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Captivating raga
 One of the first ragas I was exposed to from a very young age was Todi. My grandfather was a wonderful exponent of this raga and even earned the nickname ‘Todi Tyagu’ from his admirers who included the great violinist Tiruvalangadu Sundaresa Iyer. When I was about seven years old, I could easily operate the gramophone player in our house and my favorite record was G N Balasubramaniam’s (GNB’s) ‘Ananda
Natesha’.
As I progressed in my musical learning, Todi became synonymous with the nagaswaram and Rajarathnam Pillai. Todi belonged to him (“Avar sothu!”) and no one could equal him in that raga. A learned listener once told me his theory about why Rajarathnam excelled in Todi - Imagine someone who gets up in the morning, plays Todi, has breakfast, plays Todi, has lunch, plays Todi, goes to a concert, plays Todi. The point is maybe he did, no one else did that to Todi or to any other raga!
The limited recordings of Todi that we have today clearly shows why he was such an expert on it. His short gamaka-laden phrases, karvais, long swooping jarus, lightning fast brighas seemed tailor-made for expanding Todi. I once met the great music exponent, T V Sankaranarayanan, in his house and as we were talking, he got into the mood and sang a few short snatches of Todi, saying this was how Rajarathnam would play. It was easily one of the finest pieces of singing I have heard in my life.
 I cannot write about Todi without mentioning GNB. Another favorite of our family, his raga alapanas echoed the Rajarathnam sentiments. But it had also GNB’s own brand of brilliance. One particular Todi which some say was his last concert, preceding an ‘Aragimpave’ was brilliant. Our family likes this story about GNB and Todi. It seems there was a wedding in Rajarathnam’s house and GNB was singing. Rajarathnam requested for Todi. GNB first hesitated and then proceeded to sing an exquisite alapana. Rajarathnam was so moved that he came up to the stage, garlanded GNB and exclaimed “Neenga Paadanum, Naan Vasikkanum, Vera Oru Paya Inda Ragatha Thoda Koodadu! (You should sing and I should play and no other person should touch this
ragam!)”
About 10 years ago, we had a private listening session on Todi. We had planned it in such a way that we would listen to an entire concert of Todi, from varnam to thillana, by different masters. The format was as below
1. Varnam - Ariyakudi
2. Brindavanalola - M D Ramanathan
3. Endukudayaradu - Alathur Brothers
4. Dasukovalena – D K Pattammal
5. Morabettite - T Brinda
6. Tamadensvami - GNB
7. RTP - Ramnad Krishnan
8. Tayeyashoda - Madurai Mani Iyer
9. Thillana - Ariyakudi
This was a very unique experience for us as we listened to so many different brands and flavors of
Todi.
Among Todis that I have heard live, the most outstanding include the ones by T N Seshagopalan, S Kalyanaraman, P S Narayanaswamy, an absolutely out-of-the-world alapana at Tiruvaiyaru some 15 years ago, M L Vasanthakumari, T M Thiyagarajan and my own guru, K S Krishnamurthy’s rendition of ‘Enneramum Oru Kaalai
Tookki’.
Ariyakudi, it seems, sang Todi in every concert and was rumoured to know nearly 100 songs in that ragam. Among his masterpieces – ‘Kali Tira’ and ‘Amba Nannu Brova’ - easily stand out. I for long thought Semmangudi’s forte did not include Todi until I came across a recording of an early ‘60s or probably late ‘50s, with T N Krishnan and Pazhani Subramanya Pillai. An absolutely mind-blowing Todi. I met him a few weeks after listening to that recording and asked him if he liked singing
Todi.
“Of course,” he said and then launched into an alapana that contained some exquisite phrases that he said were patented by the nagaswara vidwans, Keeranur Brothers. I had never heard such sangatis and they sounded very nagaswaram-like but also seemed to have acquired a special sheen in his hands.
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