One student spoke, another performed while a friend presented Rajam, the artist, who was inspired by the paintings in Ajanta caves. ‘Remembering S. Rajam’, organised by Narada Gana Sabha and Sunaada Trust, brought alive memories of a multi-faceted personality.
Rajam, the musician, was known for his valiant efforts in promoting vivadi ragas when it was considered undesirable. The music fraternity also owes it to him for giving visual forms to the Trinity, which have become immortal representations.
Rare qualities
The participants at the tribute event included K. Harishankar, secretary, Narada Gana Sabha, Prof. S. Swaminathan, Dr. Prameela Gurumurthy, vocalists Akshay Padmanabhan and T.V. Ramprasadh.
Akshay recalled his interactions with the doyen, who taught him rare works of various composers. Referring to the maestro as a gentleman among musicians, he spoke of Rajam’s extraordinary memory, his ability and courage to sing pallavis in mela ragas.
Prof. Swaminathan referred to Rajam as the golden link between music and dance. “The childlike enthusiasm with which he watched the video I had made on the Ajanta art is still fresh in my memory. Chitra sutram mentioned in ancient literature was evident in the Ajanta Caves and the same qualities could be identified in Rajam’s paintings and drawings,” he said. Through power point, he explained the distinct style of Ajanta paintings and the fluid grace that marked Rajam’s works, who followed the unique method of applying 25 layers of colour and washed them ten to twelve times for a stunning effect.
T V Ramprasadh Photo: K.V.Srinivasan
Dr. Prameela Gurumurthy pointed out certain similarities between Ajanta and some East-Asian artefacts. The final segment of the event was a vocal concert by T.V. Ramprasadh, one of the senior students of S. Rajam. The vocalist presented kritis interspersed with anecdotes to highlight his teacher’s versatility, wisdom and gentle demeanour. He presented ‘Brochevarevare’ (Sriranjani) in which his guru would sing both swara and sahitya and ‘Kadaikkan vaithennai’ (Begada), where he used to come up swarakalpana in perfect sync with tala.
As Rajam was an expert not only in Koteeswara Iyer’s compositions but also Dikshitar, Ramprasadh presented the Vegavahini kriti ‘Veena pusthakadarinim.’ To underscore Rajam’s penchant for vivadi and mela ragas, Ramprasadh chose Naganandini for the Tyagaraja kriti ‘Sathaleni dinamulu’ with niraval and swaras for ‘Kalilona prathama pathamulu.’
Nagai Sriram rose to the challenge with equal ease on the violin. T.R. Sundaresan on the mridangam appended the kriti with a brief tani. On the whole an interesting exercise.
‘Kanda bhakta tharuve’ of Koteeswara Iyer in raga Syamalangi (Mela 55) came before the Sriraga kriti (‘Bhagyatha lakshmi’), which is mandatory to dispel any ‘vivadi dosham’ that might occur in a concert with many vivadi raga compositions.
Published - February 16, 2017 07:04 pm IST
