Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati
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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 1 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. 2 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 3 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 4 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 5 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 6 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 7 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) 8 He was born on 27th August 1898 in Thanjavur district. He initially learnt music from his uncle Kadiresan Pillai.