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Vishva pAlam shrI padmanAbham! - Part 3
 We continue with the third and concluding part of the article written by the well known carnatic artiste Ashwathi Tirunal Rama Varma. 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
M.D.Ramanathan started performing at the Navaratri Mantapam from the late nineteen fifties onwards till nineteen eighty-three, which was the last Navaratri he lived to witness. He was one of the few musicians who had the opportunity to sing on all the nine days, over the years, with a variety of accompanists.
Many of Maharajah Swati Tirunal's compositions found a special place in MDR's repertoire; paripAlaya mAm, padmanAbha pAhi and bhAvayAmi raghu rAmam and mOhanam ayi tava muraLIgAnam ahO in particular.
In fact MDR himself composed a song on Goddess Meenakshi of Madurai- mangaLa caraNE mAm ava satatam, a rough take on padmanAbha pAhi.) His tAnams at the Mantapam were unforgettable, grand and magnificent affairs, with veterans like T.K.Murthy, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Palghat Raghu, Vellore Ramabhadran singing along with their mridangams. One is reminded of some grand procession or Ezhunnallippu when one hears these tAnams which he reserved especially for the Navaratri Mantapam. He literally took the copyright over certain rAgas, rendering it difficult for any other musician even to attempt them. Some of them were yadukula kAmbOji, sahAna, rItigauLa, mukhAri, shri & kEdAram. (What article on MDR will be complete without a mention of kEdAram in which he sang almost all existing kritis by the great Masters and composed one of his own too for good measure, a masterpiece on Tyagaraja?) The list goes on and on.
One of the greatest tragedies was that the day after he passed away, an official from the Kalakshethra Foundation (The late Shankara Menon) visited his house and asked for his compositions for publication. Poor Mrs.Ramanathan, who in her grief and innocence gave him all the original notebooks containing all his compositions...And that was that. To this day, nearly twenty years after his death, one is yet to get any news of what happened to them. One can only pray that some good soul will hunt them up and bring them to life again.
Shri M.D.Ramanathan used to conclude all his concerts with a very elaborate mangaLam, which was a cocktail of three songs actually. The usual Tyagaraja's mangaLam in saurAShTram, followed by alakalalla, another Tyagaraja Kriti in madhyamAvati and the last stanza from Swati Tirunal's bhAvayAmi raghurAmam 'kalitavara sEtu bandham'...ending with 'vishva pAlam padmanAbham' where MDR characteristically used to add 'akhila', 'nikhila' and 'sakala' before 'visvapAlam' and a HUGE big 'shrI' preceding 'padmanAbham'. Each time one hears this, one's heart sinks, knowing that yet another MDR concert has come to an end. But when one looks at the way things seem to be going at present I am convinced that this is only the beginning! And things have come a full circle. MDR's music is getting more recognition and understood by more and more people the world over. An American recorded a single video of his , and this is the only one known to exist with one more waiting in the wings.... God bless his soul...and is sold for $50 in the United States now.
One finds musicians, music lovers and musicologists making desperate attempts to put in their two cents worth, about the man and his music as this very article seeks to do. And MDR lives on.... The usual story of a genius and an innovator born before his time, whose true worth is realised long after he has left this world. I hope he is sitting somewhere up there and looking down on us benignly and indulgently and laughing his mischievous MDR laugh, with his squint eyes twinkling with mirth and goodwill.
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