His fingers weave magic with ragas

His fingers weave magic with ragas

His bow can delight the connoisseur and the common man alike. LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN profiles Kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan, versatile violinist.

IT WOULD be interesting to know that Kunnakkudi (place in Sivaganga district, also known as Kundrakudi) Vaidyanathan, as a boy, had no inclination whatsoever towards music. His father, Sangita Sahitya Harikathapraveena Ramaswamy Sastri, could present a hundred different stories as Harikatha kalakshepam; he had several students learning the Vedas, Sastras and music under him in his school, Sri Shanmukha Vidyasalai. His daughters/disciples Subbulakshmi and Sundaralakshmi used to present vocal music concerts accompanied on the mridangam by their elder brother Ganapathisubramaniam, a Hindi pundit. Violin support was provided by Haridas Rao, a friend of Sastri, from nearby Tirupathur. Though Sastri himself knew to play the violin and the veena, he would play them only during his puja and when teaching his students. He used to research on various aspects of music and discuss them with Annaswamy Gurukkaland Dr. Ganapathisubramaniam, a physician who was also a musicologist.

Vaidyanathan was not keen on attending school either, but would go and spend most of his time at the Kunnakkudi Shanmukanathar temple atop the small hill, also known as Mayuragiri. Clad in a dhoti and sporting a string a Rudrakshas round his neck and the holy ash on his forehead, his hair tied into what was then known asappalakudumi, he would listen to Shanmukhasahasranamam recited by priests. Soon he learnt to chant it himself along with the priests and was even paid an anna in appreciation of his talent. He did not take his mother Meenakshi Ammal's advice to learn some music from his father seriously. As he showed some interest in learning the Vedas he was enrolled in to a Vedapatasala, where he learnt the Vedas and Sanskrit. And destiny interfered. On one Karthigai festival day, Haridas did not turn up to play the violin for the sisters' concert at the temple. When questioned the next day by Sastri, he replied rather indifferently that he could not make it. Adding insult to injury, he said that it was an irony that Sastri, who had trained the daughters to sing and a son to play the mridangam, depended upon Haridas for the violin. Could the senior not train his `useless son Vaidyanathan?' At that moment the nine-year old boy walked in. The father just held his arm and declared, ``I shall make him a fine violinist!" much to the amusement of the family members who had gathered there. The boy did not understand what was going on. His mother told the boy that it was the command of Lord Shanmukhanatha and if he refused to learn she would not talk to him any more. That did it! ``I can't explain even today how I managed it. Within a year I learnt and practised vigorously — played the Sarali and Janta Varisais several times in a day and was ready to accompany my sisters in their concert." By eleven, he had become competent in accompaniment and used to play for many young artistes at the Tyagaraja festival conducted by Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar at Karaikudi.

It was in Karaikkudi that a turning point awaited. Sastri had taken Vaidyanathan to the Vaikunta Ekadasi festival concert at the Krishna temple organised by Gadikarakadai Nayudu, a local bigwig. Ariyakkudi, who was performing asked the boy the songs that he had learnt to play. Hearing the reply, he said, ``You will accompany me in the concert today." The violinist, who was to accompany the vocalist, had not turned up. Much to the delight of young Vaidyanathan, Ariyakkudi sang all the kritis he knew and encouraged him. After that there was no looking back. Vaidyanathan accompanied senior vidwans of the day including Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, T. K. Rangachari, Sathur Subramaniam, Sankarasivam and Palakkad Rama Bhagavatar. Accompanying other instruments is an art and Kunnakkudi proved good in that too and supported several Jalatarangam artistes and maestros like veena Balachandar a number of times. Even at the age of 14, he could boast of a repertoire of over 500 kritis. ``There is something called Sahitya bowing and I learnt the nuances," Vaidyanathan explains.Kunnakkudi was always fond of cinema music. In his young days the songs were based on classical music. He had accompanied M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavatar in his vocal concerts on the violin. At the age of 16 he had gone to Coimbatore to Modern Theatres and with much difficulty got the opportunity to play in G. Ramanathan's orchestra. He assured his father that he would practise enough to make sure that the fingering and bowing techniques of classical music were not affected. He continued to accompany many Carnatic vidwans like Madurai Somu.

Through perseverance he became a leading violinist in the group of music director, S. M. Subbiah Naidu, whom he considered a role model. The desire to score music for films was overwhelming. But a prerequisite was he had to compose tune for devotional songs. This he did — for 1,800 songs for HMV and Columbia records between 1955 and 1963 in various languages.

Vaidyanathan is known for his excellent fingering technique, with which he can simulate sounds of animals, birds, man, woman, child, elements of Nature, etc. His inspiration for this was the western violinist, Paganini; Vaidyanathan had read somewhere that Paganini, after learning different styles of music, began trying to imitate sounds of Nature. ``I could do it by using some of the techniques of Dasavidha Gamakas of Carnatic music," says Vaidyanathan.

A producer of Vadyavrinda in All India Radio, Chennai, he recalls `Kaveri' as the highlight. He traced the flow of River Cauvery from its origin to its destination with a single violin, that he played, and a tabla. The production won an award and Vaidyanathan decided to become a solo player. Several hours of practice in a day helped him realise his ambition and he has been a successful solo violinist for the past 32 yeas. His pursuit on the cinema front also produced results with director, A. P. Nagarajan, inviting him to compose music for ``Vaa Raja Vaa" in July 1969.

That was the beginning of a long line of films. Among the memorable ones are ``Rajaraja Cholan" for which he made three famous singers — S. Varalakshmi, T. R. Mahalingam and Sirkazhi Govindarajan — to sing together adjusting to their different srutis. Here, one must remember that there was no track recording those days. `Agathiyar' featured a 16-raga song.

He also produced films like ``Thodi Ragam" with Madurai Seshagopalan and ``Kandar Alangaram." ``Ula Vanda Nila" awaits release. He has sung playback in a few films and even acted in many films for which had his music direction.

Of late, Vaidyanathan has been composing music for dance dramas. The most recent one, choreographed by Krishnakumari Narendran, is ``Venkatadri Vaibhavam," Earlier he chose 22 verses from Ramalinga Adigal's work and composed them for ``Arul Adal" produced by Abhinaya Natyalaya.

Claims Kunnakkudi, ``I have no generation gap; I can play to please a child, a teenager or the elderly; if you want pure classical music, I can give it; if you want me to please the common man, you will have it. I have performed at the Tansen festival at Lucknow and surprised the audience by playing with the Hindustani flavour."

A project that has given Vaidyanathan immense satisfaction is the Kunnakkudi Sangeetha Gurukulam started three years ago for teaching his style of playing the violin. He insists that one must learn vocal music to capture the nuances in the instrument.

At present, Vaidyanathan is busy with his Raga Research Centre. After observing the effect of some ragas on human beings, like Neelambari in putting a child to sleep, he started researching on various ragas.

Muthuswami Dikshitar was able to bring rain by singing Amirthavarshini. Kunnakkudi wondered why not follow the example of such great souls. In fact he was able to revive his father from coma by playing Bhairavi at his bedside. How does one associate a raga to a particular human quality? The name of the raga gives a clue, says Vaidyanathan.

"Music has no barrier. The seven notes take different forms in the different music systems of the world," he says. So far he has been able to define sixteen ragas and their beneficial effects.

The Raga Research Centre was made possible by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalitha's suggestion when she presided over the function to celebrate 25 years of Kunnakkudi's solo violin playing and the Centre now gets State Government aid.

All his children, four sons and a daughter, have learnt music.