Veena exponent and musician RS Jayalakshmi describes the nuances of the composer’s work in a lac-dame
Rasika Ranjani Sabha hosted a thematic series titled ‘Music in Perpetuity’, which had a lecture-performance on musicians and musicians in the morning and a concert based on them in the evening.
Conceived by Aruna Prabha Ranganathan, the idea was to make young enthusiasts aware of the work and thought processes of these great musicians. The series featured musicians especially musicians from the Thyagaraja disciple tradition, who are not as well known as the Trinity.
Veena Vidushi RS Jayalakshmi, a teacher and musicologist, presented a lecture on Patnam Subramaniam Iyer (1845–1902), and described how he had created a wealth of works, varnas, javalis and thilans in his short life.
trained by veterans
Born in Thiruvayaru, Subramaniam Iyer’s family was immersed in music. His grandfather Panchanad Shastri was a musician in the court of Maharaja Serfoji II and his father Bharatam Vaidyanath Iyer was an expert in music. It was his maternal uncle, Melattur Ganapathi Sastri, who initially trained Subramaniam. Later, he learned from Kothavasal Venkatarama Iyer and Manambuchavadi Venkatasubbayar, a direct disciple of Tyagaraja. Jayalakshmi wondered whether these two were the inspiration behind Guru Subramaniam Iyer’s literary pose ‘Venkatesh’.
The prefix ‘Patnam’ was added to his name as he lived in Chennai in later years. Jayalakshmi lauded the musician’s expertise in ragam-tanam-pallavi and the special pallavi sung in the simhanandan tala, which has 128 syllables. He pointed to his mastery in singing the tanam and advised learners to practice their tana varnas to get ideas for singing at advanced levels. Quoting from the book of Mysore Vasudevachar, Naan Kanda Kalavidaru, Jayalakshmi recounts how Vasudevachara described the learning experience from Subramaniam Iyer, who observed him only for the first six months before starting to teach, and then with Begada Varnam, much to the disciple’s surprise. .
Of the 40 varnas composed by him, Navaragamalika varnam and Abhogi varnam are popular in three octaves. He also mentioned two ata tala varnas in Sahana, swarams in the third post-charanam set with Sarvalaghu patterns in both.
Jayalakshmi sang the Kannada varnam, with the help of her disciple and granddaughter Charulatha Chandrasekhar, to show how she introduced the grammar of a raga through various vowel phrases. He also noted that in Navaragamalika Varnam, he followed the diktish school experiment ‘pa dha ni pa ma’ in Sri raga swaras.
Referring to the book, Mr. Venkatesh Tana Varnangal, by his disciple Kakinada CS Krishnaswamy, and some of the Varnams that find a place in syllable By composer TK Govinda Rao, Jayalakshmi highlights some rare usages in svarakshara (words resembling vowels), yati (increasing and decreasing syllabic patterns), natakurinji and sankarabharanam. He handled uncommon ragas like Narayana Goula and Begada beautifully, which eventually earned him the name of ‘Begada’ Subramaniam Iyer.
Particularly skilled in handling rare ragas such as Sindhu Mandhari, Suguna Bhushani, Simhavahini, the composer created the new raga, Kadanakuthuhalam, with the popular composition ‘Raghuvansh Shudhambudhi’.
Thyagaraja’s influence on his compositions comes in his composition – ‘Atunamina’ in Saveri and ‘Varamulu Saki’ in Kiravani, which in the first phrase displays the raga, to which several accompaniments have been added to expand the abstract form; and ‘Rama Ika Nannu’ in Sahana, which has ‘Ri Ri’, the jiva vowel, similar to Tyagaraja’s ‘Ei Vasudha’ in the beginning. Another similarity is how the song begins with one and a half beats.
The two sang and explained Solkattu Chittaswaram in ‘Inka Dayarale’ at Chakravakam; And threw light on the expressive beauty of ‘Manasa Vriddha Garvametike’ in Abhogi.
The composer’s verses are mostly in Sanskrit, with only a Telugu verb in many works, a feature also found in the works of his disciple Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar. As a guru, Subramaniam Iyer encouraged his students to compose and had no hesitation in cross-checking the songs with Vasudevachar, who had a sound knowledge of Sanskrit. He rarely sang his compositions at concerts. Lek-dem ends with reference to his Javalis and Tilana, especially the popular Khamas Tilana.
The Chennai-based writer specializes in Carnatic music.
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