The story of a song
SRIRAM VENKATKRISHNAN
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The Kapaliswarar temple utsavam inspired Papanasam Sivan to compose ‘Kaana Kann Kodi’, a song Madurai Mani Iyer took to greater heights.
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Papanasam Sivan and Madurai Mani Iyer had several opportunities to adore Kapaliswara, the former through his bhajan sessions and the latter through his concerts.
PHOTO: M. KARUNAKARAN
DIVINE MUSIC: Sri Kapaliswarar temple.
The Kapaliswarar temple utsavam has just concluded and as always, the 10-day festival was celebrated with fanfare. Among the various days, the third is special when early in the morning, Kapaliswara is brought out in procession on the Adhikara Nandi mount. The giant silver Nandi is in a kneeling posture and carries the Lord on his shoulders.
While Ganesa leads the procession, Karpagambal and Subrahmanya with his two consorts, follow the Lord and Chandikeswara brings up the rear.
The setting is musical, for Nandi is the gana who plays the maddalam for Siva’s dance. Karpagambal is borne aloft on this day by a veena playing Gandharvi while a Gandharva, also strumming a veena, carries Subrahmanya and his consorts. Kapaliswara on Adhikara Nandi is carried aloft by bearers who sway from side to side as they move, thereby giving the impression that the Lord is dancing through the streets.
As on all days of the festival, nagaswaram and tavil ensembles lead the procession, stopping at various places to perform for the Lord and those among the attending crowds who are musically inclined.
Golden age
In the early part of the 20th century, said to be the golden age of the nagaswaram, several greats have performed for this procession. It was this event that inspired Papanasam Sivan to compose his ‘Kaana Kann Kodi Vendum’ (raga Khambodi).
When we consider the antiquity of the eighth day procession which was celebrated even during Sambandar’s time with Siva giving darshan to his 18 ganas and later was modified as the Arupathu Moovar festival, the Adhikara Nandi seva at the temple is not all that old.
A banner put up a couple of years ago during the festival stated that this particular procession was initiated by Tandarai Vaidyar, a popular native physician of the area in the 1920s.
PAPANASAM SIVAM
It must have therefore just about begun when Papanasam Sivan, at the invitation of A.K. Ramachandra Iyer, the firebrand owner of Midland Theatre and long-time resident of North Mada Street, came to Madras for the first time in 1922 to participate in the ten-day festival. Ramachandra Iyer was initially put off by Sivan’s emaciated physical form, but he soon reversed his opinion on hearing the divine music.
At the end of the festival, Sivan, who had been coldly received for not measuring up to Iyer’s mental image of a composer, was honoured with what almost amounted to a civic farewell. Prominent men of Madras spoke in his praise and Ramachandra Iyer gifted him Rs. 500.
From then on, the temple of Mylapore exerted a powerful pull on Sivan and by the early 1930s, he had moved permanently to the city. He composed several songs on the deities enshrined in the Kapaliswarar temple and ‘Kaana Kann Kodi’ is among the finest. In the word picture that it creates of the procession, it is unsurpassed.
Another star performer
And who could take the song to its greatest heights of popularity than Madurai Mani Iyer? Like Sivan, Mani Iyer too was a relatively late entrant to Madras. His first performance in the city was at the All India Music Conference of 1927. But true recognition came two years later at North Mada Street, when he was invited to perform at the sacred thread ceremony of K. Vaitheeswaran, the son of the well-known lawyer K.V. Krishnaswami Iyer, who lived at ‘Swaminatha Vilas’, a handsome town house overlooking the temple tank. The street was cordoned off for Mani Iyer’s performance and the vast crowds that heard him realised that a star was in their midst.
Popularity in the city made Mani Iyer move to Mylapore and he learnt several songs from Papanasam Sivan himself. One among these was ‘Kaana Kann Kodi’. The niraval that he did for the line ‘Maanikkam Vairam’ and the swaras that followed for it are unmatched.
Accompanists were inspired to great heights and if the mridangam player was Palghat Mani Iyer, what more could be asked for? The mridangam too sang along, almost reminding listeners about the fact that Nandi, the divine percussionist, is an important factor in the song and the imagery that it creates.
Today, Sivan and Madurai Mani Iyer have gone, but during their lifetime, they had several opportunities to adore Kapaliswara, the former through his devout bhajan sessions in the month of Margazhi and the latter through numerous concerts at the temple and surrounding sabhas. The idol of Kapali that they worshipped together in song is the same one that is brought out in procession to this day. Devotees have remarked about the benign smile on the face of Kapali. Is it because He is eternally in bliss after listening to Sivan’s song sung by Mani Iyer?
The author can be contacted at srirambts@gmail.com
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