Repository of grand music enriched by scholarship
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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Suguna Purushothaman is recipient of the Music Academy's Vaggeyakkara Award this year.
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``The joy we feel when a student sings well is something unique."
Photo: K. V. Srinivasan
DEVOTED TEACHER: Suguna Purushothaman.
The grandmother taught her grandchild a part of the varnam, told her to write it on her slate and learn it by heart while she took a nap. The girl learnt her lines in no time and shook grandma awake for more.
There were no professional musicians in Suguna Purushothaman's family. Grandfather Venkata Dikshitar was a regular at Dhanammal's Friday concerts. Her grandmother and mother played harmonium and violin.
Formal lessons
Suguna's formal vocal lessons began with Mannargudi Ramamurti Iyer, and veena with Lalitabai. J. Lalita trained her for technical examinations in theory. This interest was to be fanned later by Professor Sambamoorthy so that, today Suguna Purushothaman's lakshya is matched by her lakshana wealth.
With Musiri Subrahmanya Iyer, the epitome of bhava sangeeetam, for guru, how did she become an expert in the dwitala avadhana, or singing two different talams on two hands? ``I was 21, eager to try out challenges. Tinniyam Venkatrama Iyer told me, don't try this, it's not for you. However, I practised relentlessly at home — Adi in Mishra gati and Ata in chatusra gati, and showed him what I had achieved. He was so happy. He trained me properly."
Suguna demonstrated dwitala avadhanam in a concert attended by leading musicians and won their applause. Musiri was absent, so was Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, whose classes she attended. They were not into virtuoso feats. ``Very soon I too realised that all this is fun, but has nothing to do with music that melts the soul. In fact one of the compliments I cherish most came from an old timer who said even when you sang with two talams on two hands, I knew you were singing Khambodi."
Suguna delights in talking about the two masters who were intimate friends. ``When Semmangudi toured, he sent his disciples to Musiri's class. Musiri sent his students to him for widening their perspective. Their teaching differed as did their styles.
``No notebooks or notation writing in Musiri's class. He would teach a whole song in one session and then keep polishing each phrase for months. He had many students at different levels and taught each according to each one's capacity. Never shouted. Didn't have to. One look was enough to make us cringe. But if we sang he would come out with a delighted `Bale!' ``Sometimes, he would sit on a chair to teach. Suddenly a sangati would grab him. He'd jump to the floor and sing with new energy.
``Musiri taught each student a different way of singing neraval. He would sing kalpanaswaras too for each student, to repeat, or use for individual take offs. He focused on short, half avartana swaras in rare ragas like Kokilavarali.
``Semmangudi taught half a song only per class. Once we knew the song, he would make us notate it perfectly. His perfection was obvious in every aspect of music. Neither master taught raga alapana. It had to come from within."
The patanthara Suguna imbibed from them remains an imposing, resplendent treasure. To this she added scholarship and is a much sought after expert in sabhas and universities. She can demonstrate every theoretical point with precision. Both Semmangudi and Musiri had no interest in Suguna's tala skills. When she went to Banares to demonstrate the sarabhanandana tala, Musiri's advice was merely that she should maintain sruti fidelity. ``Once I was introduced to Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar as someone who could sing intricate pallavis. The master said, `I will bless her to sing with svaanubhavam.'"
Her `Yes' to a late marriage came after the mother-in-law promised that Suguna could continue her music. Nagpur-based husband Purushothaman assured her that he would get transferred to Madras.
Letters from Musiri and radio recitals in hometown took her through three years in Maharashtra. Musiri advised her to practise a lot. ``You won't get this luxury of time again," he wrote. Suguna adds that he had been her mentor in life as well, and showered her with affection.
Suguna began to teach very early in life. She also taught at the Government music college for a spell, and remains its honorary professor. ``The joy we feel when a student sings well is something unique," she explains. I have intelligent students like Gayathri, Sharanya and Kaushik, though there are too many claims on them today apart from music.
Does she regret that she herself did not perform more? ``At a certain stage in my life I did. Now I'm happy that I learnt grand music and maintained the class and dignity of this art. I teach those values to my students."
Suguna gets the Music Academy's Vaggeyakara Award this year. What did her guru think of her compositions? Her eyes crinkle in hearty laughter as she recalls the one occasion when she sang her own composition to Musiri. ``Idhellam vendam" (stop all this), he told her. Semmangudi echoed him saying, ``We must not do what the mahaans did." But Tinniyam Venkatrama Iyer and Thanjavur Sankara Iyer encouraged her.
Suguna had been composing songs from childhood, though she never sang them in her own concerts until recently. Some were spontaneous, others, like her pancha-Kalyani and multi-Bhairavi pieces were born of deliberation.
``I think I must have a split personality! I can't obey my gurus and stop composing!" she sighs. Then she flashes back, ``I think I'm fit to receive the Vaggeyakara award."
Suguna's daughters have not taken up music seriously. Kumuda opted for business management and Malini is about to become a renunciate. Malini sings during puja. ``I think, that of all the persons I know, she has realised the true purpose of music," Suguna says.
(A fortnightly spotlight on music gurus, musicologists and representatives of different schools, who have enriched Carnatic music.)
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