July 2020 (Special Edition on Pazhani Subramania Pillai)
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Lalitha Kala Tarangini Premier Quarterly Music Magazine from Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira Volume 2020, Issue 2 July 2020 Pazhani Subramania Pillai (1908-62) An innovative Gentle Giant Artwork by AV Raghuprasad, a direct disciple of Pazhani July 2020 ishna, BM Sundaram, Trichy J Venkatraman whose speeches have been converted into articles depicting This is a special issue devoted to the all-time great various facets of Shri Pazhani. We are thankful to mridanga vidwan Late Pazhani M Subramania Pillai. Sruti who permitted us to use the content they pub- Never in our living memory have we been privileged lished on Shri Pazhani way back in 1987. We are to hear mridangam playing so sensitively and aes- indebted to Lalitha Ram, author of the book on Shri thetically even while retaining all laya intricacies of Pazhani ‘Dhruva Natchathiram’ for allowing us to the Pudukkottai Parampara. No other mridangam use the content. player enhanced the value of music concert, vocal or instrumental, to the extent he did. It is difficult to We have had help from an unexpected quarter in reproduce his bani and, after the first generation of bringing out this edition. Dubai based Ms. GS Lalitha, his disciples, the bani has gone for a toss. It is only 33 years of age, born 25 years after the demise of Sri KS Kalidas, a direct disciple of the Master who Sri Pazhani has been a worshipper of the Master absorbed the niceties of his style and taught a num- and has accumulated a lot of information from vari- ber of disciples even at his advanced age with great ous sources including many rare photos. She has commitment and missionary zeal. But for his efforts, also submitted an article for this magazine as to Pazhani's style could only be discerned only from the how, being a lady vocalist, she has exclusively an- few recordings of the Master that have survived. alysed the Master's style. She had even presented a lecture-demonstration on Pazhani Subramania Pillai Sri Kalidas has also written a great deal about Sri for over 2 hours in Dubai. Many photos given by her Pazhani and it can be safely said that without his have been used. efforts and research, even a biography of the Master would not be available to the public at large. He has I am thankful to Sree Ramaseva Mandali, Chamra- also conducted many lecture demonstrations on the jpet for making available vintage photos of Pazhani style & content of Pazhani's playing and has also one of which is used for the front cover page. brought out a DVD on him. Even today, he is ap- We have used short form ‘Pazhani’ or ‘Subbudu’ for proached by a number of persons young and old, to Pazhani Shri M Subramania Pillai throughout the get to know various aspects of the Master's playing magazine for the sake of brevity. techniques. This issue carries a lot of information from his writings, dissertations, and seminars he has This edition is being brought out despite the prevail- conducted. We cannot adequately thank him for his ing pandemic as SRLKM is committed to its readers. direct and indirect contribution to this issue. I am glad we could release it now though it is de- layed. Happy reading. I wish our readers the best of With a view to providing a holistic view of the health. Stay home and be safe. Pudukkottai parampara, articles on Manpoondia Pillai (father of the parampara) and Dakshina- regards, murthy Pillai have been included. The other articles Anand S include Pazhani’s profile, lesser-known facts about Contributors - KS Kalidas, C Ramakrishnan, Ban- Pazhani, Pazhani’s disciples, voices from great mas- galore Shankar, Narayana Achutha, Tarangini Balas- ters on Pazhani, etc. Thanks to Shri Bangalore ubrahmanian, Rajashree Yogananda, Suresh Jagen- Shankar’s effort, we have included two articles on nathan, Shailesh Ramamurthy, Lalitha GS Karnataka’s own maestro’s Shri AV Krishnamachar (Padmacharan) and Vallabham Kalyanasundaram. Photo Courtesy - Front cover photo - Sri Rama This edition is a ‘Must have’ and a ‘collector’s item’ Seva Mandali, Shri SN Varadaraj, Shri SN for practitioners of music as well as rasikas. I hope Ramprasad, Paniraj, Personal collection of GS Lalitha, our Laya Vidwans will relish the articles presented. Dubai, Pazhani Shri Subramaniam Pillai Trust, Per- sonal collections of Bangalore Shankar, Personal I am thankful to the Pazhani Shri M Subramania collection of D Balakrishna. Pillai Trust whose materials have been used. Thanks are due to TK Murthy, R Vedavalli, M Balamuralikr- Visit us online @ www.srlkmandira.org and share your feedback at [email protected] Lalitha Kala Tarangini - Jun 2020 1 15 Pudukkottai Manpoondia Pillai, The Invent- or of Kanjira 19 Mridanga, Kanjira Maha Vidwan Sri Daksh- inamoorthy Pillai 23 Pazhani Shri M Subramania Pillai - An In- novative Gentle Giant 32 Dr. Balamuralikrishna on Pazhani 33 Pazhani Ayya 35 From a Vidwan to Vidwan - Pazhani on Chembai 37 Pazhani Shri M Subramania Pillai - Fusion of Intellect and Aesthetics 39 Calcutta KS Krishnamurthy on Pazhani M Subramania Pillai 41 Everlasting contributions of Sri Pazhani - A perfect blend of the head and the heart Pazhani M Subramania Pillai with Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Mysore T Chowdiah 44 Shri Palakkadu Raghu on Pazhani Shri M Subramania Pillai 46 Palakkadu Mani Iyer’s love of Pazhani’s Content ‘thoppi’ 06 Shri AV Krishnamachar (Padmacharan) 47 Pudukkottai Tradition and Kanjira 09 Vallabham Kalyanasundaram - A life shaped 49 Pazhani and his contemporaries by music 54 Pazhani Shri M Subramania Pillai’s disciples 13 Pazhani’s Style - can we allow it to become 57 Pazhani and Anaithandavapuram extinct? 58 Vedavalli on Pazhani 59 Lesser-known facts about Pazhani Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira (SRLKM) founded by All Rights Reserved- All articles, photographs and Shri G Vedanta Iyengar in the year 1955 is rendering material appearing in this magazine whether in yeomen service in the field of music. In addition to whole or part is copyright of Sri Rama Lalitha Kala music classes, music concerts are held all through the Mandira exclusively. No part of this magazine should year. The significant festivals are Sankranti and be reproduced or stored in any form without prior Spring music festivals. Mandira also takes pride in consent. While Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira takes all conducting music awareness program, music work- the care to verify the correctness of information, it is shops, Lecture demonstrations etc. Entry to all pro- quite possible that there could be an occasional inac- gram conducted by the Mandira is free as the aim of curacy in our publication. the institution is to enable everyone to listen to the Magazine Committee best of the music and to propagate Karnatic Classic- al Music. Editor - Anand S Senior Associates: Neela Ramgopal, KS Kalidas, Dr. “Lalitha Kala Tarangini" publication is fostered by Sri Mysore M Manjunath, Rajashree Yogananda, and Dr. Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira, disseminates knowledge Rama V Bennur. in the area of Karnatak Classical Music and bring to light talent and excellence in this area. We believe Printed and published by GV Krishna Prasad on be- this is just another step towards preserving and pro- half of Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira, CA No. 28, moting this great Indian fine art. 9th Main Road, Near Banashankari II Stage Post office, Banashankari II Stage, Bangalore 560070, Karnataka, India. Lalitha Kala Tarangini - Jun 2020 2 Shri GV Krishna Prasad, Dear Shri Krishna Prasad and Shri Anand, The Silver Jubilee Edition of Lalitha Kala Tarangini is a I was delighted to go through the Silver Jubilee Issue of collector's item! Though we have had a whole series of Lalitha Kala Tarangini-March 2020 released in honour of centenary celebrations of various vidwans and vidushis Shri Lalgudi G Jayaraman (LJR) on the occasion of his during the recent past, this particular issue of this maga- 90th birthday. zine, commemorating the 90th birth anniversary year of The publication itself is of very high quality. The content the Legend, Lalgudi Sri G Jayaraman, would easily be the brought out the exemplary qualities of the musical giant best and most comprehensive that I have seen. Shri LGJ. I can fully understand the extent of background Packed with archival photos + beautiful and insightful work that must have gone in to produce all these articles, articles written by a perfect mix of people, which includes photographs and content, from very authentic authors a few legendary musicians themselves, as well as musi- who had directly interacted with the great violinist. We cians from the younger generation, students, family mem- could get a vivid picture of Shri LGJ as a genius, an artist, bers and people who have interacted with the Maestro in a guru and more than anything else as an extremely kind various capacities, it succeeds in painting a comprehen- person. sive and multi dimensional portrait of this multi faceted May I on this occasion take the liberty of narrating our artiste. own experience at Nadasurabhi with Shri LGJ. In 2009, Lalgudi Jayaraman Sir's own words on the Ultimate Leg- we had decided to bestow the award and title of end Pazhani Shri M Subramania Pillai and his speech at "Sangeetha Surabhi" on Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman. With the Bangalore Gayana Samaja are like icing on the cake. some persuasion, he agreed to accept the award. The This edition of the magazine is a ‘Must Have’ for All mu- festival during which it was to be awarded was in No- sic lovers, music students, music gurus and performers, vember 2009. Unfortunately for us, his health did not for so many reasons! permit him to travel to Bangalore to receive the award.