Ganakalanidhi Dr. Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar

VINJAMURI – AN EXCEPTIONAL MUSICIAN AND A GREAT HUMAN BEING

  By Sangita Kalanidhi VELLORE G. RAMABHADRAN 

I have known Sriman Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar from my early childhood.  He was a front-ranking musician even by then. In fact, my father late Gopalachariar had known him even earlier and had accompanied Vinjamuri in a number of concerts including at Vellore in the 1930s.  I had the privilege of accompanying him for the first time at the Thyagaraja Festival at Tirupati in the year 1944.  On that day late Govindasami Naicker accompanied him on the violin.  The festival used to be conducted every year by late Chittoor Subramania Pillai.   That was the first time I accompanied Vinjamuri.  He used to regularly sing at this festival as well as at Tirumala.  After that I had accompanied him in numerous cutcheries.

 I had come to know Vinjamuri (the name by which he was well known in the Music World) very closely since 1946.  In those days my father late Gopalachariar used to live near Kesava Perumal Koil Street in Mylapore.  Vinjamuri used to reside close by and he would visit my father often and vice versa.  They would regularly visit senior vidwans like Ariyakudi, Chembai and others to discuss matters relating to music.  I also used to go along with them sometimes.  Vinjamuri was a great lakshya lakshana vidwan. He was also a master of many languages.  Despite his immense vidwat he was a very humble person.  He had both vidya and vinayam.  He was the darling of all the great musicians of those days because of these qualities of his.  He always was special to all of them. 

Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar was very fond of Vinjamuri.  Those days’ vidwans would meet in Ariyakudi’s house in Nadu Street.  Ariyakudi would sing kritis like Enduku Peddala, Buddhiradu etc and Vinjamuri would join him.  They used to be immersed in music and discuss various aspects extensively.  Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavathar, the great composer was very fond of Vinjamuri.  Whenever he visited Madras, he would not leave the place without meeting Vinjamuri.  Vinjamuri would not only learn kritis from him but also gather valuable musical knowledge from him.

Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar had special regard for Vinjamuri’s music and vidwath.  Vinjamuri would visit Chembai often and discuss various aspects of music.  Vinjamuri would take me also on the way to meet Chembai.  Chembai would ask Vinjamuri to sing Lalita Dasar Kritis in his programmes on All India Radio to propagate them.  In the 1940s, Vinjamuri used to conduct ‘Music Lesson’ programmes over All India Radio, Madras for senior students.  He used to bring out many new kritis to the fore.  Once Flute Mahalingam remarked that Vinjamuri was in a way his guru since he had learnt the immortal kriti ‘Sri Raghuvara aprameya’ in Kambhoji by listening to the Music Lesson programme of Vinjamuri.  Returning to Chembai, he used to check up with Vinjamuri the meaning of Thyagaraja Kritis since Chembai did not have any knowledge of Telugu.  I remember that those days we all used to sing as ‘Rava Thaguna’ in the Pantuvarali kriti ‘Raghuvara Nannu Maravathaguna’.  We used to sing like that for the sake of Talam.  Vinjamuri would correct us and ask us to sing as ‘Marava Thaguna’ by pushing one aksharam back so that the meaning of the lyric is not lost while keeping the Talam perfect.  Chembai would agree with Vinjamuri but would say that having sung so long as ‘Rava Thaguna’ he was not able to correct and continued to sing that way.  But others learnt from Vinjamuri and used to sing correctly. During those days, the senior vidwans would share musical knowledge with each other and enriched music in that process.

Musiri and Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar were good friends even though Musiri was much older.  He loved Vinjamuri’s music because it was laden with Bhava which Musiri specialized in.  Besides, Vinjamuri was one of the very few English educated musicians and that made them share musical knowledge from English books also.

In those days, there was one Dr. Sitapathi who used to live in Mundakanniamman Koil Street in Mylapore.  He was a great connoisseur of music.  He was very fond of Tiger Varadachariar’s music.  He did not think much of any other musician.  In fact he would even close his ears if he happened to listen to others sing.  So fine and conservative was his appreciation of real music.   Tiger would visit his house frequently.   Vinjamuri and many other senior and junior vidwans would gather in Dr. Sitapati’s place to listen to Tiger’s music.   Tiger would sing kritis like ‘Nijamarmamulanu’, ‘Telisi Rama’ and ‘Rama Neepai Tanaku’ etc.  He would ask his favourite disciple Vinjamuri to accompany him.   Vinjamuri would be hesitant saying that he had not learnt some of those kritis.  Tiger would encourage him by saying ‘you accompany me and you will automatically learn them’.  They would thus sing.   Sometimes even Tambura would not be there.   But the singing would be perfect without any apaswarams.  The singing would go on for hours together.  They neither bothered about food nor water.  It was all singing without anytime limit.  It was Nadopasana at its best.

Let me now talk about some memorable concerts of Vinjamuri.   It was in 1940s.  The venue was Thyagaraja Sangeetha Vidwat Samajam in Mylapore where Thyagaraja Festival was being performed.  Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Vinjamuri and many other senior vidwans sang the pancharatna kritis of Thyagaraja in Goshtiganam.  Later there were individual concerts in the evening.  There was a concert of Chembai first followed by Vinjamuri’s.  The interesting thing was that for both these concerts flute Mahalingam accompanied on the Violin and Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer on Mridangam.  For Vinjamuri’s concert along with Mali and Viswanatha Iyer I was also asked to join on the stage.  It was a thrilling and unique experience.

My father Vellore Gopalachariar was also a Mridangist and used to run a music sabha in Vellore and invite eminent Vidwans to perform there.  Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar was invited in 1936 and awarded the title ‘Sangeetha Ratnakara’.  Vinjamuri also gave concerts in that Sabha in Vellore.  I remember listening to this concert when I was very young.   He was accompanied on the violin by Varahur Muthuswamy Iyer and on the Mridangam by Madras Venu Naiker.  It was a grand success. 

 Then there was this concert at Guntur.  Vinjamuri Srinivasachari, elder brother of Vinjamuri, who was a lawyer and an excellent flautist used to run a sabha in Guntur called Thyagabrahma Gana Sabha.  I went there and accompanied T.R. Mahalingam on the first day and then Vinjamuri on the next day.  Chowdaiah accompanied him on the violin.  It was a memorable concert.  In fact, like Ariyakudi, every one of Vinjamuri’s concerts was a success.

 There used to be a gentleman called R.B. Ramakrishnam Raju, Rajah of Karvetinagaram.  He was the Chairman of the legislative council of Andhra Pradesh.  He once invited Dwaram Venkataswami Naidu for felicitating him and arranged two concerts-one of Dwaram himself and the other of Vinjamuri.  I was the accompanist for both the concerts.  The reason I am mentioning is that Dwaram, who rarely accompanied a vocalist those days, readily agreed to accompany Vinjamuri in his concert.  That was the measure of respect they had for Vinjamuri.  A few years later I had accompanied him in a concert at Hyderabad and then I went with Vinjamuri to Delhi where he sang in the National programme of Music in All India Radio.  Those days one had to travel all the way to Delhi to give the National programme.  During that visit Vinjamuri gave two more concerts in Delhi, one in Karnataka Sangeetha Sabha and the other in Shanmukhanada Sangeetha Sabha.  I played on the Mridangam and one V.K. Venkataramanujam accompanied on the violin.  V.K. Venkataramanujam was the son-in-law of Violinist R.S. Gopalakrishnan who also used to accompany Vinjamuri often. 

Vinjamuri had a dazzling personality.  He was tall, fair and handsome.  He would dress well and conduct himself in an extremely dignified manner.  His attire was traditional and he commanded respect by his vidwat.  When he arrived at a place it would look as though a great ‘Acharya Purusha’ was approaching.  Chembai would invariably remark ‘Look, Ajanubahu’ is coming.  Vinjamuri would invariably wear a gold chain, Navarathna mala and Tulasimala.  With his namam and attire he used to look like a divine person.

Vinjamuri was a great conversationalist.  He used to be very witty and would capture attention of all of us with stories about the past great musicians and scholars.  Those days in Devakottai of Chettinad a ten day music festival used to be conducted.  All top musicians like Chembai, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, Musiri, Flute Mahalingam, Papa Venkataramiah, Kumbhakonam Rajamaniciam  Pillai, Plladam Sanjeevarao, Palghat Mani Iyer, Palani Subramania Pillai, Vinjamuri and others used to participate.  People would throng to these concerts.  Youngsters like me would be waiting there to get our turn to show our abilities.  While on the one side the cutcheries went on, there used to be a separate crowd surrounding Vinjamuri to listen to him.  He would tell us a lot of stories about the olden days and the manner of singing those days etc.  The conversation used to be extremely interesting, humorous yet highly informative.  I was very fortunate to have listened to him on all those occasions.

 Vinjamuri was an exceptional Musician.  He was a traditionalist with enormous vidwath.  He had a beautiful voice and he would sing effortlessly in three sthayis.  He sang major ragas, minor ragas or apoorva ragas with ease.  He sang apurva ragas like Malavi, Bhavapriya, Dhenuka etc.  His repertoire was very vast.  I clearly remember his singing ‘Nadupai balikeru’  in Madhyamavati, ‘Toli Ne jesina Pooja phalamu’ in Suddha Bangala, ‘Enthani ne’ in Mukhari, ‘Nadopasana’ in Begada, ‘Anyayamu Seyakura’ in Kapi, ‘Kodandamanditha’ in Kapi, ‘Adu Chidambarame’ in Behag, ‘Thanayuni Brova’ in Bhairavi etc.  He would also sing ‘Madhura Nagarilo’, ‘Sivadiksha Paru Ralanura’ in Kurinji.  ‘Sivadiksha’ was taught to him by Ariyakudi.  His singing was exceptional and full of Bhavam.  When he did neraval at ‘Kannulara Sevinchi’ in the Mukhari Kriti ‘Ethani Ne’ of Thyagaraja audience would simply be moved with emotion.   His alapana of any raga brought out the Raga swaroopam fully.  Even today his music is ringing in my years.  I am very fortunate to have listened to him, accompanied him and spent a lot of time with him.  He was a very great musician and a great human being. He was a musical treasure trove!

 It is a great loss to the Music World that we do not have his recordings.