Contributions of Music Academy

[vasanthakokilam]

About the discomfort with bringing in other personalities

On a strictly lighter note and without creating any impression of exact analogies, this issue is sort of similar to how one can explain Rama's exile from Ayodhya without bringing in kaikEyi

[cmlover]

Arasi
you forgot the punctuation
kiNaRu veTTa, bUdam kiLambiadu pOl
like the famous prisoner who got released by inserting the comma in the sentence:
Hang not, to be released..

[arasi]

CML,
I think you got the idea after reading Suresh's post of how he understood it. That's it!

VK,
In a lighter vein again (which is better than going to the academy for an afternoon concert with the sole intention of making every minute of it siesta time ):

sItaikku rAman chittappAvA? kind of (nodding off in a kAlakshEpam kind of people) won't know the difference if rAmAyaNa had no kaikEyi!

[cmlover]

Arasi
You are missing VK's point.
(unless you want intentionally to divert attention

[arasi]

All I'm trying is to keep my focus on the MA

[RaviSri]

The turbaned gentleman is K.V.Krishnaswami Iyer, President of the Academy. As arasi says, it is Govenor Sri Prakasa next to Kamaraj. cienu must be right. I have heard it was TKM who accompanied MS that day.

[RaviSri]

As I had posted earlier, Nehru took immense interest and pride in the Academy auditorium. He would urge his ministers, industrialists, foreign diplomats to 'go see the construction of the Academy auditorium'. One personality who was immersed in the building activity was Sri Easwaran, yes, DKP's husband. He literally lived on the premises during the construction. He was an engineer and the Academy asked him to oversee the construction. Easwaran looked after the finer details. He must be remembered for his contributions to the building of the auditorium.

The idea was to build an auditorium which did not need to have artificial amplification. Experts were consulted and the building was designed in such a way that would help natural acoustics and obviate the need for mikes, speakers etc. But that did not fructify properly and the plan was abandoned.

[cienu]

Cienu,
Knowing how avidly your mother collected autographs and photographs, isn't there one in her collection of the event?

Arasi,

This picture is not there. I will try and see if there are any other pictures of this event.

[RaviSri]

I had forgotten to upload two picture belonging to 1934 and 1936. Here they are:

http://i45.tinypic.com/2mcjfjo.jpg
http://i50.tinypic.com/2w4ybs3.jpg

In the first, from left to right, Madurai Shanmukavadivu, Madras Lalithangi, Madurai Shanmukavadivu's daughter, who later became famous as..., then C.Saraswati Bai, and Ustad Nazeeruddin, a court musician of Holkar State in North India. Sitting on the ground is Madras Lalithangi's daughter who later became famous as....

The second photo is of the daughter of Damal Krishnaswamy Deekshitar who became famous as.......

Both photos were taken at the Academy's conferences in 1934 and 1935 respectively.

MS made her debut at the Academy in December 1935 and DKP in December 1936. The fee for DKP including accompanists was Rs.25/. DKP returned the fee as donation to the Academy. Thereafter all her performances for the Academy were for free. DKP was and is the only artist to have sung at the Academy continuously for 50 years. And in 1985, it was her 50th performance. It was a morning concert and all the bigwigs were present, including MS/Sadasivam, Semmangudi, MLV, Conference President Dr.S.Ramanathan and others. The auditorium was full. After an emotionally surcharged concert, DKP was given a standing ovation.

[RaviSri]

http://i50.tinypic.com/wtefys.jpg

In 1947, the Academy purchased the above property which was called 'Sweet Home' by its owners. This is the bungalow that stood on the premises that now houses the Academy auditorium. The property was purchased by the Academy for Rs. One lakh and ten thousand.

[cienu]

RaviSri: thanks for those pictures. Smt MSS has pretty much been at the very center of every good deed that happened in CM in the last century!
Cienu, Are you sure it is Murthy-sir in that picture? It is too grainy to make out, but my guess is Mavelikkara Krishnan. Perhaps your mother could confirm...As Arasi says, perhaps a higher-res picture from her collection would be great to see.

Do we know what year that was?

Dear Ramesh,
The Mridangam Vidwan is TKM for sure who has in this picture turned himself to face the audience and the PM during the speech !
The date of the function was Oct 3rd 1955.

[mahavishnu]

thanks, Cienu.

[cmlover]

WOW! Those pictures are collector's items! Especially the first one!
Thanks!!

[arasi]

Sweet Home must have been sold to a book seller, at least for a short time??
The sign says: puthaga viRpanai nilayam.

[RaviSri]

arasi, it was not sold, it was rented out by the Academy to a writer called Govindan who had a store of books written by him and other authors on the ground floor. Since he defaulted on paying he rent a few times he had to be evicted it seems. Thereafter no one was rented that place.

[Rangadu]

Sadir means BEAUTY.....

in the nalayara divya prabandham , the great nammalvar writes

Sadirana rathi maami....

Sadir was a term used to describe beauty..... sadirattam meant the dance of beauty....

all this Bharatanatyam and new nomenclature was devised by V Raghavan who also came out with the idea of
Bha = bhava
Ra = raga
Tha = tala

it sounded charming and easily acceptable to the brahminical elite who were dying to displace the poor innocent devadasis.....

ALSO.......Rukmini devi was NOT the 1st brahmin woman to dance......Kanakanahalli Papamma , a brahmin dancer from konkan region was already employed decades before by the Mysore royal family as a palace dancer....
so Rukmini was just a lot of hot air and gas!

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Sadir means BEAUTY.....
in the nalayara divya prabandham , the great nammalvar writes
Sadirana rathi maami....

Would you please quote the verse ?

[rshankar]

Rukmini devi was NOT the 1st brahmin woman to dance......

She never claimed she was....

Rukmini was just a lot of hot air and gas!

Takes one to know one I guess...

[rshankar]

Sadir means BEAUTY.....

It means many things, in addition to beauty, and should be interpreted contextually.
From the online dictionary:
1 catir 1. greatness, excellence; 2. fortune, blessing; 3. beauty, loveliness; 4. state, condition; 5. cheapness, low price; 6. economy, frugality
2 catir boundary, limit
3 catir nautch
4 catir slight effort which produces great results (TLS)

ANDAL says 'sadir-iLa mangayar tAm vandedir koLLa' - and it can mean both beautiful young girls as well as dancing girls, IMO.

[SrinathK]

Rukmini devi was NOT the 1st brahmin woman to dance......

She never claimed she was....

Rukmini was just a lot of hot air and gas!

Takes one to know one I guess...

He has 22 posts, 18 of which are all bitter and cynical. He has a lot of gas to vent I guess.

[shankarank]

Hilarious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZXB1cUo9aI

I must admit. I never knew of this lady before this! Her name only faintly resonating!

There she demolishes the high-class low-class sub-altern theorists : https://youtu.be/mZXB1cUo9aI?t=1187