PATNAM SUBRAMANIA IYER

Patnam Subramania Iyer (1845-1902)

The period immediately after the Carnatic Trinity saw several great musicians who became performing stars and yet managed to keep the composing tradition alive. One among these was Patnam Subramania Iyer. In his time he was greatly respected as a composer, a singer, a pallavi expert, a great guru and as a torch-bearer of the Tyagaraja lineage.

Subramania Iyer came from a family well known for its interest in the arts. His grandfather was Panchanada Sastri, a musician in the Tanjavur court. His uncle was Melattur Ganapati Sastrigal who, according to Abraham Pandither’s Karunamirtha Sagaram could “sing very charmingly without shaking his head and with knives tied around”. He was also evidently an expert in nritta or pure dance. Subaramania Iyer’s father Bharatam Vaidyanatha Iyer was, as his prefix indicates, an expert in dance as well.

At a young age, Subramania Iyer was apprenticed under his uncle Melattur Ganapati Sastrigal. He later underwent training with his brother-in-law, the composer Kothavasal Venkatarama Iyer. He then became the disciple of Manambucchavadi Venkatasubba Iyer, cousin and first disciple of Tyagaraja. Unlike many of his contemporaries however, he did not embark on a performing career at an early age and took to the dais only when he was around 30. While concerts were necessary as a means to livelihood, he preferred spending his time reading musical treatises and enriching his own knowledge. It was also said of him that his voice was initially hard and unresponsive and he tamed to it a great degree of mellifluence by rigorous training.

Soolamangalam Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar wrote that Subramania Iyer’s music “sprang from a rich, resonant and deep voice that had a characteristic appeal. With a sthayi sruti he dwelt in the region from the shadja to the pancama of the higher octave with perfect ease. The fascinating bhrigas that he produced in that region still resound in my ears”. Abraham Pandither wrote that “he could sing ghana, naya and desikams, ragas and pallavi with great skill in strict accordance to rules”. From Pandither’s writings it is also possible to glean that Subramania Iyer had a brother, Panchanada Sastri who was equally proficient in music. He, according to Pandither, “spent his time with his brother and was a charming singer”. Pandither also writes that “those who have heard him (Subramania Iyer) and his brother Panchanada Sastri sing keertanams will hardly be inclined to listen to the pallavi of others” thereby possibly indicating that the two also sang together. Among the many ragas that Subramania Iyer excelled in, Begada stood out and it became prefixed to his name. He was known for his singing in the medium tempo (madhyama kala) and his expertise in rendering tanam.

Subramania Iyer married late in life and was not blessed with children. His household comprised his wife, a widowed sister (probably the wife of Kothavasal Venkatarama Iyer) and pet animals- a cow and a dog. The family lived with great comfort and the animals were particularly well taken care of. Subramania Iyer, according to Vasudevanallur Subbiah Bhagavatar, a junior contemporary, was a lover of luxury. He wore silk, used the choicest of perfumes and every meal in the house was prepared on the scale of a feast. According to Mysore Vasudevachar, Subramania Iyer “ate well and sumptuously without bothering whether the preparations were cooked in oil or ghee. He slept whenever he liked and as long as he chose to”. Such a high standard of living required commensurate income and Subramania Iyer made the rounds of the great princely states and estates. He was richly rewarded and honoured at Mysore, Travancore, Pudukottah and Ramnad. The rulers of the last named estate were in particular very close to him. Madras as a thriving city with great concert opportunities beckoned and he became very popular there too. When Salem Meenakshi, a rich courtesan of the city invited him to come over and teach music to her daughters Pappa and Radha, he readily acceded and shifted to the metropolis for 12 years. Here he taught several others such as the Yenadi Sisters Lakshminarayani and Rangiah. He was greatly admired by ‘Veena’ Dhanam who also sent her eldest daughter Rajalakshmi to him for training. Owing to his long stint in the city (Pattinam), he became Patnam Subramania Iyer.

It is not clear as to when Subramania Iyer first felt the urge to compose songs. But he became a prolific vaggeyakkara, creating varnams, kritis, javalis and tillanas. The influence of the Trinity is clearly visible in his songs. Most of his compositions are in madhayama kala and in Telugu as Tyagaraja’s were. He also adorned his songs with several sangatis. It was said that his composing style so closely followed that of the bard that he was known as Chinna (Junior) Tyagaraja. When requested to compose in Kalyani he demurred as he was of the view that Tyagaraja had exhausted all that was possible in the raga. Two years of work yielded Nijadasavarada with several unique prayogas. A few songs in Sanskrit and some of them set in vilamba kala also indicate that he at times emulated Dikshitar. His felicity with Sanskrit is evident in songs such as Garudagamana where the same words are used to convey different meanings. His penchant for using a wide range of talas – Adi, Rupakam, Chapu and Jhampa, show the impact of Syama Sastri. Subramania Iyer used a variety of mudras, all associated with Venkateswara, such as Varada Venkateswara and Adi Venkateswara. In this he was emulating his brother-in-law and guru, Kothavasal Venkatarama Iyer. Over the years, the clear-cut division between the creations of the two has blurred and several songs of one have been passed off as those of the other. Patnam Subramania Iyer is also remembered today for his creating the raga Kathanakutoohalam. His Raghuvamsasudha in this raga is a favourite piece especially with instrumentalists.

Subramania Iyer trained a number of disciples. The senior-most was Ramanathapuram ‘Poochi’ Srinivasa Iyengar, whom Subramania Iyer took on as a disciple at the instance of his close friend, Pandidurai Thevar, the Zamindar of Palavanatham. Kakinada CS Krishnaswami Iyer was the disciple who compiled some of Subramania Iyer’s songs into books. Mysore Vasudevachar was apprenticed under him at the instance of the Maharajah of Mysore and guru-sishya relationship was a warm and loving one. The musicologist and historian MS Ramaswami Iyer was another disciple. ‘Tiger’ Varadachariar, in his own words, became so enamoured of Subramania Iyer’s music that “he followed him about and picked up a few pieces”.