Different schools, own style
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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Singing and learning were more important for Nirmala Sundararajan, Muktamma's vocal accompanist for 20 years.
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Photo: R. Shivaji Rao.
HER CONCENTRATION WAS MORE ON LEARNING: Nirmala Sundararajan.
The car drew up in front of the house. Little Nirmala ran to the door. Father had brought home a special guest, so huge that he had to remove the car door for her comfort. The lady saw the Ramanavami puja in the house, took the child on her lap, and sang with fervour. That was Bangalore Nagaratnammal, a regular visitor to her home in Thanjavur, as were the vidwans from Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer to Musiri Subramania Iyer.
Father Kuppuswami Iyengar was a hospitable music lover. Youngest of eleven, Nirmala grew up listening to elder siblings learning music from M.S.Soundarammal, disciple of Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar.
Nirmala's own lessons began in Tiruchi and continued in Madras as Soundaram Mami arrived with her small `trunku petti,' wherever the railway officer father was posted. The weekend lessons continued through four sessions each day. "I was fed up, didn't realise how lucky I was to have such a fine and caring teacher," Nirmala recalls.
Mami took full credit for Nirmala's talent. "As an infant you were on my lap when I taught your sisters," she laughed. Mami taught some 80 varnams, including a rare "Sarasakshi" (Ponniah Pillai/ Chapu), and Patnam Subramania Iyer's Ata tala compositions (Sahana, Chakravakam). "Don't sing varnam mechanically," said the guru. "Beautify every phrase."
Distaste for notation
Nirmala wonders whether it was this training in minute gamaka prayogas that gave her a distaste for notation. Her teacher's small notebook contained only the lyrics. Her students followed suit. The music had to be inscribed directly on the mind.
Marriage to Sundararajan took Nirmala first to Neyveli and later to Calcutta, but not without frequent Madras trips to continue lessons with Ramnad Krishnan. Listening to accounts of this learning process is to enter another world where the training was intense and professional, but quite without thought of a professional career. Her husband encouraged her music madness by opting for a Madras transfer. He would often accompany her to Krishnan's house, for chats with the guru over dosai-sambar breaks before kritis were resumed. "We were expected to learn alapana on our own. Niraval and swaraprastaras were likewise to be picked up as you sang with the guru."
Nirmala longed to learn from T .Brinda. But her sister Mukta was more approachable. "I'd try to slink past Brindamma who lived downstairs. But as I tiptoed down the stairs she would catch me to announce, "All right." Or she'd say "So, she taught you like this. But this is how it goes, and show the difference."
Muktamma as a teacher? "Made you repeat until you got every sangati right. Then she'd say, "Adu," the signal for going ahead! Nirmala learnt over some 100 padams and javalis besides kritis of the Trinity and Tamil songs. She remained Muktamma's vocal accompanist for 20 years.
"It won't be true to say I didn't want to become a big kutcheri performer. But it just didn't happen, though I did present even four-hour concerts in Kerala and Bombay. I think I didn't know how to do it, though I knew every musician and sabha secretary. Somehow, performance didn't seem as important as singing and learning."
Her home on Harrington Road attracted musicians like Semmangudi and K.V.Narayanaswami, who came for Navaratri or Rama Navami puja, stayed for lunch and sang as much as they liked. Fastidious T.Balasaraswati had overwhelmed Nirmala by appreciating her padam ("Poosadaramu''). She often dropped in unexpectedly, sat in the garden cottage, and sang padams like "Yarukagilum" or "Krishna Ni Begane" as the mood moved her. She would launch into abhinaya sometimes, suggested by a beautiful chariot or goddess crafted exquisitely by Nirmala's grandmother. M.S.Subbulakshmi said with affection, "Come home, let's sing together." Among cherished moments are appreciation from T.N.Krishnan and K.V.Narayanaswami.
With only child Subhashini (Parthasarathi) as her only long-term disciple, and later singing partner, Nirmala began to learn from the daughter's gurus as well — whether P.N.Raghava Rao or T.M.Thiagarajan, "from whom I learnt notation at last!" Few sought to learn seriously from her. Fewer recognised the value of the rare pieces she treasures, though vidwans D.K. Jayaraman and T.R.Subramaniam once learnt such pieces. At the latter's insistence, Nirmala even completed her Ph.D. in music, some years after her daughter obtained her doctorate!
"Amma's originality is something!" Subhashini exclaims. "Everytime she brings new nuances to each sangati. She has developed her own style from the different banis she absorbed from Soundarammal, Ramnad Krishnan, Muktamma and T.M.Thiagarajan."
Now settled in Kanchipuram, "at the doorstep of Varadarajaperumal Kovil," Nirmala enjoys daily darisanam of the Lord. She has conducted courses and special workshops abroad on Divya Prabandam and Annamacharya. Daughter Subhashini wants to start a school in Chennai for Nirmala. Meanwhile, "My husband tells me I have a responsibility to pass on what I know. Record it all as you practise, he says."
(A fortnightly spotlight on music gurus, musicologists and representatives of different schools, who have enriched Carnatic music.)
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