`I live in my father's music'
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
|
Narasimhan takes pride in having made Narayana Iyengar's closely guarded secrets of technique open to others.
|
PHOTO: M. KARUNAKARAN
LINEAGE: Narayana Iyengar
Maihar, 1964. Waiting for the maestro in his house the young man runs to help him out of his rickshaw and carry his vegetable basket. "Why do I need help?" asks the irascible veteran. "You are old," the young man replies. "Old? ME? Certainly not," says the senior and sits down to hear the young instrumentalist. Then he snatches a piece of paper to write, "I was delighted by Sri Narasimhan's excellent gottuvadyam. I am giving him this certificate."
The listener was the legendary Allauddin Khan, guru to Pt. Ravi Shankar, Annapurna Devi and Ali Akbar Khan. The ink has faded, the paper browned, but for N.Narasimhan who played on that day, it remains a green memory.
But Narasimhan prefers to talk about his father Gottuvadyam Narayana Iyengar, a court musician in Trivandrum and Mysore. "His music was acclaimed by kings, connoisseurs, and commoners. It touched hearts." He prefixed the first letter of his munificent patron Krishnarajendra Wodeyar to his name and became K.S. Narayana Iyengar. Losing him at age 16 was an irrecoverable blow. "I'd just heard his AIR concert when a call came to say he collapsed in the studio." The shattered Narasimhan was to find support in the music fraternity. "Everyone gave me affection and encouragement for his sake." Redoubtable vocalists of different schools like G.N.Balasubramanian, Musiri Subramania Iyer and T.Brinda were happy to teach him. Flute Mali and S.Balachander became his friends.
Though he felt rudderless without paternal guidance, the father's training had imparted early skills on both voice and strings. Narasimhan's clearest memory of his fifth birthday is the beating from his mother to get him to take a noon nap in order to be fresh for his evening recital. Tamil songs "Enna Vendum" and "Enakkun Irupadam" were part of that debut he made with his father's gottuvadyam.
Musicians like Rallepalli Anantakrishna Sarma, Tiger Varadachariar, Venkatagiriappa, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer and Chittoor Subramania Pillai visited Iyengar and found him playing quietly through the day. They listened and left, mostly without verbal exchange. Once Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar learnt Narasi Mehta's "Vaishnava Janato" from him! Iyengar hardly spoke even to his children. All information was conveyed through the mother. Sometimes he would hand out a song with notation. It had to be practised by the sons.
Narasimhan's grandfather was an engineer who knew some violin playing. Finding a gottuvadyam in his vocal music teacher's house in Trivandrum, father Narayanan decided to make it his own. The only serious exponent of the instrument being Sakharama Rao, the boy was dispatched to Tiruvidaimarudur to take lessons. (Decades later, Narayana Iyengar's grandson Ravikiran was to inherit Sakharama Rao's gottuvadyam and plectrum from another disciple of the master - Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer).
Extensive performance
Iyengar performed extensively in many Indian cities and kingdoms (Baroda, Rewa, Vizianagaram, Jaipur, Chatrapur), besides Ceylon, Burma and Rangoon.
N. Narasimhan
"Our lifestyle alternated between that of emperor and pauper. Father was well paid, but didn't save anything. He accepted engagements only when money ran out. But he radiated peace."
Marriage brought the young man from Delhi to Mysore, so that his wife could complete her college studies. His music enabled him to live in comfort and dignity.
The day his two-year-old first born Ravikiran lisped "Bhairavi" while Mali played "Viriboni" on the radio, changed Narasimhan's life. "We have myths of Prahlada and Abhimanyu being influenced within the womb. With an early start and methods like playful games, I knew music could be taught to any child." Here was a chance to put theory into practice. The rest is well-recorded music history. At age three, Ravikiran could identify 325 janaka-janya ragas and 175 talas. At age five he gave full-length concerts with leading accompanists. An astrological magazine declared that he was Narayana Iyengar reborn. It had nothing to say when son Shashikiran, daughter Kiranavali and nephew Ganesh were also monitored to become similar prodigies, now performing musicians.
Narasimhan accepted a government fellowship to study gottuvadyam with Budalur Krishnamurti Sastrigal, in order to shift to Madras (1970) for Ravikiran's sake. It was tightrope walking all the way to ensure that the child got adequate exposure without being over exploited. The father's success is seen in the son's growth as a vidwan and guru of stature.
Ravikiran.
"I stopped performing in 1966 to concentrate on the children." He smiles reflectively. "I guess I was sandwiched between Narayana Iyengar and Ravikiran. There was a whole generation of musicians who found themselves similarly eclipsed." Reticent as he is about personal history, Narasimhan is eloquent about the gottuvadyam. "Getting good music out of this fretless instrument is a Herculean task. In fact there is a joke about the deities of apaswaras (discordant notes) wanting their own space. The gottuvadyam was allotted to them."Why did he change its name to chitraveena? "Because this is an older form of the veena approximating to the chitravipanchi mentioned in the old texts. This name represents that ancient tradition."
He takes pride in having made his father's closely guarded secrets of technique available to others. He enjoys teaching and is happy to see tremendous improvement in present day music. "The future will be brighter." Any unforgettable experience? "Losing my father... . You can never hear such sunada again. I live in its vibrations... "
(A fortnightly spotlight on music gurus, musicologists and representatives of different schools, who have enriched Carnatic music.)
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
