PALGHAT MRIDANGAM MANI IYER
B Y
C.K.VENKATANARASIMHAN [BABU SIR]
For nearly five decades I have known Sri Palghat Mridangam Vidwan T. S. Mani Iyer in such close and personal friendship. My association is nearly as old as that of mine with the Rasika Ranjani Sabha, one of the premier sabhas whose halls reverberate with his mridangam naadham.
Born in 1912, Sri Mani Iyer was given the name Ramaswamy after his grand father who was also a performing musician. His father Sri T.R.Sesha Bagavathar and mother Smt. Anandambal were then living at Tiruvilwamalai (near Palghat), famous for its shrines of Sri Rama. Sri Sesha Bagavathar was a noted accompanying singer to Mukke Sivaramakrishna Bagavathar in his harikatha performance, which was one of the chief forms of entertainment in those days.
Sri Mani Iyer’s school education was only upto fifth standard and thereafter he started learning the rudiments of tala from his father. In his ninth year he was sent to Chathapuram Subbier, a well known mridangam vidwan who was later honoured by the Music Academy. At that tender age, as Mani Iyer was trying to learn the beginnings of the art from Sri Subbier, the hand of destiny guided him towards Sri Viswanatha Iyer, a neighbour. Sri Viswanatha Iyer was gifted in the art of mridangam by a natural flair fostered by intelligent listening to the vaadhya played by some of the great vidwans of that time. Sri Viswanatha Iyer took great fancy for young Mani who was then playing nimbly on the instrument and used to take the budding genius to his house and make him play along with him. In three or four months with Sri Viswanatha Iyer, young Mani picked up the art of playing the mridangam dexterously. At home his father used to teach him to play for Harikatha pieces like saaki and dhandi.
Sri Mani Iyer’s first performance was for a harikatha by Sri Sivaramakrishna Bagavathar. On that day the scheduled mridangam vidwan did not turn up and Sri Viswanatha Iyer took his place. After playing for a little while, Sri Viswanatha Iyer called Mani ( who was keenly listening in the audience), to the stage and gave him the mridangam to continue for the rest of the katha, which, of course, he did to the appreciation of one and all. Thus began his introduction to the music world. Thereafter, he became a ‘regular’ accompanist for Sivaramakrishna Bagavathar and he started accompanying for the vocal music performance by his father. At Lankeshwaram temple in Chittoor he was first honoured in one of his father’s concerts with a medal. Thereafter he accompanied Sri Palghat Rama Bagavathar and Ennappadam Venkatrama Bagavathar for some time.
At this time he attracted the attention of Sri Chembai Vaidyanatha Bagavathar, whom he first accompanied in a performance at a festival in Chembai. Sri Chembai took instant liking to Mani’s mridangam and they together went on to Calcutta, Benaras and to other places. The tour was a grand success, but was only the beginning of the greater fame that Mani Iyer was to achieve in the years to come. Sri Chembai Vaidyanatha Bagavathar introduced Mani to the Madras audience in a performance at the Jagannatha Baktha Sabha in 1924. The Sabha authorities had thought that Mani was too young and had, therefore, arranged mridangam Sankara Menon also to play for Chembai. Needless to say that Mani captivated the audience that day by his sheer brilliance; the late vidwan Jalatharangam Ramaniah Chettiar was so pleased that he presented a medal to Mani. Sri Chembai introduced Mani first to the Music Academy which was just then started. He was about 14 years of age at that time.
When he was fifteen he once went for a performance near Tanjore, where he chanced to meet Mridangam vidwan Tanjore Vaidyanatha Iyer who was an institution by himself and about whose eminence in the art, he had heard much. This meeting blossomed into a fruitful one as Sri Vaidyanatha Iyer took a great liking in teaching the intricacies of the art to Mani, who , in his turn, showed exceptional devotion, enthusiasm and grasp of the art from this master.
It was in one of Sri Palladam Sanjiva Rao’s recitals, that Mani met Sri Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar. Sri Sanjiva Rao arranged for Ariyakudi’s concert for his son’s wedding and Mani Iyer accompanied Iyengar for the first time there. This heralded an era of one of the great combinations on the Carnatic music stage of Iyengar and Mani Iyer. The nearly five decades during which this combination continued unbroken was a memorable period indeed.
It was at a palace wedding at Trivandrum that Mani Iyer first came across Sri Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer and Sri Rajamanikkam Pillai and the three gave an exquisite kutcheri there. Sri Dakshinamoorthy Pillai, the great master in mridangam and kanjira had a profound influence on Mani Iyer. They both had performed together as co-accompanists in kanjira and mridangam, on numerous occasions all over the south. It was indeed thrilling to recapitulate the scintillating performance of these two laya giants in those days, unrivalled for their majesty in play, uncanny anticipation, and unsurpassed harmony and speed, sound effects, combination dovetailing as it were one into the other. Mani Iyer has accompanied almost every leading artiste of the time like Sri Nayana Pillai, Sri Musiri Subramania Iyer, Sri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Sri G.N.B., Sri Alathoor Brothers and Sri Madurai Mani Iyer. He had also accompanied several eminent lady artistes like Smt. D.K.Pattammal (his Sammandhi ) and co-professor Smt. M.L.Vasanthakumari.
In particular, the following aspects may be emphasised.
Vigorousness in supporting Chembai Vaidyanatha Bagavathar, especially in swara singing.
Resonant and sustained keeping of tempo to Sri Musiri Subramania Iyer for his vilambakala kirthanas.
Uncanny anticipation of Sri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer (who is happily with us) with Rajamanikkam Pillai embellishing.
Cooperation and matching speed and sangathis with G.N.B. while playing for him, with thousands of rasikas wondering whether the music was for mridangam or vice versa.
His translating into mridangam, the lovely swara patterns woven by Madurai Mani Iyer.
His exposition left an abiding impression in me and I would like to recapitulate some of them :
His masterly accompaniment of flute maestro Sri Mahalingam and Papa Venkatramiah.
His delectable play with the inimitable genius for Chowdiah garu and Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu garu solo performances.
Later his accompanying Alathoor Brothers along with Palani Subramania Pillai for their intricate swara singing and pallavis.
His persuasive and accompanying gusto for concerts by veteran Srirangam Iyengar (Madurai Brothers) for several years.
His teaching and imparting his expertise to several disciples all over India and abroad, several of whom are now prominent. And there are many more of the younger generation vidwans whom he had encouraged by accompanying them.
He was most deservedly given the President’s Award for Carnatic Instrumental Music in 1956 and later the Presidentship of the Music Academy.
In September 1965, he was invited to attend the Commonwealth Music Festival in London and simultaneously participate in the Edinburgh festival. Needless to say that his tour of the United Kingdom was a grand success with his magic rhythm enthralling the audience all over that country. He won spontaneous appreciation from such international masters like Yehudi Menuhin, who, I understand, rated Mani Iyer very high in the field of rhythm instruments.
He arranged and supervised making of his own experiments in the construction of the mridangam and spent a great deal of his time, energy and money to see that he obtained the correct tone mridangam to suit the tune and voice and sruthi of each individual artiste he accompanied.
He has brought the art of accompanying for kirthanas with various ‘sangathis’, ‘niravals’ and ‘swaraprastharas’ to the highest pitches of perfection and his anticipation of a vocalist’s mood and trend is uncanny, almost to a telepathic level. While maintaining his individuality, he fully entered and shared the style of a vocalist. I have heard Sri Ariyakudy Ramanuja Iyengar say "Mani starts singing along with me from the varnam onwards". As my friend SYK has said, Mani Iyer and I were close to each other for long years. I could say without hesitation that he barged us to the world of tala like a meteor, rose to the top early and remained there ever after, till death snatched him away. For the two decades from 1940 to 1960 he was in peak form. Whatever his personal views, while on the stage, his only objective was to make the concert of the day a success.
He was not orthodox in the conventional sense but would attribute every action and its reaction to ‘Eswara Sankalpam’ (God’s wish). He worshipped fervently Thyagarajaswamy and often expressed the view that in a kutcheri a major portion should consist of Thayagaraja krithis. He was the secretary of the Thayagaraja Sabha, Tiruvayar for some years and without asking for donations, conducted the function in a grand manner. He would hang his heavy mridangam round his neck and walk all the way for "UNJAVRITHI" Bhajan. In his native city Palghat, along with his friend C.S.Krishna Iyer, he was regularly conducting Thyagaraja Uthsavam. In the last few years, at the suggestion of Sri Krishnaji, Smt. Jayalakshmi Ammal and Sri C.V.Narasimhan, he took up the professorship of Mridangam at Rishivalley where he served to the last. His last disciple to whom he imparted mridangam lessons was , I understand, Chittoor Subramania Pillai’s granddaughter. Simple and unostentatious in his habits, and for the right in his talks, perhaps to a fault, he was passionately attached to all that is best in the musical art of the age-old chaste Carnatic tradition.
After his memorable combination with Dakshinamoorthy Pillai, he heartily cooperated on kanjira with his son Swaminatha Pillai, his disciple Madras Venu Naicker, Konnakkol Pakkiri Pillai, Gatam Umayalpuram Kothandarama Iyer, Viswanatha Iyer, Alangudi Ramachandran and Manjunath, on morsing with Mannargudi Natesa Pillai, Sachithanandam Iyer as co-accompanist and heartily cooperated with them to turn the day’s programme a success.
It is rare to find a mridangam vidwan to be so consistently brilliant for over six decades and still making one look forward to the next performance with unabated eagerness. As Sri Muthiah Bagavathar used to say, Mani Iyer combines in himself the art of all the great Mridangam vidwans of the earlier era.
I saw the giant of a mridangam nadhopasaka at the Ernakulam Hospital a few days before he passed away and a transmuted quotation came to my mind. Here was a mighty Mridangam Spartan, (Mridangam was his middle name) when comes yet another?
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