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Musiri memorabilia
 It all started with the Ramu Endowments contacting me for conducting two programmes on Musiri Subramania Iyer and Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar and their music during the forthcoming December season. For Ariyakkudi, not knowing any close relatives, I had to make do with published photographs for creating a slide presentation on his life.
But Musiri was a different experience altogether. When I contacted his grandson S Tyagarajan, he was most kind, as always, in sharing whatever photographs and documents that they had with them. So, I spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon with Tyagarajan, his wife, Dr Rajeswari, his mother (Musiri's daughter-in-law) and other family members in going through the Musiri archives.
Unlike the descendants of some other musicians, who either have no knowledge of the greatness of their ancestors, or even worse, have not bothered to keep any material of value (the standard answer is, we had some old manuscripts, which the white ants ate up, or when we shifted house, we threw the whole lot away), the Musiri family is very conscious of its heritage. They make every effort to preserve whatever is there of the old man's belongings, in good condition. So there was no lack of heirloom.
There was a huge collection of photographs, which I would estimate at least at 500 in number. On going through it, one had a glimpse of the kind of man Musiri was. There were photographs of him with crowned heads, visiting dignitaries, with family members and friends. There were a few photographs taken during concerts.
In a separate folder was a collection of photographs taken during the making of the film 'Tukaram'. My favourite photograph was the one of Musiri receiving the Sangita Kalanidhi in the 1930s. In the photo, he is seen addressing the audience with S Satyamurthy and Sir R K Shanmukham Chetty behind him on the stage. In the front row in the audience, C Saraswathi Bai, Satyamurthy's wife and Bangalore Nagarathnammal are listening in rapt attention.
There were birudu patras received from various organisations. The Sangita Kalanidhi, the Isai Perarignar, the President's Award and above all, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the scroll of which was in its own sandalwood container, with an ivory knob on top. The aesthete that Musiri was, he would have particularly liked this one.
Then there were letters. There was one from G N Balasubramaniam (GNB), asking about a concert at the Central College of Carnatic Music, there was one from Dwaram about a Ph D student and then there was one from Musiri addressed to C S Ayyar (father of Vidya Shankar) condoling the death of their mutual guru, T S Sabhesa
Iyer.
By far, the most moving epistle is one from Sabhesa Iyer himself, addressed to C S Ayyar, sometime in 1942. Evidently, it is in response to C S Ayyar's letter, stating that the academy had decided to institute the Sangita Kalanidhi and was planning to award all the earlier pesidents of the annual conferences. C S Ayyar appears to have asked for Sabhesa Ayyar's CV so that it could be incorporated in the citation. Sabhesa Ayyar has replied with details of his achievements in the field of music. The letter ends with the statement that being struck by paralysis, he, Sabhesa Ayyar, cannot come in person for the awards ceremony.
Between the sketches of Musiri by cartoonist Mali, the photographs, the letters and the awards, we managed to put together a presentation with over 60 photographs. It was an interesting half-day, spent doing a most pleasant task, with the very dedicated Musiri family.
It is time members of other musicians' families took a leaf out of the Musiri family's notebook and began preserving what they have. That will prevent our musical heritage from vanishing without a trace.
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