“Those under his tutelage will become stalwarts,” said Palakkad Mani Iyer and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer thought of him as one doing Vidyadaanam. The two were talking about ‘Kumbakonam M. Rajappa Iyer (1916-2007). He had accompanied many eminent musicians such as Ariyakudi, Papanasam Sivan, Balamuralikrishna, T.K. Rangachari, Chitti Babu, Lalgudi Jayaraman, etc., on the mridangam and the ghatam. He had trained several artists, who became acclaimed artists in their own right. He himself began his Gurukulavasam with Kumbakonam Alaganambiya Pillai. The exhaustive training he had under experts in theory and practice turned him into a sought after percussionist.
With a passion for imparting training, Rajappa Iyer taught percussion at Krishna Gana Sabha, T. Nagar, Chennai, for over four decades and also at Sri Balasubramania Sangeetha Sabha and Sringeri Math at R.A. Puram, Chennai, besides which he also taught from home. He was teaching almost till his last days. Besides his son K.R. Ganesh, other well-known disciples include Srimushnam Raja Rao, Palani Kumar, Umayalpuram Mali, S. Balashankar, Vijay Siva, Manoj Siva, B. Ganapathy Raman, B. Sivaraman, Adambakkam Shankar and Madippakkam Murali. He had also had students from abroad such as Richard Frasca, Amy Catlin, Prof. Stone Brown of Colgate University.
Centenary celebrations
To mark his 10th death anniversary ‘Gurusmaranam’ day was held recently. This also being Rajappa Iyer’s centenary year the day assumed special significance and hundred of his sishya parampara paid homage to their Guru. The mridangam artists accompanied the flute concert by K. Bhaskaran with M.S. Sundareswaran on the violin. The Shanmukhapriya Kriti ‘Siddhi Vinayakam’ was followed by a tani avartanam by all the percussionists including two on ghatam and one woman ganjira artist.
T.V.R. Chari mama of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam and Nandini Ramani, senior dance guru and SNA awardee paid tributes to Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Asthana Vidwan Rajappa Iyer, who was also the author of ‘Laya Bodhini.’
