‘Tiger’, ‘Puliodarai’ and ‘Poochi’ – in any other field these prefixes may sound strange. In the world of Carnatic music, they evoke awe and inspiration for they go with names of the doyens Varadachariar, Krishnamachariar and Srinivasa Iyengar, respectively.
Those who heard music historian V. Sriram’s lecture here on Sunday on Tiger Varadachariar (1874-1950) got some rare glimpses into the life and times of the musician and some of his contemporaries. “Tiger was the title given to him by those who liked his gestures while singing in Mysore. Subsequently Lion was also added to his name. But Tiger alone remained,” Mr. Sriram remarked.
His brother Krishnamachariar won the title ‘Puliodarai’ because on one occasion, he barged into the kitchen ( madapalli ) of the Parthasarathy temple in Triplicane and prepared delicious Puliodarai to be offered to the deity. “In the evening he gave a veena concert there and everyone referred to him as Puliodarai,” he said. As Mr. Sriram narrated some of Tiger's quips, anecdotes about him, and quotes of those who had moved closely with Tiger, the colourful and multi-faceted personality of Tiger came across as an outstanding musician, a composer and a teacher whose love for his students knew no bounds. M.D. Ramanathan, the B.V. Raman-B.V. Lakshmanan duo and Tanjavur Sankara Iyer are some of his disciples. He never collected any fee from his students as he had never paid money to learn the art.
Born in Kaladipet in Chennai which was a music hub during his days, Tiger had plenty of opportunities to listen to musicians throughout the year. He is also said to have learnt music under Pattanam Subramania Iyer. “Pattanam Subramania Iyer is probably the only person to have a tiger and a poochi as his students,” Mr. Sriram said, evoking thunderous laughter from the audience.
Though Tiger joined the Survey Department, he did no survey but led a bhajanai group as his boss was a music buff. Later, he resigned his job to pursue a full-time career as a musician. He was the principal of the music college run by The Music Academy before joining the music department of the Madras University and later, Annamalai University. Tiger was also a tippler. He relished pattai charayam (arrack) and scotch equally. “But before drinking, he would say Govindam three times,” said Mr. Sriram. ‘ Sutta appalam' was Tiger's favourite side-dish
