One of the most striking features about Parassala B Ponnammal when she performs, is her composed posture. The octogenarian vocalist never distracts the listener with a contorted face or a raised hand — something that is common among Indian classical musicians. True that at 86, she isn’t in the pink of health, but old age is definitely not why this veteran doesn’t make the slightest stir of body on the concert dais. For, Ponnammal still has a wieldy throat and robust voice that don’t require gimmicks to impress the aesthete. And it’s primarily for the discerning rasika that she has sung till date.
Yet it is only during the recent years that Tamil Nadu — the homestead of the Carnatic system — has woken up to the grand music of Ponnammal. Until a few years ago, her artistry was largely known only to audiences living left of the Western Ghats. But lately, Chennai has contributed to making her a revered figure. More so, “in propagating her music the world over” — as a music enthusiast notes, indicating Ponnammal’s presence at the annual Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana festival in the US last year. Suddenly, Chennaiites have discovered their Ponnammal Mami, as they fondly address her. In short, buffs outside her native southern Kerala have started benefiting from her craft and scholarship — and she is no longer merely Ponnammal teacher as called in her state. That said, the artiste is choosy in accepting concert engagements that have, of late, started pouring in from far and wide.
Ponnammal has more than one first to her credit as a professional south Indian musician. The most outstanding among them is historic. She was the first woman to perform at the prestigious Navaratri Mandapam in Thiruvananthapuram, 177 years after the initiation of the annual nine-day event. Her concert in 2006 at the venue, glued to the vintage Padmanabha Swamy temple, thus earned a special status among the aficionados. On the same platform, her late guru Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer had enthralled the audience for about six decades without a break.
Ponnammal’s reposeful recitals betray ample evidence of her tutelage under Semmangudi (1908-2003). Also, the well-anchored presentation of her compositions is another sign of her extensive training in veena under the late K S Narayanaswamy.
Even with years of experience behind her, the veteran still practices for concerts and maintains great regard for all the traditional aspects of the art. “I have several dedicated students who keep me singing,” acknowledges Ponnammal, who has taught at institutions including the Sri Swati Tirunal College of music (her alma mater) and is now a guest lecturer for courses in universities.
Ponnammal was born in 1924 at Thiruvananthapuram district’s Parassala, bordering Tamil Nadu. She was attracted to classical music by the renditions of MS Subbulakshmi and used to sing many MS songs of those times to perfection. She learnt the basics of the art though, from Paramu Pillai Bhagavathar and later from Adoor Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar. Her winning a gold medal in a music competition that had Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar and Semmangudi as judges was the turning point in her life. That led her to joining Thiruvananthapuram’s Sri Swati Tirunal Academy, the prime centre of learning for music back in those days, under the Travancore Royalty. As the first woman student to pass both Ganabhushanam and Ganapraveena courses, Ponnammal became the first woman teacher and later the first woman principal of the illustrious institution. She also served at the music colleges in Palakkad and Tripunithura (off Kochi) before retiring in 1980. Those 38 years of institutionalised teaching fetched her a frontline guru status. She has had scores of students including Palkulangara Ambikadevi, G Seethalekshmi, Neyyantikara Vasudevan, Pala C K Ramachandran, Kumara Kerala Varma and Mangad Natesan. (After Seethalekshmi went abroad, Bhama Krishnan now accompanies her in all concerts.)
Ponnammal chose to settle down in the state capital and has been broadcast on AIR Thiruvananthapuram since its early years. Her talents matched those of the leading stars such as MS (1916-2004) and D K Pattammal (1919-2009). In fact, several people used to refer to her as ‘Kerala Pattammal’, what with the weighty timber being a common characteristic of DKP and Ponnammal.
She has several recordings to her credit, most of them devotionals. She has played an important role in popularising the kritis of composers from Kerala apart from almost all the compositions of Swati Tirunal including several padams. AIR could well retrieve some of these recordings from their archives for the benefit of today’s generation.
A strong believer in god, Ponnammal would never question the traditionally laid-down principles of teaching. She is the recipient of titles such as the Swati Puraskar and Gayaka Ratna, besides state awards and fellowships including that from the Central Sangeet Nataka Akademi recently.
Much later in her career, since Ponnammal appeared at the Chennai music scene during the last decade or so, she has been seen as the ambassador of Gaanakairali and the torchbearer of tradition handed down by yesteryear doyens. At its pinnacle, has come her receiving the prestigious TTK award from Nobel laureate Venkataraman Ramakrishnan at the Music Academy in Chennai on January 1.
— The writer is a Chennai-based veena player. musicsiva@gmail.com