Vidwat wide and deep
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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From Ariyakkudi's racy style to Dikshitar's solemn gait, Rajam Iyer mastered it all.
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PHOTO: S.S.KUMAR
METICULOUS TEACHER: B. Rajam Iyer.
The uncle unfailingly brought his little nephew from Karaikkudi for Ramanavami bhajanai or Devi puja at home in nearby Baganeri village. Noting the child's fascination for Vidwan Avudayarkoil Harihara Bhagavatar's music-drenched harikatha, the uncle arranged for young Rajam to be tutored in sarali-janta basics from the local Oduvar.
Rajam's purohit grandfather, well-versed in sastra and astrology, found the child's star chart indicating a future in music. He forthwith entrusted the stripling to Jalatarangam Ganapati Iyer in Kunnakkudi. The veteran had just begun to rue having taken up so limited an instrument. He decided to create gamaka-ripe music with the gottuvadyam. Teaching himself to play that difficult instrument was a Herculean task. Little Rajam was lucky to listen to the master's relentless practice.
Affection and responsibility made Iyer a martinet. Rajam had to repeat in swaras every phrase he played. Mistakes were punished with a `kuttu'. He had Rajam recite the mantras as adhyana bhattar during the daily rites at the local Murugan temple. "I'd shiver through the cold bath at dawn and start the sahasranamam. The reward? Piping hot pongal prasadam," laughs vidwan Rajam Iyer as he recalls the green phase. "How fortunate to have had three years of such intense training in swaragnanam and discipline!"
Misfortune was round the corner. Ganapati Iyer died of typhoid. The distraught grandfather sought friend Mazhavarayanendal Subbarama Bhagavatar's help. "Subbarama Anna was suffering from stomach disorders. Couldn't teach. He advised us to seek Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar."
Waiting on Iyengar's tinnai was to feel great trepidation. Wasn't he the uncrowned king of his realm? With folded hands the grandfather came straight to the point. "This boy is crazy about music. He's your child now." Ariyakkudi found Rajam's singing satisfactory, but his hectic tours prevented systematic teaching. Grandfather had an answer. "You are the ocean! Let him absorb a few droplets! Let him stay with you. He'll serve you well."
Ariyakkudi had little time for disciples. But to hear him teaching his favourite Dhanam was to absorb his mature music. Rajam's constant attendance, service and obedience won even Dhanammal's heart. Slowly, the boy found himself on the stage with the master, playing tambura. In 1938, at Swamimalai, Rajam was asked to sing along, from varnam to tukkada. Sheer bliss!
Ariyakkudi's hallmark
The hallmark of Ariyakkudi's style? "No waste at all — not even a simple swara or short phrase; methodical development, but with imagination — so that each day the presentation varied in expression; terrific kalapramana suddham; spellbinding sarvalaghu swaram." Did Ariyakkudi sacrifice depth for pace? Rajam Iyer sits up and flashes out, "Wrong! His music was rich, it reflected his temperament. He wanted to give maximum substance to the audience. Once, at a village wedding recital, he had jambhavans like Rajaratnam Pillai in thrall. The host sent word, `Don't stop. Never mind missing the night train.' Finishing at 4.30 a.m., Ariyakkudi found a car waiting to take him to Madurai in time for his concert that evening!"
Rajam's gurukulavasam was interrupted when he was whisked to Trivandrum, to tutor the Maharani's sister Bhavani Tamburatti. "Loved it. All the time in the world to swim in the river... " There was little chance for personal progress though. Lucky for Rajam that musician-musicologist Justice T.L.Venkatrama Iyer, then president of the R.R.Sabha, spotted his talent and offered him a teacher's post in the sabha. TLV added, "Come home and I'll teach you Dikshitar kritis. Don't miss a single day." Ariyakkudi was delighted.
TLV approached Dikshitar's grand compositions with a practical wisdom and rapt veneration. Hadn't he brought Ambi Dikshitar, the descendant of the composer, from remote Kovilpatti to Madras, to glean those treasures? Young Rajam was overwhelmed by their magnificence and authenticity. One day, when TLV began teaching the awesome "Parimala Ranganatham," the disciple said, "Today I'll just listen. I need time to absorb this."
But he did master 150 compositions in due course, fine-honed to draw appreciation from fellow musicians. His handling of the massive `Kasi Visvesvara' had Lalgudi Jayaraman exclaiming, "So much here that we don't know in Khambodi!" Maharajapuram Santhanam declared that `Jambhupate' (Yamunakalyani) had to be sung only by Rajam Iyer. Madurai Mani Iyer acquired the navavarna kritis from him. "He dropped the Ghanta kriti. Too complex, he said!" a smiling Rajam Iyer discloses. Mani Iyer also said, "You're blessed to have imbibed all this from TLV. But what you learnt before that is important."
How did Rajam Iyer make the leap from Ariyakkudi's madhyamakala school to Dikshitar's solemn gait? "TLV showed me an ocean vast and deep. Unimaginable raga bhava! I could not but plunge in. Dikshitar may not have popular appeal, but he thrills the cognoscente." Rajam Iyer is justly proud of his scrupulously notated texts of the "Selected Compositions of Sri Muttusvami Dikshitar" (2004) in Roman and Devanagari scripts. He shared this heritage with audiences in the U.K. and the U.S. through recitals and lec-dems. "I have performed enough to feel happy about having given my best. Sometimes I have been surprised by people's enjoyment of kritis slow-paced, intricate and demanding. I've learnt never to underestimate audiences."
For many years a professor at the Tamil Nadu Government Music College, and Principal of the Music Academy's Teachers' College, Rajam Iyer came to be known for his meticulous teaching of music, musicology and musical pedagogy.
But can he say that he has trained his students as well as his gurus trained theirs? "What can I do? What can I say? I had a good student in Detroit. He became a priest. Another in New York... joined an office. I need students who feel the depth of music. They don't come, they don't stay."
(A fortnightly spotlight on music gurus, musicologists and representatives of different schools, who have enriched Carnatic music.)
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