M.S. Subbalakshmi, by Sai Tenneti
M.S. Subbalakshmi was a woman who dedicated her whole life to music. Her singing spread divine happiness and peace to millions of hearts around the world. Her melodious voice and devotion were praised by many people, including ones with high fame like Mahatma Gandhi and Helen Keller. All throughout her life, she was given titles, such as “queen of music,” “nightingale of India,” “songbird of springtime,” “a musical genius,” and “a divine being.”
Her music began at a very young age, when she learned her first lessons from her mother. At age 10, Kunjamma, as she was called at that time, was already singing on stage with her mother playing the veena. When her mother cut a gramophone record, Kunjamma was asked to do an impossibly high Khamboji ragam in the song “marakatavadivu”. She sang it beautifully, with the astonishment of her audience. It was this voice that would later reach out to the whole country and inspire many musicians.
Soon, her voice began to draw a lot of attention. By the 1930s, the capitol of Carnatic music had shifted to Chennai due to her melodious singing. There she met Thyagarajan Sadasivam, a nationalist and journalist, and she married him. His nationalism identified M.S. Subbalakshmi with the freedom movement. So rousing national songs later became part of her concerts, and she became well known to Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. In 1944, she performed five concerts to raise funds for the Kasturba Memorial Trust, and in the following years, she gave benefit performances to collect money for various social and religious causes. From 1937 to 1947, M.S. Subbalakshmi was drawn to the world of films and starred in four movies. When she sang, every note vibrated with blissful devotion; she even brought tears into the eyes of American director Ellis R. Dungan. Soon, her seeming effortlessness was rooted in technical mastery, endless practice, restraint, and constant self-appraisal.
Householders who know Sanskrit identify with the bhakti in the M.S. Subbalakshmi suprabhatams of Venkateshwara, Vishwanatha and Meenakshi. Though her Hindi bhajans made her known beyond the South, Subbulakshmi’s Thyagaraja kritis could also keep North Indians in their seats. Pilgrims thrill to her voice, amplified in temple prakaras from Kedarnath to Badrinath to Rameswaram to Kanyakumari. Listening to her rendition of the “Vishnusahasranama”, another musician named Agnihotram Thathachariar could only wonder, “How does she have that flawless renunciation we scholars were unable to achieve through several birth cycles?”
Once, M.S. Subbalakshmi wrote in a magazine when she was 73 years old: “Music is an ocean and I am a student. For a vocalist, voice practice is important. It has been my habit to learn the meaning of the songs I have to sing and the correct pronunciation of each word.” She was the first woman to receive the title of “Sangita Kalaanidhi” by the Music Academy. She was also conferred the highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1996, the President’s Award, the Padma Vibhushan in 1975, the Padma Bhushan in 1954, the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1974, Kalidas Samman in 1988, Konarak Samman, Fellowship of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Hafeez Ali Khan Award, the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration, and the Desikottama.
M.S. Subbulakshmi has been a role model to millions of people. It was recently that this great musician passed away, at the age of 88. She is remembered as a woman who awakened not only India, but the whole world.
Sai Tenneti is an undergraduate student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is studying Electrical and Computer Engineering. You can contact Sai at stenneti@student.umass.edu.
Email This Post
Loading ...