MUSICOLOGIST DR.B.M. SUNDARAM’S 81ST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATED

[CRama]

Vani Sangeetha Gurukulam attached to Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha celebrated the eighty first birthday of its Director Dr.B.M.Sundaram- affectionately called as BMS by his fans and admirers- in a befitting manner in Vani Mahal, T.Nagar on 27 March 2016. I attended the function and my report was published in SAMUDRA April 2016. I reproduce the same here for the information of our members.

The function commenced with the invocation song by the students of the Gurukulam. Deccan Krishnamurthy, the President of Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha welcomed the dignitaries who have assembled to felicitate the Sathabhisheki and the large gathering who have assembled to be a part of the function. The Chief Guest of the day, Dr.V.Shankar, President, Shanmugananda Fine Arts and Sangeeta Sabha, Mumbai in his address mentioned that crossing eight one years is a definite milestone in one’s life. It is said in the SMRITI that even God worships the sahasrachandradarsi- i.e, a person who has completed eighty years and seen 1000 full moons and who lead a life which is beneficial to the society at large and Dr.BMS fits into this definition very perfectly. One common thing between Dr.Shankar and BMS is their unswerving devotion to H.H.Chandrasekharendra Swami of Kanchi mutt. On his Guru Dr. Balamuralikrishna’s advice, BMS has studied all the 5000+ palm leaf manuscripts maintained in Saraswati Mahal Library of Tanjore and documented them. He has researched into the life of Lavanis of Tanjore belt and written a biography of Tansen which brought him Kalabharati award. BMS has a Ph.D. from Norton University, Massachusetts for his thesis on ‘Ancient temple instruments of South India.'

A video message from Dr. Balamuralikrishna felicitating Dr. B.M.S was telecast at this juncture. Sekkizhar adipodi Dr.T.N.Ramachandran of Tanjore spoke briefly about the personality of Dr.BMS and blessed him long and active life. He also mentioned that there are many books of BMS which are still in manuscript stage and we should take earnest steps to publish them which will be beneficial to posterity.

Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr.R.Vedavalli had whole hearted appreciation of Sri. BMS‘s Guru bhakthi and referred with awe a slokam written by BMS on Dr.Balamuralikrishna which spoke volumes of his command over language as well. He is a composer par excellence in various languages and various genres of music. His compositions on the 108 Vaishnavite temples equate his anubhavam at par with the Alwars. Smt. Vedavalli mentioned that BMS, the multi linguist is a lexicon in music and he is very liberal in sharing his knowledge to seekers without any reservation. In this context, she expressed her gratitude to BMS for his support and guidance when Smt Vedavalli did a project on Mallari. She remembered his initiative to secure on the sport audition to Mandolin wizard U.Srinivas and secure A grade for him when BMS was in the service of Pondicherry AIR. She prayed Almighty to bless Dr. BMS- whom she considers as udan pirava sahodarar- with unfailing health and energy to continue his work related to music/dance.

Sri. A Sambandam, an advocate by profession and who is the organiser of Natyanjali Festival in Chidambaram mentioned about the support of BMS in conducting the Natyanjali every year in a grand manner. BMS, is equally familiar with music and dance, as his mother Balambal was a dancer and father, the renowned Tavildar- Meenakshisundaram Pillai. It was upon the persistence of BMS that Natyanajali was succeeded by a music festival for a week which gave an opportunity for local music enthusiasts to savour high quality music concerts in Chidambaram. BMS is a vaggeyakara of merit. Besides 22 varnams, he has composed hosts of kritis, javalis, thillanas etc in various languages- some of them in new ragas invented by him. He has written many historical books on music and dance which will remain a window for posterity to peep into our glorious music and dance history. To quote a few- Mangala isai mannargal which contained the life history of 126 Nagaswaram artistes, Marabu thantha manikkangal which contained biography of 121 dancers who belonged to the devadasi tradition, Marabu vazhi Bharata natya peraasaangal- life history of selected nattuvanars. He has compiled more than 7000 songs on Natarajar for use of dancers to present fresh pieces on Nataraja each year. Another remarkable work of BMS is that he has documented the daily rituals in the Natarajar temple and Nagaswaram pieces to be played in the temple during each function which will be a reference material for posterity to ensure that tradition is not distorted in Chidambaram temple. BMS is currently working on a similar project for Vaishnavite temples. All the above works will remain as the Magna carta for musicologists, musicians and dancers to learn about any particular aspect relating to music/dance.

Many musicians like P.S.Narayanaswamy, Chitraveena Narasimhan, Haridwaramangalam A.K.Palanivel, R.Suryaprakash, Father of Sikkil Gurucharan and sabha patrons felicitated Dr.B.M.Sundaram on this auspicious occasion.

[rajeshnat]

Crama
Nice writeup of a great researcher BMS. His knowledge especially on nagaswaram is so deep. Pranams on his 80th birthday

Lalitharam
I do know you have an intense respect for BMS . By any chance did you attend ?

[thanjavooran]

Crama,
A very good narration on Shri BMS Sathabhishegam function. My pranams to him. I never miss his Lec Dems which will be very educative and interesting with adequate references.
Thanjavooran
09 05 2016

[Pasupathy]

A great scholar and an ocean of knowledge.

[vichu1947]

Yes, he is a knowledge repository

BTW, what I hear is that the music students of Vani Mahal, to which BMS is closely connected to, were pressurised to run around and get sponsors and also contribute money from their pockets for this function.

Which is bad.