Tiruvarur Ramaswamy Pillai

[HarishankarK]

Any information on the above mentioned composer will be very much appreciated.

[kittappa]

Tiruvarur Ramaswami Pillai (TRP) was the disciple of Shuddha Maddalam Tambiyappan, who was in turn, a direct disciple of Dikshitar. TRP has composed quite a few songs, famous of them being 'ekkAlathilum unnai maravAmalE' in purvikalyANi.

[kittappa]

Another of his compositions is 'jagadIshwari' in mOhanam.

RaviSri has mailed me something very interesting. One of the disciples of TRP was Vazhuvur Sundaram Pillai to whom TRP taught a lot of Dikshitar songs. This Sundaram Pillai was the father of Tamil cine playback singer C.S.Jayaraman (of 'Atyiram kaN pOdAdu vaNNakkiLiyE', 'indru pOy nALAi vArAi' fame). Sundaram Pillai was also the first father-in-law of former TN Chief Minister Karunanidhi.

[kittappa]

Sundaram Pillai also taught the Embar family, Embar Vijayaraghavachariar and his brothers. The Embar brothers had a large repertoire of rare Dikshitar songs.

[rshankar]

IIRC, Sri Ramasami Pillai is supposed to have composed a ragamAlika with a different rAgA for each caraNam and what's unique, a different language.
Can anyone confirm?

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

Apropo Kittappa's post--Ramaswamy Pillai did not have many disciples besides Vazhuvoor Sundaram Pillai(VSP) but VSp was a storehouse(Kalanjiyam in Tamil) of Dikshitar kritis--although Ramswamy Pillai was a disciple of Thambiappan,he used to visit Sattanur Panchannada

a Iyer--the youngest disciple of Dikshitar--there was great artistic collaboration between Ramswamy Pillai and the Dhanammal families and the families of Tiruppamburam Natarajasundaram Pillai(father of the Flautist Tiruppamburam Swaminatha Pillai -a contemporary of Flute Mali)--both the families were disciples of Panchanada Iyer(they used to call him fondly as our Sattanur Ayya.
Although this thread is about Ramaswamy Pillai,special mention should be made of the Dhanammal family's contribution to preserving Dikshithar Kritis sheen and authenticity--they persevered under severe economic hardships without compromise and posterity owes a lot to the families for what we have now.

On a personal note--I do not want to stir up a controversy--when I was a student in the 50's and 60's in Chennai attending the Academy concerts I used to hear "ad nauseum' how T.L.Venkatrama Iyer and DKP(thro Ambi Dikshitar) have been the torchbearers of the Dikshitar tradition--very little mention was made of the Dhanammal families connection to the direct disciples of Dikshitar and their contributions.
When Ambi Dikshitar died DKP was about 17 years old--how many krithis could she have learnt--I am not trying to disparage anybody here but a little perspective is in order here. For that matter I would consider the late S. Rajam a more authentic torchbearer of the Dikshitar tradition inasmuchas he had learnt under Ambi Dikshitar. If I am wrong I would stand corrected.
The point I am making is that the Dhanamma family took it upon themselves to preserve the Dikshitar tradition(rather than indulge in their own compositions with their own mudrais etc)--for that matter they dedicated themselves equally to preserving the Thyagaraja School(thro the Walajapet/Nainapillai lineage.
At a time when leading musicians like TMK are questioning the wisdom of concert traditions and krithi expositions etc,we ought to pause to think but for those yesteryear stalwarts and their loyal disciples propagating the tradition, where would our concerts be ?

Sorry for the digression from the main thread!!!

[meerag56]

Tiruvarur Ramaswami Pillai (TRP) was the disciple of Shuddha Maddalam Tambiyappan, who was in turn, a direct disciple of Dikshitar. TRP has composed quite a few songs, famous of them being 'ekkAlathilum unnai maravAmalE' in purvikalyANi.

Can I have the lyrics of the purvikalyani krithi please?

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Can I have the lyrics of the purvikalyani krithi please?

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=12696

[sam]

"DK Pattammal-
Ekkalathilum-
Purvikalyani-
Adi-
Tiruvarur Ramaswamy Pillai"
https://youtu.be/WeTS44XZMHU?si=8-AH3TKd4XFH_S3f

[sam]

"ML Vasanthakumari -

jagadIshvari krupai puri -

mOhanam -

Tiruvarur Ramasami Pillai"

https://youtu.be/ub8b4oZNLEg?si=capSYeChHqvaP86k