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Brahmasree Parur Sundaram Iyer was born to Anantharama
Sastrigal and Seethalakshmi Ammal at Veembil in 1891. Sri Anantharama Sastrigal was a Ramayana sastri and adept in
jyotisham. The family moved to Parur when Sundaram Iyer was a child.
Even as a youngster he was fascinated by music and attended bhajans where they had violin also in the group. He had a natural interest in violin and to
nutrure this he went to Trivandrum to learn violin and learnt violin under Trivandrum Ramaswamy
Bhagavatar who was the astana vidwan in the Travancore Palace. Sundaram Iyer learnt Carnatic style of playing violin under the traditional Gurukula system.
Sundaram Iyer’s routine was to have an early bath in the Padmanabhaswamy temple tank. He used to fetch water from a well for his guru’s house. Apart from all this, he used to learn music. He had his meals in the ootuparai in the Padmanabhaswamy temple run with the patronage of the king of
Travancore.
When Sundaram Iyer accompanied a bhajan party in Cochin,
Sri Sait Govind Naik, who was a great connoisseur, attended one of the performances by the bhajan party. He was greatly pleased by the way Sundaram Iyer performed and suggested that he should learn Hindustani music. Sundaram Iyer readily agreed and Sri Sait sent him to Bombay by ship. He also gave introduction letters to Gyanacharya Pujya Pandit Vishnu Digambar
Paluskar, principal of Gandharva Maha Vidhyalaya. When Sundaram
Iyer met Panditji, he asked him to play violin.
After hearing Sundaram Iyer, Panditji was astonished by his proficiency and immediately exclaimed, “I shall straightaway appoint you as a
professor of violin with a salary of Rs 100 a month and also teach you Hindustani music."
Thus, Sundaram Iyer introduced violin for the first time in the history of Bombay and incidentally to Hindustani music in
1906. From then onwards Sundaram Iyer accompanied Panditji in all his concerts. In 1916, Parur Sundaram Iyer was awarded a gold medal and a certificate of merit by Panditji in
recognition of his proficiency.
In the vidyalaya everyone woke up at 4.30 a.m. and went around for a walk reciting Rama Nama and Hare
Ram, Hare Ram Hare. They also sang Bhajamana Dhini Pyare. After breakfast the lessons
will commence. They had a break at 10 or 10.30 a.m.
In the afternoon also they had classes. Dhundiraj Paluskar and Vinayarao Patwardhan and others learnt violin from Sri Sundaram Iyer. Once in a concert Panditji sang Anumandra Panchamam and Sundaram Iyer Immediately responded by adjusting the Anumandra sadja string and played the
Anumandra Panchamam.
Panditji applauded Sri Sundaram Iyer publicly by saying, “I never expected this wonderful
adjustment." Sundaram Iyer came to Madras and settled down at P R Sundaram
Iyer’s house. Then he shifted to Palathope. From there he purchased a house in Apparswami
Kovil Street and made it his permanent residence.
This house of his is still there in
No. 110 Apparswami Kovil Street Mylapore. Sundaram Iyer named his house as Sangeetha Vilas.
Many eminent musicians like Dr M Balamurali Krishna, Pandit Ravishankar
(Sitar), Ali Akbar Khan (Sarod), Omkar Nath Thakur (Hindustani vocal) have preformed in the Sangeetha Vilas to seek Sundaram Iyer’s blessings.
In 1916, Panditji requested Mahatma Gandhi to organise a music festival in Ahmedabad in 1921.There were many dignitaries like Pt. Omkarnath Takur, Pt. Narayan Rao Vyas, Mudikondan Venkatarama Iyer along with Parur Sundaram
Iyer.
At the command of Panditji, Narayana Rao composed a welcome song “Ao
Ji Sakal Bharath Kumar” which received thunderous applause. Pandit Omkarnath Takur stayed with Parur Sundaram Iyer whenever he came to Madras. Sundaram Iyer even arranged for a tea party for Bade Gulam Ali Khan and invited many elite musicians like
G N Balasubramaniam, Palani Subbudu, M L Vasanthakumari and Pattamadai Sundaram Iyer for the function.
Parur Sundaram Iyer has accompanied many
vidwans like Palghat Anantharama Bhagavatar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Sri Pushpavanam Iyer (a very close
friend). He has personally honoured many musicians like Muthiah
Bhagavatar, T L Venkatarama Iyer, Flute Mali and Kotisvara Iyer.
He has trained many students like Smt. Tulasi and
Smt. Rukmani Rajagopalan. He was also a faculty member of University of Madras from
1932 to
1946. He was the founder of Sri Tyagaraja Sangeetha Vidwat Samajam, Mylapore. It is currently situated in Thyagarajapuram, near Madava Perumal temple. He negotiated and purchased 6 grounds
for Rs 12,000 in the name of Sri Thagaraja Sangeetha Vidwat
Samajam.
In 1945, Ustad Allauddin Khan asked his disciple
Pt. Ravishankar to visit Sri Parur Sundaram Iyer and seek his blessings. After Sundaram Iyer heard
Pt. Ravishankar play, he was so pleased that he arranged a concert of Ravishankar in The Sangeetha Vilas from
10 p.m. to 12 midnight.
This was Pt. Ravishankar’s first programme in Madras. Pt.
V G Jog, the prominent Hindustani violinist in his interview with Sathyadev Pawar for
AIR disclosed the fact that Sri Sundaram Iyer had introduced violin for the first time in
north India through The Gandharva Maha Vidyalaya in Bombay in 1910.
It was because of his determination and hard
work this man from Parur went all the way to Bombay and then came to Madras to introduce his own style called the Parur style which is followed by his own family members like Parur Anantharaman who was popularly known as Gemini
Anantharaman, M S Anantharaman, M S Gopalakrishnan, M A Sundareswaran, M A
Krishnaswami, and Dr M Narmada. Now, most of the prominent musicians follow the Parur style because of its uniqueness.
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