by M.L. Krishnaswamy

The Madras (Chennai) Music Academy is one of the oldest Music Sabhas or organisations catering to the South Indian or Karnatak style of music in the whole of South India. It’s deliberations or festivals celebrating music in all its variety and glory are conducted in the December month of each year, sometimes reaching out to early January also.

Each year the festival starts in the morning and goes through the day, culminating in a concert in the evening by a senior musician of the day. Each year they have made it a practice to invite a very senior Vidwan or Musician of the day to preside over a function, deliberating on the discussions and nuances of the Karnatak style of music and on the last day, he or she will be conferred with the title “Sangeetha Kalanidhi,” the highest award to be given to any musician of the region comprising the four major States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka.

This highly distinctive title — something akin to the ‘Tansen Samman’ in the North has been conferred on four senior musicians of Mysore namely, all late K. Vasudevacharya, T. Chowdaiah, Mysore V. Doreswamy Iyengar and R.K. Srikantan.

This is a great honour for Mysoreans and all of us should justly be proud of the four stalwarts mentioned above. I will write about these four gentlemen in my subsequent series. In fact, the latter two of the above four have been honoured with the Padma Bhushan.

Let me now deviate from the above for a while and write about another forgotten aspect of our heritage city and what our present day Mysoreans’ contributions should be to make Mysore truly befitting to earn that epithet. In this connection, Raga Vaibhav — a nearly decade old — had organised a musical discourse on Saint Thyagaraja last month by the well-known Vidushi Vishaka Hari of Chennai, who gave a splendid performance to a crowded audience of connoisseurs. She exhorted that Mysore should build beautiful Bhavans or Auditoria in the names of the above mentioned four stalwarts.

My suggestion in this connection are as follows:

(i) Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa and Basavanna are the three stellar names in the field of Music and Vachana in pure Kannada language. The former two created what is called ‘Dasa Sahitya’ while the third one created ‘Vachana Sahitya,’ both rich in literary content and philosophical output. We have to commemorate their rich legacy by constructing a beautiful memorial structure in the form of a central circle with three outshoots at 120° apart, each being dedicated to each of the above saints, as is indicated roughly below: and depicting and displaying the photographs, historical evidence and their voluminous contributions to the rich legacy of Kannada literature and music. The central circular building will have a small auditorium with a capacity of 100-200 to stage concerts relating to the above luminaries. The way they have enhanced the content of the Kannada culture is by all means fantastic and the above mentioned structure will be a display-edifice of

their works. This will truly be a notable addition to the heritage title of the city and the discerning tourists, both local and foreign will have a good time visiting this architectural marvel and savo- uring the music and songs of the trio in a compact place with facilities made available accordingly. In course of time, such a centre should become a veritable source of guidance and teaching to young artistes in the field. Audio & video and other adjunct facilities should also be made available in these structures.

(ii) How to fund the above effort?

There are many leading industrial houses in Mysore such as Infosys, Larson & Toubro, N.R. Group and many others who should be persuaded to fund such ventures in a big way on appeals made by the Kannada and Culture Department and Tourism Development Corporation on the Government side and other philanthropic minded connoisseurs of Mysore. As regards the contributions of Basavanna, the Suttur Mutt can be persuaded or requested to associate itself in such a venture in a big way. I am sure Sri Shivaratri Deshikendra Swamiji, the presiding pontiff of the Mutt will not say ‘NO’ to such an appeal. The Departments are focal point to float the idea and should enlist support from the culturally oriented citizens of Mysore. These edifices would surely attract a large number of tourists also.

In this connection, I have to regretfully mention about the tardy progress made by the Government as regards the house of late R.K. Narayan, an English language Novelist of Mysore, who had made a great name in the literary field. Will the authorities wake up now and complete the project?

The Chief Minister of Karnataka is from Mysore and it is not out of place if an appeal is made to him in this respect to launch this project and make necessary budgetary provisions after envisaging the support of the private enterprises as mentioned above. A kick-start can be made and the ball set in motion.

It is very interesting to note here that the three luminaries namely— Purandaradasa (a Nayaka community born by name Krishnappa Nayaka in an earlier avatar before his enlightenment and evolution); Kanakadasa (a Kuruba community man, who strode into limelight after his enlightenment and JagaJyothi Basavanna (a Brahmin by birth, who shunned his sub-caste and founded a new religious order namely, Veerashaivism). The contributions of all the three to Kannada literature and philosophical thought are immense. It is impossible to imagine that how in their absence, the Kannada literary and cultural world would have been poorer in substance and content. It is only proper that the heritage city of Mysore should honour these stalwarts with appropriate memorials.

At this juncture it would not be out of place if, to the list of three persons above mentioned, another name is added: D.V. Gundappa, whose ‘Manku Thimmana Kagga’, a classic by itself and, if it had been translated into English, it would have perhaps hit the portals of the Nobel Committee meriting a prize along with ‘Geethanjali,’ Rabindranath Tagore’s masterly classic which brought him the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Note: We already have three such auditoria named as ‘Vasudevacharya Bhavana’, ‘Veena Sheshanna Bhavana’ and ‘Bidaram Krishnappa Ramamandira,’ all named after three musical greats of Mysore.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / February 24th, 2014