To be on classical music platforms for 60 long years may be a feat in itself, but the greater achievement for the Rudrapatnam Brothers — R.N. Thyagarajan and R.N. Tharanathan — is their penchant for sticking to a traditional, long-established format in the nearly 2,500 concerts they have performed.
They have a meticulous record of them all in these six decades.
For Thyagarajan, who has a masters in mathematics, and Tharanathan, who has a Ph.D degree in chemistry, music was a magnetic pull as their lineage traces four generations of veda and naada from Rudrapatna in the present-day Hassan district.
“From the days of our grandfathers to our uncles and brothers, every one was a musician, and most of them were performers. We had our initial performances when we were in our teens. Nearly five to six concerts in Mysuru were purely a result of our observations and absorptions. Our formal training in music began much later,” says Thyagarajan.
The brothers are the senior-most musicians representing Karnataka today, after the renowned R.K. Srikantan, their uncle who died two years ago.
“We were trained by our uncle and violinist R.K. Venkatrama Sastry and father, R.K. Narayanaswamy. But our interest took us to several yesteryear stalwarts such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Musiri Subramania Iyer, Tiger Varadachari, and T. Chowdiah who were generous enough to teach us whenever we requested them. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer even gave us perfect notations for kritis. All of them regularly visited our family when they came to perform in Mysore,” said Tharanathan.
The Rudrapatnam Brothers have had the old school of purists as watchdogs for safeguarding the classicism they represented.
There was a period when the time-honoured styling they imbibed was much appreciated, not just from audiences but also from fellow accompanists.
“I remember senior violinists Lalgudi Jayaraman and M.S. Gopalakrishnan, and mridangists Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Palghat Raghu and Karaikudi Mani, among several others, deeply appreciated our flow of raga and sangatis,” said Thyagarajan.
“Musicologist T.R. Subramaniam had once heard our raga Phalamanjari at the Music Academy. The next day when we had a recording at the AIR, he called up the programme executive and asked him to include Phalamanjari on the list,” he recalled.
Teachers, students, organisers and audiences are all responsible in having an art preserved for its characterised wholesomeness, according to the brothers.
“Tweaking music for mass appeal is a contemporary trend. Beginning with a javali in a concert is labelled ‘fresh thinking,’ while fashioning a Carnatic and Hindustani package for global audiences is a ‘fusion’ approach. But if all these are accepted with a loud round of applause, can it be termed an evolution?” Tharanathan and Thyagarajan sought to know.
The brothers
Thyagarajan has worked in AIR and retired as Deputy Direction of Doordarshan in 2003.
Tharanathan worked at CFTI and retired as Additional Director in 2006.
Honours
R.N. Thyagarajan and R.N. Tharanathan have bagged the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for 2016 for their contribution to Carnatic music.
The duo is a recipient of the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award, Karnataka Sangeeta Nritya Academy ‘Kalashree’ and Chowdiah Award.
