Artistes beating parai at an awareness event in Chennai. | Photo Credit: K.V. Srinivasan
Think Chennai and the performing arts will immediately come to mind. There is a mind-boggling variety – from the classical to the folk to that uniquely Chennai phenomenon – Gaana. People from Chennai will carry at least one, if not all these varieties in them no matter where they go. It is no wonder that the UNESCO recognised Chennai as a creative city.
The Hindu Speaks on Carnatic Music was perhaps one of the earliest books I purchased after I began writing on the arts. It opened my eyes to the treasure trove that is The Hindu’s archives as far the fine arts are concerned, apart from practically everything else in the city. In 2003 I began a column in The Hindu titled Encore, which looked at historic events in the world of Carnatic music in the 20th century, as reported in the paper. The greatest thrill was to see the newspaper clippings. Later, in 2018, we discovered accidentally, a huge collection of newspaper clippings at the Music Academy. They were all reports in The Hindu concerning Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam. The collection began in 1926 and ended in the 1980s. I till date do not know who was behind this and silently offer my prayers to that benefactor.
The Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini, hailed often as the last great magnum opus in Carnatic Music, and published in 1904, came about because of The Hindu. AM Chinnaswami Mudaliar, the budget manager of the Goverrnment of Madras and Subbarama Dikshitar, the descendant of Muthuswami Dikshitar’s brother, corresponded via the paper, later met, collaborated and all of this led to the book. The first English biography of Tyagaraja was serialised in The Hindu. Donations for the first Tyagaraja Aradhana in 1906 were solicited via The Hindu. And over the years, critics wrote articles on scores of concerts and sometimes musicians joined issue with them.
Journey of Carnatic Music
More importantly, The Hindu’s pages trace the journey of Carnatic Music and classical dance in the city. The beginnings of the Music Season, the birth of the Music Academy, the rise and fall of several other city-based Sabhas, and reports on the various conferences are all here. And then you have countless articles on musicians and by musicians. The obituaries of names from a long lost past give valuable nuggets of information. The Hindu was not above taking sides too. It was a champion of the Music Academy for instance. That institution could do no wrong as far as it was concerned. Some of the old articles stand out more for quaintness of language. “Sex and Carnatic Music,” by Keertanacharya C.R. Srinivasa Iyengar has to do with gender! It was not just classical music. Film songs received their space too, one of the earliest such pieces being by the venerated playwright Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar. Later film reviews tracked the rise of names such as M.S. Viswanathan, Illayaraaja and A.R. Rahman. The journey of Kannadasan through his various phases can be studied from the articles. In recent years, Chennai’s music scene has been enriched by what was often heard and yet remains unheard. Parai has been seeking its space – “These drums are here to stay,” says The Hindu on May 31, 2018.
And then we read of Gaana singers forming an association (Aug 1, 2016) – they may “sing all over the world but are hardly recognised for our talent in our hometown, and have no proper backing.” That no art has any backing of any kind was revealed when the pandemic struck. And yet the arts keep coming back to Chennai. In the post-Independence era when princely and aristocratic patronage vanished, it was the city that provided sustenance for many performers. And music is still heard.
