Princes and heads of state bowed to her music. The late Jawaharlal Nehru said, ‘Who am I, a mere prime minister, before the queen of song?’ Mahatma Gandhi once said: “I should prefer to hear the bhajan Hari, tum haro spoken by Subbulakshmi rather than sung by others.” Few musicians among the many great stalwarts India has produced have achieved the exalted eminence of Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (1916-2004), known to millions as ‘MS’, whom generations worshipped as goddess incarnate.
Born in the temple town of Madurai on 16 September 1916, to veena player Shanmukhavadivu, little Kunjamma as Subbulakshmi was known, brother Saktivel and sister Vadivambal grew up surrounded and filled by music. Grandmother Akkammal had been a violinist. Their tiny home in the narrow Hanumantharayan Lane was close to the Minakshi temple. Whenever the deity was taken in procession through the main streets, the nagaswaram players would stop where this lane branched off and play their best for Shanmukhavadivu’s approval. Much later, experts would often wonder at the way in which MS vocally rendered the rare modulations of both the veena and the nagaswaram.
For mother and children, and the numerous uncles and aunts who crowded their home, it was a frugal existence. Vadivambal died young, before she could fulfil her promise as a veena player. Subbulakshmi was recognised early for her rich voice. Guru Madurai Srinivasa Iyengar died soon after she started lessons with him. She listened to a lot of good music, including Hindustani music, on the neighbours’ radio seated on the window-sill above the staircase. She loved to hear Abdul Karim Khan and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan in the silence of the night. Her formal schooling came to a halt in class 5 when a teacher’s beating was identified as the cause of an attack of whooping cough. MS practised music for long hours, lost in the vibrations of the tambura which she would tune reverently. This natural ability, consciously developed through a kind of yoga, led to the electrifying effect her opening syllables had on the audience all her life, and a fantastic voice range.
Lawyer-father Subramania Iyer lived a few streets away. She was his pet daughter and he was wont to saying that he would arrange her marriage with a ‘good boy’ who would love and cherish her music. He was a music lover and devotee of the lord. In the yearly Ramanavami festivals he organised, there would be puja, music and processions.
Gramophone records
MS accompanied her mother to Madras and cut her first disc at the age of ten, and the Columbia Gramophone Company records brought her recognition before she turned 15.
Subbulakshmi soon graduated to solo performances, and made her debut at the Madras Music Academy when she was 17. A connoisseur wrote: ‘When she... ascended the dais in 1934 and burst into classical songs, experienced musicians of the top rank vied with one another in expressing their delight in this new find.’ Tyagarajan Sadasivam, an advertising professional and freedom fighter who entered her life as a dashing suitor, became her husband in 1940.
This was the major turning point in Subbulakshmi’s life, beginning her ascent from being a South Indian celebrity to a national, even world, figure; and from a brilliant young virtuoso to the consummate artist she became in time. Her image, the course of her career, the direction of her music, were all carefully fashioned by Sadasivam. Sadasivam introduced MS to the great Congress leaders – Rajaji, Nehru and Gandhiji. He not only planned her concerts, but charted her whole career. Another prominent catalyst was ‘Kalki’ Krishnamurthy, novelist, freedom fighter, and Sadasivam’s partner in journalism.
National integration
To Sadasivam and MS, who lived together for nearly 60 years as husband and wife, until his death in 1997, the means were always as important as the end. He persuaded her to act in a few movies with specific financial objectives in mind, (including the launching of the magazine ‘Kalki’), but they were on idealistic themes, with the accent on music.
MS became a symbol of national integration, including in her repertoire compositions in languages from many parts of India. Recognising sahitya or words as an integral part of Carnatic music, MS cultivated impeccable diction in the different languages of the lyrics she sang. She was known for her attention to breath control, pauses in the right places, voice modulation, changes in emphasis and breaking phrases into their proper components. The couple saw music as a vehicle for spreading spirituality among the populace, and channelled the proceeds of concerts into charitable endowments.
Starting in 1944 with five concerts for the Kasturba Memorial Fund, their benevolence grew into a public service contribution of major proportions. Many worthy causes and institutions benefited from MS raising crores of rupees through singing. Many awards came to MS without her ever having to seek patronage of any kind. The nation’s highest honour of Bharat Ratna was conferred on her as it was to the present President of India, A P J Abdul Kalam, who remained an admirer to the end.
When Subbulakshmi breathed her last on 11 December 2004 after a period of illness, the President flew down from Delhi to her Kotturpuram, Chennai, residence to pay his last respects to her. Thousands of mourners from all walks of life and different social strata gathered to offer their homage to the uncrowned queen of Indian music.