ENCORE
Composer with a rare talent
SRIRAM VENKATAKRISHNAN
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Personality Sesha Iyer was known for his skill in pallavi renditions and the word became a permanent prefix to his name.
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In 1970 and 1971 The Hindu, in its Sunday Magazine ran a series of articles on composers written by several leading Carnatic music luminaries. Among those who wrote were P. Sambamurthy, Dr S. Ramanathan, T. Vishw
anathan and T. Sankaran. There were responses too, from others such as Mudicondan Venkatarama Iyer and Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sarma, all of which were duly published. One of the articles dealt with ‘Pallavi’ Sesha Iyer, a composer whose death centenary falls this year.
The article was aptly written by P. Sambamurthy, for he came in the same lineage, his guru Manathattai Doraiswami Iyer having been a disciple of Pallavi Sesha Iyer. Sambamurthy had, via his guru, inherited the original handwritten manuscripts of Sesha Iyer and one of these was reproduced in The Hindu.
Music sessions
Sesha Iyer, according to Sambamurthy, was born in 1842 in Neykarapatti, a village situated near Salem. His father Neykarapatti Subbayyar had learnt music from Tyagaraja. Sesha Iyer and his younger brother Kothandarama Iyer were trained in Telugu and Carnatic music. The younger brother also specialised in konnakkol. Father and sons were invited to conduct bhajan sessions in Salem and soon acquired fame. Despite losing some of the lustre in his voice due to a mishap at the age of 22, Sesha Iyer was respected for his skill in pallavi renditions and the word became a permanent prefix to his name. He sang kalpana jatis in additions to kalpanaswarams, a rare talent of which perhaps he was the only practitioner.
Sesha Iyer was honoured by the Mysore Court. It is said that he found the task of gaining admission to the palace daunting. One day the ruler overheard him singing at the Chamundi temple and then matters became easy. In gratitude Sesha Iyer composed a tillana in Dhanyasi which clearly praises the ruler for his generosity.
Sesha Iyer was a close friend of Tiruvottiyur Tyagaiyar and performed regularly during the bhajan sessions at the latter’s residence at Ramaswami Street, George Town. This historic home is today a roofless shell and serves as the local rubbish dump! Sambamurthy writes in his article that Sesha Iyer once rendered the raga Dhanyasi for eight hours at this location. Curiously, in his preface to the Music Academy’s compilation of Sesha Iyer kritis published in 1969, Sambamurthy states the raga to be Saveri! Whatever be the truth, he was capable of soulful and imaginative renditions of raga no matter that the duration of his renditions had got exaggerated with time!
Sambamurthy, at the instance of Dr V. Raghavan, worked on the Music Academy’s compilation and this remains the largest single source of Sesha Iyer’s works. There are fifty-two songs inclusive of three chauka varnams (in Manirangu, Darbar and Surati) and two thillanas (in Dhanyasi and Kanada). All the pieces are in Telugu and while the bulk is in praise of Rama, other deities have also been sung upon. The composer appears to have travelled to Sringeri for his song ‘Vani Nannu Brova’ (Surutti) is on the presiding Goddess there and also mentions that She is worshipped by the reigning pontiff Nrsimha Bharati. Similarly there is a song on Lord Siva in Kalahasti (‘Ni Kanna Dikkevarura’ in Pushpalatika). One of his varnams is in praise of Lord Vishnu enshrined in a temple in Salem. In all his songs he has used the mudra of Sesha.
Clearly deeply influenced by the music of Tyagaraja, Sesha Iyer has taken several phrases from the former’s songs and incorporated them into his own. The opening lines of some of his kritis are either the same or slightly modified versions of several famous kritis of Tyagaraja. Thus there are songs like ‘Sripate’ (Shri), ‘Oka Mata’ (Gauri Manohari), ‘Endu Daginavo’ (Yadukula Khambodi) and ‘Mohana Rama’ (Dwijavanti).
Sesha Iyer appears to have also been fascinated by the first two chakrams of the present day melakartha scheme. Thus there is one song each in nine ragas out of the twelve, with only Ganamurthi, Vanaspati and Tanarupi being left out.
Sesha Iyer, according to Sambamurthy, spent the latter part of his life in Madras living with his disciple Manathattai Doraiswami Iyer. He went back to his native place towards the end of his life and died there in January 1909. Another disciple of his was Chintalapalli Venkata Rao who was alive in Bangalore in 1969, almost touching a century, when Sambamurthy’s compilation came off the press.
If at all there is one song of Sesha Iyer’s that is famous and sung often, it is ‘Entanivinavintu Ra’ in Urmika. Surprisingly, Sambamurthy’s compilation lists the raga name as Shuddha. How, when and by whom the name was changed to Urmika is a mystery.
(The author can be contacted at srirambts@gmail.com
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