The divine hands that made the heavenly sound possible: The story of mridangam maker Fernandes

Thanjavur Vaidyanatha Iyer’s house in Thanjavur served as the workshop for Sebastian’s sons Senkol, Fernandes and Chetti. In Iyer’s house the three brothers honed their craft and creativity. Their worked transcended caste and religious barriers widely prevalent at that time. These craftsman, belonging to the Dalit Christian community, could freely move in Iyer’s house. An emotional Sangita Kalanidhi T K Moorthy once said, “It is only because of the work of such mridangam makers, we musicians are able to make a living in this profession”.

Once, it took young Fernandes just a day to set right a mridangam that was proving to be a problem for several months to Pudukkottai Dakshinamoorthy Pillai. The grateful musician said the young man’s hands were simply divine. Sangita Kalanidhi Trichi Sankaran recounted this in an interview.

Among the sibling trio, Fernades can be said to have had a niche of his own. The relationship he had with Palghat Mani Iyer was legendary.

Right from the days of his apprenticeship with Thanjavur Vaithyanatha Iyer, Mani Iyer was more than interested in working on the percussion instrument as he loved to play it. The experiments he did with that instrument were many and that naturally strengthened his bond with Fernandes. Mani Iyer shifted to Thanjavur from Palakkad which was his hometown only to be in the promximity of Fernandes. That way his experiments were not delayed.

Mani Iyer set aside a place in his own house and ensured that the mridangam work was carried out there without interruption. He used to rest for some time in the afternoon when he returned from an arduous concert tour and if Fernandes had finished his work at that time and played the instrument a bit for checking, Mani Iyer would get up energised on hearing the sound and go to him. With Fernandes, he discussed troubleshooting on the mridangam. The knowledge he gained from these discussions helped him to introduce innovations in the instrument.

Fernandes was also doing mridangam work for celebrated musician Pazhani Subrahmaniya Pillai, who was Iyer’s contemporary. Mani Iyer’s son recalled an interesting episode involving the three.

“Once, Fernandes did not turn up in their house for a few days. When he came at last, he said that he had gone to work for Pazhaniayya (Subrahmaniya Pillai). Appa began enquiring about Pillai’s instrument with curiosity and told him ‘Pillai’s thoppi’ (the left side of the mridangam that is not tuned to a frequency but produces bass sounds) is nice and soothing, but you are not making one like that for me.

‘Don’t worry sir, I will make a similar one for you in your next mridangam’, said Fernandes.

Within a few days he brought a mridangam and told appa that he had made it just like the one he made for Pillai.

Appa played the instrument, but was not satisfied, and said, ‘No dear, this is not like Pazhani’s thoppi.’

‘No sir, what I have made for you is exactly what I made for Pazhaniayya, but just altered it slightly for your sake. Next time, will make exactly like his and bring,’ he assured.

Fernandes did say that then, but never really brought one later. Father kept on asking him when he was going to bring an instrument that had Pazhani’s thoppi, but lost his patience soon and, one day, asked him straight on his face: ‘When are you going to make it for me? You only promise but don’t deliver.’

Father was then leaving for his concerts in Bombay (Mumbai at present).

‘Sir, I have received new skins now. By the time you return a mridangam will be ready for you with a thoppi similar to that of Pazhaniayya,’ replied Fernandes.

Father returned from his Bombay tour. He seemed to be so obsessed with the mridangam that instead of entering the house, he went straight to the mridangam making shed.

‘Have you made it just like Pazhani’s thoppi?’ father asked him anxiously.

‘Definitely sir, you yourself can play and see,’ replied Fernandes.

Father took the mridangam and played it immediately, but was not satisfied with it and said ruefully, ‘the delight one gets listening to the sound of pazhani’s thoppi is still missing.’

Fernandes smiled gently and replied, ‘Sir, it has to do with his hands.’

Appa looked up.  ‘Are you saying my hands cannot create the same effect?,’ he asked him like a child. He took Fernandes’s comment very sportively’.”

This incident graphically captures the great respect that Mani Iyer, the celebrated percussionist who was at the peak of his career then, had for a fellow artist and for a mridangam-maker.

Many times, he willingly shared with Fernandes many gifts like shawls which were given in his honour in his concerts.

“The mridangam should be made by Somu Aasari from good sandalwood; it should then be assembled and fully prepared by Fernandes; and I should accompany the great vocalist Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyenga – that would be my definition of heaven,” Mani Iyer said once.

Many artists have spoken highly about the expertise that Fernandes had. He only needed to be told which vocalist was going to give the concert, and there was no need to tell him the shruthi. Fernandes would prepare the mridangam for that shruthi. The beauty was that he didn’t even have a tanpura or a shruthi box with him.

“Once I had come to play mridangam for Musiri Subrahmaniya Iyer who told me to play for M S Subbalakshmi at Central College that evening.  I had brought two mridangams to play for Musiri, but Fernandes and Chetti took only a few hours and made them suitable for accompanying MS,” says Vidwan T K Moorthy.

Normally, it is not possible to play a new mridangam directly in a concert. The disciples will first practice playing on it, and only after the first and the second saadam (saadham is the paste made with rice and metallic powder and applied on the center of the right side of the mridangam) falls down and the third saadam is cast, the instrument will qualify for playing in a concert. However Fernandes’ work was so special that even the new mridangam was mature from the word go. Trichy Sankaran recalls how he could play such a new mridangam for the famous vocalist Balamurali Krishna in a national programme and how people greatly praised the instument’s tone and resonance.