The school play was in progress. The story of Bobbili Keshaviah losing in a music contest to composer Syama Sastri was being enacted. The story goes that a humbled and chastened Bobbili falls at Syama Sastri's feet. But the boy who played the role of Bobbili sang so well that when he was about to fall at the feet of the victor, the audience objected!
They simply couldn't accept his defeat! It was not surprising that the boy, Shanmugasundaram, sang so well, for he was the son of nagaswara vidwan Thiruppampuram Somasundaram Pillai, who came from a long line of musicians.
Shanmugasundaram took to music at a very early age. His elder sister Punithavathi recalls that their father used to wake up her brother in the middle of night for lessons. Shanmugasundaram also learnt music from his uncles and later at Madras University, Annamalai University and the Government Music College, Chennai. Even while he was a student, Shanmugasundaram wrote a book titled, ‘Tamizh Isai Nunukkam,' a second edition of which was brought out in 2007.
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Shanmugasundaram was passionate about Tamil music, and his stint as principal, Government Music College, Chennai, and as director, Tamil Isai Sangam's Music College, gave a fillip to research into Tamil music. For 28 years he organised the Sirkazhi Moovar Vizha.
“Although Tamil music was his first love, my brother also learnt Telugu kritis from our father, and from Musiri, Chembai and Semmangudi,” says Shanmugasundaram's brother, Natarajasundaram.
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Shanmugasundaram took Tamil music beyond the shores of India. When a school for Carnatic music was opened in South Africa, Shanmugasundaram was asked to draft the syllabus, and was an examiner there for four years.
He gave lecture-demonstrations in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Canada, the U.K., the U.S., Australia and Germany. One of his students runs a Thevaram school in South Africa.
During his tenure as director of the Tamil Isai Sangam's Music College, the Carnatic equivalents of many panns were established. He took up research on six panns every year. Each researcher was allotted two panns, and the same was allotted to two researchers, working independently. “Discussions on the work of the researchers took place in the presence of scholars and Oduvars,” says Bhageerathy, associate professor of Music, Queen Mary's College.
Father Chelladurai, who was introduced to Shanmugasundaram by T. Sankaran in 1969, learnt Thevaram, Divyaprabandham and other Tamil compositions from Shanmugasundaram. “It was my guru who inspired me to write a book on South Indian music,” Father Chelladurai says.
Shanmugasundaram encouraged many Christians to learn Carnatic music. When he died, his Christian students went to his residence, and for two days they sang the Tamil compositions they had learnt from him. “It seemed as if he was living through their music,” says his wife Indira. “Research and teaching were his twin passions. Even when he was undergoing chemotherapy, he continued to attend college.”
Shanmugasundaram was instrumental in opening music schools in 17 districts of Tamil Nadu. Popularising Tamil music was his dream, and his students are proofs of the realisation of it.
Shanmugasundaram is a descendant of Chidambaram Amrita Kavi Kuppiah Pillai, who was close to Muthu Thandavar, and who learnt his compositions. Shanmugasundaram's great grandfather Saminatha Pillai learnt music from Koranadu Bharatam Ramaswami Pillai, a direct disciple of Muthuswami Dikshitar.
Illustrious family
His grandfather Natarajasundaram Pillai and granduncle Sivasubramaniam Pillai, learnt vocal music from Umayalpuram Duraiswami Iyer, who belonged to the lineage of Tyagaraja's disciple, and from Sattanur Panchanada Iyer, a student of Tiruvarur ‘ Suddha Maddalam' Tambiyappa, another direct student of Dikshitar. At the same time, Veena Dhanammal and some others also were learning from Panchanada Iyer.
Natarajasundaram Pillai and Sivasubramaniam Pillai were the first to play nagaswaram as a duo. They also played nagaswarams made of gold! Natarajasundaram Pillai produced a work on the kritis of Dikshitar, titled ‘Dikshita.' Shanmugasundaram's uncle Swaminatha Pillai was a famous flautist; his father Somasundaram Pillai, a nagaswara vidwan, was principal of Nagaswara Gurukulam at Pazhani; yet another uncle, Sivasubramaniam Pillai, became a professor of vocal music at the Annamalai University.
T.K.S. Swaminathan and T.K.S. Meenakshisundaram, now well known as the Thiruppampuram Brothers, are the great grandsons of Sivasubramaniam Pillai.
(The writeracknowledges the help rendered by Dr. B.M.Sundaramin gathering the family details of the late Shanmugasundaram.)