Nearly 38 Ramaseva Mandalis across the city celebrated the glory of Lord Rama in the last one month with music concerts. Hundreds of artistes performed on the occasion, vital among them being the tambura artistes. Although no music concert can do without them, they have remained unsung heroes relegated to the back of the stage, even as they keep a concert in tune with their faint background melody.
Tambura – even in its digital avatar – is integral for setting an uninterrupted melodic equilibrium. All India Radio until the late 1970s even appointed ‘tambura artistes’ with an underlying rule that they possess good vocal knowledge. V. Jagannatha Rao, who played the tambura for 25 concerts at Chamarajpet Ramaseva Mandali this Ramothsava, said performing had given him “the deepest satisfaction to be on a spiritual platform, amidst renowned musicians”. “Sitting behind Yesudas or Amjad Ali Khan to experience the divinity in classical melodies has been the biggest bhagya!” says Mr. Jagannatha Rao, a senior technician working at ISRO’s Environment Test Facilities Dept.
Jagannatha Rao’s father Vittal Rao, a tailor by profession, was initiated into bhajan singing along with the harmonium by elders in the family. He wielded the tambura for Ramaseva Mandali for nearly 50 years, in reverence for the Mandali’s founder, S.V. Narayanaswamy Rao. “My father got a nominal fee from S.V.N. Rao, but greater was the appreciation he received from Chowdiah, Honnappa Bhagavatar, Doreswamy Iyengar, T.R. Mahalingam, Bhimsen Joshi and M.S. Subbulakshmi, who used to send inland letters requesting him for tambura accompaniment,” he says, happy to be associated for 25 years with a ‘divine’ instrument, one that even Purandaradasa refers to in his Ugabhoga: ‘ Tamburi meetidava, bhavaabdhi daatidava’.
