Over a century ago, a group of siblings cast a spell on the music and dance of South India. Utpal K Banerjee recently attended the Varnam Festival at IIC, which paid tribute to the genius of the Tanjore Quartet
The early 19th century was a creative period South of the Vindhyas. Royal patronage was aplenty: with the Nayaki Maratha king Serfoji of Tanjore, Swati Tirunal of Travancore in Kerala and the royal court of Mysore, all offering support to culture.
The legendary trinity of Carnatic music — Thyagarajan, Muthuswami Dikshiter and Shyama Sastry — thrived on the banks of the Kaveri at Guruvarur pouring forth heavenly music. Belonging to a musical family, the four Pillai bothers of Tanjore — Chinnayya, Ponnayya, Sivanandan and, the youngest and brightest, Vadivelu — excelled in Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music. Called the ‘Tanjore Quartet’, they migrated from the court of Tanjore to Travancore, and later to Mysore, enlivening the cultural scene wherever they went. Amongst the four, Vadivelu, the disciple of Dikshiter, introduced the Western violin to Carnatic music and enriched Mohiniyattam for Kerala’s women dancers, with encouragement from Tirunal. The ‘Quartet’ also created the set-sequence of margam for Bharatanatyam that is still practised today, namely, alarippu, tana pada varnam, kriti, padam, javali, swarajati, daru, kavuttuvam, sooladi and tillana. Their unmistakable stamp has endured through two streams of Bharatanatyam under Bala Saraswati and Rukmini Devi Arundale, drawing from their gurus, Kandappa Pillai and Meenakshi Sundarm Pillai, both who were clear votaries of the Quartet.
Bengaluru-based Kalasindhu has done great service to rasikas by bringing the traditional varnam festival from their city to the capital, recreating the pristine purity of the original Quartet: Varnam means colour and constitutes the central, multi-hued staple of the classical form: elaborately alternating between nritya (interpretative dance) with nritta (pure dance).
Three gifted young dancers of the Kalasindhu ensemble — Deepti, Swathi and Priyanka — set the tone: with a varnam in raga Bhairavi, recapitulating the original composition of Tanjore Quartet. It revealed the Achilles’ hill in their pas de troix. Commented their guru Poornima Gururaja, “This was due to lack of coordination. We were handicapped for quality music as well.”
In sheer contrast, all three youngsters were sprightly in their solo margam items of padam and javali, as well as tillana with combined verve. A relatively-experienced Aishwarya Nityananda then took the stage, launching a swarajoti varnam by Ponnaya Pillai in raga Huseini.
All of 24 and a CA, Aishwarya showed enviable aplomb while depicting the versatility of the erstwhile brothers. Asked what drew her to the Quartet, she gushed, “It’s their pronounced range of emotions visible in every move and posture. Our sentiments have mellowed down considerably”. Aishwaraya presented a breathtaking finale in lord Shiva’s ananda tandava. “Although I‘m a disciple of Radha Sridhar, this tandava is an innovation of my own”, she said proudly.
On the second evening, the statuesque Priya Venkataraman took the floor with a varnam in raga Charukesi by lalgudi Jayaraman. Priya explained, “This is a recent varnam, woven around amorous adventures of Radha and Krishna. Radha shows awareness of all the lilas of Krishna, but chides Krishna for not knowing Radha’s longings!”
There followed a well-known ashtapadi from Jayadeva’s Gita Govindam: Pashyati dishi dishi, again on the Radha-Krishna theme. Her finale was a scintillating Balamurali Krishna tillana in Vakra raga.
Guru Poornima Gururaja’s concluding programme was a slowly-elaborated, connoisseur’s treat. Harking back to the sringara tradition, she chose a varnam in raga Abhogi by Pandanallur Srinivas and a Kshetraiya padam in raga Sahana. Confided dancer, Swapna Sundari, who was there, “Indira belongs to the old school of devadasis who revelled in sringara. Her assertive presence is reminiscent of the old times of dominant sringara, before Rukmini Devi sanitised the genre!”