One track mind
 For all his range of activities and wide social circle, Bhagavatar was a man who inspired great respect but not familiarity. He had a tough, no nonsense attitude when it came to the idiosyncrasies of artistes and patrons. His fellow artistes knew of this and did not take liberties with him. Sessions with Bhagavatar were devoted to serious worship of the muse and to get ideas and inspiration on how songs were to be sung in order to extract
'bhavam'.
He was considered an authority in the meaning and import of Tyagaraja kritis and many of the younger contemporaries, to employ a mixed metaphor, such as Ariyakkudi Ramanuja
Iyengar, Musiri Subramania Iyer and Palladam Sanjeeva Rao, made it a point to attend his performances whenever possible in order to understand the message behind many of the Tyagaraja kritis they made popular.
His fluency in English was yet another reason for their respect and he was for many years the unopposed secretary of the Chinna Katchi. His talents in drafting letters and the easy way in which he moved with top government officials (Tanjore collector VS Hejmadi ICS was a friend and admirer) was looked up to in awe. Among his close friends was Papanasam Krishnaswami, lawyer and father of the well-known film director, K Subramaniam.
Bhagavatar’s popularity also drew the gramophone recording companies to his doorstep and he did oblige. Today, as per the well-known collector of old records,
V A K Ranga Rao, four discs survive, in which Bhagavatar has sung. However, his orthodoxy prevented him from accepting performance invitations from Singapore and Ceylon, for he was of the view that it was a sin to cross the waters.
 Bhagavatar’s puja included a Shiva Linga. He adhered to a rigid system of maintaining purity or 'maDi' in order to be able to continue worshipping the Linga that went with him on all his travels. Because of this, while accepting invitations to perform at the weddings of patrons outside the Brahmin community, he would give his performances at the temple of the village where the wedding was to take place. All the guests would attend his Harikatha and this way Bhagavatar avoided having to take his meals at the wedding hall, which in his view was a ritual pollution.
Over the years, Bhagavata Mela in Soolamangalam became extremely famous and Bhagavatar’s organising of it was a great attraction. Most of the big names of the times such as Flute Sarabha Sastrigal and others would make it a point to attend.
Mangudi Chidambara Bhagavatar would wait in his own village for the sound of the drums that signified the beginning of the programmes, to reach him. Once he heard the first thud of the nagara, he would get his bullocks harnessed and proceed to
Soolamangalam.
 When a dispute in the sancAri of the rAga ghaNTa arose,
Prof Sambamoorthy requested that Bhagavatar resolve it. He did so by singing a song of Prahlada beginning with the words hari miti, which was part of the Mela script. It was acclaimed as the most authentic rendition of that rare rAga. In fact, as per E Krishna Iyer, in later years, Bhagavatar was more closely associated with the Mela than with
Harikatha.
A man who firmly believed in the benefits of modern education, while never losing his roots, Bhagavatar ensured that all his children were well-educated and at the same time were well-versed in music and in particular the Bhagavata Mela songs of
Soolamangalam.
Thus, his sons and grandchildren participated in the events. Bhagavatar’s eldest son Atmanathan took up employment as court fee examiner at the Madras High Court. His second son, Meenakshisundaram, passed out of the Tanjore Medical College in 1930 with an LMP degree and took up employment in the Pudukottah State Medical Services.
It was with graduation and taking up of service that the family’s financial status really improved. The third son, Radhakrishnan, took to Harikatha and assisted his father. In later years he was known as Radhakrishna Swamigal. As his children grew up and took to various professions, Bhagavatar began to spend time in the cities and towns where they lived and worked.
In 1939m he partitioned his family property and moved to Ponnamaravati in Chettinad, where his second son was practising as a doctor. At that time, Bhagavatar had an opportunity to witness the Ramayana play staged by the famed T K S Brothers troupe. Impressed with their musical prowess and acting skills, he called on them and, acceding to their request, wrote the play 'Shivalila' for them. Later, he also wrote the play 'Shaktilila' for the troupe of Nawab Rajamanikkam.
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Soolamangalam Vaidyanatha
Bhagavatar - 3
