It is a great shock to all Carnatic music lovers that on Friday, October 16, 2020, Kalaimamamani, Padmabhushan Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy passed away in Chennai leaving many of his close friends, devout shishyas (disciples) and his family members in deep anguish with an irreplaceable loss to Carnatic music. One can virtually assume for granted that almost all leading concert musicians (currently) in Carnatic music would have undergone additional advanced training under Guru Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy.Hailing from the village Konerirajapuram in Thanjavur district, his father, a local doctor, unlike many other doctor parents did not mind his son taking up music as his career. Of the many teachers under whom he had training, his advanced training under Sangeeta Kalanidhi Sri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, made him virtually a walking music library, a true treasure house for hundreds of kritis that are rare musical gems of Tyagaraja, Deekshithar, Shyama Sastri, and also of their disciples.
Many years back, I met him for the first time in a special annual Raghavendra Swamy pooja that Mridangist Sri Srimushnam Raja Rao was conducting in his flat.
Ranga Ramanuja Iyengar, the well known musicologist and the author of Kriti Mani Malai used to talk about a whole galaxy of musicians who hailed from Konerirajapuram. Apparently in his younger days great musicians like Konerirajapuram Vaidhyanatha Iyer dominated the Carnatic concert field. My college mate Sri K.S. Raman was living in Konerirajapuram and each time I went for temple visits, I would go to Konerirajapuram and stay with Raman and would show my curiosity to see the houses of Vaidhyanatha Iyer and Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy. Unfortunately, he had very little knowledge about musicians from his own village, but certainly would be all praise for his distant relatives like Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy or K. Gayatri.
A few years back, I came to know of a special Guru Vandanam program organized by almost all leading disciples of Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy. The program was conducted at Raga Sudha Hall in Mylapore. I saw among the audience, the leading artists like Ranjani Gayatri, Akkarai Subbalakshmi, Bharat Sundar, Abhishek Raghuram and quite a few others that I did not know but came to know of them as disciples of Sri PS Narayanswamy.
They played one of his old concert tapes that gave a clear idea of his rich voice and gamakam laden Kalyani alapanai. The musical contours reminded me of old GNB’s performance with his metallic voice. Unlike the voices of many veteran musicians of the bygone days, his voice was completely free of any nasal touch.
For any art form, society needs a genuine commitment by lead artists to pass on that knowledge to the next generation. Invariably, many concert musicians neglect this aspect and try, at best, to pass on their knowledge to their own children. Very often, many of them are unable to assimilate what is given to them free. Even great Carnatic music composers have failed in this respect to pass on their treasure to future generations. Many original and creative compositions of Uthththukkadu Venkata Kavi are simply lost. They have not made special efforts to look for superb sishyas who can quickly assimilate what is given to them by their Gurus. In Tyagaraja Swamy’s days he was both a composer and a teacher par excellence imparting his creative compositions to different sishyas. He chose to teach compositions according to the student’s absorbing abilities. I am yet to find one like Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy who has been musically generous to his sishyas with varying musical abilities. His musical genealogy tree has many branches (sishyas) carrying the teacher’s knowledge through their concert performances.
Even in the Vedic days great teachers were praying God to shower them with good students:
Amayantu brahmacharinah svaha
Vimayantu brahmacharinah svaha
Pramayantu brahmacharinah svaha
Damayantu brahmacharinah svaha
Shamayantu brahmacharinah svaha
Yathapah pravata yanti
Yatha masa aharjaram
Evammam brahmacharinah
Dhatar ayantu sarvatah svaha
Roughly it says:
May the pupils inquire after me,
May the pupils come to me!
May my pupils venture forth on the way of research, inquiry!
May my pupils practice self restraint!
May my pupils find peace and tranquility of mind!
As waters rush down the valleys, as the months run into years, O Creator!, hurry towards me the students from all sides!
Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy was amply rewarded with excellent sishyas as demanded by the teachers of Vedic days.
In our CTU’s 40th year celebration, I was keen on approaching several musicians for a word of support for what we have been doing for Carnatic music. He was one of the earliest ones to send his letter of appreciation for CTU’s efforts in propagating Carnatic music in the United States of America.
In grief,
T.E.S. Raghavan