S R Janakiraman - The Dakshinamurthy to those who desired
Unfortunately, given my total lack of swara sense, I could never aspire to learn most of what he taught. Yet, even someone like me, with negligible technical knowledge, could learn a lot from him. We can split his personality into three parts: the musicologist and researcher, the propagator and the singer. The propagator became his defining public image, backed by his extensive research and his singing. He used lec dems as the medium to communicate his research and ideas to students of music. He is beyond doubt one of the great musicologists and a serious music communicator of the 20th century, along with the great Dr. S. Ramanathan. His lecture demonstrations were aimed at serious music students, and he believed the audience in front of him was musically educated. In all his lec dems, he addresses you as his equal, and you will not notice even a small drop of condescension poisoning his nectar. And that is another trait of a vallal: not to see you as an impoverished person, but rather as an equal to whom you give your wealth.
Let me recount an incident. In 2018, the year she was given the Sangitha Kalanidhi, Aruna Sairam gave a lecture demonstration in the morning session, which S R J Mama, as he is popularly known, attended. After the lecdem, I waited until the crowd melted and then spoke to him as we went down the lift to the ground floor. His daughter asked to be with him outside the mini-hall as she went to fetch their car. As I stood next to him, I told him about his informal talk on Bridamma available on YouTube. I mentioned that their 'Giripai' in Sahana has a different start than what is the standard approach. Instantly, he started singing both versions and explained the difference and wondered how wonderfully Sahana can be evoked with just three notes. And of course, he did not bother if I would ever understand what he said. (I didn't). For him, when you ask a question, you are a knowledgeable person. Not for him the infantilising. The dumbing down. He had an amazing standard, and his asking you, even if implicitly, to raise your knowledge a bit is perfectly fine.
The greatest lecture demonstrations I have attended in the last century were by Dr.S.Ramanathan and S R J Mama. My friends and I were fortunate enough to request him to come to Bangalore to give a lec dem and a concert, which he obliged. These programs were held in Ananya in Malleswaram, and he spoke with great insight about Dikshitar Chaturdasa Ragamalika krithi, 'Sree Vishwanatham'. The lec dems of S. Ramanathan and S R J Mama were a study in contrasts. S.Ramanathan adopted the tone of a professor: impersonal, matter-of-fact and laced with authority. And if he ever digressed from the point, he returned perfectly to the point of deviation. Whereas SRJ Mama's lec dems were emotional. Despite his amazing knowledge, he gave a feeling that he was searching for musical insights along with you. And I used to wait for his digressions, which gave as much insight as his talk on the topic. And sometimes he had strong opinions which he never shied away from expressing.
Both of these giants were superb researchers, though I am not sure if they were 'academically' trained as researchers. (The 'academic' part is becoming a big deal in the modern narrative.) It is amazing how well read both were. More than the reading, both cogitated on what they read and looked at multiple sources before they arrived at a conclusion. They were ready to deal with uncertainties and used words like 'possibly', 'perhaps' to capture the inherent limitations in capturing the past just from the records. (And it becomes worse when it concerns music, which is basically an oral medium, and recording music is a recent phenomenon in the history of music.) This rigour of research, coupled with humility, comes to my mind whenever I hear someone come to an absolute conclusion about past music. (Listen to this lecdem and hear what he has to say about past. It is brilliant. Around te 5 min mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_ti5Bz3cSI)
SRJ Mama gave a lot of wonderful concerts, many of them featuring rarely sung songs. And, delightfully, he would spontaneously break into a short lecture about the song. His voice was not what would be considered a melodious voice, but he moulded it such that it delivered whatever he wanted to say. And he had a lot to say. I have heard many rare pieces from his first: a rare Bilahari varnam by Tyagaraja's guru, 'abhayambam' in Kalyani, and many Tyagaraja krithis. He had an amazing repertoire. Except for one tape produced by Music Academy titled, 'ekaika ragas' and his lecture series on the Melakartha Ragas using the Mahavaidhyanathan Sivan's 'pranatharthihara', no one else undertook to record the various rare pieces he knew. That is, no known organisation did it. We must be grateful to the rasikas, some of whom had taped these for us. Unfortunately, not all of it is available on YouTube. Hope we see more content related to SRJ Mama on Youtube soon.
One of the great traits of SRJ Mama, as he himself explained in a lec-dem, "I learnt at the feet of great masters and was close to musicians like Musiri. Yet, I would think of whatever I learnt and come to my own conclusion." A perfect recipe for any student in any field. Respect your elders, which SRJ did. He spoke glowingly about Musiri. He spoke with great affection about M D Ramanathan and Brindamma. After singing the first like of 'Sri Dakshinamurthe' he stopped and said, "Before singing this krithi, all students of music must think about the doyen Semmangudi Srinivas Iyer, who made this krithi famous." And once he pointed to a sangathi in a krithi and said, "This beautiful sangathi was introduced by Balamuralikrishna.' Despite his great reverence towards his gurus, and respect for his peers, he was a man with his own mind and confident enough to publicly state his conclusions. And unlike the standard practice in carnatic circles to give a zillion disclaimers before stating a simple conclusion, SRJ put forth his theories in unambiguous language. We must understand the difference between stating a position unambiguously and coming to absolute conclusions. The first does not imply the second.
This is a great loss for the Carnatic music world, for unlike singers who can lose their voice, people like S R Janakiraman never lost their childlike enthusiasm for music.
Nowadays we have many lec dems, which is good. And yet, there are very few of them that come close to what S Ramanathan or SRJ Mama attempted. Sriram Parasuram carries forward that legacy, going by his lec-dems that I have heard. He has the same attitude of treating the audience as his equal, of good research and the humility when assessing the past.
If you are a music student, seek out SRJ Mama's lecdems and concerts. It doesn matter what your bani is. You will always benefit from his vast storage of knowledge.
Here are some links to SRJ Mama's lec-dems and singing:
1. Lecdem on Kalpana and Kalpita Sangita : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2L7mHr1TvQ
2. Lec-dem on composition on Muthuswami Dikshitar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLd-Q1aiHMA
3. On his time with Tiger and M D Ramanathan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fggO5gkK8U
4. On T. Brinda's music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSdgJMH4P1M
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