BENGALURU: In 1970, Balamuralikrishna visited the Tyagaraja Aradhana in Thiruvaiyaru. Here, he rendered ‘Enta muddo Enta Sogaso’ in Ragam Bindumalini. This created a rather unnecessary fuss. ‘A huge criticism fell on him. Several people wondered what this Kriti was, several others joked what is this Bindumalini, it must be the name of one of his girlfriends,’ recollected Thiruvaiyaru P. Sekar, one of the students who got drawn to Balamuralikrishna’s music and had a lifelong association with him. Sekar’s father, T.N. Pattabhishekam, was the headmaster of the Thiruvaiyaru School. The fact is, very few in Thiruvaiyaru and among the festival committee had the knowledge of the kind of repertoire of Tyagaraja Kritis that Balamuralikrishna had.
In 1971, the government of Tamil Nadu recommended Balamuralikrishna for the Padma Shri award. At a glittering ceremony in New Delhi, President Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1894–1980) honoured him. The Tyagabrahma Mahotsava Sabha in Thiruvaiyaru was scouting for someone who could assume office and head that organization. There was a problem with some of the older officials, and many of them had quit. After much deliberation, Balamuralikrishna’s name was suggested by the then treasurer Thillaisthanam Vasudevan. Call it luck or fate, he was now being welcomed into the place that he hadn’t entered for a decade.
Saint Tyagaraja must have finally heard his prayerful appeal. His term in Thiruvaiyaru brought about a huge set of changes. ‘Balamurali sir would come to Thiruvaiyaru, and before the meeting, there would be a prayer song in the Sannidhi. I remember him singing “Sri Ganapathini”. I had nothing to do with the meeting, but was there as an awestruck fan. I was waiting outside when Mr Panchanadham signalled for me to sing. I couldn’t imagine singing in front of Balamuralikrishna sir. I was literally shivering with fear and excitement.
I somehow mustered courage, closed my eyes and sang. He came out of the Sannidhi, I fell at his feet and took his blessings. He enquired who I was. Mr Panchanadham told him that I was a local boy. He then enquired where I was learning music from. I told him from my mother and immediately expressed my wish to be his student as well,’ recollected Sekar, about his first encounter with Balamuralikrishna. ‘His student Rajalakshmi Santhanam appreciated my singing and gifted me two of his books. I had an image of him with me which I asked him to autograph. He obliged. I was on cloud nine,’ added Sekar.
Before that the Aradhana was a fairly unorganized affair. Artistes came and went and performed as they wished. ‘Sometimes a senior artiste would perform nonstop for as long as he liked and there was no one to object, just in case it hurt the ego of the artiste.
At other times, a scheduled event would be pushed ahead because some senior artiste showed up without prior announcement and demanded a slot to sing. Sometimes there were members in the committee who would silently sell a slot for money that they pocketed. Two veteran members, Sethuraman and Ramaswamy, had suggested pricing slots, the money from which would go into the festival fund,’ recollected Sekar. Balamuralikrishna decided to put a stop to all of these things. He introduced a life membership scheme, wherein artistes who enrolled were given a chance to perform.
After some initial hesitation, all artistes gladly supported this initiative. Some of the first to come on board were Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, M.S. Subbulakshmi and Sadasivam, Maharajapuram Santhanam, Brinda-Mukta, K.V. Narayanaswamy, D.K. Pattammal, T.N. Krishnan and others. In addition to Carnatic musicians, there were several from other fields who supported his initiatives, including film actors Bhanumathi Ramakrishnan and Vyjayanthimala Bali. ‘I was a regular to the Thiruvaiyaru Aradhana every year along with my mother. In fact, I even learnt two Tyagaraja Kritis from Balamuralikrishna sir,’ recollected Vyjayanthimala about her association with the Aradhana and Balamuralkrishna.
Next, Balamuralikrishna spoke to the authorities at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams to sponsor the building of a guest house that could accommodate artistes who visited the festival. He managed to convince the government of Andhra Pradesh to donate a sum of `2,00,000 for the project. ‘He changed the presentation format of the Kutcheris. He introduced the system of having two stages side by side. As one artiste would come to the end of the concert, the second artiste would ascend the other stage. This way there would be no time wasted and the concerts would go on smoothly,’ recollected Vidhushi Rama Kausalya, a lifetime resident of the Thillaisthanam Agraharam who belongs to the Thillaisthanam Shishya Parampara of Saint Tyagaraja. Kausalya’s grandmother was a disciple of Panchu Bhagavatar along with Narasimha Bhagavatar, who were called the ‘Thillaisthanam Brothers’. They were Thillaisthanam Rama Iyengar’s prime shishyas who kept the Thillaisthanam Shishya Parampara of Saint Tyagaraja going.
At the same time, he started familiarizing himself with everybody in and around Thiruvaiyaru who was associated with the Aradhana. Carnatic vocalist Sandeep Narayanan took me to his ancestral home in the Rayampettai Agraharam in Thiruvaiyaru. His grandfather, R. Varadarajan, and his grand uncle, R.R. Narayanan, were active members helping with the Aradhana. In fact, Narayanan’s own ancestral house would host artistes like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar and Madurai Mani Iyer in the heydays. Narayanan’s son N. Madhavan recollected Balamuralikrishna’s visit to their house very fondly.
(Excerpted from The Many Lives of Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna by Veejay Sai, published by Penguin Random House India)