The early songbird
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Jayavanthi Devi Hirebet could perhaps have been a bigger name in Sugama Sangeeta if marriage hadn't taken her away to Pune just when she was gaining recognition as a singer. But the pioneer of the tradition is not bitter about it
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TRENDSETTER Jayavanthi Devi Hirebet was among those who laid the foundation for the tradition of singing Kannada lyrics
Jayavanthi Devi Hirebet composed the K.S. Narasimhaswamy poem "Hattu Varushada Hinde, Mattura Santeyali, Attitta Sulidavaru Neevallave?" in 1948. More than half a century later, this song, sung to the accompaniment of just two instruments, still retains a freshness.
What's the secret behind such inspired singing, you ask the 78-year-old Jayavanthi, and she bursts into a very young laughter. "I was just married when I set it to music. May be all that happiness seeped into the song!" The poem has a young woman asking her spouse: Aren't you the same boy who hovered around me 10 years ago in that village shandy?
Jayavanthi no longer sings and lives in Pune, far away from the hub of Kannada Sugama Sangeeta. But there's no denying that it was singers such as Jayavanthi who laid the foundation for the tradition of singing Kannada lyrics.
Art all around
Jayavanthi's choice of singing Kannada songs may have had something to do with the spirit of the times — when the movement for unification of Karnataka was gaining ground. Besides scores of Dasa compositions, she also sang and popularised Bhavageetes such as "Yako Kane Rudraveene" and "Vari Notavadatitta". But her initiation into some form of the art was, perhaps, inevitable given the atmosphere at home. Jayavanthi was born in 1927 in Mangalore. Her father Padukone Ramananda Rao was a writer. Grandfather Narasinga Rao was a sculptor. Mother Seeta Devi and grandmother sang bhajans. The well-known director and actor Gurudutt was a close relative. Her two sisters — Chandrabhaga Devi (who went on to become very famous) and Yashodhara — were dancers.
Young Jayavanthi was drawn to music and her mother taught her many bhajans. Greats of the Kannada literary traditions such as Da.Ra. Bendre and V. Seetaramiah were her father's friends and often visited their house. It was, in fact, Bendre who advised her to sing more Kannada songs. "He even composed and taught me two of his own poems once," recalls Jayavanthi. "He wanted me to sing `Naanu Badavi Aatha Badava' with Bhimsen Joshi. But that never happened."
Music became an all consuming passion after Jayavanthi's father was transferred to Madras and she, who had studied in a Kannada medium school so far, had to stop her studies at standard eight. Famous singer and director V. Nagiah happened to be the family's neighbour and was very impressed with the singing of the young girl. He introduced her to the recording company HMV and All India Radio. She sang two songs for a gramophone record: "Bhagyada Lakshmi" and "Hoova Tharuvavara Manege". She sang a ghazal for the film Thyagiah, directed by Nagiah himself and two songs for the Hindi film Kalpana made by famous dancer Uday Shankar. Just as she was beginning to shine as a singer, what inevitable happened to most women of her generation happened to Jayavanthi too: she got married. That meant shifting base to Pune and an abrupt end to her singing career. "My husband and in-laws did encourage me. I used to sing in Kannada sammelanas and in Kannada associations in Pune and Bombay," says Jayavanthi. For Bombay AIR, she also sang some Hindi, Marathi and Konkani songs. She admits, though, that there were limits to how much she could achieve in Pune, considering her special inclination to sing Kannada songs.
"Those were days when communication was not what it is today. May be I could have done better if I wasn't so far away." But this she says without a trace of bitterness. "Though I was so faraway, people of Karnataka remembered me and gave me an award!" The first Santa Shishunala Sharief Award, given for lifetime contribution to the field of Sugama Sangeeta, was conferred on her in 1997. That young laughter returns as she adds: "Now you want to write about me. That's like trying to bring shine to a rusted metal!"
BAGESHREE S.
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