Born into a family of legends who had made Panchavadyam synonymous with their names, the honour of Veerasringhala to Subhash Marar is in a sense a continuum of what the family always represented. On Sunday, when the honour was conferred on him by a committee of art connoisseurs at Chottanikkara, the who’s who of percussion came together for a performance. The Veerasringhala was presented by the chief priest of Mookambika Temple, Kollur Narasimha Adiga.
Second son of Thimila maestro the late Chottanikkara Narayana Marar, Subhash had been trained in Edakka, Thimila and Chenda by his father. His first performance, at the age of nine-and-a-half years, after an ‘arangettam’ at Chottanikkara Devi Temple, was at a school youth festival. Though rhythm had surrounded his life since birth, his father insisted that he groom himself for a “job” too. But the boy’s talents on the percussion were such that his father who had first initiated him into Edakka, took him under his tutelage for Thimila too, when he was about 15 years.
Chottanikkara style
From then on, the father-son duo had performed on many stages emphasising the Chottanikkara style as promoted by the legendary trio of Kuzhoor Narayana Marar (Padma Bhushan awardee), Kuzhoor Kuttappa Marar (Subhash’s maternal grandfather), and Chandran Marar
“My father had grown up in difficult times and there were very few opportunities for artistes to perform. In those times, the biggest Panchavadyam was performed by a group of about 30 artistes. Today, 30 artistes constitute a small performing group.”
The knowledgeable audience were the reason that the artistes were getting honoured, said Subhash.
It is the 40th year of his life as a percussionist. But the soft-spoken artiste felt humbled by the honour. “It is a blessing of the presiding deity at Chottanikkara and all my Gurus,” is all he said.
He had been an unavoidable presence in all the major Panchavadyam performances in Central Kerala and had played Edakka for Paramekkavu at the Thrissur Pooram for 25 years, with seven years as ‘Pramani’ or helmsman till 2012.
Shift to Thimila
Now he plays Thimila for the Thiruvambady group. His switch to Thimila at the Pooram was a surprise. “I felt there were more people with perhaps better performing style who needed to come up.” He made his mark in that too.
As Edakka is integral to Sopana Sangeetham, Subhash had made his mark in it too, training under Puthussery Raghava Kurup from Vaikom. His outing with Chenda as a solo performance in Thayambaka had won him appreciations.
On Sunday at the day-long programme in his honour, percussion stalwarts, including Cherplassery Sivan, Mattannur Sankarankutty, and Peruvanam Kuttan Marar performed.
Anoop Jacob, MLA, inaugurated the function. Madavur Vasudevan Nair and P. Vijayan, Inspector General, Ernakulam Range, were present. Chottanikkara Vijayan Marar presided.
