The death of Terada Yoshitaka, a Japanese scholar on South Indian classical music, and the release of his book, T.N. Rajarattinam Pillai: Charisma, Caste Rivalry and the Contested Past in South India, in Chennai this month happened at a time when Thiruvavaduthurai, a small town in Mayiladuthurai district, is slipping away from the collective memory of the Tamils.
A generation of musicians and rasikas from the composite Thanjavur district, who had the opportunity to listen to nagaswaram player T.N. Rajarathinam Pillai and his contemporaries, has faded away. There was a time when no discussion or debate on Carnatic music was complete without referring to the elaborate rendering of ragas by Pillai. As the music world today is dominated by city-based musicians, Terada’s work serves to bridge the gap between these musicians and the composite Thanjavur, a citadel of Carnatic music.
Even in Thiruvavaduthurai, there is nothing to remind a musician or a rasika of the great exponent of nagaswaram. The house that Pillai constructed in Thiruvavaduthurai and lived in was also demolished a few years ago. The State government’s proposal to construct a manimandapam remains on paper for more than a decade. Pillai’s recordings and portraits survive to tell his story, and Terada compensates for what is not available to the present generation.
The book is not only about Pillai and his music. As the title suggests, it is also about the power politics in the field of music between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins, particularly the community of Isai Vellalas to which Pillai belonged. Terada has covered nearly every aspect of the nagaswaram-thavil music world, including the “arrogant manner” in which the Isai Vellalas treated other communities who played the nagaswaram and the thavil.
Exchange of ideas
Though there has always been an exchange of ideas between nagaswaram music and other forms of Carnatic music and there is a style called nagaswara-bani in vocal singing, the caste-based conflict between them spilt into the public sphere and politics. Nagaswaram and thavil players in the past were not allowed to wear shirts while performing. They were even denied a space on concert platforms, and they would stand throughout the concert or walk with the processions of temple deities and marriages.
It was Pillai who arrived on the scene like a colossus and changed the fortunes of the nagaswaram players. He removed his tuft and sported a western hairdo; wore dresses meant for maharajas; and insisted that he would play sitting on a vehicle even for processions. More importantly, he redesigned the short timiri-type, high-pitched nagaswaram into a lengthy pari- type instrument, which is what is used by the present-day nagaswaram players and is more suitable for chamber concerts.
As the music world today is dominated by city-based musicians, the work of Terada Yoshitaka serves to bridge the gap between these musicians and the composite Thanjavur, a citadel of Carnatic music. His book is not only about Rajarathinam Pillai and his music, but also about the power politics between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“Rajarathinam Pillai, as a symbol, serves as a mirror which reflects both the socio-economic conditions surrounding south Indian music culture in general and the ambiguous and conflicting relationship between the practitioners of these two musical traditions,” writes Terada.
Thiruvavaduthurai symbolises many aspects that are part of the non-Brahmin identity. Thirumoolar, the Siddhar poet who spoke out against the Vedic rituals and gods in many of his verses, settled here. The Thiruvavaduthurai Mutt, a Saivite Mutt, is a non-Brahmin institution. The heads of the mutt include great Tamil scholars Melakaram Subramania Desikar and Velappa Desikar. The mutt patronised Tamil scholars such as Tirisirapuram Meenakshisundaram Pillai and his student U.Ve. Swaminatha Iyer, who is known as the grand old man of Tamil.
“The rationale for selecting this particular individual musician for analysis of South Indian music culture at large rests on his unique position in the matrix of the complex relationship between the two important music traditions in South India: Periya Melam and Karnatak music. Periya Melam refers to a genre of instrumental music which accompanies temple and domestic rituals and festivities, and features nagasvaram and tavil (the accompanying drum), whereas Karnatak music is a tradition of classical music performed most prominently in concert halls,” writes Terada in his introduction to the book.
Terada’s work was originally submitted to the University of Washington in 1992 as a doctoral dissertation. It has been published jointly by Roja Muthiah Research Library (RMRL) and Speaking Tiger.
Terada, who was also a Professor Emeritus at the Graduate University of Advanced Studies, had obtained an MA and a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Washington. He had also served as a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s Semester-at-Sea programme, New York University, Universität Bonn, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research areas included India, the Philippines, Japan, and Asian America.
Also Read | Terada Yoshitaka (1954-2023): The man from Japan who played the nagaswaram
He was the editor of Music and Society in South Asia: Perspectives from Japan, a collection of essays on South Asian performing arts by Japanese scholars (the National Museum of Ethnology, 2008), and his India-related articles appear in reputed international journals and as chapters in books.
Range of details
Terada learnt nagaswaram from Tiuvarur S. Letchappa Pilla and his knowledge of his subject is testified by another scholar on nagaswaram B.M. Sundaram. “It is extremely strenuous to collect such a vast range of details about a vidwan, and Terada has done it successfully. I would say the work is an encyclopaedia, which will be useful for future researchers as it is an outstanding history of two musical instruments,” writes Sundaram.
As Terada observes, even though many distinguished Isai Vellalar nagaswaram musicians have retired or died, there has been a surge of nagaswaram and thavil players in the last two decades. The attitude of the music sabhas towards them, however, remains unchanged. The musicians are asked to perform either at the inaugural functions or at the valedictory functions. Often, they are asked to perform on the dais without a proper concert platform and wind up when the chief guest arrives. It has been almost three decades since a nagaswaram player was offered an evening slot in major sabhas. Organisers of the music sabhas justify their decision, by saying that today’s nagaswaram artistes do not match the talent and energy of the earlier artistes. But when asked whether all vocalists and other instrumentalists had lived up to the standards of those who are known as the great masters, they have no answer.
