VIOLIN COMES TO CHENNAI

THE RISE OF VIOLIN FROM FOUR STRINGS TO SEVEN

It was Christmas,2010.Former Chief Minister of Kerala,K Karunakaran had died a day ago.On the way to Thanjavur,infront of our vehicle,we saw his dead body  traveling to Thrissur.He was a painter in Thrissur in his formative years,who brushed aside music.I have had several breakfasts with him in Cliff House.
Once in Thanjavur,after seeing the marvel of Brihadeeswara temple ,I suggested we go to Thiruvarur.It didn't strike a chord with the people around me.
I explained:there is no place in history like this.The birth place of the trinity of Carnatic music.Thyagaraja,Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Syama Sastrigal.All of them prayed in the Thyagarajaswamy temple in Thiruvarur.

Thiruvarur temple

Thiruvarur had been one of the five traditional capitals of the Chola empire.The temple has inscriptions of Rajaraja and Rajendra Cholas.The temple was there when Manuneedhi Cholan killed his son to give justice to a cow.The temple inspired the trinity.It immensely supported the family of Dikshitars.
Muthuswamy Dikshitar's ancestral family was in Virinchipuram,North Arcot.On October 6,1742,the Carnatic Nawab,Subedar Ali was killed by the Commandant of the fort,Murtaza Ali in Vellore.Murtaza eloped and Subedar's son Mohammad Syed Khan became the new Nawab.Dikshitar's father Ramaswamy was seven then.The family,in search of peace,migrated to Govindapuram,near Mayyavaram.Ramaswamy learned Carnatic music, performed at Thanjavur court and became a musician of Thiruvarur temple.He set up family there and wife Subbammal gave birth to four children:Muthuswamy(1775),twins Chinnaswamy and Balambal and Balaswamy(1786).I am interested in Balaswamy because it was he who introduced Violin to Carnatic music.

Dikshitar

The Raja of Thanjavur,Tulaja II died in 1787.His cousin Amar Singh became Regent since Tulaja's son Sarabhoji was a minor.Amar Singh met Ramaswamy at the temple.Ramaswamy became his favorite and he composed a kriti in 20 ragas.At the time when the missionary Frederick Schwartz advanced the cause of Sarabhoji and Amar Singh became weak,Manali Muthukrishna Mudali ,Chief Merchant of the East India Company came on a pilgrimage to Thiruvarur.He invited the Dikshitar family to Madras.It was in Madras, Dikshitar family saw the Violin.

Subbarama Dikshitar

Christian Frederick(Friedrich)Schwartz ((1726-1798) was a Lutheran German protestant missionary who was contemporary to Dharmaraja(1724-1798).He came to India in 1750,moved to the garrison in Tiruchirapally where he became the Chaplain.In 1769 he became friendly with Sarabhoji.Though Schwartz is credited with the maximum conversions in India,he didn't succeed in converting Sarabhoji.But Sarabhoji built a church in his affection and entrusted his adopted son(Sarabhoji II) and Vedanayagam to him for education.In 1779, at the request of British authorities,he undertook a private embassy to Hyder Ali.When Hyder invaded the Carnatic,Schwartz was allowed to pass through the enemy camp.He was in Tiruchirapally for 12 years after which he moved to Thanjavur.It is believed he had brought a Violin with him and Sarabhoji was attracted to it.It is in the High school he founded in Ramanathapuram,Abdul Kalam had his education.Schwartz learn t Tamil to translate the Bible.

Schwartz

Vedanayagam Sastriar(1774-1864)is the king of evangelical poets in South India.Born in Tirunelveli to Devasahayam,he was taken to Thanjavur in 1785 by Schwartz.At the age of 10,Vedanayagam had a vision of the cross and Jesus.He studied Theology at the Lutheren seminary in Tharagambadi,now Tranquebar.When his classmate Sarabhoji II became king,he was made the court poet.He has 150 books and 500 lyrics to his credit.His lyrics are part of Christian worship.He learn t Violin from Schwartz.He taught violin to Vadivelu of the Thanjavur quartet.
Violin is the smallest but highest pitched member of the violin family:Viola,Cello and Contra bass.It is said Thamburu originated in Uzbekistan.But,Turkish,Mongolian horsemen were earliest fiddlers.It was two stringed then.They were horsehair strings.Violin bows are still strung with horsehair.
Violin took the trade route through China to come to India.It took the silk route to reach Italy. The four stringed Violin was made in Italy in 1555 by Andrea Amati, a luthier in Cremona,Italy.A luthier is one who makes and repairs Violin.The French King Charles IX ordered Amati to make 24 Violins.One among them still survives and it is called Charles IX.In the 16-18 centuries,Violin was made in Italy by five families:Gaspara Da Salo,Giovanni Paolo Maggini,Stradivari,Guarneri and Amati.In Brescia and Cremona.A Stradivari is now valued at 9.8 million pounds! In 1790,Irish military bandsmen were brought to Madras by East India Company.An army band master of Fort St George orchestra  trained  Baluswamy on violin.Remember,Schwartz had been there before. Muthukrishna Muthali died in 1792 and his son Venkatakrishna succeeded him. Ramaswamy wrote kritis with Venkatakrishna signature and composed the longest Carnatic song in praise of him in 108 ragas.A chance acquaintance with Chidambaranatha Yogi took Muthuswamy to Kasi for five years.

On Muthuswamy's return from Kasi,the famiily went back to Thiruvarur.Thanjavur had become English.Ramaswamy died in 1812.Unable to manage property,the Dikshitar family lost them and were approached by the father of the Thanjavur quartet,Mahadeva Annavi(Subbarayan) a Veena player,to teach them music.We know the quartet:Chinnayya Pillai(1802-1856),Ponnayya Pillai(1804-1864),Sivanandam Pillai(1808-1863) and the legendary Vadivelu Pillai(1810-1845).

Chinnayya

Ponnayya

Sivanandam

Vadivelu,who had learn t Violin from Vedanayagam was made an exponent in it by the Dikshitars.Sarabhoji,who was pensioned off  by the British, was experimenting with western instruments.Muthuswamy who taught Vadivelu called him ekasandhagrahi.One who repeats what he heard once.Vadivelu had joined the Thanjavur court as Asthanavidwan at just 14.He became the asthana vidwan of Swati Thirunal at 22.He, for the first time showed the world manodharma sangeetham is possible on violin .He popularized violin in Carnatic music.It is said that he used to sing and accompany himself on violin at the same time.Swati Thirunal gifted him a rare Violin made of ivory in 1834,which is kept at their ancestral house behind Brihadeeswara temple in Thanjavur.Swati Thirunal died at 34;Vadivelu at 35.Ulloor S Parameswara Iyer immortalized the duo in his poem,Kattile Pattu. 

Vadivelu

But  some say,Dharmaraja,a contemporary of Schwartz is the first Violinist in Kerala.Schwartz had been in Tirunelveli and we don't know whether he met Dharmaraja.If true,he learn t it much before Balaswamy and Vadivelu.If it is proven, the theory that Violin was brought to India by Portuguese missionaries for use in church choir has some substance.When contacted, R P Raja,who wrote the book,New Light on Swati Thirunal, said Dharmaraja didn't knew Violin.Only Veena was practiced in the palace.
Baluswamy who was proficient in Veena,Swarabat,Sitar and Mridangam too,became asthana vidwan at Ettaiyapuram.He had moved with brother Chinnaswami to Madurai in search of patronage.Raja Venkateswara Eddappa became the patron of Balaswami and Chinnaswamy died in the interim.They were the first duo in Carnatic music.Finally,Muthuswamy met Balaswamy here and passed away on October 21,1835.He traveled not only through the sea of music;but the length and breadth of the world. It took another half century for the Violin to enter the realm of Hindustani music-a Malayali,Parur Sundaram Iyer did it!

Sundaram Iyer(right)with son,M S Gopalakrishnan

Parur is of course,is North Parur in Ernakulam district.Sundaram Iyer(1891-1964),father of M S Gopalakrishnan had learned violin from Trivandrum Ramaswamy Bhagavathar,asthana vidwan of Travancore.After a concert Sundaram Iyer gave in Cochin,Sait Govinda Naick sent him to Bombay and there he was introduced to Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar,Principal of Gandharva Mahavidyalaya.He was made a  professor there and was taught Hindustani music.For the first time in 1909,Sundaram Iyer used Violin in a Hindustani concert-he was just 18! TN Krishnan,was born in my native place Tripunithura,in 1928.Pranams to the 10 Violin maestros who were born before him(apart from Sundaram Iyer):Tirukkodikkaval Krishna Iyer(1857-1913),Malgikottai Govindaswami Pillai(1879-1931),Dwaram Venkataswami Naidu(1893-1864),T K Jayaraman(1894-1971),Chowdiah(1895-1967),Kumbakonam Rajamanickam Pillai(1898-1970),Papa Venkataramaiah(1901-1970),R R Krishna Murthy(1914-2006),Kandadevi Alagiriswamy(1925-2000),M S Anantharaman(1924).

Chowdiah

It was Chowdiah,much before L Subramaniam, who experimented with Violin,by adding three more strings.He had become famous as a Violinist by 1927,and he realized that  the listeners sitting far behind are not able to hear his four stringed Violin.There were no sound amplifiers then.So,he added three more strings,without the knowledge of his Guru,Bidaram Krishnappa,of the Mysore royal court.When he accompanied his Guru in one of his concerts,for the first time in the seven stringed Violin,the Guru found it very loud,and there was an outburst."What is this contraption",the Guru asked.Veena Seshanna,who was in the audience,and who had seen the seven stringed Violin earlier,pacified the Guru.The Guru began to like the new Violin later on.

But,conservatism caught hold of him,and the Madras Music academy banned him and the seven stringed Violin around 1931.He formed the Indian Fine Arts Society,IFAS.The Academy made peace with Chowdiah by 1938,by which time he had become the asthana vidwan of Mysore.IFAS had the generous support of the Justice Party.The Kannada super star,husband of former Malayalam actress Sumalatha,is the grand son of Chowdiah.

Krishnappa

The journey from Thiruvarur, for me, should end in Tripunithura.So I was amazed when the God of Violin,L Subramaniam,in a concert said that he belongs to Tripunithura!I knew his father, Prof.V Lakshminarayanan was from Alapuzha and a road exists there in his name.I listened:Subramaniam said,his mother,Seethalakshmi was from Palliparambukavu in Tripunithura.Incidentally,Tripunithura is the birth place of the first male and female playback singers in Malayalam cinema:T K Govinda Rao and Sarojini Amma. Now I will listen to a concert of Subramaniam with Ganapathi Sachidananda Swami who heads the Dattatreya Peetham,Mysore.No one in the world plays Carnatic in the keyboard like the Swami.A formidable combination.I saw the swami playing twice in the Dattatreya temple in Desam,Aluva.

Reference:The magnum opus,Sangitha Sampradaya Pradarsini,by Subbarama Dikshitar(1904),grandson of Baluswamy Dikshitar

See my posts,MASTERS IN MASTER BEDROOMS & A BRAIN IN CHAOS