If Thiruvananthapuram has been one of the nerve-centres of Carnatic music ever since the days of the arts-patronising Maharaja Swati Tirunal (1813-46), the Thycaud-Vazhuthacaud area of the Kerala capital has been one where several leading classical musicians of the city used to live half a century ago. That apart, this green stretch of the city also houses quite a few cultural institutions like the Sri Swati Tirunal College of Music (simply known as the ‘Academy’), the Department of Music of the College for Women and, of course, the All India Radio.
In the 1970s, I was a student at the Intermediate College, which was at the centre of this circle. Student strikes weren’t alien to Communist Kerala those days as well. Even otherwise, whenever I had free time, I used to have one priority: to rush to T V Vasan’s house on the Academy-Mettukada road. The percussionist was young those days, but had already gained name as a ghatam maestro in the music circuits of not just his native Kerala, but across southern India — and most vitally in Chennai, or what was then Madras.
But stardom never managed to make Vasan a pompous man or artiste. Till his death at age 61 last month, by when he had for long made Chennai his home. At his Thiruvanathapuram home, Vasan would invite me in with a broad smile that could only come from a person with a warm heart. There, I could experience some very good moments of Carnatic music, as its interiors would occasionally double up as the venue for chamber recitals — and Vasan would accompany the visiting singers on the mridangam. He would, at times, play the ghatam — that is, whenever they had a senior mridangam artist for the concert.
So, who were there among the famed frequenters to Vasan’s place? Ah, there were many. Like, vocalists Neyyattinkara Vasudevan, S Ratnakaran and Kumara Kerala Varma, popular singer K P Udayabhanu,
nagaswaram player Thiruvizha Jayashankar besides a host of musicians and students from the Academy. Occasionally his versatile elder brothers T V Gopalakrishnan and T V Ramani would drop in. Then, the assembly was perfect!
Vasan, a native of Tripunithura off Kochi, learnt the mridangam under late Mavelikara Velukutty Nair, who was a direct disciple of the legendary Palghat Mani Iyer. He was also ably guided by his eldest sibling TVG, who helped him master the laya aspects and inspired Vasan to take to playing the ghatam, which did not have too many practitioners compared to the mridangam. The result was quick and evident: Vasan became very active on the concert platforms.
My friendship with him was cemented when I had a few of my music saadhakam (practice) sessions at Vasan’s place. That was ahead of the 1973 Kerala University Youth Festival in which I ended up getting the first prize for vocal! Vasan Anna — as we addressed him — had lent me a wooden sruti box (which had a rare and admirable drone of 1¼ pitch!) for my competition. His friendly nature was extremely striking. Always.
Vasan started his official career with AIR Mangalore, and later moved to Chennai — the capital of south Indian music which catapulted him to limelight. He had accompanied all the Vidwans of his time and established himself as a highly knowledgeable ghatam artiste. Mridangam player Cherthalai Ananthakrishnan, a long-time associate of Vasan and his colleague at AIR, remembers the late maestro as a versatile artiste who sang well and was a master of several instruments including the tavil.
Besides his vidwat (scholarship), Vasan was also widely acknowledged for providing ‘unobtrusive accompaniment’, that is, where ghatam-playing would never hinder or dominate, in terms of decibel, the recital of the lead artiste. His fingering on the instrument had the right formula to bring in clarity and aesthetics. Once Vasan explained to me the interesting challenges in fine-tuning the ghatam for minute pitch adjustments. Nuances in adjusting the interval between the instrument and the belly go a long way in securing the right output from this wonder pot!
Vasan participated in numerous events at home and abroad — and received plaudits and honours too. In the 1980s and the ’90s, the Karaikudi Mani-G Harishankar-T V Vasan-Srirangam Kannan percussion ensemble (srutilaya) featuring the mridangam, kanjira, ghatam and morsing respectively was hugely popular. In fact, it used to be hailed as a model laya package of the principal talams (rhythms). The production was also noted for its absolute grounding on the vyavahaara aspect sans gimmicks.
In his younger days,Vasan, along with his brothers TVG and Ramani, used to accompany the celebrated Chembai Vaidyanantha Bhagavatar, their common guru, in numerous concerts. Even later, Vasan was a regular participant at the Chembai Sangita Utsavam in central Kerala’s Guruvayur. I remember one concert in which he accompanied violin maestro Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan with TVG on the mridangam.
On that occasion, the ‘time cap’ for the concert was simply forgotten. That slipped not just the mind of the highly excited audience, but even the organisers. For Vasan, though, it was another of those performances where he managed to enable us to forget about any time factor. And never sought to take the credit for anything. For, he was always a team man.
— The writer is a Chennai-based veena player and writes on Carnatic music. musicsiva@gmail.com