Speakers at a function organised by Dr. Chinna Moulana Memorial Trust to mark the 18th anniversary of nagaswaram maestro Sheik Chinna Moulana here on Sunday paid rich tributes to the nagaswaram vidwan.
They recalled his brilliance in handling the Carnatic music with in-depth details bringing out the essence and corel segment of each and every ‘ragam’.
V.V. Sundaram from Cleveland went down the memory lane of his association with the late Chinna Moulana and cited various interesting anecdotes. He said Chinna Moulana had learnt the nuances of music from each and every vidwan of yesteryears, including the late vidwan Rajarathinam Pillai. Further, Chinna Moulana had set a record in carnatic music that many great popular musicians, including Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and G.N. Balasubramaniam had a great regard for him.
In the United States, he chose to handle ‘Shanmugapriya’ ragam for three hours and never adapted the carnatic music in accordance with the taste of the western listeners. “Although we requested him to handle ‘Sankaraparanam’ which had some striking similarities with western musical notes, he chose to play on ‘Shanmugapriya’ ragam,” he said. Mr. Sundaram said Chinna Moulana did not show any difference in the concerts performed in the United States or an interior village in Tiruvarur, indicating his strong belief on the influence of carnatic music on the audience beyond geographical barriers.
Nagai R. Muralidharan, noted violin vidwan, in his address, said Chinna Moulana proved that music was above caste, creed or religion.
Honoured
Two vidwans — Kannapur K. Natarajan, nagaswaram vidwan, and Dendulur R. Arjuna Rao Garu, thavil artiste, — were honoured.
A citation said that Mr. Natarajan was a disciple of Marimuthu Pillai and K.S. Dakshnamurthy Pillai.
He had won several titles, including ‘Nagaswara laya gnana karpaga kalanidhi’, ‘Kalai gnana sigaram’ and ‘Nagaswara isai kalaimani’. He had been rendering service to carnatic music for the past 66 years and had produced about 2,000 disciples. Another citation on Mr. Arjuna Rao Garu said he had won titles, including ‘Laya bhooshanam’, ‘’Dolu sigamani’, and ‘Dolu Sandheeswara’.
N. Gopalsamy from Dalmia Cements hailed the efforts made by Kasim and Babu, Trustees of the Trust in organising the anniversary for the past 18 years. Special concerts were organised as part of the anniversary. On Sunday, Nagai R. Muralidharan and Nagari R. Sriram rendered violin concert. On Monday, K.G. Srinivasan and K.G. Karthikeyan rendered nagaswaram concert.
