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Home , Amritavarshini, Kriti

CENTENARY TRIBUTE

S. RAJAM ‘Greatness sat lightly on him’ Ram

he very thought of S. Rajam luxury of switching off the radio!” He makes me emotional. It reminds would attempt to present such songs Tme of his benevolence and all even in his regular concerts and also the time I spent with him. S. Rajam share their musical highlights with was a great human being, many of the audience, which probably gave us know, but I shall confine myself it the feel of a lecdem or a music in this article to an analysis of his appreciation session rather than a musical style and contributions. The typical concert experience. That prime sources for my analysis are however suited his agenda. his concert recordings and private Another popular misconception about recordings of his teaching sessions. his music was that it was devoid of Most of the recordings available gamakas. Those who have heard are those after 1980. The few rare Rajam speak on this topic might have recordings from his younger days even formed the opinion that he was suggest that Rajam had a pleasant anti-gamaka. In reality though, you voice that could produce high speed could find quite a bit of gamakas in his phrases with ease—an example is renditions, especially of in the his rendition of Nadopasanaiye true Carnatic mould. He was against based on Nada tanumanisam, for a excessive use of gamakas. Regarding film song). It is evident even from scale-based ragas, he preferred to later day recordings that he could dwell on the suddha swaras rather comfortably sing in all three octaves. than oscillate them. It is noteworthy that the volume that he retained in the lower octave, as in the listener’s knowledge, present As I listened to several recordings of the chittaswaras touching the mandra uncommon ragas and songs and try S. Rajam, one element that stood out, panchama in the to popularise them. Here is a sample I found, was the effortlessness in his Velava, was unique. The recordings concert list of a radio concert: renditions. Be it a alapana or kriti rendition or kalpana swara, there also indicate a slight nasal tinge in his 1. Anandamritakarshini - was no urge driven by restlessness or voice. Despite the fact that his voice (Dikshitar) was a great asset, Rajam chose not excitement, to push the limits. He sang to project it; his focus was always to 2. Ninu vina e gati - Sakuntalam even complicated musical elements project the raga or the composition. (Tirupati Narayanaswami) without losing out on visranti. That perhaps gave his voice its 3. Sri Janaka tanaye - As a youngster, Rajam was greatly longevity. The recordings by the Kalakanti () inspired by the raga essays of violinist veteran, while in his eighties, suggest Tiruvalangadu Sundaresa Iyer. He a slowing down due to age but the 4. Ika parasukhadayaka - would often say, “If you want to know voice quality remains intact. (Kotiswara Iyer) what is absolutely necessary for the In his own words, he was never a I asked him about this rather unusual raga, you should listen to Sundaresa “platform musician”. As a result of the selection. He said that AIR was Iyer. There is absolutely no wastage.” stability provided by his job with All a particularly useful platform to Perhaps that is the reason why you can India Radio, he was free to pursue and popularise rare songs. He also hardly find a raga alapana of Rajam perform what he liked. His approach jocularly remarked, “If I went exceeding ten minutes (although there to concerts was mostly to enrich overboard, the listener always had the is a recording of a very detailed alapana

36 l SRUTI April 2019 in Vasanta raga). An exception to this had the opportunity of learning songs of his contemporaries and also from feature are his ragam-tanam- from very authentic sources (Ambi his juniors. He would often say, recordings of the ragas Dikshitar, Gowri Amma, Madras “AIR might not have given me a lot for All India Radio. He has explored Lalithangi) and in some cases from of money, but it gave me immense each raga for over twenty minutes the composer himself (Muthiah satisfaction to learn and propagate followed by the pallavi chosen from Bhagavatar, Papanasam Sivan). He rare . The famous Purandaradasa a Kotiswara Iyer kriti with the raga stayed true to the pathantaram in his song Srikanta enagishtu dayamado is mudra. renditions but never disrespected other usually sung in Kanada. But when a sources and variations. He was critical young girl from Mysore had come for Rajam has gone on record to say if a rendition went totally against the a recital she sang it in raga Kannada. I that he drew inspiration from the idea of the composer (for example, learnt it from her and included it in my music of GNB and Madurai Mani Nagumomu in ) but in general concerts as well. It was only AIR that Iyer. Interestingly, the exploration was not critical of improvements or gave me such opportunities.” Once, of the raga through short phrases, embellishment with new sangatis. when I visited him soon after his focussing on the purity of notes and student Akshay Padmanabhan’s class Rajam was meticulous in getting to long sustained karvais are striking was over, he spoke to me with pride know the meaning and the intent of features of Madurai Mani’s style, for over ten minutes about the while Rajam’s vocalisation, Akshay had composed. crisp sangatis and sarvalaghu swaras are reminiscent of the Rajam’s best known contribution GNB style. is his rendition of all the 72 melakarta kritis of Kotiswara Rajam’s raga renditions of Iyer. There are many more melakarta ragas, including the gems. His recordings covering vivadi melas, are well known the entire story of the Ramayana and need no elaboration. He based on Arunachala Kavi’s had internalised the swaras so Ramanatakam, Nandanar well that he could sing any scale Charitram, special programmes with ease. As Rajam’s prime on Neelakanta Sivan, on 20th purpose was to popularise rare century composers and Sadasiva ragas, he would present a fairly Brahmendra compositions are detailed exposition of such fortunately archived. In fact, a raga before rendering the he gave a radio concert on the kriti. Some examples are ragas day of the Kumbhabhishekam Veeravasantam, Sakuntalam, of the Kapaliswarar temple in Chenchukambhoji, Manoranjani Mylapore. He had structured and Suddha Vasanta. Rajam’s the concert to cover different name has become synonymous composers as he presented a with vivadi and rare ragas, composition on each shrine in so much so that people the temple complex. Rajam was sometimes wonder whether among the few to include in his he did render the commonly Rajam’s line drawing for Sree Ganapatini in Saurashtram concerts some of the Tirukkural heard ragas at all. Having Madhura Keertanaigal tuned by gone through all the recordings the composer. He would take care Mayuram Viswanatha Sastri. available, I can say that Rajam not to mutilate compositions by While singing Hindustani raga based has rendered the likes of inappropriate splitting of words in pieces, he would intersperse them Todi, , , oft-butchered kritis like Manasuloni with akara based taans. Interestingly, and quite marmamulu. His repertoire of the a similar approach can be seen in his frequently and extensively as well. compositions of the music trinity was rendition of ashtapadi, though the enormous. But what was amazing was raga rendered was . Rajam’s greatest passion was to learn his penchant to learn the compositions kritis from a variety of sources. He

37 l SRUTI April 2019