Shuddhananda Bharati (1897 to 1990) was an interesting mendicant philosopher and composer of fairly recent vintage. While he wote extensively in several languages including English and French (!!), in the Carnatic world it is as a Tamizh composer that he is best known. It is said that his first composition was eppaDi pADinarO in karNATaka dEvagAndhAri, which came out spontaneously at the Chidambaram Nataraja temple.
And what poetic insight for a first composition, expressing his desire to sing in praise of the lord, much as the great devotees before him (the great nAyanmArs for instance) had done. And he is clear - it’s not enough to sing like them. He wants to sing like them having gained insight into the deepest meaning of the Lord (“poRuluNarndu unnayE eppaDi pADinarO!”)
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxHwWMx1VwmskiF08uUYQBXY1x_8t5ocLS
That was the voice of the legendary D K Pattammal. Pattammal was a trailblazer in her own right. To say that she came up swimming upstream is a gross understatement. Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar used to pun on her name as “pADu Pattammal”, which could either mean “Sing, Pattamma!”or “The lady who strived hard in the face of great challenges”. I’m not going to go into her life history here, but interestingly enough, eppaDi pADinarO is one her first commercial shellac gramophone records released by Columbia in the early 1940’s.
Here is Pattammal with a short yet fulfilling exposition of this composition: https://youtu.be/rGpdihssIBM
Among the many “firsts” that Pattammal has to her credit (first lady concert singer from the Brahmin community, first lady to sing RTPs, first lady to excel in complex laya play etc etc.) is that she was one of the first major artistes (male or female) to come to the top without belonging to any one guru parampara. She learnt from many teachers, some renowned like Ambi Dikshitar, T L Venkatarama Iyer and Papanasam Sivan, and also many whose names are lost in time.
One of the first gurus she was influenced by was not one she learnt from directly, but it was a mAnasIka guru due to geographic good fortune. Growing up in Kanchipuram, she was exposed extensively to the music of laya titan Kanchipuram Naina Pillai. Now Naina Pillai’s music was the anti-thesis of what was considered suitable music for ladies. It was aggressive, grounded firmly in complexity of rhythm. Young Pattammal was inspired to sing like him … “eppaDi pADinarO aDiyAr appaDi paDa nAn Asai konDEn”.
One of Naina Pillai’s signature pieces was a Pallavi in rAga jaganmOhini, sent to Adi Tisra nadai. Unfortunately for us, Naina Pillai had an aversion to getting his music recorded, so we have no record of his rendition. But we have Pattammal’s version in its full glory.
The words of the Pallavi are “nenjE ninai anbE tudi neri nin guruparan mEl, anjAdiru nam pAvangal panjAi parandidum AgaiyAl”. The broad import is “walking steadfast on the path of devotion to the most exalted of Gurus (lord Murugan) is a sure way to make the fear of the results of ones sins scatter like fluff in the wind.”
Start of the Pallavi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_YKjPMJCy4&t=938s
Jaganmohini is not a raga that is elaborated often as an AlApana. Even rarer as tAnam. The Pallavi is complex enough in its original structure in tisram, but Pattammal revels in the additional complexity of changing the nadai to chatusram in the middle of the neraval. I have heard another Pallavi doyen Prof TRS say the value of a Pallavi is not in mechanical vyavahAra, but in the grandeur of the neraval. Laya vyavahAra has to be in support of propagating the rAga bhAva. And Pattammal is right at the pinnacle on this front.
Jaganmohini RTP (full): https://youtu.be/P_YKjPMJCy4
Pattammal followed in the footsteps of Naina Pillai to great success, but her greater success is in succeeding generations of musicians, men and women alike, aspiring to sing like her!
“eppaDi pADinarO aDiyAr appaDi paDa nAn Asai konDEn”
Pic courtesy: Sruti magazine
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