Versatile Vinjamuri
A Titan of Classical Music
By P. Vaman Rao
Each generation of
stalwarts in various fields leave a gap when they pass away, to be filled up some times by
men of lesser fiber and at times an outstanding genius who excels all others. At one time,
the carnatic music scene dazzled with matchless giants like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar,
Tiger Varadachariar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, G. N. Balasubrahmanyam, Maharajapuram
Viswanatha Iyer, Chittoor Subrahmanyam Pillai, Madurai Mani Iyer and Musiri Subarhmanya
Iyer. They had not only trained but also inspired generations of classical musicians to
flower into great artistes. In this regard, the names of Maharajapuram Santhanam, Madurai
Somasundaram, Allathur Brothers, K.V. Narayanaswami are but illustrative not exhaustive.
Ganakalanidhi Dr. Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar, whose first death anniversary falls on
August 16, belonged to this category with multi-faceted accomplishments.
Semmangudi Srinivasier at 84,
perhaps, the only surviving member of a great galaxy of musicians, is an exemplar of the
grand traditions set up by the masters.
The three outstanding women
musicians, M. S. Subbulakshmi, D. K. Pattammal and M. L. Vasanthakumari belong to a rare
category with no equals. They have their own individuality, cast in a different mould than
the men stalwarts who dominated the scene. There is a strong band of comparatively younger
generation of musicians, which include Seshagopalan, Sankaranarayanan, Neyattinkara
Vasudevan, Bombay sisters, Lalitha and Haripriya as also Seshachari and Raghavachari,
called Hyderabad brothers. Probably the youngest among them is Anuradha, the daughter of
the well-known K. V. Narayanaswami, a new star with a bright future. "M. S. in the
making" was the comment of a music-lover after listening to her. She has the right
voice, application, devotion and a beaming face with charm along with sound music and
right selection of songs. In fact, she said graciously, she is being guided by M. S.
It is fitting that in memory
of a renowned musician like Vinjamuri, a three-day music programme was organized by South
Indian Cultural Association and Dr. Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar Memorial Society,
Hyderabad, recently. The participants were Hyderabad Brothers, Seshachari and
Raghavachari, T. N. Seshagopalan. In his inaugural memorial lecture, Vidwan N. Ch.
Krishnamacharyulu, a Voco-Violinist and Harikatha expert said that Vinjamuri was an able
exponent of pure carnatic style.
Musician, Musicologist and
Composer, Vinjamuri belonged to the sishya parampara of Saint Thyagaraja. His first Guru,
Piratla Sankara Sastry, belonged to the Veena Kuppier School while his later Guru; Tiger
Varadachariar was of Manambuchavidi Venkatasubbaier School. Vinjamuri imbibed the best of
those traditions and propagated them through his concerts, talks and programmes on All
India Radio and articles in journals.
Born on July 15, 1915 in
Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, as one of the thirteen brothers and sisters to V. Bhavanachariar
and Kanakavalli, Varadaraja Iyengar had music in his blood. His father was a lover of
music. Eminent musicians of those times like Veena Seshanna of Mysore, Veena Venkataramana
Das, Adibhatla Narayana Das, Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavatar, Palkkad Rama Bhagavatar,
Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar and Chittoor Subrahmanyam Pillai were guests of Bhavanachariar.
It is a family of musicians. Varadaraja Iyengar's brother, late V. Srinivasachari, was a
lawyer and also the founder-secretary of the Thyagabrahma Sabha in Guntur, was a
well-known flutist. His sisters, Smt. Shakuntala and Ragamani are good vocalists. The late
V. Ananthachary was a competent Veena player. He stayed with Gandhiji at his ashram in
Wardha and played verses from the Bhagavat Gita for the Mahatma every day on the Veena.
Swaroop, Vinjamuri's grand son, too is practicing music. At a devotional music session by
Swaroop at Sri Venkateswara Temple, Hyderabad, the grandfather smiled affirmatively when I
expressed the hope that he would grow to be as great a musician as he was.
Sri Varadaraja Iyengar
started singing at the age of three while his sister was learning from Sankara Sastry, a
disciple of Tiruvattiyur Tyagaier of Muthialpet. He himself received coaching from Sastry
from 1920 - 1933. A graduate from Andhra University, Varadaraja Iyengar had his advanced
training from Tiger Varadachariar from 1934 onwards. He obtained a Diploma in music from
Madras University under Tiger. Later, he accompanied his guru to Chidambaram when Tiger
became the principal of the College of Music, Annamalai University. He continued his
training under Tiger until the latter's death. He came to be known as "Kutty
Tiger" (Baby Tiger) for his strict adherence to Sampradaya singing. He was also known
as "Andhra Ariyakudi".
Varadaraja Iyengar is said to
have given his first public performance at the age of seven in Guntur in the presence of
Veena Seshanna. His performing years as a concert artist were between 1930 and 1965. His
carrier was cut short by a serious accident that took place in Hyderabad in 1962 (while
boarding a bus) as a result of which his voice was affected. He gave performances all over
the country in all leading Sabhas and other places. He sang in the presence of Presidents
of India from Babu Rajendra Prasad to V. V. Giri. He gave a performance at the coronation
of the Maharaja of Mysore, the late Jaya Chamarajendra Wodeyar and at the marriage of the
Maharaja of Vizianagaram in 1943. He performed in all Samsthanams and Sabhas during the
period.
Closely associated with AIR
Madras since its inception, he broadcast concerts from Madras as well as AIR stations at
Hyderabad, Mysore, Calicut, Trichi, Trivandrum, Vijayawada, Cuttack and New Delhi. He gave
performances abroad as well. During the forties and the early fifties, he sang in Rangoon,
Kaulalampur, Singapore, Colombo, Jafna, Candy and other places in the east. At that time,
there was no patronage for classical Carnatic music in the west. Later, he visited U. S. A
in 1964, 1984 and 1986 and performed in various cities like Washington, New York, Denver
and Pittsburgh.
Vinjamuri Iyengar was known
for his weighty classicism. Endowed with a rich voice, which effortlessly meandered in
three octaves, he enthralled the audience with his manodharma. His rendering of Koluvai
Unnade and Yarike Yarundu in Bhairavi, Sri Subrahmanyaya Namasthe and Sriraghuvara Prameya
in Kambhoji, Brovavamma in Manji, Sri Rajagopala in Saveri, Akshaya Linga Vibho and Eduta
Nilachithe in Sankarabharanam, Chakkani Raja and Kori Sevimparare in Kharahara Priya,
Darini Telusukonti in Suddha Saveri, Emijesithe Nemi and Raju Vedala in Thodi, Rama Ninne
and Mohana Rama in Mohana and Mokshamu Galada in Saramathi were full of brilliance. His
repertoire was vast and contained many rare kritis, which he rendered them for the first
time.
He was an expert in rendering
Ragam, Tanam and Pallavi. He regularly broadcast a variety of ancient Pallavis in
intricate Talas over the All India Radio. His Tanam singing was in Tiger's style, full of
vigour. He rendered Pallavis in Rakthi ragas like Bhairavi, Thodi, Sankarabharanam,
Kambhoji as well as in ragas like Bhavapriya, Varali, Saveri, Shanmukha Priya and Begada.
His music Cutcheries lasted for 4 to 5 hours. As Sri M. Jagannatha Rao rightly commented,
Vinjamuri had the emotion of Musiri and Semmangudi, the steadiness and techniques of
Ariyakudi and the tala sense of Chittoor.
Stalwarts, like Karur
Chinnaswamy Iyer, Kumbakkonam Rajamanikyam Pillai, Mysore T. Choudiah, Papa Venkatarama
Iyer and others provided Violin accompaniment to him. The percussionists included
Pudukkotai Dakshinamurthy Pillai, Phalghat Mani Iyer, Pazhani Subramania Pillai, Kolanka
Venkataraju, Yella Somanna and others on the Mridangam and T. S. Bilvadri Iyer, Alangudi
Ramachandran, Annavarapu Gopalam, K. S. Manjunathan and others on Kanjira.
Vinjamuri sang at the palace
of the Maharaja of Travancore in the presence of the late Chitra Tirunal in the 1930s.
Impressed by his rendering of the Todi raga he was called 'Todi Varadaraja Iyengar'. He
also sang Nee Chittamu, the Dhanyasi raga kriti of Thyagaraja at the Muthyala Samsthanam
in the presence of his first guru Sankara Sasrty. He made a detailed Neraval at the
charanam "Guruve Chilla Ginja". Moved by the singing of his disciple, which was
full of bhava, Sastry shed tears and composed poems extempore, blessing his disciple. It
is said that Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar was to give a concert at the Rasikaranjani Sabha,
Madras, way back in 1935 with Kumbakkonam Rajamanikyam Pillai on the Violin and Pudukkotai
Dakshinamurthy Pillai on the Mridangam as accompanists. Just before the concert, Ariyakudi
developed a severe cold and his voice was hoarse. As there was no time to cancel the
program, Ariyakudi asked Varadaraja Iyengar to take his place. The latter, then a young
man of 20 years, sang with a lot of trepidation but at the end of the concert Ariyakudi as
well as the others praised his concert.
In 1939, Vinjamuri recorded
'O Jagadamba' in Anandabhairavi and 'Sree Subrahmanyaya' in Kambhoji for Odeon. But, his
guru, Tiger, told him that it was not good to give gramophone recordings (Tiger never gave
any himself). Being a devout disciple, Varadaraja Iyengar immediately had the recordings
withdrawn, even before it was processed and never again gave a recording. Though available
recordings of his music are few, Vinjamuri left a large and rich treasure of tape
recordings of master musicians.
Vinjamuri became the
founder-principal of the college of music, Hyderabad in 1952 - 1953 but resigned when he
found the job was not to his liking. Subsequently, he was appointed as the producer of
music at All India Radio, Hyderabad. Bhakthi Ranjani, Sangeetha Sikshana, Vadya Brindam,
Musical Operas, which are commonly heard, were introduced by him for the first time at
AIR-Hyderabad. He held the post till 1964 when he returned to Madras and stayed there till
1988.
Sri Varadaraja Iyengar
composed Thana Varnams in Ghanaraga Malika, Sinduramakriya and Swararanjani. He also
composed krithis in Hemavathi, Bhilahari, Karaharapriya and Sankarabharanam. His Tillanas
in Hamirkalyani and Hindolum are very popular as dance numbers. He also composed a javali
in Manirangu. He was a musicologist and a prolific writer on music. He delivered lectures
on All India Radio, Hyderabad and Vijayawada in Telugu, Tamil and English languages. His
articles were published by many music magazines as well as Vani, Vanoli and Indian
listener of the All India Radio. He gave lecture-cum-demonstrations to several
distinguishes visitors including music professors from Western Universities giving the
relative merits of the Indian and Western Music systems.
A string of titles and
honours adorned him: Gold Medal of Music Academy, Madras (1936), Ganavidhya Visharada
(1938), Gayakaratna (1941), Ganakalanidhi (1950), Gayaka Sarvabhouma (1956), Sangeetha
Jyothi (1962), Ganakala Prapoorna (1971), Gana Lahari (1981) and Sangeetha Ratnakara
(1982).
Associated with a number of
music Sabhas, Vinjamuri was a member of the Executive Committee, Andhra Pradesh Sangeetha
Nataka Academy, Hyderabad and also a member as well as Dean of Board of studies of Andhra,
Osmania and Madras Universities for over two decades.
Vinjamuri trained numerous
pupils of whom quite a few have become professional artists including K. Chandramouli,
Principal of Government College of Music, Kurnool. During his last days, Vinjamuri spent
most of his time in writing Ramakoti and meditation of Lord Rama. He passed away on August
16, 1991.
It is a matter of
satisfaction that the dutiful children of Vinjamuri are taking steps to perpetuate their
father's memory and for propagating his ideals. They have published a book entitled
'Sangeetha Vahini' (Volume 1) being a collection of the lectures and articles in English
and Telugu on Carnatic Music, dedicated to Lord Ramachandra of Badrachalam, Vinjamuri's
Ista Devata. It is planned to have a regular library of cassettes of great musicians
collected by Vinjamuri at a suitable place. Five of his children are in USA and five in
India, all well settled. Sri Iyengar's son, Sri V. Govindarajan, IAS, is Secretary to
Government of Andhra Pradesh in the Social Welfare Department.