‘Poochi’ Srinivasa Iyengar’s vast treasure of compositions

Lec-dems on the life and works of musicians of the past open up a window to an era gone by and to know how music has evolved over decades.

At The Music Academy, Ritha Rajan presented an interesting account of Ramanathapuram ‘Poochi’ Srinivasa Iyengar, an eminent musician-composer, one of the most well-known after the Trinity.

An outstanding third generation musician of the Manambuchavadi sishya parampara of Tyagaraja, he belonged to the Chellur Iyengar community, who are believed to have migrated from Chelluru or Selvanallur in the East Godavari district during the 9th century, settling mostly in Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram. Born to Narayana Iyengar and Lakshmi Ammal in Pappankulam in Ramanathapuram district, young Srinivasa inherited his interest in music from his mother, a good singer.

Talking about his moniker ‘Poochi’, meaning insect, Ritha quoted Tamil scholar U.Ve Swaminatha Iyer, who said he got the name because his singing was as melodious as a bee’s hum.

Srinivasa matriculated from Ramanathapuram High School in first class. Pandithurai Thevar, a schoolmate, who later became the zamindar of Palavanatham, identified his musical aptitude and was responsible for his learning under Patnam Subramania Iyer. Srinivasa, an admirer of Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer, imbibed a lot from his raga alapana and pallavi singing.

Ritha Rajan with Akshya and Shruthi S Bhat at the lec-dem.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Poochi Iyengar’s concerts

Srinivasa Iyengar’s concerts usually began with the Bhairavi ata tala varnam ‘Viribhoni’, followed by a few keertanas with antara gandhara. He often included Muthuswami Dikshitar’s ‘Neelotpala nayike’ (Nariritigowla) and ‘Subrahmanyaya namaste’ (Kamboji); Kavi Matrubhuthayya’s ‘Neemadi challaga’ (Anandabhairavi); and ‘Garuda gamana’ (Nagaswaravali) and ‘Nee padamula’ (Bhairavi) by his guru Patnam Subramania Iyer. He usually sang the pallavis, ‘Mandahasa vadana’ in Sankarabharanam, or ‘Ma Madura Meenakshi’ in Bhairavi. Towards the end of his performances, he used to render some of his own compositions and conclude with a javali and thillana. His favourite ragas were Shanmukhapriya, Sankarabharanam, Kalyani, Kapi, Varali, Begada, Sahana and Husseini.

Quoting from Soolamangalam Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar’s weekly column, ‘Karnataka Sangita Vidwangal’ in Kalki magazine, Ritha said that Srinivasa Iyengar kept his performances simple with melody as focus. He did not encourage the accompanists to dominate, and the tani avarthanam was restricted to a few minutes at the end of the concert.

Many disciples

He had many disciples. Prominent among them were Salem Duraisamy Iyengar, Kandanur Srinivasa Iyengar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Karaikudi Rajamani Iyengar, Kuttalam Srinivasa Iyer, Koteeswara Iyer (who also learnt from Patnam Subramania Iyer) Ettayapuram Rajagopala Bhagavatar (son of Ettayapuram Ramachandra Bhagavatar of Dikshitar sishya parampara), and Mayavaram Sivaram Iyer.

Sharing a couple of anecdotes from the book, Meri Dakshin Bharat ki Sangeet Yatra by musician V.N. Bhatkhande, who went to Ramanathapuram to interview Srinivasa Iyengar, Ritha said, “He learnt many Hindustani raags through one of his sishyas, Sankara Pandit, who hailed from Gwalior. He even used to sing a bandish, ‘Pyar de’ in raag Purva in his concerts.

From some anecdotes

She read a passage from Karnamrutha Sagaram, a book by Abraham Pandithar, that said Srinivasa Iyengar sang exactly like his guru. Mysore Vasudevachar in his book, Naa Kanda Kalavidaru, says Srinivasa was Patnam Subramania Iyer’s first disciple and Vasudevachar the last. He writes how he was inspired to learn from Patnam Iyer after listening to Srinivasa Iyengar’s Sankarabharanam pallavi ‘Mandahasa vadana’ at Veena Seshanna’s house in Mysore. Narrating an interesting anecdote, Ritha said Mysore Vasudevachar sang his own composition ‘Janakendra Sutha priya’ in Megharanjani at Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar’s wedding. When it was Srinivasa Iyengar’s turn to perform, he too sang his own piece, ‘Karunatho nannu’, in the same raga. Vasudevachar asked him if he could change the raga of his composition, to which Srinivasa Iyengar cited the example of Tyagaraja’s ‘Manasu swadheena’ and Dikshitar’s ‘Akshayalinga vibho’ in Sankarabharanam, and said that the similarity was a blessing of their guru.

Teaching sessions

In his book, Vasudevachar described Srinivasa Iyengar’s teaching method as ‘rakshasa sadakam’, after he had watched him teach the Begada Ata tala varnam individually to each disciple. Similarly, referring to his appetite, he described it as ‘rakshasa sappadu’, since he consumed large quantities of food.

Soolamangalam V. Radhakrishna Bhagavatar in ‘An account of Thyagarajaswamy Aradhana’ talks about Srinivasa Iyengar’s involvement in conducting the aradhana for the first time in Tiruvaiyaru in 1906. Interestingly, Bangalore Nagarathnamma would begin the aradhana by singing Poochi Iyengar’s ‘Sadguru swamiki’ in Ritigowla.

The composer has written tana and pada varnams, keerthanas, javalis, thillana, a kavadi chindu in Tamil, and a navaratnamalika in nine ragas. He composed in Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil, and his mudra was Srinivasa, though a few compositions do not bear any mudra.

His compositions are published in Sangitanubhava Sara Sangraham by Perungulam V. Srinivasa Iyengar, Venkateswara Tana Varnangal by Kakinada C.S. Krishnaswamy Iyer, Sangita Abhimani (1936), Sangita Kalpadhruma (1947), and The Music Academy’s Rare compositions of Patnam Subramania Iyer, Ramnad Srinivasa Iyengar and other composers edited by Mudicondan Venkatrama Iyer (1958), as well as in books by N. C. Parthasarathy (1980), Salem Chellam Iyengar (1982), and Rangaramanuja Iyengar’s Kriti Mani Malai (Volume 4).

While ‘Ninnukori’ in Mohanam and ‘Neranammiti’ in Kanada are the most popular of his varnams, Akshya and Shruthi S. Bhat, alumni of the Advanced School of Carnatic Music, who accompanied Ritha Rajan on the presentation, sang ‘Rara sami’, a rarely heard varnam in Anandabhairavi.

There are about 25 well-known keertanas, of which ‘Anudinamu’ (Begada), ‘Sadbhaktiyu’ (Anandabhairavi), ‘Samajavarada’ (Suddha Saveri), ‘Parthasarathy nannu’ (Madhyamavati), ‘Nee padamule gatiyeni’ (Navarasa Kannada), ‘Neekela nayeda’ (Deva Manohari), and ‘Parama pavana Rama’ (Purvikalyani) are available with notations.

Chittaswara specialist

Chittaswaras woven into the kritis was Poochi’s speciality. While the chittaswaras for Tyagaraja’s kritis were composed later and are hence usually in free-flowing sarvalagu patterns, Poochi’s chittaswarams are highly planned, said Ritha.

His keerthanas tend to be in chowka kalam, adi tala 2 kalais, such as ‘Saraguna palimpa’, ‘Parama pavana’, and ‘Sri Raghukula nidhim’ in Husseini. The one in Thodi, ‘Satatamu brovumayya’, that he composed in praise of George V on his India visit, is also set in 2 kalais. Citing ‘Sri Venkatesham varam’ in Thodi, Ritha pointed out that Poochi Iyengar was also adept in composing kritis in Rupaka tala 2 kalai, which is a challenge, although Papanasam Sivan composed a few.

Seven of the composer’s javalis are available. Also fond of creating thillanas, of the 12 thillanas he set, the one in Kapi in Lakshmisa tala with 108 beats in a cycle, and another in Kamavardhini in Ragavardhini, a tala of 72 beats, prove his versatility.

Aptly, Ritha played a recording of ‘Na dir dheem’ sung by Lata Mangeshkar in the film Pardesi, which is based on Poochi’s Sankarabharanam thillana.

The Chennai-based reviewer

writes on classical music.