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Photo: Murali Kumar K.

MUSIC’S HIGH Rajaram often had discussions with his grandfather on mind-mastery

When I visit Rajaram’s home, I listen to him reminiscence about Vasudevacharya, while the great vaggeyakara looks down at us from an imposing black-and-white photograph in a stark, grey frame on the facing wall. Rajaram, who himself learnt vocal music, mridangam and jalatharangam, frequently breaks into song. It’s a spontaneous and melodious rendering of many of his grandfather’s lyrics, which he was fortunate to learn directly from him.

Rajaram tells us Vasudevacharya was a great admirer of Thyagaraja. With Patnam Subramanya Iyer for guru, Vasudevacharya belonged to Thyagaraja’s direct shishya-parampara. He would frequently eulogise Thyagaraja, acknowledge his influence, and say his own prowess as singer-composer was “Thygaraja’s bhiksha” (grace).

His admiration even found expression in two laudatory lyrics on Thyagaraja —“Shreeramachandra”, a ragamalika in Shankarabharanam, Bhairavi, Simhendramadhyamam, Khamas, Mohana and Madhyamavathi; and second, a krithi “Sreemadadi” (Kalyani).

A talented vocalist, Vasudevacharya was especially famed for his madhyamakaala thanam learnt from Patnam. Vasudevacharya held strong beliefs about concert-singing. He said a musician must possess complete knowledge of a lyric’s meaning and total clarity of pronunciation. For Vasudevacharya, music was synonymous with spirituality. Once Rajaram was discussing the Thyagaraja krithi “Manasunilpa sakthilekapothe” with him where it is said mind-mastery is vital and no rituals and mantra-chanting can help if the mind isn’t controlled. Rajaram asked if mind-mastery was really possible. Vasudevacharya replied: “When one is completely immersed in music, singing with the perfectly-tuned tambura in the background, and then reaching upper shadjamam and therein attains a perfect unison with the sruti, then, for a fraction of a second, the mind becomes blank. That is a sublime moment. And if one can sustain that and extend it for a few more seconds, one becomes a siddha.” Rajaram often asked: “Did you experience those mind-stilling moments?” But Vasudevacharya would only smile enigmatically in reply.

Vasudevacharya also strongly disapproved of commercialisation of music. When asked by organisers to fix a fee, he would remark bewildered: “How can I quote a sum? How can anyone put a price on music?” He conceded that musicians too have to make a living, but instead of focusing on upping their remuneration they should regard every kutcheri as an opportunity to sing God’s glory.

Like vaggeyakaras of old, when composing, Vasudevacharya would sing the sahitya (words) with the tune, extempore, and it was left to his disciples to quickly jot down those words and notate them too. Students like Chennakeshavaiah, B.K. Padmanabha Rao and Veena Sivaramaiah notated many lyrics. Rajaram too had this opportunity during the years spent with his grandfather at Kalakshetra, where Vasudevacharya had been invited by Rukminidevi Arundale to compose music for Valmiki’s Ramayana.

Speaking of this task, the master-composer would remark to Rajaram that there was a great difference between composing krithis/keerthanas, and setting music to an already-composed poem like Valmiki’s epic. The former is always easier, Vasudevacharya would say, explaining: “When composing a krithi/keerthana/varnam, the dhaatu (tune) and maathu (words) come together to the composer. It happens easily and spontaneously. But when asked to set tunes for a poem written by someone else, you first have to spend time and effort to understand the poet, kavihrudayam (poet’s mindset), circumstances in which he wrote, situation being described, and the character’s nature.” After much contemplation on these aspects, Vasudevacharya would come up with a suitable tune and then discover which raga that was, in which the tune had occurred to him. Rajaram would then record the tune’s notation and raga-name.

All of Vasudevacharya’s lyrics were composed in Telugu and Sanskrit. When Rajaram asked him why, Vasudevacharya replied: “Telugu, with its natural mellifluousness is the perfect medium for music. Moreover, my entire music-training has been in Telugu and Sanskrit.” The same answer was given to the same query posed by Krishnaraja Wodeyar who, however, insisted Vasudevacharya do something about it. So, to please the royal, Vasudevacharya composed what remains the only Kannada lyric of his output, “Karunisau thaaye” (Saraswatimanohari).

Though Vasudevacharya’s lyrics were widely celebrated for their perfect harmony of melody and bhaava (meaning), some critics said his music was too simple and lacking in an impressive technical complexity. Stung by this criticism, Vasudevacharya composed three lyrics with a profusion of difficult sangathis — “Marimarivachchuna” (Kambhoji); “Rararajeevalochana” (Mohana), and “Harinibhajinche” (Shankarabharanam).

In their total emphasis on bhakthirasa, Vasudevacharya’s works were in keeping with Carnatic music tradition. Even in his few javalis and varnas he used human love as an allegory for the jeevatma’s longing for union with paramatma or God.

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