TAMIL ISAI - TO BE OR NOT TO BE

The major institutions of Chennai need to challenge themselves and designate one prime time concert during each music season to Tamil Isai if only to demonstrate that Tamil Isai belongs not to any special groups of Tamilians, or even to only Tamilians, but to all Carnatic music lovers.

     Tamil Isai, in the context of Carnatic music, refers to a vocal concert comprising entirely of compositions in the language Tamil.  I got the privilege of organizing the first such concert in New Jersey (which is possibly the first public Tamil Isai concert in the USA as well) in 1986 by sheer accident.  As one born and educated in Kerala for several years, Tamil is certainly not my forte; nor was Carnatic music.  It was simply an act of desperation and self-interest by me drafted to become a trustee and immediately thereafter to be the Secretary of the Carnatic Music Association of North America (CMANA), mainly for physical work and hopefully to bring some management expertise as well.  I had no clue that this was to launch me into an incredible controversy and have me take a stand against many elders I had come to respect enormously for their knowledge of music and commitment to serve.

    First, let me state how all this came about.  We had invited Sri D.K. Jayaraman for his first US tour, who has earned, since then, an immortal place in the annals of Carnatic music.  Those were days when for a variety of reasons including the fact that the Indian diaspora was small, it was hard for CMANA to make ends meet even with superstars.  Yet we had a commitment to sponsor at least one artist less known in the USA each year for a tour.  The tour of Sri Jayaraman did not start off well.  A delay related to visas resulted in the cancellation of many early concerts of the tour which could not be rescheduled, and this meant that we would be facing a projected loss of about $8,000, an amount that the already struggling organization could not afford to lose.  I must note that this was even more heart wrenching to us since Sri Jayaraman not only gave a superb performance but also succeeded in winning the hearts of his listeners at every one of his concerts and left an indelible positive impression of his music in their minds.  In fact, the audience loved his music so much that they made several song requests; as a result, he ended up singing for an hour more than the time scheduled for each concert. The audience who attended his concerts still hold fond memories of how he would sing the note “ma,” or kritis like “Nannu vidachi,” “Kapāli,” “Soundararājam,” “Lāvanya Rāma” and many others. However, despite the fact that he had made a positive impression on his audience, we were acutely aware that it would be folly on our part to assume that we would have a large audience if we presented him for the third time in a row in the NY/NJ area.  However, we were facing a gap of two weeks with no concerts booked for the artist anywhere; we felt we needed to do something.

    It was then that I came up with this idea for a Tamil Isai concert.  I certainly had a selfish interest too, for, I felt that if I had a collection of songs in Tamil, my mother tongue, I could use that as a ready reference for at least some ragas whose identification always eluded me, thanks to being a near ignoramus in Carnatic music.   DKJ had an enormous repertoire in Tamil, and I considered it an opportunity not to be missed.   But, without exception, every trustee not only opposed my request, they also considered me as unnecessarily injecting some counterproductive language politics.  The purists among us also argued that a concert of only Tamil compositions would not have enough classicism and depth.  To them, it was heretic to stray away from the Trinity of Thyagaraja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar, and Shyama Sastri, except perhaps in the “light” pieces sung as tukkadas towards the end of a concert.  Some non-Tamilians complained they could not relate to songs in Tamil, and it would not be fair to them, forgetting that a majority of Tamilians who enjoy the Trinity do not understand Telugu or Sanskrit, and many of them do take pains to understand the lyrics only via translations.

     After much argument and a threat to resign, all I could get was an offer to make the artist available to me for a private concert that will not have even an endorsement, let alone co-sponsorship, of CMANA and that too only if I would pay the same amount charged to any other organization irrespective of outcome.  Friends as they were, fellow trustees did caution me, however, in no uncertain terms that I would cut a sorry figure with little attendance and also lose much money.  Being young and impetuous as I was then, I could not but pick up the glove thrown at me. 

    Hard work at publicity along with the reputation that Sri DKJ had already established and Divine Grace helped make the concert a grand success. This Tamil concert I held attracted a very large audience above and beyond anything we had seen in CMANA until then, and generated a profit of over $4,000 (which the trustees of CMANA graciously resolved to accept.)  What was even more pleasing was that the concert disproved all myths about a Tamil Isai concert; instead, it demonstrated that it could be as classical and Carnatic as any concert could ever be.  The main item “Kapāli” in Mohanam showed off Papanasam Sivan as no less a composer than the Trinity and was rendered in the most beautiful manner.  It displayed proudly many Carnatic composers, all the way from Nilakanta Sivan to very recent ones like Periasami Thooran.  The concert recording is a true collector’s item.  That success was to be repeated thrice more during my tenure in the Tamil Isai concerts of the Bombay Sisters, T.V. Sankaranarayanan, and the Rudrapatnam brothers.  In fact, the second Tamil Isai concert which was of the Bombay Sisters at a Rutgers University auditorium, saw a full house with people having to be turned back due to fire codes - something that had never happened until then.  [Needless to say, no major effort succeeds due to one person, and I thank each and everyone who helped me succeed with the Tamil Isai concerts.  I will be failing in my duty if I did not thank my wife Dr. Soundaram Ramaswami, who also served as President of CMANA later, who did a lot of work like making hundreds of phone calls and managing the ticket distribution and other logistics, while also hosting the musicians.]

    Music truly has no language, or else how could we enjoy an instrumental (only) concert or one featuring many compositions in languages unknown to us?  That is true not only for Carnatic music, but to all music.  After all, how many understand the German lyrics of Beethoven?  Yet, I must admit that there may be some who cannot enjoy a vocal concert restricted to songs in one language only.  Thus, I would be the last to propose such a concert were it to be the only one in an area organized by a music organization.  After all, an organization obligates itself to all its members.  Yet we also need to recognize that we cannot be like a dog in the manger either and should step up to appreciate music for its own sake and allow specialized thematic concerts to happen.

    That said, what is the real case for Tamil Isai?  Some I have already stated earlier, but there are many more. 

1.     A vocal concert provides enjoyment in many an extra dimension besides music alone.  When one can comprehend the lyrics, many of which are filled with highly exalting thoughts, high philosophy, and imagery, they touch our hearts even more than just through sound.   For example, most consider the piece “Sri Rama Jayarama” of Saint Thyagaraja in Yadukulakamboji as a wonderful musical piece, but one’s enjoyment of this same song multiplies many fold when one understands the meaning of the stanzas that capture the joy and love of Dasaratha as a father; similarly the maternal joys of Yasoda can best be realized when one hears the Tamil composition of Papanasam Sivan’s, “Enna Tavam cheythanai” in kāpi.  This is one reason why we can enjoy the vocal singing of even a beginner more than that of an instrumentalist at a comparable level.    If one were to refute this, one is actually refuting the very importance of vocalizing itself.

2 .   Much as the members of the Trinity of Carnatic music have been very great composers occupying center stage for many good reasons, there are many other great composers, whose compositions (in Tamil particularly) often get ignored or relegated to the tail end of a concert as short pieces.  While Tamil music of the Sangam period and of the saints like Appar and Manikkavachagar predates Carnatic music, they often appear as short viruttams, if at all, in Carnatic concerts. Unfortunately, the Tamil composers who came later did not have a large lineage of students who could propagate their music to a deserving level and became underdogs as art increasingly became victim to competition with an entrenched establishment wanting to maintain status quo.

3.        The argument that a Tamil Isai concert will not be deep or classical enough is absurd.  Even fairly recent composers like Sri Papanasam Sivan are known for many pieces like Kapāli (Mohanam), Sivakāmasundari (Mukhāri), Srinivāsa (Hamsānandi), Kandā Vā (Varāli), Kārtikeya Kāngeya (Todi) and many others, which define the very ragas and their lakshanās (signatures) in which they are composed showing their multihued splendor.  Such theoretical arguments aside, all one has to do is to actually listen to a good Tamil Isai concert to appreciate that fact.

4.     Unlike the vast majority of the compositions of the Trinity that are on various deities, Tamil composers and poets (e.g., Vedanayagam Pillai and Subrahmanya Bharati) have ventured into many secular compositions, including highly patriotic ones, appealing to a wider audience.

5.       Finally, all ideological considerations aside, being inclusive only expands the support base for the art.  In places like the US where the total potential audience is a tiny fraction of the concert goers in even a city like Chennai, there is an even greater need to draw more people to Carnatic music if only to support the art in a sustainable manner.  The power of thematic concerts deserves to be explored.

    Unfortunately, the Tamil Isai movement has a checkered history as it got embroiled in caste based divisions of Tamilnadu.  Many of the original proponents were bigoted against the caste that dominated Carnatic music and did not make their case based on arguments grounded only in art and music.   (For a sanitized version of the history of Tamil Isai, see the article by Mr. V. Sriram, one of the current Secretaries of Music Academy, Chennai in the web page
https://sriramv.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/the-tamil-isai-movement/ ). One must say that it probably resulted in a major disservice to Tamil Isai and may, to some degree, have contributed to its relegation to the sidelines despite the existence of flourishing institutions like Tamil Isai Sangam in Chennai.  It is certainly gratifying to see that many younger Tamil Carnatic musicians do not feel fettered as their predecessors did and do venture into Tamil Isai in their concerts at other venues as well. But enough is not being done, and it is fair to say that Tamil Isai still is not elevated to its deserved place in Carnatic music. The major institutions of Chennai need to challenge themselves and designate one prime time concert during the music season to Tamil Isai if only to demonstrate that Tamil Isai belongs not to any special groups of Tamilians, or even only to Tamilians, but to all Carnatic music lovers.

    Artists, not just the Tamilian artists but all artists, owe a fair share of the responsibility in promoting compositions in Tamil just as they do of compositions in other languages.  Tamil Isai has succeeded enormously in the USA.  Much of the success could be attributed to the changing attitudes towards hosting such events. In the eighties, it was near impossible to convince a Tamil Sangam in any state to lend its name to a Carnatic Tamil Isai program; today, Tamil Sangams not only sponsor Tamil Isai Carnatic concerts but also succeed in attracting a large number of their members to these events. The artist’s responsibility, however, does not stop at performing in them but also to have the courage to present Tamil compositions as their main piece. Tamil Isai programs should be conducted in such a way that ensures that both the organizers and the performing artists are not only respectful of the classicism and the decorum the art deserves but also are mindful about showcasing the greatness of Carnatic music in all its splendor so that the audience will be drawn to other Carnatic concerts as well.  The success of the four Tamil Isai concerts I was associated with was no less due to the careful manner in which the artists chose their pieces and how they performed turning every possible objection to Tamil Isai into a potential embarrassment.  The “kapāli” of D.K. Jayaraman, “Tiruvadi charanam” of the Bombay Sisters, “kāna kan kodi vendum” of T.V. Sankaranarayanan, the RTP “Engalathu nāttai kuranji enbār” of Rudrapatnam Brothers as well as certain other pieces they sang elaborately as in a regular (should I say old fashioned) Carnatic music concert brought many first time attendees to their Carnatic music concert to others as well.  They carefully stayed away from pandering to the crowd with light film songs and the like. They respected the idioms and grammar of Carnatic music strictly and did not just superimpose Carnatic music on some Tamil lyrics, but chose pieces extremely suitable for a Carnatic concert.   A stick in the mud perhaps in the eyes of some, I would indeed be shocked if I were to see “Do Re Mi” or something like that performed in a Western classical concert, or if the audience gets invited to waltz with the orchestra.  I am sure there are many like me who consider the art of Carnatic music as something sacred, much above and beyond just entertainment, and I would request that our sensibilities be respected as well. Finally, for Heavens sake, they should not inject divisiveness of any kind into this divine art. It is certainly pleasing to see many musicians of today meet these challenges very well, and we should indeed be thankful to them.  To those of my friends who have not ventured into appreciating Carnatic Tamil compositions, let me just say, “You will be amazed, as a world as nice as the one you know in music awaits you.  Please join us.” 

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--> Dr. V. Ramaswami is a past Secretary and President of the Carnatic Music Association of North America (CMANA).  A set of ten compositions of his (3 in Sanskrit, 6 in Tamil, and a bhajan in Hindi) have been brought out as an album ‘Swarābharanam’ with Sikkil Gurucharan (vocal) accompanied by V. Sanjeev (violin) and J. Vaidyanathan.  This article was written for the 2018 annual souvenir of the Indian Fine Arts Association of San Diego (IFAASD).