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Vishva pAlam shrI padmanAbham! - Part 2
 We continue with the second part of the 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
His mudra or signature was Varada Dasa, or the SLAVE of Varada as opposed to a servant. Whereas a servant is paid for his services and has the option to leave the job if he likes, a Dasa has no such choice. He simply HAS to serve and be devoted to the master totally.
M.D.R was so diffident about singing his own compositions that he would often slur the word "Varadadasa" while singing them! (Though in the kApi tillAna he has proudly called himself "Adi Varada Dasa" too!)
And in real life Shri M.D.Ramanathan was a true Dasa of his guru, his most beloved and revered Guru "Tiger" Shri Varadachariar thus named because of his gestures which reminded one of his aristocratic patrons of the Magnificent Big Cat, now on the list of endangered species. It makes sense somehow, when one looks at the similarly endangered condition of the kind of music Tiger stood for in the present music scene.
Many of MDR's compositions have the name of the rAga interwoven into the sAhityam ingeniously. He gave a concert at the Music Academy Madras the year Balasaraswathi was awarded the Sangita Kalanidhi. He then sang a song in her honour "sarasvati, sarasavANi! sarasijabhavuniki rANi!" in khamAs. He discreetly brought in the name of the rAga in the lyrics by saying "kAmAdi samhAriNi! bhakta kAmAshu pOShiNi janani!" In sAgara shayana, one of the most beautiful of all compositions composed by Anyone in Any system of music Ever, he describes Lord Vishnu standing with Sridevi and Bhoodevi on either side as "bAga shri bhUmi sahituDai vElayu" bringing in the name of bAgEshri so beautifully....and when one hears this song one literally SEES the scene described above!
In janani natajana pAlini he describes Goddess Ambika as "tripura sundari! trilOcana mOhini! TrailOkya shankarAbharaNa bhUShitAngi!” and so on and so forth. The list runs long. He made very few commercial recordings in his time. The first was a small EP Record with just two songs, accompanied by Shri M.S.Gopalakrishnan and Shri T.V.Gopalakrishnan respectively on the violin and the mridangam. On one side we have "paripAlaya" in rItigauLa, one of Tyagaraja’s most evocative compositions describing his mAnasa pUja to his beloved Lord Shri Rama. This Utsava sampradAya composition makes sense and reveals itself in its full glory only if all the caraNams are sung and MDR not only does sing them but actually does a pUja himself with the song and to the song. The second side has another song on Rama, again sounding like an utsava sampradAya composition of Tyagaraja "rAma rAma" in nIlAmbari one of Shri M.D.Ramanathan's own compositions, deliberately composed in the Tyagaraja mode, without the Varada Dasa signature, to mislead the listener! ("cumma angu pODi! "He would laugh! "Who would sing it if they knew it was my own composition? At least let a few people sing it thinking it is a composition of Tyagaraja!") His most popular recording was an LP record with Shri T.N. Krishnan (Violin) and Vellore Shri Ramabhadran (Mridangam) containing crisp and tight versions of mahA gaNapatimim manasa smarAmi, hariyum haranum, sAmaja vara gamana, giripai nElakOnna rAmuni and the aforementioned kApi tillAna. This continues to be reissued and to be played in hundreds of homes and on the radio regularly to this day, nearly thirty years after it's release. hariyum haranum is yet another gem from this vAggEyakAra asking if there is anyone who doesn’t know that Hari (Vishnu) and Haran(Shiva) are one and the same.
 He draws parallels very diligently (pannaga shayanan hari,pannaga bhUShaNan haran,for example) and finally concludes wryly by poking fun at the idiots from each clan saying "Well, yes...there ARE some people after all who still don’t know that these two are one and the same!"
His last cassette recorded commercially breaks one’s heart because one can obviously see all the signs of a spent force while listening to it, though accompanists Dr.L.Subramaniam and Vellore Shri Ramabhadran do a commendable job filling the gaps, as it were. During the past few years there has been a resurgence of MDR interest to such an extent that it has become almost FASHIONABLE to claim to be a "Fan" of this most unassuming and unfashionable man. The good thing is that some wonderful recordings of excerpts from his live concerts have slowly started trickling into the market. (One doesn’t see the names of the accompanists on the cassette covers and can only pray that they have been paid something by the company which has released these tapes...To make an MDR kind of joke.... I feel they should be given either Cash...or Credit.... if you get my drift.)
If there was anything as wonderful as the music of M.D.Ramanathan,it was his sense of humour. He seemed to have followed not just the Sangita Parampara but also the hAsya parampara of Tiger Varadachariar, who was a great wit himself. One of MDR’s students from Kalakshetra told me that there was a lady teacher there who was less than loved by most of the students and staff, including MDR himself. And whenever the said teacher passed by the classroom MDR would suddenly shift from whichever song he was teaching the students at the time to a line from bhAvayAmi raghu rAmam...Guess which one!!.."ati ghOra shUrpanakha!" with the appropriate gestures directed at the teacher who innocently though demonically passed by. The students would burst into giggles and of course, MDR would join them.
 Once a music lover was travelling from Madras to Thiruvananthapuram by train. He was a big MDR fan too and always carried a portable tape recorder with him and played music. But as he was a very busy person he never had a chance to attend live concerts. And had no idea what most of his heroes looked like. But he had heard enough gossip about them to have his own idea of them. M.D.Ramanathan was famous for his onstage mannerisms made with his eyes, face, mouth and hands. This gentleman was playing a tape of one of MDR’s radio programmes in the train and as many music lovers do, he liked to talk to others about the object of his adulation. The only other person near him was a tall, grim looking man who seemed to be singularly immune to the charms of MDR Music. But our friend persisted, as one tends to do at times and struck up a conversation with his reticent travelling companion. He went on to explain who M.D.Ramanathan was, how wonderful his music was and how grotesque were the faces he made while singing. The grim gentleman remained unmoved and did not say anything. After some time the music lover gave up trying to get him to talk and went off to sleep. The next day when they arrived at Thiruvananthapuram he found a group of Brahmins, some of whom he was acquainted with, receiving the tall grim gentleman at the railway station. And to his horror he discovered that he had been describing MDRs mannerisms to MDR himself!
Dr.Balamuralikrishna fondly remembers a similar train journey again from Madras to Thiruvananthapuram in the delightful company of M.D.Ramanathan. Balamurali Sir was travelling in the "C" compartment, while MDR was travelling in "D" and when MDR entered the train with his wife he kept asking the wife "EngEDEE?" with a pun on "D" laughing gleefully. Once, at the fag end of a MARATHON concert in Mumbai with M.S.Gopala Krishnan and T.V.Gopalakrishnan, just as MDR was about to sing the mangaLam a lady from the audience requested him to sing varugalAmO ayya, the beautiful song from Nandanar Charitram which nobody has sung quite the way MDR has. In a flash MDR asked "Sing varugalAmO NOW? I was thinking more in terms of
pOgalAmO!"
Every single individual who has met this man seems to have been left with a treasure chest of smiles and warmth from him. In my own household itself he was one of the few musicians who were like members of the family. And he was probably the single musician who never quaked and quivered in the formidable presence of my Great Grandmother Maharani Sethu Parvathi Bayi. She loved his music like few others did. Another such formidable woman was Rukmini Devi Arundale who was the founder cum driving force behind Kalakshetra. (Not many people know that M.D.Ramanathan wrote the music for many of her highly acclaimed dance dramas.)
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