BENGALURU: Collating the musical heritage of Rudrapatna, Karnataka’s sangeeta grama nestling on the banks of the Cauvery, has been a labour of love for R S Bhaskara Avadhani.
It has taken Avadhani, considered an authority on the lineage of the musical village, almost three years to come out with his recently released title Samskruthika Grama — Rudrapattana. The 575-page tome in Kannada traces in detail the rich history of Rudrapatna right from the 17th century, and ‘the glorious past of great Karnatak vocalists and instrumentalists’.
“Alas! Those days are gone as most people have migrated to either Bengaluru or to the US in search of greener pastures,” says Avadhani, who also moved to the city in 1969. Here, he started a business manufacturing and dealing in solar water heaters and other products that use solar energy.
“This music village, which gave Karnatak music greats like Venkataramaiah, Ranga Shastry and Thoti Thammaiah, is today just a memory. Its sons and daughters have left, forgetting the musical and spiritual lineage.”
People only flock to the village in Hassan district for the annual music festival, and try to recreate its glorious heritage, he says.
Avadhani also belongs to an old family in the village, and is well-known musician R K Padmanabha’s relative. “I can still trace our family land records back to 200 years.”
The 70-year-old recalls the days when he used to cross River Cauvery in monsoons during a nearly two-hour-long journey to reach his school in Basvapatna. “Our family was steeped in Vedic studies and performance of the Surya Namaskar.” Although he left Rudrapatna after schooling and PUC, he he felt drawn again and again to the village that was his home for 17 years.
Avadhani’s initial foray into writing about Rudrapatna started in the form of a 15-page booklet in 2000, followed by a 60-page book in 2005. He has also written articles on Rudrapatna for a Sanketi magazine.
It is said that about 600 years ago, Sanketi Iyers migrated from Shenkottai in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, and settled down on the banks of the Cauvery in the village then called Hyagreevapura, and continued their tryst with music and Vedas.
“My book also talks about veena and violin players, including R S Keshavamurthy, Veena Rangappa, Veena Suryanarayana and R K Venkatarama Shastry. I have traced the history of 1,000 families from the end of 17th century to the beginning of 18th century,” he says. “The family tree of great musicians of Rudrapatna forms part of the book and also those people who went to America.”
Scientists, engineers, litterateurs, people in the armed forces and other professionals, including ‘some commoners who have done yeomen service’, have found mention in the work. “I have detailed all their contributions with pictures, records, original documents and statistics.”
Gathering information took him to other districts as well. “Two journalists — Alur Subbarao, involvement with Subash Chandra Bose and bringing out inspiring columns was immense, and R Venkatram, who brought out a daily, have been included in the book,” he says. “Pilot Ramaswamy went from Rudrapatna to England and France and made name for himself. His flying experiences and the lives of 25 child widows, and how, despite poverty, they faced life with a smile, have been detailed.”
Another remarkable contribution is of a school peon, Ghouse, who picked up children from the streets and got them to attend school.
“Rudraptana has always been in the forefront of music, education and spiritual studies and Ghouse understood the value of education,” says the author with passion.
“R V Srikantaiah who went on to become a scientist at BARC, Mumbai,
remembers this man with gratitude, and gives Ghouse all credit for his education.”