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Who after Higgins Bhagavatar?

HIGGINS HIGHLIGHTS: (Clockwise from top left): At the Krishna Gana Sabha. Justice K.S. Venkataraman was the chief guest on the occasion. The accompanists were V. Thyagarajan, T. Ranganathan and V. Nagarajan; at the USIS; and a concert in Coimbatore (with TIruchi Sankaran on the mridangam). It was V. Thyagarajan who played the violin on most of the occasions.

How did an American, born in Andover, Massachusetts, and raised in Connecticut, overcome language barriers and acquire a deep knowledge of the raga, swara and tala patterns of the highly evolved Carnatic music system? One explanation can perhaps be that he enjoyed in full measure the blessings of the preceptor (Guru Gataksham).

When after an initial introduction to Carnatic music by the mridangam vidwan, T. Ranganathan at the Wesleyan University, Connecticut, Jon Borthwick Higgins (September 18, 1939-December 7, 1984) came to India in the early 1960s as a Fulbright scholar to learn music from T. Viswanathan, a whole new world of art opened up before the American.

What was the intensity of the interaction between guru Viswanathan and sishya Higgins could be only guessed from the high-level of the performance by the disciple even in the very first formal programme in the summer of 1964 at the mini USIS auditorium at Anna Salai. When the select invitees at the special programme heard Higgins handle raga Chakravakam and the Tyagaraja kriti, “Etula Brovu,” they instinctively knew that a new Carnatic music star was born.

Higgins was welcomed with affection at the Thyagaraja Aradhana at Tiruvaiyaru. City sabhas arranged full-scale concerts for him and Higgins endeared himself to the listeners with the warmth and genuineness in his singing. As a sincere recognition of his talent he came to be known as Higgins Bhagavatar.

Higgins could render a soulful Varali as a preface to Papanasam Sivan’s “Kaa Vaa Vaa, Kandha Vaa Vaa.” With a few elegant phrases he could carve out a chaste Bhairavi before singing “Thanayuni Brova.” Higgins executed with ease the intricate tongue-twister chittaswaram to the Rudrapriya kriti, “Amba Paradevate” and the Jagan Mohini kriti, “Shobillu Spataswara.” In the raga alapanas in the lower octaves Higgins could give a touch of a tenor voice without in any way compromising the sanctity and purity of the Carnatic music.

Any description of the singing by Higgins will be incomplete without a mention of the manner in which he brought out the divinity of the Pancharatna kriti, “Endharo Mahanubavulu.” His repertoire included the majestic Dikshitar Anand Bhairavi kriti, “Tyagaraja Yoga Vaibhavam” and the Dwijavanti kriti, “Akhilandeswari.”

Older generation of listeners used to remain glued to the radio whenever All India Radio relayed programmes of Higgins’s music. His concerts to the accompaniment of V. Thyagarajan (violin), T. Ranganathan (mridangam) and V. Nagarajan (ganjira) were eagerly looked forward to by the audience.

The 1973 post-doctoral thesis by Higgins at the Wesleyan University, Connecticut, was a two-volume dissertation on the music of Bharathanatyam that reflected the inspiration and guidance of Balasaraswati.

Parallel to his performing career, Higgins was fulfilling an academic calling also. Along with Tiruchi Sankaran (mridangam vidwan), he founded the India Music Studies Programme at the York University, Toronto, and was the Professor of Music and Associate Dean of Fine Art between 1971-78.

Higgins then became the Director of the Centre for the Arts and Professor of Music, Wesleyan University.

In these two University positions, Higgins laid the foundation for Carnatic musicians to teach and perform in the Department of South Asian Studies in the U.S. and to foster a new generation of music students.

In December 1984, Higgins was most enthusiastically preparing for a tour of South Africa, sponsored by the Indian Academy of South Africa, Durban. Guru Viswanathan describes with great feeling in the memorial essay published in the Feb-March, 1985, issue of Sruti how Higgins was keen on learning new Tamil songs to be rendered before the Tamil and African audiences.

It is tragic that such a promising life should have been cut short when a drunken motorist fatally struck down Higgins on the evening of December 7, 1984, in his home town when he was walking his dog near his house.

But Higgins would not have felt any pain at the moment of impact for he had reached a state of bliss long before the accident through an intense and meditative nadopasana with the realisation that whatever the end, it was only a transient stage in the temporary life cycle before the final and permanent destination was reached.

Asia Music Issue, Vol. 16, No.2 (Spring-Summer, 1985), published by the University of Texas Press – In Memory of Jon Borthwick Higgins – pays the following poignant tribute to Higgins Bhagavatar:

“In the tragically brief period of his professional life, Jon Higgins set high standards to emulate and accomplished much as a musician, scholar, teacher and administrator. We will sorely miss his efforts in all of these areas, and we will always remember the versatility, skill, richness and beauty of his song.”

It is always very testing emotionally to say farewell to a departed soul and more so to say “Adieu, dear Higgins, Salutations to thee.” But there is the devout and fervent hope that a new voice will emerge from the music schools in Canada and the United States to brighten the Carnatic music scene in the best tradition of Higgins Bhagavatar.

(The writer is a music and art critic based in Washington.)

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