INDIA BEATS
Evening ragas
UMA MAHESWARI S.
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The Mullamudu musical tradition renders the compositions of Swati Tirunal and other composers during temple festivals.
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Time-honoured practice: The Mullamudu musicians today.
THE Royal House of Travancore has always been a patron of music and other fine arts. Some of the rulers were great musicians themselves and scholars like Karthika Tirunal Balarama Varma, Aswathi Tirunal Rama Varma, Rani Rugmini Bayi, and Maharaja Swati Tirunal. Kartika Tirunal and Aswathi Tirunal had composed Attakathas for Kathakali. The treatise on Natyasastra, Balaramabharatham, penned by Karthika Tirunal is considered his magnum opus. However, Swati Tirunal's period is considered the golden period of Carnatic music in Travancore. He had set a tradition — the musical tradition of Mullamudu, which is still being carried on today.
Origins
The origin of the Mullamudu tradition goes like this: Maharaja Swati Tirunal once happened to listen to Palakkaad Parameswara Bhagavathar at the temple. Enthralled, he made enquiries about him immediately and proceeded to appoint him as the court musician. He provided him a house at "Mullamudu", near the palace. Parameswaran was the first musician to represent this great tradition. He later served the courts of Ayilyam Tirunal, Visakhom Tirunal and Sree Moolam Tirunal. Coimbatore Raghava Iyer was his primary disciple. Aashramam Annaswami, Attingal Sankaranarayanan, Elathur Hariharan, Karamana Venkiteswaran, Kalkulam Subramanian, Parakkai Narayanan, Thanjavur Kathir Kama Dasan, Kadayam Kasi and Neelakanta Iyer were the few others to name. They assembled at the Mullamudu house, rustling with thickets intertwined with jasmine shrubs and rendered the Maharajas compositions from which tradition is derived the name Mullamudu Bhagavathar.
The tradition of Mullamudu is 175 years old. Only a handful of Mullamudu musicians remain today. In an informal conversation, Mullamudu musicians talk about their ancestors, their role in popularising the compositions of Maharaja Swati Tirunal, and how they still maintain the rich, age-old tradition. These musicians pay their musical offerings at the scheduled time on the days of ulsavam (temple festivals) and Navarathri at the Padmanabha Temple and Navarathri Mandapam respectively.
"I have been a part of this team for the last 50 years. My father Padmanabhan was one of the Mullamudu musicians," says T.P. Mani Iyer, former Principal of the Swati Tirunal Music Academy. "We were given rice, vegetables, and coconut everyday," remembers Mani. "My father Venku Bhagavathar was also one of the Mullamudu musicians. I have been serving the temple for the past 46 years as a violinist," says V. Meenakshi Sundaram. "During the festival we render Ulsava Prabhandam, which the Maharaja had specially composed in Manipravalam in 1839. It gives a detailed account of the 10-days festival celebrated twice annually. It has 12 songs and 42 verses in different meters. We render the corresponding songs of the day," he says. He specially mentions the song "Shibikayil Ezhunnalledunnu" set to the rare raga, Mangalakausika.
"We render Ulsava Prabhandam at night and other Swati compositions in the evening on the festival days. At the Navarathri Mandapam, we perform Thodaya Mangalam for half an hour before the main concert. We begin with Jayadeva ke Kishora and Mathanga Thanayayae followed by the compositions of Annamacharya and Purandaradasa. On the eve of Ariyittu Vazhcha (Attingal) there existed a custom to recite Aanadavalli Kuru (Neelambari) at the Nalukettu and Janani Pahi (Suddha Saveri) at the sanctum the next day," explains Parameswara Sarma, son of the late Mullamudu Lekshmi Narayana Bhagavathar.
Musical initiative
"Lekshmi Narayanan and I, well trained in Ulsava Prabhandam, taught other musicians like Palakkad K.V. Narayana Swami, who later popularised this precious work of the Maharaja. In fact, it was the Maharani who took the initiative to do so," reminisces T.P. Mani Iyer and adds, "on the day of Swargavathil Ekadesi we render Bhaktaparayana in Sankarabharanam at 8.30 pm." During the Ulsavam these musicians follow the vahanams, rendering Ulsava Prabhandam to the accompaniment of violin and mirudangam even today.
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