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Vishva pAlam shrI padmanAbham! - Part 1
 The following is an article written by Ashwathi Tirunal Rama Varma, who is a well known carnatic artiste. The article first appeared in Malayalam in a commemorative volume on MD Ramanathan. It’s translation (as provided by the author) is published here as kindly permitted by him - Editor
Two of the oldest and most special musical presences in my life are M.D.Ramanathan and Kishore Kumar. Together, they make up such a vital and integral part of my life itself that I would not be complete without them.
My earliest musical memory is of Shri M.D. Ramanathan (whom my great grandmother Maharani Setu Parvati Bayi affectionately used to call M.D) squinting away grotesquely, yet adorably at the Navaratri mandapam and singing bhAvayAmi raghu rAmam which in my childhood innocence I used to imagine, was about me, as I was called Raghu at home.
His eyes would twinkle mischievously, his long and exceptionally sensitive and artistic hands would paint ethereal images in the air, and his utterly unique voice would penetrate the very core of my being, the existence of which I am made aware of, only when I listen to him even now.
Writing about M.D.Ramanathan is akin to baring my very soul itself to the reader, this being the most cherished and private of all the treasures that enrich my life and reinforce my faith in God on a day to day basis. MDR is more real, tangible and vital a presence in my life than many persons I mix and move with on a daily basis. Call it an obsession, call it madness! I simply don’t care. I would not have it any other way. Over the past two decades I have tried to find out why this was so. And the mystery remains just the same essentially. But I did manage however, to find out a number of reasons why the man and his music appeals to me so much. And I would like to share some of these discoveries with you, though writing about them would be like trying to describe in words the taste, aroma, texture and effect of a good cup of South Indian coffee, for example . One simply has to experience it.
The following are my opinions that I believe in totally. You are free to agree with them or not of course. The most important factor characterising his music was the fact that he was a composer or vAggEyakAra himself, apart from his almost childlike innocence which came through in his music too, and his devotion to God as well as to music itself. The approach of "Just a singer" and of a vAggEyakkAra to the compositions of other vAggEyakAras is totally different, though there are a few exceptions of course, in both ways (of vAggEyakAras making a mish mash of other compositions, as well as of non vAggEyakAras raising existing compositions to sublime levels and great heights, if you want me to spell it out for
you).
Though he was born and brought up in Kerala, he taught himself Telugu, Sanskrit and Tamil to such an extent that he could read, write and compose in all these languages. With the result that when he sang a composition of Tyagabrahmam or Dikshitar or Syama Sastry or Swati Tirunal he became one with the composer and with the composition. When I hear most other musicians blasting Tyagaraja Kritis, mangling the lyrics, ruining the sentiments contained within them, beating out the rhythm aggressively and earning several rounds of applause during the concert and a fat envelope full of hundred rupee notes at the end of it, I wonder if they had the slightest inkling of what the composition meant. That poor Tyagaraja was crying out to his beloved Rama to come and protect him from his relatives who thought he was crazy, for example....would they butcher the piece like this, singing it at supersonic speed, cutting almost all the words in the wrong places and smiling smugly when the words scream out the torment of the composer's heart? When MDR sang he literally spoke to us, understanding, feeling and living each word of the composition with his emotional, intellectual and technical involvement being complete and perfect.
Take a look at these random examples and you will see what I mean:-
vAtApi gaNapatim bhajEham, vAraNAsyam varapradam, (Where people sing vAraNA!...syamvarapradam) or any caranam of endarO mahAnubhAvulu. Let's take the first one now, sAma gAna lOla,manasija lAvaNya dhanya mUrdhanyulu (it pains me even to imagine what people do with this line). bhIma ananta ajnAna timira bhEdana mihirAyitE from dEvi pAvanE which people sing as 'bhImananda jnAna timira' changing the meaning drastically from 'One who destroys the darkness of ignorance' to 'One who destroys the Joy of Knowledge' in the bargain!
Almost any caraNam from amba kAmAkshi,the immortal svarajati in bhairavi by Shyama Sastry, kambugaLa nIrada cikura (sung kambugaLa nI....rada cikura), tAmasamu sEyaga ,(sung tAmasamusE....yagavara mOsagi), nata varadAyaki, (sung natavaradA......yakiyanusu), vEdamu mOralidagaligi(sung vE....dAmu mOralida)...and so on and so forth.
When M.D.Ramanathan sang these lines, one suddenly realised that the lyrics actually meant something and that the compositions were not just things on which one prefixed a bit of rAga AlApana and a little nEraval and complicated svaram exercises later....and they were living entities....the children of the composers...meant to be treated with love, attention, respect, reverence and care, like God himself. The singer becomes nothing other than a medium between the listener and the composer and the composer speaks and communicates to God and to the listeners through the singer.
An educated person fluent in English too among other languages like Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Sanskrit, M.D.Ramanathan described music as morality, universality, sincerity, individuality and creativity...and actually practiced what he preached, as opposed to so many showmen amongst us who give the most fantastic interviews on television, dressed in their Sunday best, and do the exact opposite of what they say, in real life. This was the basic difference between MDR and others. He had a shocking level of honesty, both in music and in life . He was one of the few truly great artists who never deviated an inch from his concept of what and how music should be, however high be the price he had to pay for this.
A few words about his own compositions now. He composed more than three hundred songs in Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil, though he was almost shy to sing them much. Mostly he would sing one or two at the end of a concert...and a tillana. His tillanas were rather simple in structure, but with very beautiful lyrics usually. The following are some samples.
pAda yugamu nammiti,
patita pAvani purANi,
nI daya kOrina nannu
naliNAkshi kApAdumu
nA tarama
nI mahimalu nata jana pAlini pOgada
Adi shakti nIvEgada
Adi varada dAsanutE.
(This is from his kApi tillana which he sang more frequently than all the others, and this was recorded in his LP record with another of his own compositions. More about that later.)
muraLigAna lOluDaina
murahara nagadhara
mOhana rUpa
guru pavana purAdhIshvara
varada varada dAsa pOShaka.
(bEhAg tillAna on shri guruvAyUrappa.)
vara kailAsa girIsha sarvEsha
karuNa sindhu bhairavi prANEsha
parama bhaktitO ninnE pOgaDu
varada dAsanuta pArAvAra.
(sindhu bhairavi tillAna on Lord Shiva)
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