Source: INDIA TODAY, JUNE 16-30 1981.

Palghat T.S. Mani Iyer was recognized during his lifetime as the mridangam player par excellence and when he died last month on his 70th birthday it was generally acknowledged by critics that he had transformed the role of percussion in Carnatic music.

In traditional carnatic music the mridangam player is treated as an accompanist who plays the thani avarthana - a time filler during the intermissions of katcheris. Mani Iyer or, ‘Mridangam Mani’ as he was called, never tried to change this. He often said that a mridangam player should reserve virtuosity for the solo in the middle of the concert and concentrate on enriching the recital at other times. That he did just this is testified to by the fact that all the top vocalists sought him to accompany their performances. All the same, with his virtuosity and his feel for the mood of the crowd, he inevitably held the audience transfixed to their seats during the interval - often to the envy of the vocalist themselves.

Mani Iyer learnt his music from his parents in his native Pazhayannur near Palghat. His maiden public performance was at the age of 10 at a Harikatha discourse by Sivaramakrishna Bagavathar. The mridangam player who was supposed to play failed to turn up and Mani Iyer substituted. Later he caught the eye of Thanjavur Vaidyanatha Iyer who taught him the intricacies that invested his recitals with remarkable purity. Then in 1924, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bagavathar introduced Mani to a Madras audience at the Jagannatha Baktha Sabha. From then onwards he never looked back and moved on to occupy what veena vidwan S.Balachandar describes as " a place of unparalleled eminence through sheer mastery of the mridangam".

Other maestros of Carnatic music are equally lavish with their praise. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, the doyen of Carnatic music, says: " Mani Iyer’s unique contribution to the art of percussion stemmed a great deal from his own knowledge of music. He knew just how to highlight a kriti and where to play up and what is more, when to recede into the background ".

Firm Beliefs :

Mani Iyer had his firm beliefs and also his eccentricities. He felt that "only people who are born with a God-given gift for music can really be great. With practice one can master patterns but not attain perfection. It is foolish for those who are not great to seek greatness". And while his relations with other musicians remained cordial he was sharply critical of vocalists singing lower shrutis and distorting the timbre of the voice and also making the stroke of the mridangam sound like a dull thud. From 1973 he began objecting to the use of microphones at concerts. He argued that microphones and loudspeakers made listening easy as the music was mechanically injected into the ears of the audience depriving them of the pleasure of making an effort to listen to the music. For a long time he did not even allow all India Radio to broadcast or relay his recitals.

Another odd decision was his refusal to accompany women artistes, till he yielded to Carnatic vocalist D.K.Pattammal in his later years. this was after his daughter married Pattammal’s son. Afterwards he also accompanied M.L.Vasanthakumari for a time.

In the last three years Mani Iyer spent most of his time teaching the mridangam at Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh. Despite all the honors and the praise that he won for his public performances, he preferred doing this work.

But for all this his position in Carnatic music is unchallenged and after his death critics were hailing him as the Kaliyuga Nandi after the celestial drummer of Shiva. It was a title he well deserved.