In this glorious atmosphere and environment charged with God's grace, there emerged some of the all time great musicians such as Sarvashri Semangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, Maharajapuram Krishnamurthy, Musiri Subramanya Iyer, Thuraiyur Rajagopala Sarma, Mannargudi Narasimhachariar, Madirimangalam Natesa Iyer, Kumbakonam Rajamanickkam pillai, Mayavaram Krishna Iyer, Mudikondan Venkatarama Iyer, Konerirajapuram Vaidyanatha Iyer, T.N.Rajarathanam Pillai, Vazhuvur Ramaiah pillai, Manakkal Rangarajan, Srivanjiyam Mani Iyer, Tirumathi K.B. Sundarambal, Tirumathi N.C.Vasantha kokilam...oh! the list is endless. One of them was the legendary singer-actor and carnatic musician, Sri M.K.Thyagaraja Bagavathar.
Could someone provide additional information on the musicians I have highlighted above in BOLD please? (and others if you like!) Thankyou.
Last edited by jayaram on 07 Jan 2007, 00:32, edited 1 time in total.
Vazhuvur Ramiah Pillai was a naTTuvanAr, and bharatanATyam teacher par-excellence. He was the torch-bearer of the style that evolved in the vazhuvUr village in tanjAvUr district - very highly picturesque, with beautiful leaps and poses. The naTTuvanArs of the old were superb teachers - no two of their students were taught alike, and no 2 came out alike - even if they had learnt the same pieces. Very different from the current practice where everyone is taught the same sanchArIs, same tIrmAnams etc...(Gowri Ramnarayan did a very nice op-ed piece on this very same issue for the Hindu sometime back). Ramiah Pillai also choreographed dances for movies when his star disciple Kamala danced in movies - the beauty of the dances in nAm iruvar, and dances for songs like tAyE yaSOdA, nAn unnai ninaikkAda nEram unDO, tUnDil puzhuvinai pOl, and many, many more owed as much to his choreography as they did to her artistic excellence.
I had a chance to hear Srivanjiyam Mani Iyer. Incidentally his style / voice is almost (not exact) replica of Madurai Mani Iyer . I heard thru Srivanjiyam Mani Iyer's daughter that he considered MMI as his mAnaseega guru(singing like MMI even though not even learning from him a bit,is that correct chalanata)and once some where in ThirunAgeshwaram temple near Kumbakonam when Srivanjiyam Mani Iyer was singing a day before MMI concert , even MMI mistook that that his recording was played .
Proof to the pudding ,I heard a recording of Srivanjiyam Mani Iyer , he sang all popular krithis of MMI like sarasa sAmadhana, mA JAnaki etc.. , that was almost replica of MMI . I heard from Srivanjiyam Mani Iyer's daughter that he has performed in and around Kumbakonam belt a lot and he was a grade II artist .
On a side note ,Srivanjiyam Mani Iyer stayed in Tippirajapuram village near Kumbakonam and he passed away around early 90's .I am assuming his age was 60 + .I fondly recollect him singing him for lot of my relatives marriage concerts from my ages 6 to 12.
Last edited by rajeshnat on 08 Jan 2007, 12:56, edited 1 time in total.
srivanjiam mani iyer was like 'ekalavya' is news to me. but i'm aware of one more ekalavya. it was karukuruchi arunachalam. an incident similar to the one you are describing happened in his life too.
Srivanjiyam Mani Iyer - he is a brother of Srivanjiyam Ramachandra Iyer who was also a Carnatic musician. In fact, to my knowledge, Smt S Sowmya learnt from Srivanjiyam Ramachandra Iyer.
Srivanjiyam Mani Iyer - though he sings like MMI, he was no disciple of MMI.
Just found this reference to Maharajapura Krishnamurthy - seems he was an actor:
"Bhama Vijayam" (1934) made in Calcutta and directed by Mani Lal Tandon and staring Maharajapuram Krishnamurthy and the famous stars of the stage P.S. Ratha Bai - P.S. Sardaswathi Bai was a big grosser. Produced at a cost of Rs. 80,000, the film collected one million rupees. A staggering fortune in the 1930’s. G.N. Balasubramaniam, handsome colleges graduate, classical Carnatic Musician made his debut in this film as the singing sage "Narada".