A Yogi at the Altar of Music Lakshmi Sreeram
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COVER STORY V.V. SUBRAMANYAM A yogi at the altar of music Lakshmi Sreeram V. Subramanyam is a far and deep – that I would be the musician who, even his best. I was not thinking in terms worst detractors will admit, of worldly success, but simply in Vhas reached regions beyond mere terms of musicianship.” technique and dwells in them. As a probable corollary, he is not very His teachers facile with the world of everyday VVS travels back in time. “My interactions. His refusal to accept father, Vadakkencheri Veeraraghava anything less than perfect lies at the Bhagavatar, was my first teacher. root of his musical achievements He perhaps had the strongest and that same attitude perhaps influence on my life; certainly my underlies what is seen as his childhood was filled with pursuit somewhat intractable disposition of music that was primarily his towards men and matters. dream. I practised under his ever watchful eyes. I also learnt for an A complex personality, Subra extensive period from Chembai manyam has one consuming Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and passion – music; and this has led him into deep explorations Musiri Subramania Iyer. I had some early training in violin of religious belief and spiritual techniques. His is a world from Tripunitura Narayana Iyer and vocal training from of mysterious connections, of kundalini yoga and mantra T.R. Balasubramaniam. sastra, and, above all, nada – that all pervading, primal sound energy mentioned in esoteric philosophical traditions. “Appa was highly respected in the musical community. He was on easy terms with great musicians like Ariyakudi Born at Thoattuvay in Kerala on 16 March 1944, Ramanuja Iyengar, Palghat Mani Iyer, Madurai Mani Iyer, Vadakkencheri Veeraraghava Subramanyam (VVS), is Chembai and GNB. And he could sing like all of them; among the great Carnatic musicians that verdant green he was able to reproduce the essence of their style without country has produced. being imitative. This was of great help to me in my career early on because he would brief me about the bani and the Among VVS’s earliest memories are concert tours repertoire of any musician I had to accompany. with his guru Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar. One of them stands out clearly: a visit, when he was barely “I became a violin accompanist sometime in 1955. After ten, to Poomuli Mana in Kerala – a household where a concert with P.S. Narayanaswamy in 1981, Appa came prosperity wafted through the air like cool fragrances. An home and told my mother – Today Rajamani (I was old, orthodox namboodiri in that household murmured called that at home) showed that he had learnt the art “Saraswati kataksham” whenever he looked at the boy of accompaniment!” P.S. Narayanaswamy had sung a VVS, convinced that he was blessed by the goddess. During brilliant Todi full of sparkle and fireworks. To respond that visit VVS also remembers a little girl offering him a to that was a challenge. I quietly delved into the mandra flower as devi prasadam – Saraswati’s blessings. It all fits sthayi and responded with a quiet, but equally powerful, with his worldview: a world where the divine is as much alapana – different in character, but a perfect complement a matter of experience as normal sense experiences. to what he had sung. That left a great impression on the listeners and also apparently on my father – finally, after Saraswati, to VVS, is the principle that moves. She is the 26 years of playing, I earned his explicit appreciation! force that impels all creative work. “Even when I was very young, I had this spontaneous and unshakeable confidence, “My father’s family was very musical. He and his four a whisper that has accompanied me like a thin and strong brothers were all musicians. My uncle, Vadakencheri undercurrent as it were, that as a musician I would reach Mani Bhagavatar, a disciple of Muthiah Bhagavatar, was 13 l SRUTI July 2012 COVER STORY a highly respected musician and performer. He was also Bhagavatar for lessons. In all an average of six to seven much feared for his abrupt way with words and action. hours of violin playing were packed into my day. Such He would loudly and clearly point out the lapses by the focus would seem abnormal in a boy barely in his ninth performers – right in the middle of a concert – and the poor year. But, I was happy just playing the violin. Other boys performer would be urged not to make such mistakes. He my age would be playing with marbles and tops right in later taught at the Music College at Santhome in Chennai front of our home; but these held no attraction for me. after angrily quitting the Maharaja Swati Tirunal College in Trivandrum over some issue. “Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar was a generous teacher but a hard taskmaster. I started learning from him in “I was born on a shashti after my parents observed the 1953 and continued to receive guidance from him until he shashti vratam, and so was named Subramanyam. We passed away. While travelling with him, which I often did, moved from Trissoor to Madras when I was just two years I had to wake up early in the morning and start practising old because my father was resolved to give his children at 3.30 or 4 am. He would be asleep, but register every the best musical education. In the beginning we were little mistake of mine to correct me later in the day. on Narayanaswami Street in Mandaveli and I attended In order to get it right, he would ask me to play a phrase P.S. High School. I set my heart on playing the violin 100 times – and I would start off, no questions asked. and began to pester my father, when I was barely four, He meant I had to play it right a hundred times – wrong to teach me. attempts would not count! Not only did he expect me to play over and over again but he was prepared to listen to “At first, just to satisfy me, he crafted a makeshift violin me as many times. Gurus those days had intense care and out of a wooden plank used to separate the folds of a dooli concern for both the student’s progress and the process in the house. Some pegs driven into it held the strings and of knowledge transmission. Musiri Subramania Iyer was I would play on it with a bow made of a bent stick taken another such guru. from a dried coconut leaf! When I was just short of eight years, I started formal lessons on the violin. There is an “When I was about 1314 years old, my father took me entry in my father’s diary on 27 February,1952: “Rajamani to Musiri Subramania Iyer. That first class with Musiri is was started on violin lessons”. My mother, Annapoorani unforgettable. He sang the first line ofNammi vacchina in Ammal, too could sing and play the violin at some level. Kalyani. Such was the delicacy of modulation – with his celebrated use of vallinam and mellinam – that I could not “My elder sister Lakshmi is a singer and my childhood grasp the second part of the line at all. This went on for anxieties included competing with her for my father’s sometime, almost half an hour – he would sing that line lessons. My father continued to guide me for many years and I would only play the first part. I still find it astonishing and I have benefited from his very sharp musical insights. that a musician of his stature would untiringly repeat a Tripunitura Narayana Iyer, father of T.N. Krishnan, single line of a song for a young boy and would not move once heard me and offered to teach me. He taught me on until he got it right. The next song he took up was Nee a varnam in Mayamalavagaula, Sree Rajarajeswari, which padame in Bhairavi. I took ten days to get the first sangati he then had me play in other sampoorna ragas. It was and another ten days for the next. And that was me – “the an interesting pedagogical exercise. But since Narayana blotting paper” which could absorb everything! This was Iyer was frequently travelling, classes with him were not the challenge I faced with the great man – I had to play very regular and after a couple of years stopped altogether. with the mind as my guide, my musical instincts rather And so, my violin training was almost completely under than what I could hear. This honed my musical instincts, my father. the instinct for bhava in a way nothing else could have. “My day was filled with music. My father and I left home With Chembai or my father I had to reproduce exactly at about 5 am for class with Narayana Iyer. We made an what was sung. With Musiri, I would be on tenterhooks, hour’s journey, from Mandaveli to Luz on foot, from Luz having to strain to hear the extremely delicate nuances, to Bazaar Road (now Dr. Natesan Road) by tram and then partly guess them, and play just a bit within the time he walked some distance again. Narayana Iyer taught me would give the accompanist. It was a terrifying experience, from 6 to 8 in the morning. After this class I returned but highly educative. home and went to school. In the afternoon, my father “Thus, I learnt to translate into the violin what the voice taught me for an hour or so during the school lunch sang – two very different kinds of voices, two very different break.