Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati

Home , Balasaraswati, Chowdiah, Doraiswamy Iyengar, Guruvayur Dorai, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, Lalgudi Jayaraman

Component-I (A) – Personal details:

Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati.

Prof. R Thiagarajan Presidency College, Chennai.

Dr. V. Premalatha Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati.

Prof. Ritha Rajan Music Academy, Chennai

Component-I (B) – Description of module:

Subject Name Indian Culture Paper Name Indian Aesthetics and Fine Arts Module Name/Title Musicians of south India-2 Module Id I C / IAFA / 27 Pre requisites An interest to know about the famous musicians who were experts on instruments of South Indian Classical music Objectives To know a short biographical sketch and achievements of some eminent musicians who played instruments of South Indian Classical Music. to enable a student to know such great personalities who were monumental in bringing the glory of the Classical Music art to the World through their performances. Keywords Vīṇā Seshanna, Vīṇā Venkataramana Das, Vīṇā Dhanammal, Sarabha Sastri, Sanghameshwara Sastri, Pudukkottai Dakshina Murthy Pillai, Mysore T Chowdiah, Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu, Needamangalam Meenakshisundaram Pillai, Thanjavur Vaidyanatha Iyer, T N Rajaratnam Pillai, Narayana Iyengar, Palani Subramania Pillai, Mysore Doraiswamy Iyengar, Karukurichi Arunachalam, Emani Sankara Sastri, T R Mahalingam, Mavelikkara Velukkutty Nair, T Viswanathan, Lalgudi Jayaraman, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan , Chittibabu, Vīṇā, Violin, Flute, Mṛdaṅgam, Nāgasvaram, Tavil, Gōṭṭuvādya

E-text (Quadrant-I): Introduction In this module, let us get familiar with some of the great Instrumentalists who lived in the past 150 years. As seen earlier, the biographical details, tutelage and achievements of some instrumentalists have been provided. The list is perhaps not exhaustive and is presented in the chronological order.

1. Vīṇā Seshanna - Vīṇā (1852 - 1926)

Vīṇā Seshanna was born in Mysore in the year 1852 in a family of musicians. His father, Chikkaramappa, was a Vaiṇika in the court of the Maharaja of Mysore. Seshanna is said to be the descendant of Pacchimiriyam Aadi Appayya, a noted composer of Karnāṭaka music. He learnt music from Mysore Sadasiva Rao and Veena Venkatasubbayya. He was appointed as the court musician in the royal court of the Maharaja of Mysore. He was able to play other musical instruments like Violin, Piano and Jalataraṅga. Seshanna is said to be the founder of the Mysore style of Vīṇā playing.

In the Mysore style of Vīṇā playing, the two fingers are used alternately to press the string to the frets. They are kept separated from each other most of the time.

Seshanna composed 53 compositions, including Svarajati-s, Pada-s, Jāvali-s and many Tillānā-s.

2. Vīṇā Venkataramana Das - Vīṇā (1866 - 1948)

Venkataramana Das was born on February 8th, 1866, to Chinna Gururayacharyulu and Lakshmi Narasamma. Venkataramana Das was a virtuoso Vaiṇika, who followed the tradition of holding the Vīṇā in a vertical position, while playing. Today, this practice is followed only in the Srirangam temple during the Ēkānta sēva. He wrote a book titled, “Vīṇā

Rahasya Prakāśikā”' in Telugu, which was published in 1912. Once Lord Curzon was mellowed by his Vīṇā performance and praised him a lot. He also presented him with a pair of bracelets set in rubies. He died on February 28, 1948. On his death, the street where he lived was named after him as Vīṇāvāri Street.

3. Vīṇā Dhanammal - Vīṇā (1868- 1938)

Dhanammal was born in a family of musicians and dancers. Her mother was trained under Subbaraya Sastri, son of Syama Sastri. In addition to training by her family members, Dhanammal also learned from Walajapet Balakrishna Das a blind musician. Her style, known as the Vīṇā Dhanammal bāṇi, is still regarded as a measure in terms of traditional values and music expression. She preferred to play without any accompaniments. She is said to have learnt more than thousand compositions of at least 70 composers. She used to sing along when she plays on her instrument. Musicians, critics and composers attended her private recitals in Chennai. Famous bharatanāṭyam dancer, Balasaraswathi is the grand- daughter of Dhanammal. A commemorative postage stamp on her was issued on 03- December-2010. http://archiveofindianmusic.org/artist_sound_clips/269

4. Sarabha Sastri - Flute (1872–1904) Sarabha Sastri was born in 1872 to Sri Viswanatha Sastri and Smt. Dharmambal. His mother's native place was Tiruvadi, where she lived next door to Saint Tyagaraja. Sarabha Sastri lost his father at an early age and his mother initiated her blind son into music. He learnt to play flute from Sri Govinda Nayanakkar and became a genius. He experimented with the flute and evolved a fingering technique by which he could produce all the Indian rāga-s. Saraba Sastri taught a unique technique of flute playing called “Tu-Tu kāram-s” and he was among the very few who were able to play tānam on the Flute. Saraba Sastri was

called as "Ēka santha grāhi ", since he had the ability to grasp anything by just listening once. He was invited to serve as the Āsthāna Vidwān of Mysore court by the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore, which he refused. Sarabha Sastri died at the young age of 32 years in 1904.

5. Sanghameshwara Sastri - Vīṇā (1873 -1931)

Tumarada Sangameshwara Sastri was born in Bobbili in Andhra Pradesh in the year 1873. He first learnt music from Venkanna. He was both a vocalist and a Vīṇā player. He used to practise music incessantly; he was famous for his “vēyi sādhaka” meaning playing the basic exercises of the svara-s for a thousand times. He used to practise steadily in all the octaves and in four degrees of speed. He travelled to Madras, Tanjavur and other centres of music in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Rabindranath Tagore was fascinated by him and sent two of his disciples to learn music to Sastri. Sanghameswara Sastri was also a good teacher. He has also composed several tāna-varṇa-s and kṛti-s.

6. Pudukkottai Dakshina Murthy Pillai - Mṛdaṅgam (1875 - 1936)

Dakshinamurthy Pillai was a leading Mṛdaṅga artist of South Indian Music. Pillai learnt from Pudukottai Manpundia Pillai and became his chief disciple and the main representative of the Pudukkottai school of Percussion. He also used to play Kañjira. Earlier he served in Army for three years and his pupils include Palani Subramaniam Pillai, Thanjavur

Ramadas, Devakottai Sunder Raj and Thangavelu Pillai. He nurtured many great musicians like Kanchipuram Naina Pillai, M S Subbalakshmi, Chembai Vaidhyanatha Bhagavatar and Alathur Brothers.

7. Mysore T Chowdiah - Violin (1892- 1967)

Chowdiah was born in 1892 near Mysore. He was under the training of Bidaram Krishnappa till 1910. He brought a revolution in the field of Music by introducing the 7 stringed violin. Many contemporary singers during that time would request the sabhā people for Chowdiah in accompanying their concerts including G N Balasubamaniam. He was a great guru to his disciples. He used to take them with him during concerts and give them opportunities to meet great musicians. He founded the Ayyanar College for Music in Mysore to fulfill the dream of his Guru, Bidaram Krishnappa. His noteworthy disciples were Mysore V.Ramaratnam (vocal) V.Sethramayya, R.K.Venkatarama Sastri and Kandadevi Alagiriswami (violin). He has composed nearly 50 compositions in Sanskrit and Kannada including Varṇa-s, kīrtana-s and tillānā-s. He was awarded Saṅgīta Kalānidhi in 1957 and Saṅgīta Kalāśikhāmaṇi in 1958. He died at the age of 72 in 1967. http://archiveofindianmusic.org/artist_sound_clips/297

8. Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu - Violin (1893 -1964)

Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu was born on 8th November 1893 in Bengaluru. He was partially blind and one of the notable violinists of South. He was appointed the Professor of violin in the Maharaja's Music College in Vijayanagaram, at the young age of 26, and became its Principal in 1936. He was known for his extremely well developed soft bowing technique combined with a firm fingering technique. He was awarded with Saṅgīta Kalanidhi in 1941, Saṅgīta Kalāśikhāmaṇi in 1941, Kala prapūrṇa in 1950, Sangeet Natak Academy award in 1953, Padma shree in 1957. Indian Postal Department has released a commemorative stamp on his birth centenary in 1993. Several Students learned music under him. The notable students of Naidu are his daughter, Dwaram Mangatayaru, Ghantasala, Garimella Naga Raja Rao and Radha Narayanan. http://gaana.com/artist/dwaram-venkataswamy-naidu

9. Needamangalam Meenakshi sundaram Pillai - Tavil (1894 - 1949)

The Tavil maestro Meenakshi sundaram was born in 1894. His maternal uncle Singaram Pillai started teaching him tavil when he was five. Later he took tutelage under the guru Venugopala Pillai who shaped him into a Tavil genius. Meenakshi sundaram accompanied Nāgasvara maestros like Mannargudi Chinnapakkiri at a very young age. He was influenced

by many great stalwarts. His innumerable awards and honours include, Tāla Pravīṇā, Abhinava Nandīsar, Tavil Arasu, and Paṭaha vādya pravīṇa and so on. His timing was exemplary, and his handling of the syllables was excellent. He was undoubtedly an outstanding Tavil artiste. He died on 13th February 1949.

Tavil is a percussion instrument of South India, mainly used to accompany Nāgasvara. It is slightly different from the Mṛdaṅga in its structure.

10. Thanjavur Vaidyanatha Iyer - Mṛdaṅgam (1897 - 1947)

Vaidyanatha Iyer was born in a place called Vaiyacheri near Thanjavur in 1897. He learnt Mṛdaṇga from Thanjavur Doss Swamigal, Kannuswami Nattuvanar and K. Ponniah Pillai. He served in the State Broadcasting Radio Station in Trivandrum. Vaidhyanatha Iyer served as a "King Maker" in the field of Mṛdaṇgam playing, with three of his disciples being the legends Palghat Mani Iyer, T.K. Murthy, and Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman. He specialised in accompanying techniques, especially for Kṛti-s. He died on April 13th, 1947.

11. T N Rajaratnam Pillai - Nāgasvaram (1898- 1956)

He was born on 27th August 1898 in Thanjavur district. He initially learnt music from his uncle Kadiresan Pillai. He was under the tutelage of Violin maestro, Tirukkodikaval Krishna Iyer. Later he took lessons from Ammachatram Kannuswami Pillai. He did his debut performance at Madras in 1919. He introduced Tambura as a drone instrument in Nāgasvaram concerts and was the first musician to play the wind instrument sitting down. He introduced the timiri type of Nāgasvara. He died on 12 December 1956. http://archiveofindianmusic.org/artist_sound_clips/238

12. Narayana Iyengar - Gōṭṭuvādyam (1903 - 1959)

Narayana Iyengar was born on 25th January 1903, near Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. Though Narayana Iyengar displayed an early fascination for music, he only commenced learning formally at the age of 14. His guru was Kodaganallur Subbaiyya Bhagavatar, a fine vocalist who could also play Gōṭṭuvādya. He was enchanted with the beauty, challenge and scope of the instrument, which was re-introduced to Classical South Indian Music by Tiruvidaimarudur Sakha Rama Rao. Sakha Rama Rao accepted Narayana Iyengar as his disciple. Since then he came to be called ‘Gōṭṭuvādyam’ Narayana Iyengar.

He performed in many prestigious events like the 42nd Indian National Congress meet at Madras in 1927 (which marked the inaugural year of the Music Academy, Madras), the Classical Music Conference in Calcutta, in 1938 and the Navaratri Festivals in Trivandrum and Mysore. Narayana Iyengar was an ‘A’ top artiste of the All India Radio since its inception and has performed in many of its national programmes. He died on January 11th, 1959, soon after playing a live concert for All India Radio. The famous present day Gōṭṭuvādya player, Ravikiran is the grand son of this great soul. http://archiveofindianmusic.org/artist_sound_clips/146

13. Palani Subramania Pillai - Mṛdaṅgam (1908- 1962)

Subramaniam Pillai was born on 20th April 1908. He learnt Mṛdaṅgam from his father Muttayya Pillai. At a very early age, Subramania Pillai started accompanying for the concerts of great stalwarts like Kanchipuram Nayana Pillai, Mazhavarayanendal Subbarama Bhagavathar and Mudicondon Venkatarama Iyer. He encouraged a number of Vocalists and Instrumentalists like M Balamuralikrishna, Ramnad Krishnan, K V Narayanaswamy and others in their performances. He never indulged in exhibitionism and his only aim was to enhance the total appeal of the concert. He was also a great Kañjira player and was a wonderful teacher. Some of the disciples of Subramanian Pillai are T. Ranganathan, Dandamudi Rammohan Rao, T.S Janakiraman and Trichy Sankaran. The Palani School of Mṛdaṅga playing is now well represented in India and abroad. He died in the year 1962.

14. Mysore Doraiswamy Iyengar- Vīṇā (1920-1997)

Doraiswamy Iyengar was born in the year 1920. He started learning the Vīṇā from his father Venkatesa Iyengar who was a vaiṇika, at an early age and soon became the disciple of Vīṇā Venkatagiriyappa one of the foremost Vaiṇika-s of Mysore. He gave his first public performance in 1943. He performed at many places. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the Chowdiah National memorial award, the Sangeetha Kalāratna of the

Bangalore gayana Samaj, Saṅgīta Kalāśikhāmaṇi of the Indian Fine Arts society and the Saṅgīta Kalānidhi of the Madras Music Academy. He was the music director of the All India Radio in Bangalore. The University of Mysore conferred on him an Honorary Doctorate in the year 1975. Doraiswamy Iyengar also composed music for a few Kannada films. He died at the age of 77 in Bengaluru. http://gaana.com/album/doraiswamy-iyengar-sarasiruhasana-veena

15. Karukurichi Arunachalam - Nāgasvaram (1921 - 1964)

Karukurichi Arunachalam was born in the year 1921 and he did not hail from a traditional ‘Nāgasvara’ family. His father Balavesam was so fascinated and impressed by the artistry and prestige of Koorainadu Natesa Pillai that he attempted to learn to play the instrument and become a performing artist. Unfortunately he did not quite make it as a musician, but found solace in his son Arunachalam’s talent for the instrument. Arunachalam learnt Nāgasvaram from Kattumalli Subbiah Kambar and vocal music from Kalakkad Subbiah Bhagavatar and his son Ramanarayana Bhagavatar.

Later Arunachalam did gurukulavāsa with the legendary T N Rajaratnam Pillai for a long time and learnt the nuances. On account of his career, he left Karukurichi in Tirunelveli district where he was born and settled down at Kovilpatti town in the same district. His brilliance in performance kept the audience electrified almost in all the concerts. He died on 6th April 1964. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDnp3O8THJM

16. Emani Sankara Sastri - Vīṇā (1922- 1987)

Emani Sankara Sastri was born on September 23rd, 1922 in Andhra Pradesh. His father, Emani Achyutharama Sastri was also a vaiṇika. He had rigorous training in Vīṇā from his father. After completing his education from Andhra University, he joined the Gemini studios of Madras, where he was the Music Director for more than ten years. Emani joined the AIR in 1959 as producer of music at Madras. Emani was also associated with cultural and academic organizations. He was the Āsthāna vidwān of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams. He was a member in the board to select the National film awards and of the Sangeet Natak Academy to select candidates for the national awards. He was honoured with awards and titles, some of them are Vaiṇika Śikhāmaṇi, Vaiṇika Śirōmaṇi, Vīṇā Gana Gandhrava, Ganarupa Kalasaraswathi, Vīṇā Vadanatatvegna, Gandharva Kalanidhi, Gana Kala Dhara, Vīṇā Chakravarthi, Vallaki Vallabha, title of Mahā Mahōpādhyāya, Sangeet Natak Academy award in 1973, Sahitya Kala Parishad award, Padma Shree and obtained the honorary Doctorate from Andhra University. His students include his daughter Emani Kalyani Lakshminarayana, Chitti babu, V. Saraswathi, M. Y. Kama Sastry, S. N. Satyamurthy, S.N. Ramachandran and Vishwanathan. http://mio.to/album/Emani+Shankara+Sastry/Emani+Shankara+Sastry+Veena+Vol+2

17. T R Mahalingam - flute (1926 - 1986)

T R Mahalingam, who was popularly called as “Māli” was born in November, 1926 at Tiruvdaimarudur, in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. He started learning singing music from his maternal uncle Jalra Gopala Iyer who ran a famous music school. He started playing flute at the age of 5. Mahalingam was the founder of the popular style of flute playing followed today by the Karnāṭaka flautists. Mahalingam introduced new fingering techniques, and a grip on the flute which was called as "parrot clutch or the cross-fingering style”. This allowed a greater control over the instrument. His disciples include T S Sankaran, N Ramani, B Shankar Rao, N Kesi and others. Mahalingam’s flute playing technique also led to a redesign of the bamboo flute. Unlike others before him, Mahalingam drilled eight holes in the flute. He did not care for any honours or awards for his music. Shortly before his death, he was awarded Padma Bhushan in January 1986, which he flatly refused. He died in 1986 at the age of 59. http://archiveofindianmusic.org/artist_sound_clips/239

18. Mavelikkara Velukkutty Nair - Mṛdaṅgam (1926 - 2012)

Mavelikkara Velukkutty Nair was born on 2nd October 1926 in Chettikulangaram, Kerala. He had undergone preliminary lessons in Mṛdaṅgam from his father Muthukulam S. Kumara Pillai. Later he underwent advanced training from Maestro Sangeetha Kalanidhi Padma Bhushan Palghat Mani Iyer in the gurukula system for a period of 8 years. He joined the Kerala State Government Service as Teacher in Mṛdaṅgam at Sri Swathi Thirunal College of Music in 1959 and retired as Professor and Head, Department of Mṛdaṅgam from the same college in 1982. He had accompanied concerts of four generations of musicians. He had performed a few vocal concerts as well for which Maestros Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman and Guruvayur Dorai had accompanied on Mṛdaṅgam. He died on 24 July 2012.

19. T Viswanathan - Flute (1927-2002)

T Viswanathan was born in August 1927 in Chennai. He was affectionately called as “Viswa”. He is the grandson of Vīṇā Dhanammal and the brother of the famous dancer, Balasaraswati. He learnt playing flute from Tiruppampuram Swaminatha Pillai. Unlike T R Mahalingam, who played on the 8-holed flute, Viswanathan used to play on the 7-holed flute. He was awarded the Fulbright fellowship and started his career at the US, by studying at the University of California and then acquired a Ph.D. from the Wesleyan University. He was the Head of the Department of Indian Music at the University of Madras from 1961-65. He had a wide repertoire and used to popularise Padam, Jāvali and Tillānā, which are considered to the property of the Dhanammāl school.

Viswanathan’s students include T R Moorthy, John B Higgins, Douglas Knight, David Nelson Anuradha Sriram and many others. Vishwanathan was awarded with Saṅgīta Kalanidhi in 1988. He was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the Government of US. He died on September 10th, 2002. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE23ku4thvg

20. Lalgudi Jayaraman - Violin (1930 - 2013)

Lalgudi Jayaraman was born in the year 1930 in Lalgudi near Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu. He had his early lessons on music from his father, Sri V R Gopala Iyer. He belongs to the lineage of the saint musician Tyagaraja. At a young age of 12, he started accompanying many great musicians as a prominent violinist. He developed his own style of violin playing which was vocal-based, that is popularly, called the “Lalgudi bāṇi. He had accompanied almost all leading vocalists and was a successful soloist too. His son and daughter also learnt from him and performed along with him in many concerts. Jayaraman has composed many musical compositions for music as well as dance, which are filled with bhāva, (emotion). He has performed in many countries like Russia, Singapore, USA and UK. He was highly instrumental in bringing the South Indian classical style of Violin playing to the world audience. He was sent to Russia as a member of Indian Cultural Delegation by the Govt. of India. He was bestowed with many awards and honours. He died in the year 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P50x_FwG2FQ

21. Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan - Violin (1935 -2008)

Vaidyanathan was born to Sri Ramaswamy Sastri and Smt. Meenakshi at Kunnakudi in Tamil Nadu. His father was a great scholar and he started his early lessons from him. At the age of 12, he accompanied (on violin) great stalwarts of Karnāṭaka Music like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Maharajapuram Santhanam in their concerts. He also performed with Nāgasvara vidvān-s like T. N. Rajarathinam Pillai and Thiruvenkadu Subramania Pillai. Later he started to perform solo violin concerts. He was famous for his fingering techniques on the violin. He took efforts to take music to common man. He made innovations and they were evident in his productions and performances.

He also made a significant contribution to Tamil devotional music. He had scored music to many Tamil films. He received several awards in recognition of his contribution to the Music. Vaidyanathan was strongly associated with the All India Radio. He served as the Secretary

of the Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nadaga Mandram. He was also the Secretary of Thyagabrahma Sabha, Tiruvayyaru in Thanjavur,, where he conducted the Tyagaraja Aradhana festival for several years. He also served as the President of the Raga Research Centre at Chennai. He died on 8th September, 2008.

http://gaana.com/artist/kunnakkudi-baidyanathan

22. Chittibabu - Vīṇā (1936- 1996)

Chitti Babu was born on 13th October 1936, in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. He was a child prodigy who started playing Vīṇā at the age of 5. Chitti Babu gave his first performance at the age of 12. He had his primary lessons taught under Pandravada Upmakaya and Eyyuni Appalacharyulu and later he became a prime disciple of Emani Sankara Sastri. He acted in films and was a Vīṇā player in film music. After having established himself as a Classical musician, Chitti Babu still had opportunity to associate himself with filmdom for a while. He has also composed music for films in Telugu and Kannada. He was awarded and honoured with Kalaimamani, Sangeet Natak Academy Award, Saṅgīta Cūḍāmaṇi, Vaiṇika Śikhāmaṇi and was also the Āsthāna Vidwān of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams. He has travelled across the world for rendering concerts. He died on February 9th 1996, at the age of 59.

Summary This module has enabled us to get ourselves acquainted with some great stalwarts on South Indian Classical Music, who were experts on musical instruments like, Vīṇā, Violin, Flute, Mṛdaṅgam, Nāgasvaram, Tavil and Gōṭṭuvādya. The list of musicians dealt here is not exhaustive and there lived several others, who have done great service to Karnāṭaka music.