Hailed as the Queen of Indian Stage, Kodumudi Balambal Sundarambal was a class apart from her contemporaries. The relationship or love affair between Sundarambal and her husband S G Kittappa was brief but it was a perfect match. Sundarambal’s troupe was conducting dramas in Sri Lanka and the...
During the colonial British Raj, the local rulers were reduced to zamindars and these zamindars were the patrons of art during pre-Independence India. The Carnatic singers, during this period of 1875 to 1910, managed to push other languages to the fore against Tamil in Carnatic music. It took...
Abul Fazl, who chronicled the reign of Akbar, onnce said about court musician Tansen, “a singer like him has not been in India for the last thousand years.” The same verse could be applied to Yazhpanam Dakshinamurthy when it comes to thavil, the percussion instrument used in Carnatic music....
SG Kittappa is a legendary figure in the music world. His extraordinarily dexterous voice sent listeners into a rapture. His early death gave him a legendary status. But, even legends have teachers and their stories can illuminate, too. Kittappa’s teacher was Mariappasamy, whom the people...
Many collections of Subramaniya Bharathi’s poets come with his recommendations for which raga they should be sung in. Many of the songs sung today are set in ragas different from his recommendation, but, in his time, there was a Carnatic musician who earned Bharathiar’s praise for the way he...
