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Kalpagam Swaminathan -
A passionate veena vidushi |
She is well into her 80s. But the age has not mellowed
her passion for veena. The teacher par excellence
is still willing to take on newer students! She
was conferred the title Acharya Choodamani by Sri
Krishna Gana Sabha in 2005. Noted musicologist Professor
P. Sambamurthy once called her 'Saveri Kalpagam'.
Not just that. Kalpagam is acknowledged as an authority
on Dikshitar kritis.
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Kalpagam Swaminathan performing
at
the Naada Inbam |
Kalpagam Swaminathan performed Dikshitar's
Tyagaraja Vibhakthi kritis at Naada Inbam in Chennai
recently. She is slated to give a veena performance
at the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana on March 23,
2008. The grand old veena artiste is set to perform
in the U.S. for the first time, perhaps.
Endowed with Tanjavur-style of Veena playing technique,
Kalpagam Swaminathan goes down the memory lane in
a chat with Sudha Jagannathan.
Formative
years
I was born in a village called Sethalapathi. Lord
Rama was believed to have performed libations of
water to his father King Dasaratha here. It was
known as Thilatarpana Kuzhi. It came to be called
as Sethalapathi. It is 15 miles from Mayavaram.
From the village Poonthotam, one has to go to this
place. There is also a temple for Goddess Saraswathi
in Kothanoor, a near-by village. There is a river
“Arasilaru” here. I stayed in the village
till I was eight. When my father passed away, I
was just 1-1/2 years old. We didn’t have very
close relatives to take care of us. I had an uncle
named Vaidyanatha Swamy. He was a professor in Mathematics.
He is no more now. He passed away in 1960. He was
studying in Germany. He came to know of our plight
only when he came to our village. When he saw us,
he requested us to come to Madras. My mother was
quite young then. She was hardly 22 years. I was
born at that time. My uncle felt it wiser for us
to be in Madras and, hence, we had all shifted there.
I came to Madras when I was eight. Till then, I
never knew about school teaching. But I had a gifted
knowledge in music. My mother had learnt harmonium
in those days. She used to sing quite well.
Learning Experience
I started learning music from the age of six. My
mother had a lot of knowledge in music. She had
so much knowledge in music that she was even capable
of training me in big kritis that could be performed
on a stage. My mother’s name is Abayambal.
There was one Srinivasan Pichumani abroad. I didn’t
know him. Even he did not know me. He and others
had learnt Navavarana kritis from my mother. After
I came to Madras, I had learnt important kritis
of Muthuswamy Dikshitar. Shri Ananthakrishna Iyer,
who came from the lineage of Muthuswamy Dikshitar,
taught me these. He was my uncle’s friend.
He was known as Kaladaikuruchi Ananthakrishna Iyer.
When I came to Madras, I could not go to school
directly without prior education. I was already
eight years by then. So I had to undergo tuition.
Only thereafter, I was put formally in a corporation
school. I joined standard five there. All these
were possible, thanks to my eldest uncle. I was
then put to the veena class. After attending my
school, I used to go to the veena class daily. We
used to have veena class for an hour and another
hour was dedicated to vocal music. It was the beginning
stage in the veena. We had to know the playing technique.
Whatever we sing, we couldn’t reproduce in
the veena easily. Veena has got a procedure of it’s
own. From the beginning, I learnt it with lot of
dedication. I never missed going to school even
for a day. First, I went to a corporation school
and later on to the National Girls High School.
I felt it very interesting to read and learn English
as I did not study it before. Once our teacher asked
us the meaning of “Rosy”. Everybody
looked blank. Suddenly I got up and replied, “She
was rose in colour.” I couldn’t explain
that her complexion was rose etc. Immediately, I
was promoted to the next class for the subject English.
I had to study in the same class for other subjects.
It is funny to remember these. I went to veena class
punctually. Kaladaikuruchi Vedantha Bagavathar and
others conducted exams in veena. They all were the
colleagues of my guru. He tested us in innovative
ways. He would ask me to tune the veena. He would
then ask funny questions. “I am flying in
an aeroplane and what is the shruti of it?’’
he would ask. I used to feel scared when I see him.
Thanks to these tests, I reached a position. But
I didn’t go to competition for a long time.
I had seen a veena competition and the way it was
conducted. It then occurred to me that even I knew
to play a little veena. Let me also go and play
there, I felt. I didn’t have a good veena.
There was a principal in Queen Mary’s College.
Her name was Bhavani Swaminathan. She couldn’t
hear properly. The veena I had was not of good quality.
The sound was not clearly audible. Someone named
Rajalakshmi… I don’t remember exactly,
who brought a good veena with a velvette covering
and played well to win the prize. I thought the
judges had given the prize to a deserving candidate
only. She had played better than me. I should play
much better I thought. When I got down from the
stage, Vidya Shankar’s father C.S.Iyer quipped,
`` What Kalpam? Don’t you have any other veena?’’
``I would have given Vidya’s veena had I known
that you are also competing,’’ he went
on to say. ``Why did you play in this? You played
well but it was not audible,’’ he said.
I sensed that many people known to the winner were
around us. So I felt a little delicate at his comments.
I was not so close to him. Hence, I told him that
I would accept his offer afterwards. And, I quickly
fled the place and headed home.
Participating
in competition
After that, I didn’t participate in any competition
for quite a long time. All of a sudden, I thought
that I must participate in that year’s competition.
At the time of competition, however, I had a viral
typhoid. I had applied for vocal and veena competitions.
I had prepared a separate list of kritis for each
contest. I knew all kritis well. Yet, I felt nervous.
Hence, I selected small kritis to play in the veena.
I thought I could also display Tanam in the veena.
I got the first prize. But I wasn’t even in
a position to play. T.L.Venkatramaiyer saw me in
the hall and enquired, “Are you from the hospital
right now?’’ I was taken aback. I was
so sick then. My condition was so bad that I was
given a bath and put on to the bed in my room by
my mother. The competition happened during this
time. I went in a rickshaw. I was lying at the back
with pillows and my sister came along in another
rickshaw with the veena. When I reached the competition
hall, I barely had any strength. I felt very weak.
My mother told me that she was glad that I was alive.
She said I could participate in the next year’s
competition. I told her that I had applied for both
veena and vocal contests and that my friends and
others would make fun of me if I did not take part
in the competition. People would have said that
if there were to be a dance competition, Kalpagam
would have applied for that as well but would not
have appeared. I was not in a position to sing.
I was the first candidate in the veena contest.
The judge was ‘Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer’.
My sister fetched the veena for me and kept it on
the stage and left. She asked me if she could set
the shruti. I told her I would do it myself. I felt
I must have cut a sorry figure with my appearance.
I could sense some guys in the audience murmuring
something about me. When I tuned the shruti, there
was a complete silence. Then they asked me to play
“Intachala” Varnam in Begada ragam in
Adi tala. I played it. Then they asked the organizers
to fetch my list of kritis for the competition.
They seemed to have lost the list of kritis that
I had submitted for my veena recital. Instead, they
had fetched the list of kritis that I had given
for the vocal competition. I told them that I had
given an entirely different list for veena. But
they could not locate it. I agreed to play from
the vocal list that I had given them. I knew I could
do it. They asked me to play “Balagopala”.
Then they asked for Dhanyasi and a few other ragas.
Then they asked for Sahana. I brought the nuances
of the raga within two-to-three minutes. As I was
expecting them to ask more ragas, they signaled
me to end.
Saveri Kalpagam
Prof. Sambamurthy, Head of the Department in Music
(Madras), and my uncle, who was the Head of the
Department in Mathematics, used to communicate with
each other. My uncle enquired if I (his niece) could
do some exams in music. He asked Sambamurthy about
those exams. There was a higher grade exam and a
lower grade one. In lower grade, Swaravali, Alamkaram
and the like formed the syllabus. My uncle told
him that I could do better than this. The students
required two years for lower and higher grades examinations.
But I directly went to the higher exam. There was
only four months left for the exams. I didn’t
know much about the theory part. I did not even
know Sa means Sadja. My uncle bought me one or two
books and asked me to sit in the room upstairs and
read it. He told me not to gossip with my mother
and other relatives in the house. I was just readying
to learn that `Sa’ meant Sadja. At this level,
I was going to take a higher exam! I got a first
class in the higher grade exams. A part of the syllabus
contained Raga Alapana and Kalpana swaras. I told
my uncle that I needed a teacher to learn these.
He laughed thunderously as if the building would
collapse. I could not understand what was wrong
in the question. He pointed to the Manodarma and
Kalpitha Sangeetham. Geetham, Swarajathi, Varnam
etc are Kalpita Sangeetham. Manodarma meant it should
be creative. It had to come on its own. Even kalpana
swaras also had to come with the laya or tala. If
the Manodarma Sangeetha was learnt from the teacher,
it would become his Manodarma and not mine, he reasoned.
I told this to my mother. My mother told me that
we would attend as many veena concerts as possible.
I listened to many veena concerts. I by-hearted
some of those kritis played in concerts. My mind
did not agree with the way they played. In those
days, there was one Muluku Sivananda Sastry from
Andhra Pradesh. He played the Andhra bani, which
was entirely different. I enjoyed playing the Tanjavur
bani. Veena playing should be of a high standard.
Hence, I told my mother I could enjoy only a few
of those concerts. My mother told me to listen to
the All-India Radio for vocal and veena concerts.
After listening quite a while on the radio, I went
to take up the exam in front of Prof. Sambamurthy.
He asked me to sing a Varnam. I glanced to see if
they appreciated my music. Then he asked me to sing
Saveri. I felt nervous. As I sang, I gained confidence.
I did sanchara in the Sadja and traveled the upper
octave. In those days, there was one Todi Seetharamaayya
who sang the Todi raga for eight days. He praised
me and said, ``Not bad. I think you can be called
Saveri Kalpagam.’’ I felt happy when
I came out. I sang at the age of 11 in the Radio.
T.L.Venkatrama Iyer took me there. There was no
All India Radio at that time. There was this music
for park-goers broadcast through radio.
Her teachers
Ananthakrishna Iyer was my guru. I learnt
for only three years from him. My mother also had
aught me music. She also learnt veena as I was learning
that instrument. She could play harmonium with gamakas.
For any instrument, vocal is the base. Nobody can
deny this. I followed a technique. The way I play
will seem entirely different. But the result will
give a vocalized music in veena. For raga Hindolam,
"Panchamam" should not be heard - " ni da ma " -
but I will place my fingers on the panchama. It
cannot be explained unless you know the technique.
The Mysore bani differs. So does the Andhra bani.
They won't touch the panchama and Sadja when they
play. Veena has perished because we don't understand
the technique behind this. We were taught the tala
for all the three speeds. Nowadays, tala is not
given much importance. In veena, first we play the
swaras. The keerthana (sahitya) will be played separately.
When you teach the children in an interesting way,
they would surely like it.
I did not have a father to guide as I lost him very
early. My uncle was a Maths professor. He took utmost
care to do his duty and was pre-occupied with his
profession. There was no one to help me. What could
my mother do? I had played at the Music Academy
continuously for four years. Veena player E.Gayatri’s
mother, Kamala Aswathama, was my student. I taught her when she came
to Kalakshetra as my student. She stayed with me
for two years. She had played along with me in concerts.
Kalakshetra
days
There was this Rajalakshmi Narayanan, who
worked as my assistant in the college. It was a
great thing when I went to the college. I got the
first prize in the college. S. Balachander's father
came to my house and asked me to play the "Intachala"
varnam. He said that there was a vacancy in Kalakshetra.
The style of my playing impressed him very much.
I could not agree to take up the teaching profession.
What did I know about teaching? I thought then.
I did not go to the Kalakshetra as requested by
him. He came to my house and regretted to my mother
about this. My mother was angry with me. She asked
me to just apply for the post. So I had to apply.
Within a day or two, I was called for the interview.
When I went to Kalakshetra, I was weak following
a fever. Budalur Krishnamurthy Sastri was present
there with a Gotuvadya. He asked me: "Are you the
one who had come for the interview?'' He tuned the
veena for me and asked to check it. I was checking
the level of shruthi. At the same moment, there
appeared Tiger Varadachari. Sundaram Iyer, Balachander's
father, advised me that in Kalakshtra singing was
mainly for dance. He said Tiger Varadachari would
ask me to sing. Iyer advised me to sing one or two
songs and take rest. Predictably, Tiger Varadachari
asked me to sing. He also listened to my veena.
As I was going away from the Kalakshtra, the peon
came running towards me. He told me that Tiger Varadachari
had asked me to come for the job the next day. I
was surprised and didn't expect this. Afterwards,
I went and told Rukmini Devi and asked for two month's
time. The prayer at Kalakshetra those days began
at 8.00 a.m. I was having a small kid at that time.
I was staying far away from the place. Hence, I
said I could not be present there in time. My husband
had a traveling job. So it would be difficult to
manage. My husband was my uncle and my mother's
brother. I traveled with Rukmini Devi on tours.
I played for the children who had even performed
the dance before Pandit Nehru. I used to play and
sing for the dance. That was the reason why I didn't
give solo performance. There was one K.S.Iyer from
HMV, who requested me to give an audio album. There
is no other album of mine at all. Dr. Priya is my
student in Chicago. I have played in an album with
her. That was only the recording I had done.
Her repertoire
My guru taught me Abayambal Navavaranams,
Kamalamaba's and group kritis consisting of Navagraha
kritis and two types of Panchalinga kritis. I learnt
from Ananthakrishna Iyer of Dikshitar lineage. Ambi
Dikshitar was a Dikshitar's disciple .I also learnt
from T.L.Venkatrama Iyer, who learnt from Ambi Dikshitar.
I had played with Budalur Krishnamurthy Sastri after
my appointment at the Kalakshetra. I also learnt
a few kritis (vocal) from Musiri Subramanya Iyer.
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Smt.Kamala Aswathama
Smt.Kamala Aswathama clarifies that she had never been a disciple of Chittibabu.
Editor: The error is regretted. And, the reference is dropped from the article.
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