raga Hamir Kalyani.’’
GNB’s rendition of the raga and composition was very beautiful.
The Secretary, ignorance personified, got up and thanked GNB for having sung raga Kalyani.
Everyone there was amused and enjoyed the ignorance exhibited.
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3.11 Madurai Mani Iyer (1912-1968)
When I was very young I heard the concert of Madurai Mani Iyer at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja with Govindaswamy Naikar on the violin and Venu Naikar on the mridangam. Mani Iyer was already well known. He had a style that was graceful and unique. With his wonderful sense of rhythm his vocal music was a happy feast to everyone.
After my migration to Mysore, I had many opportunities of listening to his vocal concerts with my guru Chowdiah on the violin and Palghat Mani Iyer on the mridangam in the Bidaram Krishnappa’s Sri Rama Mandiram and elsewhere.
Mani Iyer generally would render some rare ragas and compositions. Nadatanumanisam in Chittaranjani raga, Nijamarmamulanu in raga Umabharanam, Sarasamukhi in raga Gowda Malhar (composition of his guru Muthiah Bhagavathar), Bhuvaneswariya in Mohana Kalyani (also composition of his guru Muthiah Bhagavathar) in his own style. There would be no ostentation or gimmicks of laya. He would also sing an English note. His style was a mirror of his romantic manodharma or improvisation. Words fail to eulogize his sparkling swara phrases. His style was aesthetic, touching the hearts of listeners. His nereval rendition was simply grand. He used to render generally 2 kalai pallavis. Whether it was Kambhoji, Mohana, Kapi or Vachaspathi his rendition and the ensuing ragamalika in some chosen ragas would crown the pallavi. Generally he rendered beautifully ragas like Behag, Sindhu Bhairavi, Kannadagowla, etc. He popularised compositions Ramabhakti (Suddha Bangala), Niravadi Sukhada (Ravichandrika), Aadundaivam, Chakkaniraja, Kavava, Chetasri, Annapoorne, Sri Matrubhootham, Sabhapati ki veru daivam and may kritis of Dikshitar and Gopala Krishna Bharatiand bestowed on them grace and style. He would render any minor raga in his unique style. He would sing being totally absorbed in it. With imaginative sarva laghu svaras he would present the compositions in a dazzling and sparkling manner. He offered bhava laden, melodious, aesthetic, sensuous music. His sruti alignment was perfect and was his virtue. Its very apt to call Madurai Mani Iyer as Madhura Mani Iyer – such was the sweetness in his music. Mani Iyer was born at Madurai in Tamil Nadu. He was the nephew of melody king Pushavanam Iyer. At first he was trained by Rajam Iyer and then by Muttiah Bhagavatar in his music school ‘Thyagaraja Vidyalaya’. He was greatly admired by musicians and the public alike. He was a recipient of many titles and honors such Gana Kaladhara, Sangita Kalanidhi etc., T. V. Sankaranarayanan, his nephew is one of his prominent disciples.
3.12 Mudikondan C. Venkatarama Iyer (1897-1975)
Mudicondan Venkatarama Iyer was an intellectual, a great vocalist and a scholar in Carnatic music theory. Though I was not intimately acquainted with him, I have heard some of his lectures and demonstrations at the Madras Music Academy. He delivered a scholarly lecture on Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer’s contribution to music and his musical poetry. He illustrated these with the Maha’s Varnam Pankajakshi and the Kambhoji pallavi in the complex Simhanandana tala time measure with Lalgudi Jayaraman on the violin and Umayalpuram Sivaraman on the mridangam. This is one of the ancient 108 time measures. A single avarta of this time measure comprises of 128 aksharakala. Its constituents are two gurus, one laghu pluta, laghu, guru, two laghus. While explaining this time-measure, he informed the audience that Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer learnt it from an eminent Tavil player and composed the sahitya or literary part to the Jatis.
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It was truly an excellent demonstrative lecture attended by most well known musicians from Madras. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer while complimenting him for his erudition, honored him with a shawl and said— ‘‘You alone are the musician scholar. We are nothing before you.’’
Mudikondan, then rendered Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer’s composition in raga Nagaswaravali—Sri Sankaraguruvaram set to Rupaka tala and demonstrated the 72 Melakarta ragas, singing one raga from each cycle.
Mudicondan was an incisive analyst in matters of music. On one occasion when a musician rendered a pallavi in six tempos, after listening, Mudicondan remarked that though the musician sang the pallavi in six tempos, it was played in 5 tempos, to the discomfiture of the accompanists. One of his disciples retired Professor of music Smt. Vedavalli is a musicologist and vocalist of repute.
3.13 Alathoor Brothers - Srinivasa Iyer (1912-1980); Sivasubramanya Iyer (1916-1965)
Alathoor brothers were not brothers, but brothers in music. Sivasubramanya Iyer and Srinivasa Iyer were both disciples of the latter’s father Alathoor Venkatesa Iyer. Both of them practiced many nadai pallavis and chowka pallavis with Palani Subramanya Pillai on the mridangam and became experts. In the beginning they used to sing with more attention to permutation and combination of time measures. In course of time, after facing criticism, they focused on greater attention to improvisation. They were experts in rendering compositions in slow tempo and also compositions in rare ragas. While singing compositions in the slow tempo, they would present a beautiful emotive and complete picture of the ragas.
They were masters in the rendition of Evariehcharara sharachapamulu (Madhyamavati), Aadaya Sri Raghu (Ahiri), Nama Kusumamula (Sri), Ninnenammi Naanu (Todi), Dachukovalena (Todi), Padavini Sadbhakti (Salaga Bharavi) Koniyade (Kambhoji), Chetasri (Dvijavanti), Samaya mide rara na sami and Vagaladi (Javalis), and pallavis like Karimoravinaleda Hare Krishna (Saveri), Namanavini vinuma Nanuganna Talli (Adi-Tisra), Lokavanachatura mampahi (Begade), Vundarisanam Kadaikkimo Nataraja Dayanidhe and others.
Swati Tirumal's Dasavatara Kritis, Mutaiah Bhagavarar’s Behag raga Tillana were their favourite compositions. I have enjoyed many of their concerts with my master on the violin and Palghat Mani Iyer or Palani Subramanya Iyer on the mridangam.
Alathoor brothers were the torchbearers and models for musicians in the method of showing their erudition, grace, and adherence to tradition. They synchronized well and were noted for their true traditional values and specialization in laya and pallavi.
I had the opportunity to learn several nadai and chowka pallavi’s from the Alathoor Brothers. On one occasion, Alathoor Srinivasa Iyer asked me to sing Thyagarajas’ Kadalevadu in Narayanagowla. He noted down the krithi and was gracious enough to suggest improvizations possible. He asked for and noted down the Purandara Dasa kriti “NaninnaDhyanadolu” in Kanada.
Here are some pallavis frequently rendered by the Alathoor Brothers.
Raga : Saveri—Adi Tala (4 kalai pallavi)
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|| , , , pa da saa da , , ni da ma pa daa
. . . ka ri mo ra . . vi - na le -
—saa ; ; ; ri - saa ; ; ni da || pa da ma
daa . . . ha re . . kri . . shna
kari
Raga : Ananda Bhairavi—Adi—Trisragati
|| , , sa , ga ri gaa ma, ga ri—saa ,
. . naa . ma na vi ni vi nu maa .
pa ma - gaa ri maa ga || - ri sa
na nu ganna ta . – lli
Raga : Begade—Adi (4 kalai pallavi)
|| , , , , saa , sa ; ga ma ri ga maa -
. . . . Lo . kaa . va na . cha tu
ga ri sa , , , ga ri gaa ; , , , ma ||
raa . . . . mam . . . . . paa
pa ga ri sa Loka
. . . he
Allathoor Srinivasa Iyer taught me the 4 chowka, Bhairavi pallavi. I took the opportunity to present this pallavi in 1970 at my Bangalore Gayana Samaja concert with Sikkil Bhaskaran (Violin) and Tanjore Upendran (Mridangam).
Raga: Bhairavi TisraTriputa Tala.
||VelaVanaviyathe Padame-
ParaMenu MahimaNatha VelaVanaviyathi Padame||
3.14 Chittor Subramanya Pillai (1898-1975)
Subramanya Pillai was the son of Perayya, a Violinist living in Chittor, my native place. Perayya used to come to our house often to meet my grandfather. During the annual festivals of the local Kanyakaparameswari temple, there would be several music concerts, Harikatha performances that used to be attended by thousands of devotees. I was about 14 years (1932) when I attended Pillai’s concert. I remember that I had a strong urge to listen to music concerts back then even though I had very little knowledge of music. I attended his concerts with my father and my father introduced me to him.
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Pillai was the senior most disciple of the famous Kanchipuram Nayana Pillai. Tanjavoor Ramadasa Rao accompanied him on the mridangam and Pillai’s disciple provided violin support. The concert lasted for about three hours. Pillai commenced his concert with ‘Kadalevadu’, a composition of Saint Thyagaraja in the raga Narayanagowla followed by ‘Seetamma Mayarnma’ in raga Vasanta and after elaborating raga Manirangu, he rendered the composition—‘Raanidiraadu’ and also elaborated with swaras for about 15 minutes. Then he sang ‘Mariyada Gadayya’ in raga Bhairavam followed by a beautiful elaboration of raga Sankarabharana and rendered the composition ‘Buddhiradu’ with nereval and swara phrases. This was followed by a mridangam solo of Ramadasa Rao with beautiful tekas and sruti alignment for about 15 minutes. Then Pillai rendered ‘Kripajuchutakidi velara’ a composition in raga Chaya Tarangini.
Pillai was an expert in rendering difficult pallavis. He next rendered the pallavi—Ten palani vadivelane, Murugane Valli manalane (Adi) in raga Natakurinji. He rendered this 4 kalai chowka pallavi in three tempos and demonstrated the feature of tisra nadai. A second solo performance of the mridangam by Ramadasa Rao in the same style earned the appreciation of all. Pillai next sang a Tiruppugal in a variety of talas and rendered his own composition, a popular Javali ‘Madhura nagarilo challa namma bonu’ in the raga Anandabhairavi. The Bharatanatyam artistes also have adopted this composition as it gives great scope to depict the emotions therein. Pillai’s concerts generally would last for more than five hours with an array of accompanying instruments.
Several years later, I met him at AIR Tiruchirappalli when he had come there for recording. I had gone there for myself for a live broadcast of my concert. When I met him at the A.I.R. Station, he recognized me and enquired about my welfare. I could not meet Pillai afterwards. He used to render all the compositions which his master Nayana Pillai used to render. He had a powerful voice and scholarship, buttressed by specialization in laya. He would sing shatkala pallavi - Pallavi in six tempos effortlessly. The credit of popularizing several rare ragas and compositions belongs to him.
4 Some contemporary musicians of Karnataka
4.1 Chintanapalli Venkata Rao (1875-1969)
When I knew him, Chintanapalli Venkata Rao was already the senior most musician of Mysore. He hailed from a well-known musical family. He had his training in music under Hanagal Chidambariah, a disciple of the eminent Mysore Sadasiva Rao, Pakka Hanumantachar and Neykarapatti Pallavi Sesha Iyer. He was a musician of the Mysore Royal Court. He had a powerful vibrant voice and his music was captivating and elevating.
Venkata Rao would come from Bangalore to Mysore during the Dasara season. I met him for the first time in the residence of musician Chennakesaviah, a close friend of mine. He introduced me to Rao. Rao asked me affectionately, to sing. I rendered Thyagaraja’s composition in raga Todi—‘Jesinadella marachitivo’ with raga elaboration, nereval and swara phrases. Listening to it he shed tears of joy. He had a very soft heart.
Among the seven music conferences which took place at the Bidaram Krishnappa’s Sri Rama Mandiram, Venkata Rao presided over the first conference and received the title ‘Gana Kala Sindhu’ and other honours. The music conference was arranged and organized by the then secretary, musician B. K. Padmanabha Rao. Whenever I met
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Venkata Rao, he would narrate many things about his master Pallavi Sehsa Iyer. He would forget himself in describing his master’s specialty in talas, rendition of pallavis and he would also sing some of Sesha Iyer’s compositions. Rao also demonstrated for me by singing Shesha Iyer’s Tillana in raga Dhanyasi. Rao was an expert in the exposition of pallavis.
I have heard my guru Chowdiah and mridangam artiste Puttaswamiah (Moogiah) eulogizing Rao’s mastery over tala and his expertise in rendering pallavis.
4.2 N. Chennakesavaiah (1895-1984)
Channakesavaiah belonged to Natanahalli village in Mandya district of Karnataka. He underwent training with Veena Sivaramiah and later with Mysore Vasudevacharya and became his favorite disciple. He was an expert in documenting compositions with musical notation. He was on the staff of Sharada Vilas High School, Mysore for some time and used to teach drawing. He became a musician of the Mysore Royal Court in 1944. He notated several compositions of Haridasas and brought out three volumes called ‘Haridasa Keertana Sudha Sagara’. He has also written a book on pallavis and composed some kritis. He was a good vocalist and had given concerts in the A.I.R. and at important places in India. He was a member of the Experts Committee of the Music Academy, Madras and a regular contributor to the Journal of the Academy. He was a recipient of the state awards in1968 and 1971.
I met him at the residence of K.Puttu Rao, a senior advocate of Mysore. We became very close friends over time. He used to attend without fail my concerts at the Bandikeri Srinivsa temple, along with Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sharma. He would give splendid demonstrations regarding lakshanas or features. Moreover, his master, Mysore Vasudevacharya frequently visited his residence to teach him music.
Chennakesaviah was very much interested in collecting valuable compositions. He brought to light many rare compositions of Mysore Sadasiva Rao in his book that was published by the Mysore Sangita Kalabhivardhini Sabha. He was the main force behind the Madras Music Academys’ publication of compositions of Mysore Sadasiva Rao. When I was a U.G.C. Professor at the Mysore Fine Arts College, I visited my friend Chennakesaviah in Madras to collect some data on Mysore Jayachamraja Wodeyar’s compositions. In his hey days, Chennakesaviah had a very close acquaintance with Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar. At that time he was living in a house in Vadapalani, Madras. His eyesight and hearing were failing. I was quite sad to see him in that state and expressed consoling words. Chennakesaviah was very philosophical and sportive about it and asked me not to worry about it. When I brought up the subject of the Maharaja’s compositions, Chennakesaviah narrated an interesting incident. It appeared that on one occasion, the Maharaja called him and told him that he had already composed 94 compositions and needed to compose 16 more to complete his effort. He asked Chennakesaviah to compose the remaining 16 keertanas and promised the gift of a house upon completion of the effort. Chennakesaviah composed the 16 keertanas in due course of time. Chennakesaviah handed them to the Maharaja and was about to remind him of the gift of a house. Exactly at that momemt, as fate would have it, Chennakesaviah’s master Mysore Vasudevacharya walked in to see the Maharaja and it became impossible to bring up with the Maharaja the subject of the house he had promised. The Maharaja had an untimely death and as ill luck would have it, Chennakesaviah could never get the promised gift.
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Chennakesaviah also told me that the Maharaja was very fond of the composition in raga Nata —Sarasiruhasana Priye. He would make Chennakesaviah sing it several times at the time of Shiva pooja in the palace. Maharaja would tell the other court musicians to learn this from him, if they did not know it’’.
I spent a few hours in Madras with Chennakesaviah. He wouldn’t let me go without a first class dinner. As a token of his affection for me he gave me copy of his book on pallavis with his autograph.
Chennakesaviah used to be a co-singer with his master Vasudevacharya. He was with him at Tumkur for nearly a month. Everyday they used have their food in some important person’s house where they would give a concert. After the concert, the organizer would collect a rupee from everyone and pay Rs. 30/- as honorarium. He was so dejected with this struggle for survival that he decided not to become a professional musician and instead became a teacher for a salary of Rs.50/- per month in the Sharadavilas High School, Mysore. He was happy that the struggle for having two meals finally came to an end.
It is very sad and regrettable to note how badly our society has treated great scholars and musicians. It probably is not much different now either.
4.3 Titte Krishna Iyengar (1902-1997)
Titte Krishna Iyengar was a senior musician of the Royal Court of Mysore. His grandfather Titte Rangacharya was a disciple of Tillaisthanam Rama Iyengar, a favorite disciple of Thyagaraja and later migrated to Mysore. Krishna Iyengar’s father, Titte Narayana Iyengar was also a musician of the Royal Court of Mysore. Krishna Iyengar underwent training with his father and later with Veena Seshanna, Veena Subbanna and Bidaram Krishnappa. Endowed with a powerful voice, he became a well-known Vocalist. He had his concerts on the A.I.R. even in his ripe age of 92 years, traveled to Dehli and sang a 2½ hour concert. He was an expert in singing different types of tanams and also in playing the instrument called Daljit and the Harmonium. He was a member of the experts committee of the Madras Music Academy. He used to celebrate the Thyagaraja Music festival every year and used to arrange concerts of several musicians. I have given several concerts in his Thyagaraja festivals.
He served as a lecturer in music in the Maharani’s College, Mysore. He has composed several songs with his signature ‘Krishna’. He was a very fine man, used to always think of music. The Maharaja of Mysore honored him with the title Gana Visharada. He was the recipient of the Central Music Academy’s award, the first Karnataka Purandara award and other titles and awards.
4.4 L. S. Narayanaswamy Bhagavatar (1908-1970)
When I was in Bangalore, I used to go the Bhagavatar’s house with my relative and friend Vishwanath, who was his disciple. I was very well acquainted with the Bhagavatar. Bhagavatar received his musical training under Namakkal Pallavi Narasimha Iyengar and later under Kanchipuram Nayana Pillai. I remember listening to his concert at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja with Kumbhakonam Rajamanikyam Pillai on the violin. The Bhagavatar elaborated the raga Shankarabharanam and presented the composition ‘Buddhiradu’, followed by ‘Aparadhamula’ in raga Rasali, a Tamil pallavi in the three tempos, a devaranama— ‘Nee tande naa bande’ and concluded with a Javali. The three hour concert was very good. Importance to musical mathematics seemed to be
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prominent. Though he did not have a good voice, his concert was successful due to his mastery of the art.
The Bhagavatar also gave a concert on the occasion of the Purandara Dasa festival at the Ayyanar College of Music, His brother L. S. Seshagiri Rao (a disciple of Dakshinamurthy Pillai) played the Khanjira. As usual, musical mathematics was prominent in the music.
The Bhagavatar established the Vijaya College of Music in Bangalore and trained many disciples. He was also a good violinist and accompanied many senior musicians. He notated the songs of D. V. G. He has composed many songs based on the Ramayana. Among his disciples, Prof. H. V. Krishnamurthy has been a prominent senior musician. He is his nephew and son-in-law as well. His son H.K. Venkataram is an up-coming violinist of the younger generation. Bhagavatar’s another disciple is Ranganayakamma.
4.5 B. K. Padmanabha Rao (1903-1966)
B.K. Padmanabha Rao was one of the favorite disciples of Mysore Vasudevacharya. Rao was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. There was no need for him to become a musician for livelihood. He learnt music for spiritual salvation. Both the goddess of wealth Lakshmi and the goddess of learning Sarswathi had blessed him. My master Sangita Ratna T. Chowdiah had special affectionate regard for him. He had accompanied him on the violin in many of his concerts and encouraged him.
Every Wednesday, Padmanabha Rao would have Bhajans in his room near Sayyaji Rao road. I have sung several times in these Bhajans. Padmanabha Rao used to teach music free to nearly 50-60 pupils without expecting anything in return and enabled them to earn their livelihood. He never taught for the sake of money. He used to help needy disciples in several ways. He would give financial help for the marriage of sisters of his disciples. He also helped many musicians financially in their hour of need. In spite of all his affluence, he was free from ego, was very disciplined and full of courtesy and humility.
Padmanabha Rao held the position of the Secretary of the Bidaram Krishnappa’s Sri Rama Mandiram Committee. I was a member of the Executive Committee at that time. The Ayyanar College of Music was housed in this Mandiram. During this period, we became very good friends. Every year, Padmanabha Rao would request all of us to cooperate with him as volunteers, during the Ramotsavam concert festival. I would accompany him for nearly a month to collect subscriptions, work late and we would have dinner together. He had a special liking for my music. He used to provide me with good accompaniments and used to encourage me. With V. Govindaswamy Naiker, T.K. Murthy, Madurai Krishna Iyengar and others as my accompanists I have given a number of concerts in the Bidaram Krishnappa’s Rama Mandiram.
Padmanabha Rao came up with idea and organized music conferences in the Bidaram Krishnappa’s Sri Rama Mandiram and arranged for the award of the title—Gana Kala Sindhu and honours to the presiding musician.
Padmanabha Rao was a musicologist and collected more than 250 valuable books on music. All these were gifted later to the University Fine Arts College, Mysore. Rao was also a composer of no mean merit. He has composed about 55 items such as
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Varnams, Kritis, Devaranamas and Tillanas. These have been published by his disciples in a book titled ‘Sangita Chudamani’.
With the aim of providing a platform to musicians of Mysore, Vasudevacharya established the ‘Sangita Kalabhivardhini Sabha’. This Sabha has brought out the compositions of erstwhile eminent musician composer Mysore Sadasiva Rao, and of Veena Seshanna. It has also conducted three music conferences. Recently, it conducted a day long seminar on the compositions of Mysore Sadasiva Rao in which I participated. I actively participated as a member of the Editorial Committee with Padmanabha Rao. Among my close musician friends, Padmanabha Rao was an idealist, who dedicated his life to music.
4.6 Bangalore Tayappa
Thayappa was a famous violinist before my guru Chowdiah’s ascent in the Carnatic music field. His name came up very often in the field of music. There was no famous vidwan for whom he had not played violin in those times. He provided violin accompaniment several times to Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar. I have listened to many of his solo performances. His son Rajanna also played with him.
Myself, T. S. Tatachar, Kuduttale Krishnaswamy Rao, G. Chennamma and others attended his violin performance in the residence of Veena Krishnamachar, with Ayyamani Iyer supporting him on the mridangam. The concert commenced with the Adi Appiah’s atta tala varnam in Bhairavi. The father son duo concert was simply grand. After presenting the composition in raga Hamsadhwani for nearly 45 minutes, Rama Ninne Nammi Nanu in raga Huseni was taken up. A detailed elaboration of raga Todi was followed by Thyagaraja’s composition ‘Nee dayaravale’ for about 1¼ hours. The Duo’s presentation was very pleasant.
Chowdiah used to highly appreciate Tayappa, for whom he had immense respect. Tayappa was a thorough gentleman and an embodiment of humility both in his speech and conduct. I was acquainted with his son Rajanna. His untimely death was a great loss to the world of music. I cannot afford to forget Tayappa’s pleasant, soul touching style of playing on the violin.
4.7 K. S. Viswanatha Sastri (1911-1968)
Viswanatha Sastri was a disciple of Mysore Vasudevacharya. Viswanatha Sastri was a student of the first batch in the Chidambaram Music College. His classmates were M. S. Selvapille Iyengar, Sattur A.G. Subramanyam, T. K. Rangachari and others. After obtaining the ‘Sangita Bhushana’ degree, he returned to Mysore. He was a fine musician and used to sing from Mysore, Bangalore and Madras A.I.R. stations. He served for 35 years as a music teacher in the St.Mary’s Girls School. Unfortunately, with his meagre salary and resources, he suffered much. His only engineer son succumbed to cancer after being in his first job for just three months. This was a death blow to Sastri.
Sastri and myself were close friends. Whenever we met, he would dwell on some aspect of teaching that he received at the Chidambaram Music College. Sastri was a scholar in Darus and Prabhandhas. He told me that while at the Chidambaram Music college, lessons were given as if the students were in a gurukulam. He had to get up at 5 a.m. and practice varnams in Atta and Adi talas in three tempos. The teachers would ask questions about the important usages and swara phrases and style of these varnas. Every student had to acquire a clear knowledge of these things. They would pay more
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attention to scholarly compositions. The teachers would impart special training regarding ragas and their features. To grasp the picture of a raga, students had to be thorough with its Amsa (a note which brings out in bold relief the melodic entity of the raga) graha (starting note in a raga), and Nyasa (a note on which a phrase in a raga validly ends). The teachers would describe the notes explained by musicologists. If the vadi-samvadi (predominant and consonant notes) are more, it would facilitate to sing with embellishments. The teachers would demonstrate calculated use of embellishments in consonance with the composition and the students had to listen, learn and demonstrate. Such was the method of teaching described by Sastri.
Sastri’s description of the education methods had a healthy impact on me. Sastri was from a family of musicians, and believed in simplicity, humility and friendship. He was one of the first persons from Mysore to obtain the Sangita Bhushana degree.
4.8 Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sharma (1893-1979)
Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sharma lived in a house in Bajjanna Lane in Chamarajapuram extension. I used to go to his house with his disciple and my friend T. S. Tatachar. Sharma used to attend all the concerts which took place in Mysore. This was about 4-5 years after I came to Mysore to become a disciple of Chowdiah. Whenever, I had some doubts about some sanchara (a string of phrase that can validly come in a raga), I would approach Rallapalli and get them cleared. I heard his concert for the first time at the Bandikeri Srinivasa temple.
Rallapalli means a village of stones. This is a small village in Kalyanadurga taluk of Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. Sharma’s father Krishnamacharya was an orthodox Brahmin, well-versed in the vedas, Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil languages. His mother Alamelamma was a cultured lady. She used to sing well. His father was his first teacher. Sharma came to Mysore in his 12th year and became a disciple of Sri Krishna Brahmatantra Swamy of Parakala Mutt. This royal preceptor was an erudite scholar, highly knowledgeable and eminent scholar in Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada literatures.
Sharma had a wonderful memory and a great thirst for knowledge. He studied literature under the famous scholar Rama Shastri for some time. Being aware of the deep scholarship of Sharma, Prof. C. R. Reddy of the Maharaja’s College introduced him to English literature. Sharma served in the Maharaja’s College as lecturer and professor of Telugu for 37 years. If Sharma’s one face of life was literature, another face was music. He had a pleasant voice and had learnt music from his mother. After coming to Mysore he underwent further musical training with the well-known court musician Mysore Karigiri Rao and later for 4-5 years under Bidaram Krishnappa. He had an attack of influenza in 1918-19 that affected his voice. On the suggestion of his master Krishnappa, he took up and practiced violin.
Whenever I went to his residence, he would explain many things about literature and music. He would give a complete picture of the senior Vidwans Krishnappa and Seshanna. Once, he explained the 8 kalai pallavi sung by Bidaram Krishnnappa. He had great regard and love for the music of Mysore Vasudevacharya. Describing the music of Seshanna he would say that the phrases used by him were absolutely wonderful.
In 1950, the Tirupati Ventakeswara University appointed him as a reader in the Oriental Research Institute. Sharma had a great scope to carry on his research into music. He regarded all languages emanating from the tongue of Goddess Saraswathi as
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her gift. He was a bridge between Andhra and Karnataka. His Kannada works, are—GanaKale, Sahitya and Jeevana Kale; Telugu works are: Saraswatalokamu, Natakopanyasamu, Kavyavalo kanamu. One of his invaluable achievements has been the editing and notating the compositions of Tallapakam Annamacharya (1408-1503), who was a very great poet-musician and an ardent devotee of Lord Venkateswara. Annamacharya has composed about 32,000 compositions. About 14,000 of these have been discovered in a dark corner of Tirumala.Tirupathi temple in thousands of copper plate inscriptions. It was Sharma who edited about 9000 compositions for the first time. They have been published in 23 volumes. Sharma notated about 106 compositions and published them, with a very well researched, authoritative history of each raga for the first time. We do not find such an elaborate description elsewhere. If written by others it can be said that they are imitations of his writing.
When he was residing in Bangalore after retirement, I went to his house and showed him some compositions of mine. Singing some of my compositions, I requested him to bless me. ‘‘Keep them safely. He said - whatever you sing, the notes must be pure as well as the literary part. His invaluable suggestions were helpful in developing my music. He also sang some of his compositions for me. He told me that he supplied the literary part of Bidaram Krishnappa’s compositions. I have great regard for him.
Many awards and titles came in search of Sharma. His aim was that people should listen to good music and make their life clean. He was the vice-president of Andhra Sahitya Academy. In 1972 he received the Central Sangeet Natak Academy award, Sangita Kalanidhi of Madras Music Academy, honorary doctorate from Venkateswara University in 1972, Gana Kala Sindhu from the Music Conference in Mysore and several others.
On his last day of life a strange thing occurred. At about 4 pm, a representative of Tirupati Temple came to his residence and handed over an award—Sangita Sahitya Asthana Vidwan and the Prasadam. Sharma received all these and passed away at 7.15 p.m. Some compositions of Sharma have been published by his son R.A. Phanisayi with notation. Sharma was a devotee of both literature and music. He was well-known for his fine taste and discipline. He led a very fruitful life. Close friendship with such a noble soul has influenced my musical life and I indeed am fortunate to have known this great stalwart.
4.9 Veena Sundara Sastri (1885-1935)
Sundara Sastri was a disciple of Veena Padmanabhiah. He was a great devotee of Sri Rama. He was a person, pure and simple and radiant. He followed Thyagaraja in his daily worship of Sri Rama by playing on his veena to wake up the Lord and singing and playing to the Lord to put him to bed. His celebrations of Ramotsava was a household word in Mysore. He was the first to celebrate Ramotsavam in the city of Mysore. He established the Prasanna Sundara Rama Mandiram, which is continuing to this day the annual Ramotsavam festival. Sastri was a musician of the Mysore Royal Court.
I have not heard Sastri’s concert, I have only heard elders speaking about him with great respect. I have given some concerts in his Rama Mandiram.
4.10 C. Rangiah (1895-1984)
Rangiah underwent musical training with Veena Sivaramiah, Chikka Subba Rao, Veena Venkatagiriyappa and had higher training with Mysore Vasudevacharya. I resided
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for some years in a house opposite to C. Rangiah’s house in the Krishnamurthypuram extension. We became very good friends. He was a drawing teacher in the Govt. Teachers’ Training Institute. He would practice from 5 to 7 p.m. every evening. I would practise afterwards. I have listened to several concerts and demonstrations of Rangiah. He was a creative musician. He has composed more than 500 compositions in Kannada and Sanskrit. He has evolved 20 new ragas and composed songs in them. He has also composed three beautiful operas. Asurabhakti— Narasimhavatara, Daiva Rakshita Chandrahasa, Nishtura Vairagya Dhruva Charitre, Ramayana opera in 20 ragas, and also compositions in 72 Melakarta ragas. Among the composers of Karnataka, he was the first one to compose in the 72 Mela ragas. I have heard several of them from him and enjoyed them. It is my good fortune to have been a close friend of a senior, courteous, affectionate musician.
4.11 R. S. Keshavamurthy (1903-1982)
Rudrapattanam in the Hassan district of Karnataka has been the birth place of many musicians. Keshavamurthy hailed from a family of musicians of that place. He came to Mysore in his 19th year and became a disciple of the famous Royal court musician Veena Subbanna. In 1931 Keshavamurthy also became a court musician.
I heard his veena concert for the first time in the house of Agaram Rangiah, Proprietor and editor of a Kannada daily ‘Sadhvi’.. All the well-known musicians of Mysore were present to listen to his concert. Venkatesa Devar provided the mridangam accompaniment. As usual he commenced his concert with the composition in raga Hamsadhwani—Vatapi Ganapathim, followed by ‘Koluvamaragada’ in raga Todi, ‘Mariyadagadura’ in raga Sankarabharanam raga, and sang some compositions of his master and rendered them on the veena. Then he presented a detailed elaboration of raga Kambodhi, tanam in five Ghana ragas, nereval and 2 kalai pallavi and two rounds of swara phrases and ended the program with a tillana of Veena Seshanna. Agaram Rangiah complimented him for his fine concert and honored him with a shawl, flowers and fruits.
For the concert that day, Keshavamurthy played on the Kanaka-Rajata Veena, presented by his master as his blessings. It is a veena carved out of a single seasoned block of wood. It is now with his son R. K. Padmanabha who uses it for his concerts.
Keshavamurthy was an innovator. He converted his veena into a 24 stringed one and named it. ‘Gayatri Veena’. This was being used by his son, the late unique veena player R. K. Suryanarayana. Such a veena has been evolved by the Bangalore based veena player G. N. Subramanyam.
Keshavamurty’s sons are veena players, some of them vocalists and mrindangists as well. His eldest son R. K. Srinivasamurthy has been a leading Vainika while other sons R. K. Raghavan, R. K. Prasanna and others are noted Vainikas. Keshavamurty’s veena playing was the epitome of Nada. He was a specialist in playing tanams.
4.12 M. S. Selvappillai Iyengar (1915-1993)
Iyengar hailed from Melukote, a famous pilgrim centre in Mandya district of Karnataka. He was trained in music at the Childambaram Music College in Tamil Nadu and obtained the ‘Sangita Bhushana’ degree. He served as a staff artist of the Mysore A.I.R.
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When I was residing in the Krishnamurthypuram extension, he used to come very often to my guru’s residence that was nearby. We became very good friends. We used to exchange notes and learn new compositions from each other. I learnt the Daru ‘Mate malaya dhwaja pandya sanjate’, of Muttiah Bhagavatar from him. In this composition, after the chittaswaras, the words begin followed by charana and ettugade swaram. He took down the composition ‘Nee vanti daivamu’ from me, after hearing it from me. He sang the Dikshitar’s composition ‘Kamalambikayaam’ and I took down the notation and learnt it. Our exchange of notes and learning lasted quite a long time.
Selvapille Iyengar was a fine lakshya-lakshana (Practice and theory) musician scholar. He introduced group singing in the A.I.R. and also popularised Mahavaidyanatha Iyer’s 72 Mela ragas. These programs became very popular. Iyengar was also a fine teacher and taught music to a large number of disciples.
4.13 R. K. Venkatarama Shastri (1910-1993)
Among the disciples of my guru Chowdiah, Sastri was very senior to me. He was the eldest son of Krishna Shastri of Rudrapatna. He was a very orthodox, courteous and a disciplined, gentleman. His devotion to his master was extraordinary. When my master passed away, he wept like a child. V. Seturamiah, another 7 stringed violinist was another favorite disciple of my master. Both of them have accompanied me on the violin in several concerts at prestigeous venues.. When I was the Vice-Principal of the Ayyanar College music, I had arranged a music festival in memory of guru Chowdiah. Both Sastri and Seturamiah attended the festivals. They not only provided violin accompaniment but also played solo concerts on the ocassion. During his speech to the august gathering, Sastri spoke about my master in a soul touching manner. Seturamiah provided his experiences with his guru and narrated some interesting anectodes also..
I know well all the brothers of Shastri. Shastri’s youngest brother R. K. Srikanthan use to reside in a house in Ramavilas agrahar. Vidwan Srikantan and myself have known each other from our early days in Mysore. Srikantan has a fine, powerful voice. Trained by his brother Shastri and influenced by the music of Musiri Subramanya Iyer, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer and others and by his own practice, he has become a leading musician. He has been the recipient of many titles and awards such as ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’ by the Madras Music Academy and Central and State Govt. Academies. Srikanthan served as an artist in the Mysore and Bangalore AIR stations. Srikantan runs the “R.K. Srikantan Trust” in Bangalore, dedicated to promotion of classical music. To mark the new millennium in 2000, I was felicitated and honored by R.K. Srikantan trust in absentia as the senior most vocalist, author and composer. Shastri’s younger brother R. K. Narayanaswamy is also a musician. His late brother R. K. Ramanathan was also a well-known Vocalist.
4.14 Swaramurthi V. N. Rao (1917-1980)
Venkatanarayana Rao, a close friend of mine was well-known as Swaramurthi. He was a child prodigy. When he was five years old, he sang a pallavi in the raga Kalyani (Adi tala) for 1½ hours along with his grandfather Veena Seshanna, in the court of Gadwal Maharaja of Andhra. Everyone was surprised with yjis wonder kid. The Maharaja blessed him with the title - ‘Swaramurthi’. Rao’s parents were Veena Ramanna (1882 - 1956) and Subbamma. Ramanna was the adopted son of Veena Seshanna.
My friend Rao was a vocalist, veena player and a teacher. He was a gentleman and very cultured. We used to meet almost daily and exchange notes till the day he left
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Mysore to settle down in Bangalore. He was a good composer too. He has composed a varnam in the raga Begada set to Adi tala, a Saptataleswari varnam in raga
Sankarabharanam and a kriti ‘Ninna Nambideno’ in raga Dharmavati.
His son Mysore Subramanya, a veena player, is the Secretary of Karnataka Gana Kala Parishat. He has brought out a fine book on Swaramurthy Rao. To symbolize my friendship with Rao, he recently honored me with a purse of Rs. 25,000/- and felicitated me at a function at Bangalore on October 4, 2004 along with Violin Vidwan Lalgudi G. Jayaraman. I am very grateful to him for this gesture.
“Sawara Murthy Award” from the Governer of Karnataka Honorable Mr. H.N. Chathurvedi and Sri I.M. Vittala Murthy I.A.S – Secretary, Forest, Ecology &
Environment accompanied by Vidwan Lalgudi G. Jayaraman
4.15 Other Musician Friends of Mysore
My other musician friends of Mysore include court musicians and colleagues from the Fine Arts College. They include S. N. Mariyappa, Sangita Bhushana M. A. Narasimhachar, R. N. Doreswamy (Veena), flautist V.Deshikachar, R.Visweswaran (Veena), S.Mahadevappa (Violin). veena vidwan M. J. Srinivasa Iyengar who is a disciple of Veena Venkatagiriyappa, and myself and well-known musicologist and music teacher M. Cheluvarayaswamy. Cheluvarayaswamy was a fine speaker and a relative of Veena Venkatagiriyappa.
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Another good friend of mine was R. Chandrasekhariah, the eldest of the Mysore Brothers. He was a music teacher and founder of a music school, The Varalakshmi Academy of Fine Arts and was also a composer.
T. Puttaswamiah, younger brother of my guru Chowdiah, was also a disciple of Bidaram Krishnappa. He was a well-known vocalist. He served in the Bangalore University as a Professor of Music. He was a thorough gentleman and was very much devoted to his elder brother Chowdiah. He trained many disciples including A. R. Krishnamurty, S. B. Keshavamurty, H. V. Venkateshiah, violin S. Mahadevappa, etc.
Another elderly friend and senior musician of Mysore was T. M. Puttaswamiah (1912-1982) better known as Moogiah. He started off as a Tabla player. He got trained in music by Rangachar, a disciple of Mysore Vasudevacharya, Ananta Sastri of Bangalore, and Bidaram Krishnappa. He learnt playing the mridangam from Muttuswamy Tevar and accompanied well-known musicians and became famous. He was invited to preside over Bidaram Krishnnappa Rama Mandiram Music Conference and was conferred the title - Gana Kala Sindhu with honours. He was also a musician of the Mysore Royal Court. He was a specialist in rendering Pallavis, Padams, Kannada Javalis and also a fine Gamaki in singing musically Kumaravyasa’s Bharata and Lakshmisha.s Bharata.
Another close friend of mine was T. Gururajappa, a cousin of my guru Chowdiah. He was trained by Bidaram Krishnappa and became a good violinist. He accompanied on the violin all the leading musicians of the country in their concerts. He has also played violin for many of my concerts. He was adept in playing violin in a sweet, pleasing style. He served as an artiste in the A.I.R. Tiruchinapalli, Tamil Nadu. His son T. G. Thyagarajan is a leading violinist today.
5 A NEW CHAPTER IN MY LIFE
I served as Vice-Principal of the Ayyanar College of Music in Mysore for 20 years. My guru Chowdiah was the prominent force in deciding to start a Fine Arts College in the University of Mysore. My guru while being a member of the State Legislative Council had convinced the Mysore government of the need for such a college. The University of Mysore decided to start a College of Fine Arts in 1965 and called for interested candidates to submit applications for faculty positions. With my guru’s approval, I submitted my papers to the University. The University formed an interview committee comprised of vice-chancellor K. L. Srimali, Prof. D. Javaregowda, and Prof. P. Sambamurthy of Madras.
I was invited to appear for the interview. A number of other eminent artists and contemporaries were also interviewed for the job. Prof. P. Sambamurthy asked me to sing a composition. I sang a Thyagaraja’s composition in the raga Todi – Endudaginado complete with nereval and scholarly swara phrases. Sambamurthy asked me a question—‘It is said that Thyagaraja sang this piece when he came to know that his brother had thrown the idols of Sri Rama to the river Kaveri. Was he in a mood to compose this song? Was there any scope to add the chittaswaras?’’ I replied—‘‘That I don’t know. I have sung the song just as I have learnt from Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar including the chittaswaras. That is all’’.
I was selected to become the first Principal of the University College of Music & Dance. The testimonials given to me by my guru Chowdiah and Mysore Vasudevacharya were very valuable and carried a lot of weight in the selection process. The committee also liked the fact that I had a lot of academic/administrative experience
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as the Vice Principal of the Ayyanar Music College for over 20 years. The then Registrar, Ramachandran, I.A.S., sent for me and handed me the letter of appointment and suggested that I see to it that the growth of the college is set on a sound footing. Initially, the Fine Arts College was housed in the vacant A.I.R. building. It was later moved to permanent facilities in the Manasagangothri campus of the University of Mysore. Then Vice Chancellor of the Mysore University, Prof. Srimali, inaugurated the college. During the early years, my friend Dr V.S. Sampathkumaracharya gave me valuable suggestions regarding ensuring smooth operations of the college.
Initially, only the Diploma course of instruction was started and had an enrollment of 40 students. About 7-8 students opted for dance. In the succeeding year the Degree program was started. There was no college level text books in Kannada for the B.Mus. degree classes. My friend Dr. V. S. Sampathkumaracharya and myself authored the ‘Karnataka Sangita Sudha’ textbook on thye Theory of Carnatic music in Kannada for the B.Mus students. This was published by the University in 1967. Three years later M.Music., degree program was also started.
The college was moved from the old AIR buildings to the Manasagangothri campus resulted into a temporary building (behind the University Guest House. Vice Chancellor D. Javaregowda noticed our difficulties in these temporary buildings and was
College of Music and Dance, University of Mysore Faculty and Staff
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instrumental in getting funds released for building permanent facilities that included a concert hall. This facility was inaugurated by the famous Kannada Poet Laureate Kuvempu. During my tenure as Principal, Drama, Gamaka Vachana and Kannada classes were also started. Vice Chancellor D. Javaregowda was very enthusiastic and cooperative in providing good support for the development of the college based on my suggestions. Many programs were funded and started with his enthusiastic support and these greatly benefited the students. I thank Mr. D. Javaregowda for his unwavering support for my projects while I was the Principal of the Fine Arts College. During my tenure, the Fine Arts College operated much like a an autonomous institution.
I assembled the Board of Studies in Music whose members included the famous Playwright Adya Rangacharya, Natyacharya U. S. Krishna Rao, Prof. P. Sambamurthy, musician & musicologist Sandhyavandanam Srinivasa Rao and G. S. Paramasiviah. I arranged for these experts to be the examiners for evaluating our students in the degree examinations. They were Sandhyavandanam Srinivasa Rao, Prof. P. Sambamurthy, Vidwan Nedanuri Krishnamurty, V. Doreswamy Iyengar and Prof. U. S. Krishna Rao.. These eminent persons gladly accepted my invitation and were mostly interested in upholding of quality of art and were satisfied with the token honourarium the University offered them.
Getting the new college equipped with the necessities in a short time was no small task and that included equipping classrooms, acquiring musical instruments, building a library that included a library of recordings, acquiring recording equipment and initiating programs to expose students to lecture demonstrations, concerts, seminars, music festivals, etc.. The well-known Bharatanatyam artiste, a Mysorean, Vaijayanthimala visited the college and recorded her appreciation of the organisation of the college. The first concert in the concert series for the college was kicked off with a solo violin concert by my guru, Sangita Rathna T. Chowdiah with M. L. Veerabhadriah on the mridangam and K.S. Manjunath on the Ghatam.
The famous musician Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer was very pleased to visit the college and provided an instructive concert for the music students and faculty. Semmangudi brought Lalgudi Jayaraman and Vellore Ramabhadran for accompaniments and sang beautifully for 3 hours. He was pleased to see so many students learning music at the university level and offered words of wisdom to the budding artists.
Well known flautist T. R. Mahalingam was invited to the college and he presented a fine flute concert for three hours, with our violin teacher S. Mahadevappa on the violin and another staff member Nagabhooshanachar on the mridangam.
Famous Bharata Natyam artiste Yamini Krishnamurty visited the college and gave a Bharatanatyam demonstration. Her father Krishnamurty, Professor of English in the Delhi University, quoted several slokas from Natyashastra and explained them. He also described gestures and emotions of eight kinds of maidens.
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Vainika Vidwan Chitti Babu, Mridangam vidwan Guruvayur Dorai, Ghatam Vidwan K.S. Manjunath, during a visit to College of Music and Dance, University
of Mysore with Sri Mali Vice-Chancellor Mysore University in 1965
Famous scholar Adya Rangacharya gave a series of lectures on ‘audience’ as described in Natyashastra. His elucidation was highly informative and educative not only to students but to others as well. The lectures were well attended.
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Bharatha Natyam exponent Vyjayanthimala Bali, during a visit to College of Music and Dance, University off Mysore with Sri Mali Vice-Chancellor Mysore
University in 1966
I had arranged a Bharatanatyam performance by artists such as Vyjayanthimala Bali, in the Maharaja’s College Centenary Hall that was again packed to capacity and many including the Vice-chancellor, Mr. Javaregowda very much appreciated the values of such programs.
I also arranged a Bharatnatyam performance by the famous artiste and film starHemamalini. This took place in the open-air theatre of Manasa Gangothri. In addition to the college students, university professors and the elite of the city and others witnessed the programme in large numbers.
During my tenure, I arranged many concerts by the famous musicians of those times like D. K. Pattammal, M. L. Vasanta Kumari, Ramanad Krishnan, Veena Chitti Babu, a demonstration on the mridangam by Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Pallavi demonstration by Alathoor Srinivasa Iyer, lecture demonstration of violin playing by violinst M. Chandrasekharan, etc. In addition to these, I arranged lectures by Prof. P. Sambamurthy, Dr. V. Raghavan and Narayana Menon. These lectures were very informative and enlightening to students and faculty alike. R.K.Narayan, a famous literary figure of India was invited to grace the occasion of a concert by the students of the college. R.K.Narayan, a vainika also, gave a very fine lecture on the fine arts after the concert.
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Through help from the British Council, visiting artists from England were invited to participate in a workshop on drama at our college. Most of these programs were planned by me and with the cooperation of the university, these greatly benefitted the students,. The success of these programs and the compliments I have received from many sources has given me immense satisfaction.
The students of the college were invited to perform at the Karnataka Sangita Sahitya Kalakshetra in Matunga, Mumbai. The programs presented by our students won a lot of acclaim and appreciation by the organizers and the audience. The students of the college were also invited by the state government to provide a music and dance program and this was a great success. Many students who obtained Masters Degree in Music from our college are in high positions today. Some of them include, Dr. K. Vageesh – Director, AIR Trichy, Prof. Nagamani Srinath, Prof. T. N. Padma, Prof. T. S. Rama, P. Rama, Chandrika and others. K. G. Kanakalakshi, a blind student and a central government scholarship holder, who learnt music here, served as an A.I.R. artist.
I feel a sense of satisfaction in having sincerely done my duty to develop the Fine Arts College that began by offering diploma classes into a major Fine Arts College that awarded Masters and Doctoral degrees. After serving for nearly 12 years and with full satisfaction of success in my endeavor, I retired in 1985. On one occasion the University Grants Commisson (U.G.C.) Committee visited the college. At that time, I had been teaching post graduate classes for at least eight years. The U.G.C. had sanctioned its pay scale to teachers of degree colleges. I drew the attention of the U.G.C. Committee to this fact with a request to extend the same to the Fine Arts College faculty also. Responding positively, the U.G.C. Chief asked me to forward my application. I handed over the same to the appropriate university office for forwarding to the U.G.C. in Delhi. I received a reminder from the Delhi U.G.C. office to turn in my papers. I met the vice-chancellor Mr. D. Javaregowda and inquired about it and was told that it had been already been forwarded to U.G.C. Delhi. Turned out that the application was never been forwarded – for whatever reason. I never received any response from the U.G.C. After my retirement, I made an application to the U.G.C. with the support of Mr. D. V. Urs, who succeeded Mr. D. Javaregowda and the U.G.C. appointed me as a U.G.C. Emeritus professor for a period of three years. During this period I wrote the thesis—Mysore Wodeyars’ Contribution to Carnatic Music. This thesis was published by the Kannada Book Authority nearly 6 years later. It’s the year 2005 now and I have heard that this work has been acknowledged as an authoritative record and the book has been widely disseminated. I am highly grateful to the U.G.C., Mr. D. V. Urs and the Kannada Book Authority for their help and encouragement.
6 I BECAME A COMPOSER
During my tenure as the Principal of the Mysore Fine Arts College, Dr. H. M. Naik, the then director Kannada Studies Institute, asked me to notate some poems of the national Kannada poet K. V. Puttappa and publish them in a book. I set about 25 poems to music and taught about five of them to the Post-graduate students. I met Dr. Naik and told him if Dr. K.V. Puttappa approves, these may be brought out in a book. K.V. Puttappa listened to the poems sung by our students, approved it and suggested that I should set 25 more poems and bring out the book.
On an occasion when I met poet Kuvempu, he asked me—‘‘You have been teaching music to students since several years and also giving concerts. But what is your own contribution to music?’’.
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I replied : ‘‘I have taught what I know and by this means I have served the cause of music. What more can I do?’’
Kuvempu: ‘‘No, this is not enough. With your musical experience, you have to compose musical compositions in your own style and language’’
I replied: ‘‘I do not have the qualification necessary to be a composer. Moreover, there are hundreds of fine compositions composed by saint composers. I think it is enough if some of them are learnt well and sung.’’
Kuvempu: ‘‘Do not be satisfied with that alone. You must contribute your own compositions. Some musicians in future may sing and popularise them.’’
Thus, I was compelled to compose songs. For six months I made a thorough study of the skills/expertise needed. To date, I have composed more than 25 kritis in Sanskrit, Kannada and Telugu with my signature ‘Rama’. Vidwan Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sharma, Poet laureate Pu. Thi. Narasimhachar provided immense help from a literary perspective in my work on creating new compositions. I used to spend significant amount of time in their house presenting my compositions and carefully listening to their critique and advice to improve and fine tune them. I am deeply indebted to them for their help. I have included them in this book both in Kannada and English.
All of my compositions have been transliterated to English using ITRANS. I would like to thank Vijay Iyengar of Switzerland. My son-in-law Srinivasan and Vijay Iyengar have known each other only through the internet via participation in the bulletin boards of sangeetham.com. Vijay comes from a family deeply interested in Music. He learnt music from his mother, and is a student of Sri A Subba Rao. He is the grandson of T Ramaswami Iyengar also known as known as TRI in the music field in Karnataka and he was a journalist. Vijay is, a telecommunications Engineering graduate from BMS College of Engineering in Bangalore. He also learnt music from Smt Jambu Kannan. He later began in training under under Sri T N Seshagopalan before moving to Europe.
7 MY LIFE AFTER RETIREMENT
I continued to live in Mysore after my retirement. I celebrated the marriage of my second daughter. My eldest son V. R. Subramanyam had come to Mysore to attend this marriage. After obtaining his B.E. degree from the National Institute of Engineering in Mysore, he went to the U.S.A. and obtained the M.S. degree from the University of Connecticut and is working as an engineer for the past 35 years. In 1988 I had a heart attack and got medical treatment in a local hospital in Mysore. My son took me to the U.S.A. and got medical help there. I stayed there for three years, recovered my health and returned to Mysore. After staying at Mysore for 3-4 months I returned to the U.S.A. When I was there, I suffered a major heart attack. After undergoing medical treatment, I regained my normal health. I had no trouble for 3-4 years. So far I have lived in the U.S.A. off and on for at least twenty years.
My first vocal music concert in the USA was in San Diego in 1987. Anoor Ramakrishna’s disciple Hemmige V. Srivatsan on the violin and Puvvalur Srinivasan on the mridangam were my accompanists. The concert lasted for 2½ hours. My son Subramanyam provided vocal support.
Later, I lived with my eldest daughter Lalitha in Los Angeles for some time. There, I attended the solo violin concert of T. N. Krishnan, under the auspicious of the well-
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known local South Indian Music Association. I have known T. N. Krishnan for a very long time. During the vote of thanks, music association’s Secretary got up to introduce me to the audience. T. N. Krishnan forbade him and himself came forward and spoke highly about me for nearly 15 minutes. I am very much indebted to him for this courtesy.
I moved to the San Francisco bay area, the famous ‘Silicon Valley’ and lived there for some time with my second son, V. R. Venkataramana. He is a dual M.S. degree holder and works in the Information technology field.
I also lived for about three years in Dayton, Ohio where my youngest daughter Rama and son-in-law K.S. Srinivasan lived. Rama has a Ph.D. in Physics and my son-in-law K.S. Srinivasan has multiple Masters degrees in Aeronautics & Computer Science. In Dayton, the cultural programs were conducted in the Venkateswara Swamy temple. I was invited to give a vocal concert during the Navarathri festival. Local artistes were my accompaniments for this three hour concert. During the celebration of Dikshitar’s day at the same temple, I sang alone and rendered 4-5 Navavarana compositions.
While living in Dayton, Ohio due to repeated problems with my heart, I had to undergo open heart surgery. I was in the hospital for two months and after recovering, I returned to Mysore in 1998. I also celebrated my 80th birthday – Sahasra Chandra Darshana. It was wonderful to meet so many friends, well wishers and relatives.
My daughter Rama and son-in-law Srinivasan moved to San Jose, California in 1998. I went to the U.S.A. again and spent some time with all my children there. On the occasion of Sri Purandara Dasa’s Aradhana festival, organized by Bay area’s music sabha for promoting bay area’s local talent in carnatic and hindusthani music, myself and a few select local artistes were honored with a shawl. While I was in San Jose, Ca, I was invited to sing for an hour at the Thyagaraja Aradhana organized by the South Indian Fine Arts Association The vice president of the Association introduced me to the audience highlighting my career. The concert hall was full. I was accompanied by Smt Anuradha Sridhar on the violin and her brother Sriram Bramhanandam on the mridangam. I commenced my concert prefacing it with some brief introduction about the compositions. E’Papamu Jesitira (Athana—Misra Chapu) and Paramatmudu Veilige (Vagadhiswari—Adi) of Saint Thyagaraja. One year later, under the auspicious of the same sabha, I gave a full concert with Hemmige.V. Srivatsan on the violin and Vadiraja Bhat on the mridangam. My son V.R. Subramanyam provided the vocal support for me in that concert. For the benefit of todays rasikas I presented this concert with specific selection of krithis (some rare krithis) that were very popular many decades ago. I selected compositions from Veena Kuppaiyer, Mysore Vasudevachar, Mysore Sadashiva Rao, Syama Sastry, Muthuswamy Dikshithar, Saint Tyagaraja, Saint Purandara Dasa, Ramaswamy Dikshithar (father of Muthuswamy Dikshithar), Bhadrachala Ramadas, Vyasaraya, Kshetragna’s Padam, and ended the concert with a Thillana by Muthiah Bhagavathar. I presented only one composition from each of the composers.
I think it is proper for me to document what I have seen over the last twenty years regarding music concerts in the U.S.A and how they are organized. There are some influential persons in New York, California, Toronto, New Jersey, Cleveland, etc. who are the patrons/organisers of music concerts. Within their sphere of influence, they arrange a series of music concerts by musicians of their liking. Here also, one can see the powerful influence of the people from Tamilnadu. The entire structure of these activities is based on capitalism. A part of the income from the concert tour proceeds goes to the organization that hosts the visiting artists. The sabhas in the various cities
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will coordinate in establishing the tour schedule. Every artist may not get an honourarium. Such artistes can only have the satisfaction of visiting the U.S.A. and having given concerts here. It is possible to be proud of this. After returning to India, they may be looked upon as eminent artistes as some of our public unfortunately has the ill conceived notion that to sing and be appreciated overseas is more valuable than appreciation from ‘true’ vidwans in the native land! Many artists go overboard to pander to this myth (the blind leading the blind!). Concerts are usually held on the weekends. The rest of the time, artists are guests in homes of local Indians, and avail themselves to teach those who are interested in learning music. The concert attendance can usually be predicted and is usually along the lines of the age old biases and divides based on language and the geographical state from which the artist hails. The numbers are usually quite less for artists from states other than Tamilnadu. Again, preconceived notions and biases rule to a large extent. A sort of klanish atmosphere exists as far as attendance at conecrts go. Obviously, non-tamilnadu artists elicit few audience.
These perceived notions and biases sre common among organizers as well as artists. Artists from Tamilnadu usually prefer to host other artists from Tamilnadu itself. This has been an age old practice that is prevalent even today. Every year in the December music season in Chennai it is rather common to witness disproportionately small number of artists from any state other than Tamilnadu. These biases were prevalent in Karnataka also with many organizers who prefer artists from Tamilnadu, Iyers and Iyengars over other, irrespective of the talent. This offers significant challenges to artists from Karnataka, irrespective of their talent. The challenges increase by another dimension if an artist is neither an Iyer nor an Iyengar.
I cannot help but recount a controversial event in my life as a performing artist, teacher and the head of University College of Music and Dance, Mysore against aforementioned challenges. During those days I used to invite Alathoor Srinivasa Iyer, vainika vidwan Dr. Doreswamy Iyengar and others as external examiners to for the post graduate students at the University College of Music and Dance, Mysore. Dr. Doreswamy Iyengar was also the focal point for promoting AIR ratings to artists. Allathoor Srinivasa Iyer was thoroughly impressed by the rendition of ragam, tanam and pallavi by students of the college, during practical examinations in vocal and instrumental music. Allathoor also realized that I was only a B-high graded artist of All India Radio artist at that time. Alathoor got very disappointed with Dr. Doreswamy Iyengar and personally took issue with him, and explained to him that it was very unfortunate that an artist of Ramarathnam’s stature and vidwat was not recognized as an A grade artist of AIR. Soon after that I was promoted as an A-Grade artist by AIR New Delhi. After several decades and as I approach my 90 th year, there isn’t a single day that goes by without my thoughts going back to all the challenges I faced as a musician and all the kind stalwarts in the field of music that helped me overcome these challenges.
I would now like to switch to the most constructive aspect of my stay overseas. An important event was the inspiration provided by all my children, my son-in-law K.S. Srinivasan and my daughters in law to make use of the free time I had (and quite a bit of it I may say so!) to undertake writing books to document my knowledge. I was able to write several books while in the U.S.A. and I got them published through my dear friend, scholar and publisher Sri. D.V.K. Murthy. I made it a point to spend quite a number of hours each day developing the manuscripts for these books. Not only did these projects give me a sense of purpose during an otherwise idle stay but they also kept my intellectual being very much alive. In consultation with my friend Dr. V. S. Sampathkumaracharya, it was decided to write a comprehensive book more useful to
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students of music, music teachers and for those appearing for various music examinations. A comprehensive book in Kannada called “Karnataka Sangita Deepika” that is about 665 pages was written. It has four sections— Carnatic music theory, source books of Carnatic music, Carnatic music composers and Raga Lakshanas of 179 ragas not found elsewhere. I wrote this section and the other sections were written by my friend. It has been published by the well-known scholar, writer and publisher of Mysore D.V.K. Murty and has helped the learners, teachers and lovers of music immensely. During this time I was also invited and honored by Bangalore Gayana Samaja, and also received the Chowdiah Memorial Centenary Award.
7.1 Sangeetha Kala Rathna Award from Bangalore Gayana Samaja
Presidential Speech by Prof. Mysore Sri V. Ramarathnam on the occasion of 15th Music Conference (1983)
Chief Guest of the 15th Music Conference Inaugural Function and Secretary for Urban Development, Government of Karnataka Sri Chandrasekar, Chief Guest of the Music Conference and distinguished patron and President of the Madras Music Academy Mr. T.T.Vasu, President of Bangalore Gayana Samaja Sri Nagaraja Rao, members of executive committee, Bangalore Gayana Samaja, distinguished fellow artists, rasikas, ladies and gentlemen:
I would like to thank you for electing me to preside over the 15th Music Conference of the Bangalore Gayana Samaja. I don’t know if I have the qualification to preside over this Music Conference, but I will accede to your request knowing fully well that I have your great affection and your utmost cooperation in conducting the affairs of this conference. I consider that this honor truly belongs to my parents and my guru Sangeetha Rathna Mysore T. Chowdiah.
From ancient times, Indian music has been known for its philosophical values. Our music captures the very essence of the Vedas and Upanishads and has enabled man to realize God. It is common knowledge that music of other countries is mostly a medium of commerce and entertainment.
The only reason that our music has not become a means of commerce and entertainment is due to its great cultural heritage. Both India and the west have looked to nature to realize music. Our cultural heritage has given us the deep conviction that music is the path to realizing God and has refined our ability to subtly discern and experience God in nature’s rhythmic arrangements. We as well as the westerners both accept this idea. In this context, I would like to share with you, the words of Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, from his address to the Music Academy in Madras.
“ The ultimate goal of art is to lift the spirit of man from ordinary to extraordinary. Music enables man to discover his true place in the grand scheme of the universe. It gives him unique insight into the nature of God. This ocean of music is huge, beyond one’s imagination. It cannot be easily mastered. Carnatic music creates a beautiful form in one’s mind and affords the most blissful experience.” Wodeyar’s words clearly define the uniqueness of our art.
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President of Madras Music Academy Conferring the “Sangeetha Kala Rathna Award” on Prof. Mysore Sri V. Ramarathnam, Bangalore Gayana Samaja 1983
It is not easy to appreciate and experience the form of this fine art. It requires hard work and meditation on Nadabrahma. This is exemplified by the following verse:
“Music that is full of devotion (Bhakthi) and feeling (Bhava ) is the ultimate cherished goal or yoga. With this one can achieve the ultimate goal of being in unison with god (yoga).”
In order to accomplish this goal one has to work hard for decades with complete devotion and reverence to the art. To become an expert in this field, one should devote a lot of hard work, practice music as a form of yoga, and seek guidance from an able guru. The legends of Carnatic music have all followed this path. This rigorous training has allowed them to make their concerts spectacular and totally meaningful while making the listeners experience the extraordinary.
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The famous musicologist ShargnaDeva has said:
“lakshyapradhAnam khalu gita shasthram”.
“Music is mainly a performing art”
The only path available for one to become a vidwan or a vidushi or a kalopasaka (worshipper of art) is incessant practice for 10-12 years under the guidance of an able guru. He or she should absorb knowledge from listening to pure classical music from great masters. Only then can one hope to become a vidwan. Musicology will only enable understanding of the superficial features of music. It takes disciplined practice to become a performing artist of significant merit, be able to experience the inner beauty of music, its intricacies and the bliss.
Nowadays, many government agencies and music organizations are conducting workshops and lecture demonstrations. This is a truly welcome feature. Lovers or art and artists have a unique platform and opportunity to exchange their ideas and benefit from them.
The Bangalore Gayana Samaja, an icon in the history of Karnataka, has been doing exceptional service to foster the growth of music for the past 75 years or so. While similar sabhas in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu that were started around the same time have gone into oblivion, the Bangalore Gayana Samaja is flourishing and reaching new heights. I am immensely happy to say that this is a matter of great pride to Karnataka and the country as a whole. Legends and great musicians such a Veena Seshanna, Tiger Varadachar, Bidaram Krishnappa, Vasudevacharya, Karaikudi brothers, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, T.Chowdiah, etc. have crowned this very platform, and have given memorable concerts, exhibiting their unique genius. These concerts have been of immense educational value to the younger generation of artists. This sabha has transformed many young artists into great vidwans. I would like to emphasize to the young artists that just listening to great concerts is not alone sufficient. It should followed by immense practice. One should be on the guard and not be part of commercializing the art. It truly is a great disservice to music. In the process, art loses its very essence, gets confined and loses its ability to uplift the human spirit. My only advice to music practitioners and students alike is practice “art for art’s sake” and let that be your guiding light.
In the past, artists struggled to get patronage of the royal courts. Nowadays, there are many organizations and sabhas that nurture and support art and budding artists. In such an environment, temptations are many for a budding artist to seek fame and publicity with propensity. I would like to point out that history has proved that there is always a platform for a “true artist” and I humbly request the young artists to seek true musical knowledge and shun going after publicity and fame. What you will need is mastery of sruti, laya, chowka kala pallavi’s and a thorough understanding and comprehension of the breadth and depth of the major ragas. This can only be achieved by mastering tens of scholarly compositions in each major raga and de-emphasizing focus on apoorva or rare ragas for which the public may have a fleeting fascination.
I would also like to place before you some of my observations regarding certain negative trends in the affairs of music organizations. Many sabhas in Karnataka repeatedly invite
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just a few well known artists and have been consistently ignoring younger artists as well as artists of merit, all of whom deserve encouragement. The government agencies as well as those institutions that receive funds from the government are not doing their duty either. They do not seem to be interested in seeking and encouraging artists of merit, especially those who have toiled for decades for the sake of art. With the era of royal patronage long gone, it is only reasonable to expect these institutions to honor the art and its “true” practitioners and ensure that they are well taken care of and recognized. This can only happen in the absence of politics in the affairs of these institutions. That is my humble view.
The degree holders in music from our universities (some with masters degrees even) who are seeking jobs in government colleges and institutions are being discriminated against and are suffering injustice due to the government demands that they pass the government’s vidwat examination in music. This in my opinion is a great disservice to the field of music. I request the authorities to remove these discriminatory obstacles. I also humbly request the government to take steps to increase the general level of interest in music by starting residential and gurukula schools for higher training in music in each district in the state of Karnataka.
As noted in the following famous verse from the manudharmasmruthi:
“sathyam bhruyat priyam bhruyath | na bruyathsathyampriyam ||
priyam cha naanamrutham bhruyath | eshH dharmassanAthanam || (manudharmasmruthi) “
I have expressed my thoughts, feelings and observations openly and this may not bode well with each and every one of you. Nevertheless, I request all of you to support the essential and worthwhile ideas of promoting our music, the finest of fine arts and encourage the “truly deserving artists” and the younger generation. I am thankful to Bangalore Gayana Samaja for honoring me today. I would also like to thank my gurus; those legendary vidwans who have shaped my knowledge in music and my career, but for whom I would not be standing before you today. I would like to thank you, the patrons of art and the distinguished audience for your patience in listening to my address.
7.2 My Gratitude to the U.S.A.
Any descriptions of my experiences in the U.S.A. would not be complete without an expression of gratitude to the U.S.A. Government for the caring way in which all necessary medical treatment was provided to me on several occasions when I became seriously ill. I can declare without any reservations what so ever that I would not be alive to write this sentence today but for the fine medical treatment given to me in the U.S.A. Here, all senior citizens receive the federal and state medical insurance that covers hospitalization, doctor’s visit, and medications and I was a recipient of that benefit also. I have been simply overwhelmed at how much human life is valued. No efforts are spared to save a person’s life regardless of whether the person has insurance or not. I even dare to say that they have created a society and a civilization that is pretty much self sufficient in almost all aspects.
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The surgeries, hospitalizations and the fine treatment and medications provided me amounted to probably many tens of thousands of dollars. Every penny was covered with the insurance provided. I am no special person here and just a commoner as any other and the same benefits were extended to me in a professional and courteous manner. I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before we achieve the same in India for our own people.
7.3 My plan for a tour of Europe
During my stay in San Jose, Ca. I got a strong desire to visit Europe. I revealed it to my second son Venkataramana. My wife Sundaramma, daughter Lalitha and son Venkataramana chalked out the tour schedule.
All the four of us left Los Angeles in July 1994 and flew to London, after a non-stop flight of 9 hours. We stayed in a 3-Star Hotel where the restaurant even featured Indian food. Curry is the most popular dish in England. As I write this book, I have read that curry has made it’s way even to some of the state dinners. We stayed in London for three days and saw important places including the Parliament House, Buckingham Palace, Traflager Square, Windsor Castle, Big Ben, the British Museum and the India library. When we saw the Buckingham Palace, I felt that there is no beautiful palace anywhere like the Mysore Palace.
Its best to travel Europe by train. The fares are modest, trains are very fast, sleek and comfortable. We traveled to Paris by train and crossed the English Channel in a hovercraft and reached the French port Calais. This journey was very pleasant and enjoyable. Next, it was on to Paris by train and we stayed there in a 5-Star Hotel. The room rate for one night for four members is 800/- US dollars. Here we saw the Eiffel Tower, the world famous Louvre Musuem, Louis XIV’s Versailles Palace, Exhibition of candle images and other tourist spots. Paris is a beautiful city. Its streets and street lights are very attractive. History tells us that Emperor Nepoleon Bonaparte made it a very beautiful city. During our stay for three days we visited other important places. We had some trouble locating establishments that served Indian food i.e. Indian restaurants.
We left Paris by train to Rome, Italy. The Italians call this city Roma. Hotels are expensive all over Europe. The room cost us 650/- US dollars a day. Rome was the capital of the powerful Roman Empire. We saw all the historical relics. We also saw the leaning tower of Pisa. We visited the Vatican, an independent state, where the Pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church lives. We saw the beautiful St.Paul’s Church and other places. we stayed in the city of Milan for a day. The garden in the Vatican is beautiful and very grand.
From Rome, we made our way to Switzerland by train. We stayed in the cities of Geneva and capital Berne. Near Lake Geneva, we saw the grand building of the League of Nations, Unicef and other organizations. This country is in the region of the Alps mountains. There is every facility to go up the Alps mountains. We went up to a height of 10,000 ft and saw the wonderful beauty of nature. We were amazed at it. The beauty is at its climax when the sun is setting. It is not possible to describe this unique experience except by poets. God’s creation is beyond the conception of men like us. I felt so and remembered God.
We continued our journey to Berlin, capital city of Germany and also visited the city of Frankfurt staying there for a day each, and saw all the notable places. Then, we boarded the train to Holland and stayed in the city of Amsterdam for two days. Amsterdam is a
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city of canals and we took the boats and saw all the places there.Amsterdam was the most expensive with room rates of $1000 per day. The people of Holland are called the Dutch people.
From here, we flew to London where we stayed for a day and returned to Los Angeles. The duration of our European tour was 16 days. What seemed to be an impossible dream in my life was realized by the grace of God.
Another tour I made with the family was to Canada. We left for that country by car. We visited Cincinnati- Ohio, Buffalo in the State of New York, Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania (where the first Venkateshwara Swamy Temple was built in the USA) and saw all the important places and then traveled to the grand Niagara Falls. I couldn’t help but remember the grand Gerosoppe falls, Gaganachukki and Bharachukki falls in Mysore State. Niagara falls is absolutely grand and on the Canadian side there are many beautiful gardens. The view of the horseshoe falls from the Canadian side is just wonderful. Seeing it is a divine experience and amazing one. We next visited Toronto and Montreal. We saw all the tourist attractions, met my old student K. Subbanarasiah in Montreal and returned to Los Angeles.
We undertook another tour of the U.S. This time it was on to the cities of Detroit, Washington, and New York, and Orlando, in the state of Florida (home of the famous Disney World).
My older son took me and my wife on a 5000 mile tour of the western U.S.A. with emphasis on the natural beauty i.e. the national parks. We started off from San Diego to the Sequoia National park (180 miles northeast of Los Angeles in the Sierra Nevada mountains) where we were amazed to see grand, living, sequoia trees that are 1000 years old. These trees reach a height of 280-300 feet and are just amazing. We next went to the famous Yosemite National park where a mile deep valley has been carved through solid rock by the receding glaciers. It was travel through the low deserts in the state of Nevada, Utah and Montana to reach the Glacier National Park at the US-Canadian border. This was early September and temperatures had already reached near freezing in Montana. A weather system that brought three feet of snow and ice forced us to retreat and head back south to warmer weather. I had never seen such fury of blinding snow and ice storms. We could only travel at the rate of a few miles per hour. Roads were closed and we were stranded in Great Falls, Montana for two days. We then headed south to the world famous Yellowstone National park, the home of massive geysers and grizzly bears. What a sight it was to see hundreds of thousands of gallons of superheated water being vented on the hour to heights of 180-250 feet, boiling mud pools, fumaroles pushing out tremendous amounts of steam to a height of 200 feet, falling snow and river with very hot water. It’s a geothermal wonderland. We continued south again to the nearby Grand Teton National park where the beautiful Snake river, evergreen forests and the Teton mountain range stand tall. Words can’t describe the beauty of this place. It can only be felt! We took an aerial tram ride to the top of the mountain (6000 ft.) and what a breathtaking sight it was from the top looking at the valley floor, the snaking river, the green forests, etc.
We continued our journey south to the North rim of the Grand Canyon, one of the wonders of the world. Its’ amazing to see the mile deep gorge the Colorado river has carved over millions of years. The walls of the canyons are almost vertical in places and drop down about a mile. We were filled with amazement at these sights. We moved on to the Bryce Canyon National Park in the state Utah where we saw natural formations of huge arches in red sandstone. The rock formations were just amazing. The next stop
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was Zion National Park in Utah also. Here you could see fantastic formations of layered rock. Looking at the layers of sand deposited over millions of years that has now become sand stone rocks make one wonder about the fleeting duration of one’s life on this earth. Traveling south, we came to the mighty Hoover dam in the state of Nevada across the Colorado river. But for the Colorado river, the entire southwest U.S.A. would be a desert. It was on to Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world. We spent a day resting in a nice hotel there. The glitter and lights of the casino are a feast to the eye. We then made it back to San Diego and ended our 5000 mile trip.
I wish to repeat that my strong desire of touring all these countries and cities was only possible due to the cooperation of my children.
8 A Call From the U.S.A.
During my stay in U.S.A. off and on for about 20 years, I have been showered with unlimited affection by my children. Even though I lived with them in several cities with all the luxuries and amenities that I could think of, the pull of my mother-land did not diminish. I returned to Mysore in 2002 and once again participated in music seminars and conferences. After nearly two years, in Dec 2004, I fell ill and was hospitalized for sometime. Recovering fast, I began to live a peaceful and normal life. But that was not to be. In Dec 2004, I got a call from the president of the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana Festival who requested me to accept an invitation to be felicitated by musicians and music lovers. Once again, I left for the U.S.A in March 2005. On Saturday, March 26, 2005 Bhairavi Fine Arts and the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana festival honored me in the presence of artists, patrons of Carnatic Music and an audience of more than 2000 from all over North America and Canada. I was conferred the title of ‘Sangeeta Kala Sagaram’ for my decades of service, promoting the finest of fine arts as a performing artist, author, teacher and composer. In my brief address I advised the younger generations of musicians about real Carnatic music emphasizing the importance of hallowed tradition handed over to us by the music stalwarts of the past.
Once again I am in Mysore. Everyone becomes aged. One who sees happiness in it is a fortunate one. Recollecting the sweet incidents of my life, I will be journeying under the shade and shelter of music with the benign grace of Sadguru Thyagaraja Swamy and Lord Sri Hari.
8.1 Introduction by Toronto Venkataraman, President, Bhairavi Fine arts
It is indeed an honor for Bhairavi Fine Arts and Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana Festival Committee to invite and honor a Musician’s Musician, Prof. Mysore Sri V. Ramarathnam. In recognition of his years of service to the field of music, Prof. Ramarathnam is being honored with the title of ‘‘Sangeetha Kala Sagaram’’. Honoring Prof. Ramarathnam is another musician and artist Vidwan R. K. Srikantan.
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B. V. Jagadeesh (Cheif Guest) puts on the gold bracelet as Vidwan R.K.Srikantan looks on, conferring the title of Sangeetha Kala Sagaram to Prof.
Mysore Sri V. Ramaratham
8.2 Musician’s Musician Prof. Mysore Sri V. Ramarathnam Honored at Cleveland & Acceptance Speech
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is indeed a great honor to be here today with all of you to pay homage to the guru and greatest of saints, Saint Thyagaraja. There are so many of you here today, with this auditorium overflowing, that it amazes me to see such great interest and support for Carnatic music. Over the past several decades, I have seen a lot of aradhana events, but I have not seen anything so huge; in Mysore or Bangalore or any where else for that matter. I would like to thank you all for your magnanimous support to Carnatic music.
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Prof. Ramrathnam delivers the speech, with V. V. Sundaram, Toronto Venkataraman, A.K.C. Natarajan and B. V. Jagadeesh(Chief Guest) listening in
the background.
I would like to take this opportunity to pass on a piece of advice to all the young artists, musicians, teachers here today. This advice was handed down to me from my gurus Sangeetha Shastra Visharadha Mysore Vasudevacharya, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Sangeetha Rathna T. Chowdiahgaru, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Musiri Subramanya Iyer and the Alathoor Brothers. With each of them, I have learnt much music and many compositions. I have learnt nearly 50 to 60 compositions from Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar alone. My gurus expected me to listen carefully, remember everything, practice a lot and render it to their satisfaction. Without their training and blessings I would not be standing here today.
When you study Carnatic music and perform on the stage, please be scientific and pay attention to raga rendition to ensure that you bring out the sheer bhava and the essence of the composition. Music is supposed to be simple, beautiful and every note should be replete with bhava and rasa. Please practice each krithi hundreds of times to achieve perfection in each aspect of rendition of the raga and sangatis. I would like to share with you an instance in this connection. Once Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu was visiting the Mysore Palace as an Asthana Vidwan. Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar requested Dwaram to play a Thyagaraja’s composition in the raga Janaranjani - ‘Vidajaladura’ the next day while the Maharaja would perform the pooja. Dwaram
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requested Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar who was also there at that time, for the script of the composition with notations. I was in the Palace at that time and had the opportunity to obtain the script in Tamil from Ariyakudi and translate it to Telugu for Dwaram. After obtaining the script, Dwaram went to his room, locked himself up and practiced each and every sangati hundreds of times till late in the night. Next day when Dwaram played the Janaranjani composition in front of Maharaja, other artists and everyone in the royal court was thoroughly pleased and the Maharaja honored him. Such was the attention paid to the sadhana to master the music. The kind of music from those days that I have had the fortune of listening to is something that is almost impossible to find in today’s concert arena. So, please be more scientific, do not engage in cheap gimmicks via mathematical manipulation and stop emulating mridangam patterns in swara singing. Ariyakudi would heap a lot of scolding on us if we ever tried any of these gimmicks. But this is what is being witnessed in performances these days. I can tell you with certainty that it is not good music. Let your manodharma sangeetham that can touch the soul rule and let every note be full of bhava and rasa..
Again, I thank you for your patience. I bow to all of my guru’s for making me what I am today and without their blessings I would not be here today. Thank you very much.
9 Books By The Author : Prof. V. RAMARATHNAM 1. Karnataka Sangita Sudha (with Dr. V. S. Sampathkumaracharya), Published by
Prasaranga, Manasa Gangotri, Mysore 1967. 2. Nouka Charithe (with R. N. Doreswamy) (Kannada version of Thyagaraja’s musical
opera) 1969. 3. Pallakki Seva Prabhandam of Maharaja Shahji of Tanjavur (1685-1712)—A Telugu
musical opera (with M. V.Ratna Mysore University, 1974. 4. Sangita Sastra Parichaya (with R. N. Doreswamy in parts) —1976. 5. Keertana Darpana—Vol. 2 (with M. V. Ratna and R. L. Anantaramiah) Published by
Mysore University, 1976. 6. Compositions of Sangita Ratna Mysore T. Chowdiah, Published by Mysore
University, 1976. 7. Sangita Darpana, Published by Mysore University, 1969 8. Karnataka Kritirachana Sangraha (with own compositions) Part-I-1972. 9. Karnataka Kirtana Tarangini (with 13 own compositions) Published by D.V.K.Murty,
Mysore, 2000. 10. Karnataka Sangita Deepika (with Dr. V. S. Sampathkumaracharya) Published by
D.V.K. Murty, Mysore, 2000. 11. Mysore Sadasiva Rao, Published by Karnataka Sangita Nritya Academy, Bangalore,
1997 12. Sangitakke Mysore Wodeyara Koduge, Published by Kannada Pradhikara,
Bangalore 13. Apoorva Kriti Sangraha—Published by D.V.K. Murty, Mysore, 2000.
10 MY COMPOSTIONS
I have provided below about 25 of my compositions in 24 ragas which are well-known, along with notation transliteration and chittasvaras. Some of these ragas have been classified as morning ragas, evening ragas and all time ragas. The origin of this classification can be traced to the singing of Samaveda. Keeping in view the
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temperature, environment, effect on our nervous system, the good and bad effects, our ancient Rishis classified some ragas to be sung in the morning, noon, evening and night (Tandi Brahmana). This system came into vogue in music also. e.g. : Bhoopali, Malayamaruta ragas etc. are early morning ragas ; Bilahari, Dhanyasi morning ragas, Sri Raga and others evening ragas; Vasanta, Natakurnji etc are evening ragas and Shankarabharana, Bhairavi, Kalyani, Arabhi etc. are all time ragas. This tradition has been almost in vogue from several centuries.
Ragas have been given different names. Composers of past centuries named the ragas with reference to some Katakas. Generally, the contents of the literary part (maatu) of the composition has nothing to do with the name of the raga. If some names are in accordance with the contents, it is only a chance factor. For example, the composition ‘Tatvameruga tarama’ is in the raga Garudadhvani. Garuda means eagle and dhwani means voice. The content of this composition speaks of the vedic message. Dikshitar’s composition ‘Anandamrita Karshimi’ is in raga .Amritavarshini. Amrita is nectar, water. It is a raga which brought rain. Thyagaraja’s composition—‘Ganamurte is in Ganamurti raga. It is in praise of Lord Krishna who revelled in playing his divine flute. The original name of the raga—Yadukula Kambhoji is Errukala Kambhoji. It has come from the folk music of Andhra tribe Errukala. In course of time this name became Yadukula Kambhoji and a part of Carnatic music. The names of the ragas are fanciful and poetic.
It will be appropriate to say a few words regarding Raga and Rasa. Raga is a sound picture which gives pleasure. Raga is a melodic arrangement of musical notes to express a mood, emotion with a distinct individuality reproducing a feeling or indicating a mood due to individualistic notes and gamakas. Raga is the soul of music. When a raga is experienced it gives rise to rasa, a feeling of pleasure. Rasa is feeling or feelings, emotions which are of nine kinds. They are a kind of aesthetic experience. Each raga bears shades of different emotions. The inherent bhava of each note combined give rise to the feeling of the raga. With the combination of rhythm it becomes effective, when music is in consonance with Sruti or Key note, an image of raga evolves giving us the enjoyment of rasa. To experience this pleasure, the listener should have the sensibility. Rasa always gives us pleasure or ananda. To say that a composition is having Bhakti rasa is not proper. Bhakti means devotion. To say that the composition is devotion oriented will be proper. Music concerts are ended with the singing of ragas Madhyamavati, Surati or Sowrashtra. These are auspicious ragas. To sing a composition in these ragas at the ending part of a concert has been an age old tradition in Carnatic music. Most of Carnatic music compositions are in praise of personal deities or God. We should not forget that Nadopasana or worship through music is one of the means of realizing God.
Those who are desirous to know more about raga and rasa may study authoritative books on Classical Carnatic Music.
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10.1 rAga – tODi, tALa – rUpaka – Composition in Kannada
8 hanumatODi mEla
Aa: S R1 G2 M1 P D1 N2 S Av: S N2 D1 P M1 G2 R1 S
pallavi
karuNisu pramatha gaNapatE kAmitagaLa koDuva dEva || (karuNisu)
anu pallavi
karikalabhamukha gauri tanaya bhaktara poreva parama dayAkara (karuNisu)
caraNa
kamanIya caturbAhu kamalAyata lOcana
pASAMkuSadhara parama pavitra viGnanivAraka rAmakaRArcita || (karuNisu)
Notations:
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10.2 rAga - sAveri, tALa - Adi – Composition in Sanskrit
15 maayamaaLava gowLa janya
Aa: S R1 M1 P D1 S Av: S N3 D1 P M1 G3 R1 S
pallavi:
kaMci kAmAkShi kAvyAlApa vinOdini |
paMcabrahmarUpiNi saMtataM ciMtayE || (kaMci)
anu pallavi:
paMcabhUtESvari SaMbhumOhini |
paMcayaj~JapriyE mAtaMga vadanE || (kaMci)
caraNa:
satyaj~JAnAnaMda sadgati pradAyini |
satyavratAya paMcAShatpITha rUpiNi |
sanakAdivaMdita sAmagAna priyE |
sarvalOka vaSaMkari rAmanutE || (kaMci)
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100 100
101
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10.3 rAga – bhairavi, tALa - Adi – Composition in Sanskrit
20 naTabhairavi janya
Aa: S R2 G2 M1 P D2 N2 S Av: S N2 D1 P M1 G2 R2 S
pallavi:
SaMbhO saMkara SaSAMka SEkhara
mAyA nivAraka tava SaraNaM (SaMbhO)
anu pallavi:
praNatArthihara prabhO dEvagaNArcita
praNavAkAra jaTAjUTadhara || (SaMbhO)
caraNa:
cidAnaMdarUpa tAMDavapriya
sadAmOdakara Sritajana maMdAra
kASI purAdhISa kaivalyaprada
pASamOcana rAmanuta ||
103
104
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10.4 rAga – aabhEri, tALa - Adi – Composition in Sanskrit
22 karaharapriya janya Aa: S G2 M1 P N2 S Av: S N2 D2 P M1 G2 R2 S
pallavi:
EkAMmrESvara manOllAsini rAkA SaSi vadane pAhi jagajjanani (EkAMmrESvara)
Anu pallavi:
sakalAgama maMtra taMtra svarUpiNi cidrUpa vilAsini viSvajanani ”
caraNa:
sthUla sUkShma OMkAra rUpiNi phAlalOcani dharmasaMvardhini
varapradAyini madhura bhAShiNi rAmakarArcita kAMcIpuravAsini ”
106
107
108
10.5 rAga – aabhOgi, tALa - Adi – Composition in Kannada
22 karaharapriya janya Aa: S R2 G2 M1 D2 S Av: S D2 M1 G2 R2 S
pallavi
paripAlisau jananI paramESvarI |
j~jAnaMdamayE vEdAgamasArE || (paripAlisau)
anu pallavi
paramakRupA sAgari pApavimOcani |
paramArthavanu paDeyalanugrahisi || (paripAlisau)
caraNa
sAmagAnapriyE SivakAmini |
kAmakAmyapradE SabdArtharUpiNi ||
rAmakarArchita caraNAraviMde |
padmAmkuSadhare cAmuMDAMbike || (paripAlisau)
109
110
111
10.6 rAga – reetigauLa, tALa - Adi – Composition in Sanskrit
22 kharaharapriya janya Aa: S G2 R2 G2 M1 N2 D2 M1 N2 N2 S Av: S N2 D2 M1 G2 M1 P M1 G2 R2 S
pallavi:
SrI kAmakOTi pIThasthite kAmAkShi |
namAmi SailasutE lalitE || (SrI)
anu pallavi:
EkAMmrESvara manOllAsini |
hrIMkArArNava maNikuMDala dhare ||
lOkapAlini kapAla SUlini |
bhukti mukti phaladAM abhIShTa j~jAnapradAM SivakAMtAM || (SrI)
caraNa:
sAmagAna priye bAlE |
sUkShmarUpE guNaSIlE ||
vanajAsanAdi pUjitapadE |
padminI praNavarUpiNi rAmanutE || (SrI)
112
113
114
115
10.7 rAga – suraTi, tALa - miSra laghu (CApu) – Composition in Sanskrit
pallavi
jyOtirmaya rUpAya saMkEruha lOcanAya |
vArijabhava vaMditAya cidAnaMda svarUpAya ||
anu pallavi
kArtikEyAya varENyAya praNatArthiharAya |
rAgadvESha vinASAya jagatpUjya caraNAya ||
caraNa
sanakAdi vaMdita ShaTkirITa dharAya |
anAthanAthAya apramEyAya ||
manOratha phalapradAya parabrahmasvarUpAya |
rAmakarArcita dEvasEnESAya ||
116
117
10.8 rAga kEdAragauLa, tALa Adi – Composition in Kannada
28 harikaambhOji janya Aa: S R2 M1 P N2 S Av: S N2 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S
pallavi:
girirAja kumAri murahara sOdari | poreyammanu tAyE gauri ||
anu pallavi:
parama kalyANi varadE SukapANi | paraSivadayite pAvanagAtrE ||
caraNa:
varadAbhaya karapallavayute | karunAmRutavarShiNi aMba ||
nArAyaNi nAgabhUShaNa rANi | parASakti rAmanute ||
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119
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10.9 rAga – aThANa, tALa - Adi – Composition in Kannada
29 dheera shankaraabharaNam janya Aa: S R2 M1 P N3 S Av: S N3 D2 P M1 P G3 R2 S
pallavi:
parAtpara parama dayAkara parAMbarisi nI salahayya doreye || (parAtpara)
anu pallavi:
sarasija nEtra parama pavitra nArada sEvita sadguNa sAMdra || (parAtpara)
caraNa:
paripari vidhadali kari moreyiDutire tvaritadi baMdu nI karuNisalillavE?
kShIrasAgaraSayana SaradiMdu nibha vadana SaraNagatavatsala rAma karArcita || (parAtpara)
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122
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10.10 rAga – pUrvikalyANi, tALa - misra chApu – Composition in Sanskrit
53 gamanashrama janya Aa: S R1 G3 M2 P D2 P S Av: S N3 D2 P M2 G3 R1 S
pallavi:
kaumAri kalikalmaSha nASini |
kanakAdrivAsini pAhi janani || (kaumAri)
anu pallavi:
brahmavidyAdAyini kaulini |
bhavabaMdha vinASini pApaSamani ||
sAmrAjyadAyini sRuShTyAdikAriNi |
sarvamaMtrarUpiNi vidrumapASini || (kaumAri)
caraNa:
paMcadaSAkShari pAMDyakumAri |
parama kalyANi maMdagamani ||
tatakiTa takadhimi tALavinOdini |
rAma karArcita prakaTa yOgini || (kaumAri)
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125
126
10.11 rAga – ShaNmukhapriya, tALa - Adi – Composition in Telugu
56 shanmugapriyaa mela Aa: S R2 G2 M2 P D1 N2 S Av: S N2 D1 P M2 G2 R2 S
pallavi
ShaDAnana moraliDina nApai karuNa jUDarAdA vAdA ||
anu pallavi
mRuDANisuta nannu brOva samayamidi |
suramuni sannuta dEvasEnA priya ||
caraNa
gati nIvEyani kOrina nannu kRutakRutyunigAviMpa |
patitapAvana varaSikhivAhana rAmakarArcita citsvarUpa ||
127
128
129
10.12 rAga – vAcaspati, tALa - Adi – Composition in Sanskrit
64 vaacaspati mela Aa: S R2 G3 M2 P D2 N2 S Av: S N2 D2 P M2 G3 R2 S
pallavi:
pAmara jana pAlini jananI |
SrI mahAdEva mahite tAraka Subha carite ||
anu pallavi:
vimala hRudaya dharmasaMvardhini dhanini |
SyAmale gauri SrIkari durita bhaMjani niraMjani ||
caraNa
padmanAbha sOdari pAlaya saMkari |
tAmarasa padayugaLe jaganmOhini ||
sAdhujana vinuta saMgIta priye |
sadA bhUmisuta rAmanute ||
130
131
132
10.13 rAga – kalyANi, tALa - khaMda chApu – Composition in Telugu
65 mEcakalyaaNi mEla Aa: S R2 G3 M2 P D2 N3 S Av: S N3 D2 P M2 G3 R2 S
pallavi
patita pAvana ninnu brati mAlivEDitini |
kShitilOna rakShiMpa gati nIvegAkevaru || (patita)
anu pallavi
nata janArthihara rAjanyuDau ninnu |
bhAgavata priyuDani pADi pogaDagalEdA || (patita)
caraNa
daSamukha mardana bhRugusuta rUpa |
kuSalava janaka Sukhamukha vinuta ||
parama kRupAkara akaLaMka rUpa |
rAmakarArcita Agama sannuta || (patita)
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10.14 rAga- Hindola tAla- Adi – Composition in Kannada
20 naTabhairavi janya Aa: S G2 M1 D1 N2 S Av: S N2 D1 M1 G2 S
pallavi
ninnana Mbidenayya – nIrajAkSha |
sanakAdi munivaMdya – madanagOpAla || ni ||
anu pallavi
maMdahAsa vadana - akShaya Paladane |
kRupe mADu sirivallabha SaMKacakradhara || ni ||
caraNa
maMdaradhara SrI – rukmiNIlOla |
madhusUdana - muraLI gAnavinOda ||
BavabaMdhanadalli baLalutiruvenaiyya |
rakShisennanu kRuShNa – rAmanuta || ni ||
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10.15 Raga- cHrakavaka tAla: Adi Composition in Sanskrit
16 cakravaakam mela Aa: S R1 G3 M1 P D2 N2 S Av: S N2 D2 P M1 G3 R1 S
pallavi
madhurApurI nilayE – mAtaMgi – aniSaMmAmava mInAkShI ||
anu pallavi
biMdumaMDala vAsinI vAgISvarI - akacaTatapAdivarNE aparNE ||
madhuragAna saMgita rarasike – kAtyAyani, dharmasaMvardhani || madhurA ||
caraNa
carAcarAtmaka prapaMca jananI - sauBAgyadAyini hrIMkArarUpiNi ||
rAmakarArcita PalapradAyini - parama kalyANi SivacinmAlini ||
SivaSaila rAjasutE kaumAri - vidruma pAsini || madhurA ||
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10.16 Raga: karaharapriya tAla: Adi Composition in Telugu
22 kharaharapriya mEla Aa: S R2 G2 M1 P D2 N2 S Av: S N2 D2 P M1 G2 R2 S
pallavi
paraMdhAmavati Sivayuvati aMba - bAlEMduSEkhari namastE namastE || pa ||
anu pallavi
carAcaRatmaka prapaMca janaNi - ravicaMdra tEjaH prakASini SUlini || pa ||
caraNa
bhUsurAdyakhila jana saMpUjita - mANikya bhUShiNi vara pradAyini ||
trikONa vAsini guruguha janani - rAmakarArcita hRudvAsini || pa ||
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10.17 Raga: ManirRangu, tAla: Adi Composition in Sanskrit
22 kharaharapriya janya Aa: S R2 M1 P N2 S Av: S N2 P M1 G2 R2 S
pallavi
rAmaM ravikula jalanidhi sOmaM - kAmanirjita rUpaM BajEhaM SrI || rA ||
anu pallavi
paripUrNa kAruNya pArAvAraM - sarasijanEtraM parama pavitraM ||
BAratI, ramA, gaurI ramaNa svarUpam vAtAtma jASritam SrI || rAmaM ||
caraNa
BAgavatapriya SrIkaraM - karadhRuta vaiShNava cApaSaraM |
rAgayuta sadBaktahitaM – BaktadAnanipuNaM ||
nAgarAja ajarrudrAdi sEvitaM - vEdavEdaMta veDya rUpaM |
nAgavarada nAnAlaMkAra BUShitaM - dASarathi sannutaM ||
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10.18 Raga – kAmboji – tAla – misracApu – Composition in Sanskrit
28 harikaambhOji janya Aa: S R2 G3 M1 P D2 S Av: S N2 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S N3. P. D2. S
pallavi
sOmasuMdare SvaramahitE - dharmAdi purushArthadAyini pAhimAM kAmAkShi ||
anu pallavi
karmaj~JAnayOgarUpiNi nAmarUpa prapaMca vihArini |
kAmakOTi pIThanivAsini - BUsurAdi saMpUjita caraNE || aMba ||
caraNa
sarasijAsana pUjita padE - sarvaSAstra svarUpiNi BavAni ||
brahma vidyA pradAyini |
BavabaMdha vinASini - maMdAra kusumapriYe rAmanutE ||
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10.19 Raga – yadukulakAmboji, tAla – rUpaka – Composition in Sanskrit
28 harikaambhOji janya Aa: S R2 M1 P D2 S Av: S N2 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S
pallavi
paradEvatE SivasahitE - sAdhujana cittavRuttE |
paramAtma prakASini – mAM pAhi satataM ||
anu pallavi
haribrahmEMdrArcita – nAmarUpaprakASini |
SarvANi SivaSaMkari - SaraNAgata vatsalE || pa ||
cArana
karma j~jAna vidAyini - BramAtma ka viSvajanani |
ravitEja prakASini - rAjIva lOcanE ||
rAkASaSivadanE aMba - ramaNIya kuMdaradanE |
rAmakarAcita vEdaSAstra nipuNE ||
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10.20 Raga – nAtakuranji, tAla – rUpaka - Composition in Sanskrit
28 harikaambhOji janya Aa: S R2 G3 M1 N2 D2 N2 P D2 N2 S Av: S N2 D2 M1 G3 M1 P G3 R2 S
pallavi:
pAlayamAM SrI SAradE - sarasijAsana priyE aMbA || pAlaya ||
anu pallavi:
trilOkajanani jaganmOhini – naLinAyatanEtri aMbA |
Agamavidita sucarite - SRuMgarinivAsini aMbA || pAlaya ||
caraNa:
Adi Sakti lalitE - karuNArasaBaritE aMbA |
sadAnugrahamOdita - cidAnaMdalAsyapriye ||
nAdAMtavihAriNi - vEdaSastra viSvAsini |
rAmakarAcita – vINAgAnavinOdini || pAlaya ||
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10.21 Raga – SaMkarABaraNa, tAla – cApu, Composition in Sanskrit
29 dheera shankaraabharaNam mela Aa: S R2 G3 M1 P D2 N3 S Av: S N3 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S
pallavi:
SaMBO mahAdEva pAhimAM - cidvilAsa suMdaresa || SaMBO ||
anu pallavi:
sadBakta manOBiShTaprada - hrIMkArasaMBUta tatvasvarUpaprakASaka |
ArUDha vRuShavAha - tripurahara || SaMBO ||
caraNa:
nAradAdinuta SyAmalagatra - j~jAnapradhAnarUpa viSAlAkShi paramESa |
SaMkarABaraNa rAgapriya brahmakapAla SUladhara
rAmakarArcita paMcatanmAtrAdhISa dayAnidhE SrI || SaMBO ||
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10.22 Raga – aAraBi, tAla – Adi- Composition in Sanskrit
29 deera shankaraabharaNam janya Aa: S R2 M1 P D2 S Av: S N3 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S
pallavi:
sarasvati sakala kala nipuNE - surapUjitE svarAtmikE aMba || sa ||
anu pallavi:
surucira navaratna pIThasthitE - varatripura suMdari sarvavidyAtmikE || sa ||
caraNa:
AdiSakti sakalAgaman nipuNE - AdhyAtma rUpiNE SyAmale |
padmalOcani SuBapradAyini - padmasaMBava priyE rAmanutE || sa ||
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10.23 Raga– SaMkarABaraNa, tAla – Adi, Composition in Sanskrit
29 dheera shankaraabharaNam mela Aa: S R2 G3 M1 P D2 N3 S Av: S N3 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S
pallavi:
SaMkarAcAryamanisaM ciMtayEhaM SrI || SaM ||
anu pallavi:
muktiprada BavAbdhitArakaM - brahmaj~jAnaBodhacaturaM |
akShamAlikAdhara yativaraM - SRuMga SailapIThavAsita Sri || SaM ||
caraNa:
paramAdvaita tatvasvarUpaM – karadhRutadaMDakamaMDaliSOBitaM |
surAdi rAjaBavita - saccidAnaMda svarUpa |
sarvaj~jpIThasthitaM - rAmakarArcita SrI || SaM ||
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10.24 Raga – kAmavardhini, tAla – Adi Composition in Sanskrit
pallavi:
madhurApurI nilayE mAtaMgi - ASritakalpatikE namastE || ma ||
anu pallavi:
biMdumaMDalavAsini Bargavi - trikONavAsini mahiShaBaMjani || ma ||
caraNa:
carA carAtmaka prapaMca janani - navacakra svarUpAvatAriNi |
rAmakarArcita muktidAna nipuNE - paramakalyANi paramESvari || ma ||
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10.25 Raga – latAngi, tAla – Adi, Composition in Sanskrit
63 lataangi mEla Aa: S R2 G3 M2 P D1 N3 S Av: S N3 D1 P M2 G3 R2 S
pallavi:
SritaPaladAyaki, duritApahAriNi |
jAgusEya taramA, nI prApukOriti || Srita ||
anu pallavi:
patitapAvani nIlOtpalAMbike |
kAtyAyani, tripurESvari aMbA || Srita ||
caraNa:
kamanIyatara guruguha janani |
nEmAMbari, nI pAdamula nammiti ||
karuNarasalahari, SivakAmESvari |
BaktamanOllAsini, rAmakarAcita ||
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10.26 Raga – madyAmAvati, tAla – Adi, Composition in Sanskrit
22 kharaharapriya janya Aa: S R2 M1 P N2 S Av: S N2 P M1 R2 S
pallavi:
veMkaTaSailapate pAhimAM kaivalyaprada PaladaM SrI || veM ||
anu pallavi:
paMkajAsana pramuKAdi sEvita - vaikuMTha mAdhava padmAvatI ramaNa || veM ||
caraNa:
maMdahAsavadana - SEshAdri nivAsa |
SaMKa cakradhara - SatakOTi sUryatEja ||
nigamAgama vEdya - dIna janAdhAra |
lOkaika pAvana – rAmakarArcita || veM ||
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‘‘the most celebrated master of bhava-bharita Sangitham, endowed with profound scholarship, child like innocence, purity of heart and simple and elegant manners.’’
…Sangeetha Shastra Visharadha Mysore K Vasudevachar on Tiger Varadachar
“ varnams should be sung in three tempos; in the beginning of nerval singing the emotion of the raga should be brought out prominently; swaras have to be sung in the slow and middle tempo in ¼, ½ and 1 avartas. Varnams have to be sung with a little push of time-measure. There should be no repetition at anytime. The avartas should be shortened gradually and ending swaras or final swara groups should be short like the tip of the crown “
.. advice & guidance I received from Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyegar
‘‘The literary part of the pallavi’s should be meaningful, and pleasing to hear. While rendering nerval and swara combinations, the salient features of the emotional aspect of the raga and variety in laya have to be kept in mind. Pallavi should be rendered without excessiveness according one’s creativity. If the pallavi is of 4 kalai, raga elaboration may be for 15 minutes, tana singing for 15 minutes, and 15 minutes for swara groups rendering have to be reserved. If the pallavi is rendered too elaborately, there is every possibility of loosing its charm. Within an hour or 45 minutes, it would be good to present all the required features of a pallavi.’’
.. advice & guidance I received from Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyegar
‘It is not possible for anyone to sing in his style. He is the emperor of musicians He is the yardstick by which one’s music should be judged.’
….GNB on Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar
‘‘You alone are the musician scholar. We are nothing before you.’’
…. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer on Mudicondan C Venkatarama Iyer
When you study Carnatic music and perform on the stage, please be scientific and pay attention to raga rendition to ensure that you bring out the sheer bhava and the essence of the composition. Music is supposed to be simple, beautiful and every note should be replete with bhava and rasa. Please practice each krithi hundreds of times to achieve perfection in each aspect of rendition of the raga and sangatis. Do not engage in cheap gimmicks via mathematical manipulation and stop emulating mridangam patterns in swara singing.
….. excerpts from Prof. Ramarathnam’s award acceptance speech, giving advice to younger generation artists at Cleveland, OH in 2005
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