 (Translated from the original article in Tamizh by Vidwan Mudicondan Venkatrama Iyer, that appeared in the Music Academy's Souvenir, 1972.)
In the musical world, there are several instances of musicians undergoing
gurukula vaasam, learning and practising the art and being or not being very successful. Several have become popular with limited effort and reasonable natural talent.
To learn the art and perform well requires several factors. If one has to elaborate the qualities required to be successful it would go beyond the scope of this article. An example of one has who has learnt and practised the art well and still remained successful is Simizhi Sundaram Iyer. He is also one of my gurus.
Simizhi is a small village near Kudavasal, in Nannilam taluk of Tanjavur district. Sundaram Iyer was born in 1884 as one among four brothers and a sister. He was the only one to have musical talent. He is supposed to have started singing even when he was 5 or 6 years of age.
He was a handsome personality, almost five-and-a-half feet tall. He was also quite sharp-tongued and was called 'Tel Sundaram' ('Tel' refers to the scorpion). When he was about 8 or 10 years old, he learnt under
Maha Vaidyanatha Sivan's elder brother, Ramaswamy Sivan at
Tiruvayaru.
Once, at Sengalipuram in Tanjavur ,istrict, at a wedding, the concert of B A Varadachariyar
(Tiger, probably!) was fixed with Govindaswamy Pillai (violin) and Tanjavur Pakkiri (mrudangam). As the artiste did not turn up 12-year-old Sundaram Iyer who had come from nearby Simizhi to attend the wedding was asked to fill in and acquitted himself creditably.
In those days, vocalists tried to sing like
Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer. Sundaram Iyer had a voice similar to Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer. But after his voice broke, he faced difficulties and because of that he stopped performing and began teaching.
 For him, Tirukkodikkaval Krishna Iyer was the manaseeka guru and he always had tears in his eyes when he spoke about Krishna Iyer's music.
Sundaram Iyer married his own uncle's daughter and had two daughters.
Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar
(Poochi!) was very close to him. He was also a special favorite of Tirukkodikkaval Krishna Iyer. Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar occasionally wrote letters and obtained the swara and sahitya for kritis he wanted from Sundaram
Iyer.
After marriage, Sundaram Iyer moved to Tiruvarur and lived very comfortably there. Tiruvarur Rajayi learnt from him. He used to teach in houses like Tiruvarur advocate N Mahadeva Iyer's. People like Tirukottaram Saminatha Mudaliar and Kavalakudi Mudaliar also patronised him.
Later, he was taken to Mayavaram (now Mayiladuturai) to teach a few people. He decided to stay permanently in Mayavaram and taught people like Mayavaram Rajam, Mayavaram Krishna Iyer, Flute Rajaramayyar (guru of S G Kittappa!) and the likes. Violinist Mayavaram Govindaraja Pillai is also supposed to have learnt from him.
You may wonder how I learnt from him. I lived in
Mudicondan. I used to travel outside for concerts. Though I had known about Sundaram Iyer, I did not know his value. After I came to know about it, I devoted myself completely to him.
So, even though I live in Mudicondan, I used to visit him in Tiruvarur and later Mayavaram, frequently, stay with him for a couple of days, and learn music. Sometimes, I would bring him to Mudicondan and keep him with me for 10 or 15 days. He always used to sing to himself. His only obsession in life was music. Be it traveling or sitting at home. Sometimes I would feel lost not knowing what to sing. At those times I would go to him and listen to his music. This would vitalise my creativity and give me confidence.
 Even if I elaborated on a small musical idea of his for about four or five minutes, people would get astonished. He was very creative when singing neraval and swaras. When both of us sang in tandem, he would leave me far behind, struggling to reach his heights.
His swara gnanam was profound. Later in life he had a hearing problem but that hardly impaired his singing. After 1920, he came and lived in Chennai. Tiruvarur Rajayi used to call him home and keep him for 2 to 3 months at a stretch. At that time, I also came to Chennai and we both stayed at Rajayi's place. Once Rajayi honoured her guru Sundaram Iyer by presenting him a diamond ring in the presence of the leading lights of the city.
After listening to his music, we felt that rasikas should be given a chance to enjoy this great music. So we organised his concert at the Egmore Jagannatha Bhaktha Sabha with Semmangudi Narayanaswamy Iyer (violin) and Umayalpuram Kodandarama Iyer
(mrudangam).
Later, he sang at the sabha secretary's residence. Then he sang at the residence of Saraswati Bai, who lived in Big Street, Triplicane. If you ask her, she will still recall this.
Whenever I organised Ramanavami or Radha Kalyanam concert engagements, I would take him along with me and organise concerts by him. Once when I had gone to sing at the wedding of the son of Veena Karaikudi Subbarama Iyer, I had taken my guru Sundaram Iyer along with me. At the time he was duly honoured by Subbarama
Iyer.
Whomsoever I learnt music from, always drew me to them and made me learn from them. What do I say about this? People may find this surprising. I really do not know the reason. Maybe it is the affection they had for me. And that affection may also be because of the way I behaved with them.
 Konerirajapuram Vaidyanatha Iyer, because of the affection he had for me, used to call me Ekalayvan. Similarly, Sundaram Iyer also used to praise me. He treated me more as a brother than a disciple.
He was worldly wise. Besides the disciples mentioned here, he has taught many more. Because of his admiration for Fiddle Krishnayyar, he also practised the violin. Later, he became very philosophical in his outlook.
I don't know why such musicians don't live long. When he was living in Mayavaram, later, because of illness he was bedridden. So he stayed at his in-laws' place at Keerangudi, near Tiruvarur. I went and looked him up at Keerangudi a couple of times. He passed away in October 1927 at the age of 43.
In order that the music world may get to know about him I have written this article in his memory.
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