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Photo: K.V.Srinivasan

Self-effacing: Saidai Natarajan teaching Thevaram.

“My student, 13 year old Kartik Gnaneshwar, has sung the Thevaram verses in many places in Tamil Nadu. Do you know that my student Girija Ramaswamy began studying Harikathakalakshepam from me when she was only five? Three of my students have got the Kalaimamani award...” he continues to talk about his students. In fact he likes talking more about his students’ achievements than about his own. That self-effacing quality is what defines 83-year-old Saidai Natarajan, recipient of the Isai Perarignar award from the Tamizh Isai Sangam this year.

Natarajan’s family lived in Kadirgamam, a village near Pondicherry. His family was poor, and his father Dhanushkoti Mudaliar moved to Madras in search of greener pastures. They settled near the Karaneeswarar temple in Saidapet. Natarajan was nine years old then. He dropped out of school soon after.

Was poverty the reason? “Poverty was not the only reason. I was not interested in formal education, because by then I had discovered the beauty of the Thevaram and I wanted to learn as many Thevaram verses as I could.” During his visits to the Karaneeswarar temple he heard Sundara Oduvar sing the Thevaram. Natarajan learnt more than a thousand verses from him. Simultaneously he learnt music from Munuswamy Pandithar, the nagaswara vidwan at the temple, and later from Vinayaka Mudaliar.

His love for Tamil literature brought him in contact with Maraimalai Adigal, with whom he was associated for more than 15 years. Adigal stipulated in his will that Natarajan should perform the pujas in the Nataraja temple that Adigal had built.

Based on his research into the Tevara panns, he has presented papers at the Tamil Isai Sangam. He has set the Sivapuranam, which is a part of the Tiruvachagam, to tune, and Vanathi Publications has published the book under the title “Tiruvachaga Innisai Thaen.” He has written “Tirugnanasambandar Charitram” in the villupaattu format.

He never loses his temper, even with children at their annoying best, his students Revathy Krishnamurthy and Vasantha Rammohan say. That is probably why children like learning from him.

“Maybe the constant singing of the Thevaram is responsible for my equanimity,” Natarajan observes. He has also written short stories for magazines. The importance of gratitude and a sense of duty, the need for humility – these are the common threads that run through his stories. He has received many titles – Tiruneri Tamizh Isai Selvar, Isai kalai selvar, Kalaimamani and Vaariyar award. His attempts at popularising the Tevaram have taken him all over Tamil Nadu and to Ceylon too.

Once during a visit to Erikathanpuliyur near Vriddachalam, a woman at the temple there, asked him to sing “Maadar mada pidiyum.”

“Not many know the significance of this verse. Although everyone sings it in Atana these days, Gnanasambandar is believed to have sung it in a different ragam. The ragam could not be played on the yaazh by Tiruneelakanta yaazhpaana nayanar, a titan among yaazh players. The latter, as a tribute to Gnanasambandar, broke his yaazh in two and the pann in which Gnanasambandar sang the verse came to be known as yaazh muri.”

“When I’d sung the verse, I turned round to find the woman gone. No one in the village seemed to know her. I have the firm feeling that it was the Goddess Parasakthi Herself who appeared before me and asked for the verse,” Natarajan says.

He sees teaching the Thevaram as his way of reaching God. He wants more youngsters to take up Thevaram and Divyaprabandham singing, and is willing to teach them. He can be contacted at 9840160020.

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