TRIPUNITHURA: Mavelikkara R Prabhakara Varma considered music as his sole life partner and dedicated himself to the popularisation of Carnatic music through his disciples.
Whenever he was queried about his bachelorship, Varma used to respond with a smile, “I am wedded to music.
Please do not call me a bachelor in that sense.'' The Carnatic music world considers Varma as a perfect teacher. He considered his disciples as the invaluable wealth earned during his lifetime.
M G Radhakrishnan, K Omanakutty, Kumara Kerala Varma, Palkulangara Ambikadevi, Ponkunnam Ramachandran and Thamarakadu Govindan Namboothiri are some of his disciples. The late Neyyattinkara Vasudevan was also a disciple of Varma.
As the grandson of Kerala Panini A R Raja Raja Varma, Prabhakara Varma evinced keen interest in learning Sanskrit.
With the added knowledge in Sanskrit, he tried to unravel the hidden beauty of the compositions of Muthuswami Deekshithar through a decade- long research work. “As I entered deep into the lyrical beauty of Deekshithar, I was really surprised as I could recognise the magical power of Sanskrit to expose the serene `bhakthi bhavam,' he used to say.
As a student of the Swathi Thirunal Music College, Varma had attended the invaluable lecture sessions of legendary singers, including Shemmangudi Sreenivasa Iyer. Keeping these lessons rooted in tradition in mind, Varma always maintained the traditional style of rendition throughout his career.
“In most of his concerts, Varma exposed the indescribable beauty of the lyrics of Swathi Thirunal, recalled Padmaraju Thampuran, an ardent admirer of Prabhakara Varma. “I still remember the immortal musical experience created by Varma while exposing the beauty of the popular composition of Swathi Thirunal (Suma Saayaka …) at the Thamaramkulangara Sree Dharma Sastha Temple a decade ago, Padmaraju said.
In recognition of his talent, the State Government honoured him with the Swathi Puraskaram in 2006. Varma evinced interest in understanding more about Sopana Sangeetham. After learning the basics of the rare ragas of Sopana Sangeetham, Varma tried to understand the depth of Kathakali Sangeetham.
The Kerala Kalamandalam had utilised his knowledge of Carnatic music by documenting the unique rendition of selected Padams from selected aattakathas by renowned Kathakali singer the late Venmani Haridas .
Yes, Mavelikkara Prabhakara Varma was wedded to Carnatic music and he handed over the invaluable music knowledge, the only wealth he had earned through decades, to his disciples. He was an odd musician who considered music as the breathing air, or much more than that.