Ramanathapuram Shri C.S. Shankarasivam’s Life History – continued

Shri C.S. Shankarasivam, like his guru Harikesanallur Dr L. Muthiah Bhagavathar, was proficient in many languages. Apart from music he was an expert in Indian Astrology and medicine. He had a great sense of humor and could speak well on any topic.

Shri Shankarasivam had given several concerts during those days with great stalwarts like Late Kumbakonam Shri Rajamanikam Pillai (Violin) and Pudukkotai Shri Dakshinamurthy Pillai (Mridangam/Kanjira).

Shri Shankarasivam had a great repertoire and he was an expert in Pallavi singing. He is known to have sung Avathana Pallavis (handling two different talas in two hands) in the rare ragas like Salaka bhairavi and Huseni in his concerts. He also participated in many music conferences.

Shri Shankarasivam was an ideal guru who taught everyone who approached him with sincerity. Shri Ramnad Krishnan, Shri Ramnad Eswaran, Shri Ramanathapuram C.S. Murugaboopathy (younger brother of Shri Shankarasivam) and my guru ‘Sangitha Kalanidhi’ ‘Padmabhushan’ Madurai Shri T.N. Seshagopalan are some of his very famous disciples.

Shri Shankarasivam moved permanently to Madurai after the Ramanathapuram samasthanam was dissolved. In Madurai, the TVS group was running the music school “Sadguru Sangeetha Vidyalaya” and Shri Shanakarasivam took the principal post offered by the school and contributed a lot for the success of the school. It was because of his contribution that Sri Sadguru Sangeetha Vidyalaya became a recognized music college, which continues to exist today.

Shri C.S. Shankarasivam was conferred the title “Madhura Kala Praveena” by the Sadguru Sangeetha Samajam and “Kalaimaamani” by the Govt. of Tamilnadu.

Shri Shankarasivam led a very simple life spending all his time for the benefit of others. He was a great guru who spent his life for music. He is often described as a Naada Yogi, which captures his simplicity and greatness in music.

Shri Shankarasivam passed away in 1993, but his music continues to live through his disciples.

'Madhurakala Praveena' Shri C.S.Shankarasivam

Among many disciples of Muthiah Bhagavathar the following are some of his most famous disciples.
Ramanathapuram Shri C.S. Shankarasivam, Budalur Shri Krishnamurthy Sastrigal and Madurai Shri Mani Iyer.

‘Madhurakala Praveena’ Ramanathapuram Shri C.S. Shankarasivam
Shri C.S. Shankarasivam, a great vidwan of the previous century was one of the prime disciples of Harikesanallur Dr L. Muthiah Bhagavathar.

Family and childhood
Shri Shankarasivam was born in the year 1905 to Chitsabhai Servai and Pappammal. Chitsabai Servai was a very famous mridanga vidwan during that period. Chitsabai Servai was a disciple of Shri Mamundya Pillai, who is known to be the Father of South Indian percussion. During the period of King Ramanathapuram Sethupathy, Chitsabai Servai was the samasthana vidwan and he accompanied stalwarts like Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar. He was also a master in Konnakol.

As Shankarasivam belonged to such a great musical family, it is no wonder that he had ‘Laya Gnanam’ from a very tender age. He had the opportunity to meet great artists because of the relationship that the family had with the king and other musicians.

Musical training
Shri Shankarasivam had his initial training under Ramanathapuram Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar. Due to Iyengar’s old age he could not continue his training for a long period. Seeing the potential, passion and great voice of the boy, King Sethupathy wanted Shankarasivam to undergo training from ‘Gayaka Sikhamani’ Harikesanallur Dr L. Muthiah Bhagavathar. Since he did gurukulavasam with Muthiah Bhagavathar, he stopped his school with S.S.L.C (10th Std). After 15 years of rigorous training under Muthiah Bhagavathar, Shri Shankarasivam was made the samasthana vidwan of Ramanathapuram.

Picture of Ramanathapuram Samasthanam

to be contd...
[Note: I had the unique privilege to present a brief life history of Ramanathapuram Shri C.S.Shankarasivam (reverently called as ‘Vadyar thatha’) as narrated to me by my guru Madurai Shri T.N.Seshagopalan (foremost disciple of Vadyar thatha). This was on the occasion of Vadayar thatha’s memorial function conducted by my guru in Madurai. I also had the opportunity to perform a concert as a part of this function.]

Muthiah Bhagavathar's contributions

From the life history of Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar, covered in the earlier posts, it is very evident that he was a multi-faceted personality.

Additional information on his life history

Muthiah Bhagavathar was adept at playing both the Chitraveena and Mridangam. In 1934, he composed music for Tamilnadu Talkies then owned by S. Soundararaja for their 'Lavakusa', a film based on the Uttara Ramayana. He went to Bombay and composed 63 songs for the film resulting in the film being renamed as 'Sangeetha Lavakusa'. He had four special tamburas, viz., Rama, Lakshmana, Bharatha and Shatrughna. Once when GNB sang "Sarasamukhi" in the raga Gaudamalhar (created by Muthiah Bhagavathar), Muthiah Bhagavathar praised him and also presented him with one of his four tamburas (Bharatha).

Muthiah Bhagavathar's contributuion to the field of music is incomparable.

New Ragas
Vijayasaraswathi, Karnaranjani, Sumanapriya, Niroshta, Guha ranjani.... the list goes on. My guru has composed a song "Raaga brahmamaanar Harikesa naadhabrahmam" on Muthiah Bhagavathar which describes the greatness of his compositions and the rich quality of his music. The charanam of this beautiful song gives a list of ragas that he discovered and popularised. Many of you would have heard this in my guru's harikatha on Bhagavathar. The charanam goes like

"nijaguna Sumanapriya nija bhakthi Gurupriya
gananaya Alankari sukha mridu Kokilabhashini

Guharanjani Karnaranjani Budhamanohari Hamsagamani

Saranga Gauda malhar Chakrapradeepta Harinarayani
Hamsadeepakam Valaji Mayapradeepam Nagabhushani

Vijayanagari Vijayasaraswathi Veenadhari Niroshta aagiya"
(Raaga brahmam aanaar)

Hamsanandi: The story behind this ragam.
Unable to bear the sudden demise of his only girl child in 1928, he went to Benares for about six months, where he heard a good deal of classical Hindustani music. The Raag Sohini was so captivating that, he wished to adopt it to the Carnatic System. On omitting the occasional panchama prayoga, he found that its lakshana agreed with the traditional system of carnatic music. Thus was born Hamsanandi, which is now a very popular raga.

As a composer

Muthiah Bhagavathar imbibed the styles of the Trinities. His compositions include many varnams, krithis, thillanas, sivAshTOthra and chAmuNDAshTOthra krithis. Many of his songs composed during the initial stages are in madhyama kala which shows that he was greatly influenced by Saint Thyagaraja. Later he composed many vilamba kala krithis which had the style of Muthuswamy Dikshitar. Similar to the Navagraha krithis of Muthuswamy Dikshitar, he composed seven krithis called as Vaara krithis on the grahas except Rahu and Ketu. The famous English "Note" popularized by Madurai Mani Iyer, was composed by Muthiah Bhagavathar. The composition is similar to the "Nottuswara sahithyams" of Muthuswamy Dikshitar set in 3/4 time signature of western music. However, Bhagavathar's Note does not have sahithyam. He has composed on almost all the deities. His compositions cover a wide range of ragas. He added colour to his krithis by composing chittaswarams. In the first sivAshTOthra krithi 'Siva Siva Sambho' in Kalyani, the chittaswaram is without panchamam, which highlights the beauty of Kalyani. My guru says that his chittaswarams did not follow the pattern that existed in his period. The chittaswaram in "Giripriyam" is a typical example.

His Compositions
The daru varnam(Mathe) in Khamas, Siddhi Vinayakam in Mohanakalyani, Vanchathonuna in Karnaranjani, Valli Nayakani in Shanmukapriya, Jalanthara in Valaji, Needhu mahima in Hamsanandi, Sarasamukhi in Gaudamalhar and Himagiri thanaye in Sudha dhanyasi are some of his famous compositions. One can learn the complete raga bhava of khamas from the daru varnam (Mathe). He composed an ata tala varnam in the raga mohanam which is in praise of Muthuramalinga Sethupathy. He composed this for the arangetram of his disciple Ramanathapuram Shri C.S. Shankara Sivam. He has composed a thillana in the Hamsanandhi, which reminds us of the kathak style. Muthiah Bhagavathar created a raga called Niroshta, which means "lips not touching each other". This raga does not have the swaras ma and pa, which can be pronounced only by lips touching each other. He has also composed a krithi in this raga ('Rajaraja'), in which the sahityam does not have any syllables that requires the lips to touch each other.

As a musicologist

Muthiah Bhagavathar's scholarly treatise in Tamil titled, "SANGEETHA KALPADHRUMAM" earned him a Doctorate from Travancore University. Besides this, he is also the author of a highly poetical work in Sanskrit, "Thyagaraja Vijayam", comprising 487 slokams.

The above just captures a small fraction of Muthiah Bhagavathar's contributions to the field of Carnatic music, which are diverse and profound.

Coming soon...
Sishya parampara, Foremost disciple of Muthiah Bhagavathar, Ramanathapuram Shri C.S.Shankarasivam ...

[NOTE: The list of his compositions is available in http://www.geocities.com/harikesa/ and http://www.carnaticcorner.com/articles/hmb_comp.html
The vaara krithis are available in http://blip.tv/file/459907/ ]

Gayaka Shikamani - Life History (contd..)

In 1912, Muthiah Bhagavathar came to Chennai along with his uncle where he gave many Harikatha performances. “Thyagaraja Charithram” and “Valli Kalyanam” were some of the greatest hits of Muthiah Bhagavathar.

Role as a teacher
"Thyagaraja Sangeetha Vidhyalayam"

Muthiah Bhagavathar was very keen in teaching music to all interested people. He did not want any interested student to struggle as he did in his early years. He decided to start a music school in Madurai and sought the help of many rich people and zamindars whom he knew. In 1924, he established the “Thyagaraja Sangeetha Vidhyalayam” and appointed teachers which included great musicians like Madurai Rajam Bhagavathar and Madurai Narayana Iyengar. Many students joined the school with interest. The famous musician Madurai Mani Iyer was also a student of this music school. However, Muthiah Bhagavathar could run the school only for three years. But still he continued giving private lessons and Harikatha performances. Late Ramanathapuram Shri C.S.Shankara Sivam (my guru’s guru) was one of the foremost disciples of Muthiah Bhagavathar who accompanied him in performances.
In 1927, Muthiah Bhagavathar visited Rangoon, where he was respected and felicitated for his Harikatha performance.

Life at Mysore

Mysore played an important role as a seat of music in the 18th century. Many musicians visited Mysore during festival time and got awards and rewards from the Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar. Madurai Sri Ponnusami pillai was a famous Nadaswara vidwan, who was invited by the Maharaja every year. Shri Ponnusami pillai played a piece in Shanmukapriya which the Maharaja enjoyed very much. He enquired the vidwan about the new song and its composer. He came to know that it was “Valli Nayakane” composed by Muthiah Bhagavathar.

Shri Ponnusami Pillai met Muthiah Bhagavathar after a few months and narrated the incident. He also asked Bhagavathar to visit Mysore during Navarathri festival. During Navarathri festival, Muthiah Bhagavathar went to Mysore and he was also given a slot in the concert series to perform before the Maharaja. The Maharaja used to listen to all the concerts and present the vidwans with gifts based on their performances.

When Bhagavathar sang for the first time in front of the Maharaja, he was indisposed and hence the recital was not one of his best. The Maharaja gave him gifts as he would do for any ordinary vidwan. Muthiah Bhagavathar was very disappointed and tried to find the reason behind the problem with his throat that happened when he was singing. He soon realized that he had forgotten to remember the Goddess (Muthiah Bhagavathar’s Guru Shri Sambasiva Iyer was a Devi Upasaka and had asked Muthiah Bhagavathar to pray to Goddess Parvathi before the commencement of his concerts). Muthiah Bhagavathar went to Shri Chamundeshwari temple situated on a beautiful hill in Mysore.

He prayed to Goddess Chamundeshwari singing “Manamu kaavalanu” in the raga Sahana and “Thapulanniyu” in the raga Bowli. The Maharaja happened to hear him sing in the temple and made him the Asthana Vidwan.

Gayaka Shikamani and Sangita Kalanidhi

During a Navarathri festival function Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar enjoyed the performance of Muthiah Bhagavathar for five consecutive days. On the sixth day of navarathri, the Maharaja felicitated Muthiah Bhagavathar and presented the title “Gayaka Sikhamani”.

In 1927, the Madras Music academy was established and Muthiah Bhagavathar played a key role in developing the Academy. He was awarded the title “Sangita Kalanidhi” in 1930 by the Madras Music Academy. He composed a lot of krithis including the Ashtotara krithis between 1927 and 1932.
In 1936, Muthiah Bhagavathar received an invitation from the Travancore palace. At the request of Maharani Sethu Parvathi Bai, he stayed there for two years. He was appointed the first Principal of the Swati Tirunal Music Academy and Muthiah Bhagavatar systematized the notations of about 300 krithis of Swati Tirunal and also set tunes to many krithis. He wrote and published a book in Tamil on the theory of music, entitled “Sangeetha Kalpadrumam”. In recognition of his invaluable contributions, Travancore University honored him with a doctorate. He later returned to Mysore where he spent his last days. He passed away on June 30, 1945.

The great stalwart is still living through his compositions and sishya parampara.

Coming soon…
Muthiah Bhagavathar’s works and his sishya parampara

[Note: Readers can listen and enjoy the great Master’s voice through the following link
http://www.sangeethamshare.org/nvn/Harikeshanallur-Muthaiah-Bagavathar/ ]

Gayaka Sikhamani - Life History (contd...)

Before continuing Muthiah Bhagavathar's life history, let me present a conversation that took place between Mysore Vasudevacharya (MV) and Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar (HMB) during their stay at Thiruvaiyar.

MV: "Where do you have your bath?"
HMB: "There is the river, by God's grace. Three dips in it and my bath is over. I need neither a boiler nor any fuel!"

MV: "What about your food?"
HMB: "It is enough if I get a few morsels of rice from a couple of houses. I am a brahmachari, my Upanayana having been already performed. If I ask for alms, some kind-hearted woman gives me food. Each day I have a different sort of food and a different relish!"

MV: "You bathe in the river, you get your alms, it need hardly be said that you must be living in some choultry."
HMB: "Your guess is right. Right from my twelfth year, this dharmachatra has been my home. What else do I need?"

This was the very first conversation between Muthiah Bhagavathar and Mysore Vasudevarcharya, after which they became close friends.

This gives a good picture of Muthiah Bhagavathar’s simplicity and greatness.


Recognition in Kerala and life at Tanjore

Muthiah Bhagavathar made his debut concert at Tuticorin at the age of seventeen and was presented with a tambura in recognition of his vidwat. His brother, Hariharan too got trained in music and joined him in Harikatha performances in later years. Bhagavathar’s fame spread all over Tamilnadu and soon reached Kerala. He was specially invited to the Travancore State in 1897, and the ruler Moolam Tirunal made him Asthana Vidwan. He was respected and treated very well in Kerala. But a few musicians who were jealous of Muthiah Bhagavathar’s growth used tantric methods, as a result of which Bhagavathar faced problems with his voice.

In 1902 he met his uncle Lakshmana Suri who was working as a Sanskrit professor in Tanjore, and stayed there until 1907. During this period, Muthiah Bhagavathar learnt advanced lessons in Sanskrit from his uncle. Apart from Sanskrit and Tamil he also attained proficiency in languages like Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. During his stay at Tanjore he assisted Abraham Pandithar in his work “Karunamruthasaagaram”, which helped Bhagavathar to deepen his knowledge of music theory. Abraham Pandithar was awarded the title ‘Rao Sahib’ by the British Government for his work.

Muthiah Bhagavathar had the opportunity to listen to the concerts of many stalwarts and Kallidaikurichi Vedantha Bhagavathar’s discourses in Tanjore. Soon Muthiah Bhagavathar became very much interested in Harikatha.

Shifting to Harikatha

In 1904, there was a turning point in Muthiah Bhagavathar’s professional career. Muthiah Bhagavathar decided to switch over to Harikatha. He had good scholarship in Sanskrit, fluency of speech, excellent knowledge of music and a rich voice. No wonder his Harikatha became popular within a short while. Due to his great personality and captivating musical skill, his reputation as a Harikatha performer over-shadowed his role as a vocalist.

In one of the editions in THE HINDU my guru had said the following: “The most common reason cited for Muthiah Bhagavathar’s shift to Harikatha is that his voice lost its timbre. But I prefer to look at the positive side. Bhagavathar had five attributes most essential for a Harikatha performer. He had knowledge of the sastras, was well-versed in music, had a captivating stage presence, could keep the audience enraptured and above all had a voice that could reach a large audience, so important in those mike-less days.”

Muthiah Bhagavathar learnt Harikatha Paddati from Sri Shankaranarayana Sastri. He also learnt traditional Marathi songs from Sri Krishna Bhatt who belonged to Maharashtra and included those musical forms in his harikatha.

His scholarship in Sanskrit and Tamil, his wit and humor, mellifluous speech in Tamil, crisp and entertaining digressions and innate musical talents soon carried him to the pinnacle of glory.

Coming soon…
Bhagavathar’s role as a teacher, his life in Mysore and Chennai


[Note: The conversation at the beginning of the post is from
http://www.carnaticcorner.com/articles/muthiah.txt]

Gayaka Sikhamani - Life History

'Jagadguro Dayanidhe' in Atana composed by Harikesanallur Dr L.Muthiah Bhagavathar

Harikesanallur Dr.L.Muthiah Bhagavathar’s life history

Early life

‘Gayaka Shikamani’ Harikesanallur L.Muthiah Bhagavathar was born on November 15, 1877 at Punalveli village (near Srivilliputtur), to musician Lingam Ayyar and Anandam Ammal. Muthiah Bhagavathar’s grandfather was Muthu Subba Bharathi, a composer-musician and his maternal uncle was the scholar Mahamahopadhyaya K. Lakshmana Suri. When he was six years old, Muthiah lost his father and came under the tutelage of his maternal uncle. In 1886, he was put under Muthu Ganapadigal of Thiruvaiyar for learning Vedas. But the young Muthiah had his heart set on learning and mastering carnatic music. Even as a boy, his voice attracted many people and they encouraged him to learn carnatic music. He was greatly attracted by the music performances of great stalwarts of carnatic music such as Mahavaidyanatha Iyer and Patnam Subramanya Iyer. He left his uncle’s place and went in search of a guru to learn carnatic music. He met a well known vidwan in Thiruvaiyar, viz., Sambasiva Iyer, who was a disciple of Pallavi Duraisami Iyer, a direct disciple of Saint Thyagaraja. He took him as his student and trained him in both the grammar and practise of music. He was one of his favourite students. He studied under Sambasiva Iyer for 7 years (some sources say 10 years) and became highly proficient in his art.

Muthiah Bhagavathar and Sri T.S.Sabesa Iyer (son of Sambasiva Iyer) accompanied their guru to many concerts. When his guru had gone for a concert in Chennai with his son, young Muthiah happened to meet a cook who was impressed with Muthiah’s voice. The cook arranged a small concert in his rich master’s house. Everyone who attended the concert was impressed by his voice and the rich master presented a shawl and silver coins as a token of appreciation. This event separated him from his guru (for reasons not elaborated here).

Back to Harikesanallur

Muthiah Bhagavathar then visited many teachers who found him extraordinary and blessed him immensely. They said that he had learnt all that can be taught and advised him to develop himself through rigorous sadhana. Muthiah Bhagavatar returned to Harikesanallur (Tirunelveli district) in 1893 from Thiruvaiyar and completely devoted himself to music. He had a remarkably beautiful voice with a capacity to reach three octaves and to execute very fast passages with ease. He became a recognized performer of carnatic music within a short period of time, in Tirunelveli.

to be continued…

[Note: I happened to read a tamil book ‘L.Muthiah Bhagavathar Vazhkai varalaru’ which mentions about his practice routine. He woke up at 4:00 AM and practised for many hours everyday. It is important to note that his practice sessions included the basic lessons in carnatic music. My guru Shri TNS had also said the same in his Harikatha on Muthiah Bhagavathar. My guru insists all students to practise the basics saralivarisai, jantavarisai, etc. regularly. He teaches his unique way of merging all alankarams and janta varisais.

The slokam given at beginning is taken from Shankara digvijayam

www.geocities.com/snsastri/sankara-slokas.pdf]

Gayaka Sikhamani

My humble pranams to my guru “Sangitha Kalanidhi” Madurai Shri T.N.Seshagopalan.

Most of the musicians today belong to the sishya parampara of Saint Thyagaraja. His direct disciples like Sundara Bhagavatar, Krishna Bhagavatar, Rama Iyengar, and Valajapet Venkataramana Bhagavatar, imbibed all that was Thyagaraja and in turn propagated his krithis. These disciples and their successive disciples not only propagated that sadguru’s krithis but also composed many krithis with the blessings of that great sadguru. “Bhakthi” is the key factor which has made these krithis popular and everlasting.

The guru I am going to write about, belongs to the sishya parampara of Saint Thyagaraja, who occupies a special place for his outstanding compositions, which are original with a distinct style and composed in many well-known ragas as well as in rare and new ragas. He had the blessings of the Goddess Chamundeshwari and his illustrious sishya parampara is still growing.

I hope the readers must have guessed the name of the guru right!!!

A versatile genius, Harikatha exponent, musician, a blessed composer and a scholarly musicologist “Gayaka Sikhamani” “Sangitha Kalanidhi” Harikesanallur Dr L.Muthiah Bhagavathar.


Coming soon……
Harikesanallur Dr.L.Muthiah Bhagavathar’s life history,works and sishya parampara.

[I have taken this small effort with the blessings of my guru (Shri TNS). My guru’s music, harikatha and knowledge on various subjects have been my main source of inspiration. I became very much interested in knowing more about Harikesanallur Dr L.Muthiah Bhagavathar after listening to my guru’s harikatha on that great master. The upcoming posts will have details that I have gathered from my guru, other musicians and Internet. I request the readers to post their suggestions and corrections (if any).]