Carnatic Music Is Rooted In Sanatana Dharma

THERE ARE THREE corners to the triangle of the cur­rent musical meltdown in Chennai. The first is the Madras Music Academy, “a landmark institution in the history of the fine arts. It emerged as an offshoot of the All India Congress Session held in Madras in De­cember 1927. A music conference was held along with the deliberations, when the idea of a Music Academy emerged. Inaugurated on August 18, 1928, at the YMCA Auditorium, Es­planade by Sir CP Ramaswami Aiyar, it was conceived to be the institution that would set the standard for Carnatic music. In the process, it began the practice of hosting annual conferences on music in 1929, which in turn spawned the December music festival of Madras, one of the largest cultural events of the world [musicacademymadras.in].” Today there are over 25 sabhas that or­ganise music concerts and dance performances throughout the year, especially during the music season (December-January). Sabhas are run by corporate sponsors, besides having members who buy tickets. They are controlled by a small coterie that wields extraordinary power over Carnatic music. Of the sab­has, the Music Academy, presided over by N Murali, director of The Hindu group of newspapers, is the most prestigious. To sing in the Music Academy means one has “arrived”.

The second corner is TM Krishna, a brilliant musician and enfant terrible of Carnatic music. He is the grand nephew of TT Krishnamachari, former finance minister and industrial­ist, who was also one of the founding members of the Music Academy. In 2015, Krishna announced that he would not sing during the December music season. He experimented with sing­ing free at concerts during Chennai’s music season, but gave that up too. Krishna has attacked the sabha system, its nexus with NRI money, and the danger it posed to Carnatic music. He has criticised Carnatic music and the establishment for be­ing Brahmin-controlled and exclusionary, and has criticised MS Subbulakshmi, an icon, who, he said, “distanced herself from her Devadasi origins to gain wider acceptance” and sang to please others. He has vilified Saint Tyagaraja, who composed beautiful poetry and music in praise of Lord Rama, an anathema for a leftist. He refused to sing at the Music Academy for nearly 10 years, claiming “Brahmin hegemony”. He has leftist political views, which are his private business but make for good me­dia attention and the Ramon Magsaysay award. But his attack on the icons of Carnatic music does not sit well. He has been selected for this year’s Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy, which is at the centre of this storm.

The third corner of the triangle comprises the musicians. The ball was set rolling by sisters Ranjani and Gayatri, who wrote to the president of the Music Academy that they had decided “to withdraw from participating in the Music Academy’s confer­ence 2024 and from presenting (their) concert on 25 December… as the conference would be presided over by TM Krishna, who has been vilifying the classical music fraternity and glorifying E.V. Ramaswami Naicker (Periyar) who called for the genocide of Brahmins and used profanity against Brahmin women.” This set off an avalanche of withdrawals from the Academy by Hari­katha artists Dushyanth Sridhar and Vishakha Hari, musicians Trichur Brothers, Chitravina N Ravikiran (who returned his Sangita Kalanidhi), and others, including the late mridangam maestro Palghat Mani Iyer’s family, who have chosen to return his Sangita Kalanidhi award.

Carnatic music is rooted in Sanatana Dharma. Great com­posers chose to sing songs to their favourite deity or ishta de­vata. Carnatic music is spiritual in content and context. The three important aspects are ragam, taalam and sahitya, rooted in bhakti and spirituality. Contrary to Krishna’s assertion, all composers were not Brahmins. Before the famous trinity of musician-composers—Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri—the great composers were Muthu Thandavar, Marimutha Pillai and Arunachala Kavi, none of whom was a Brahmin. Purandara Dasa, one of the founders of Carnatic mu­sic and its pitamah (grandsire), was a merchant, born Srinivasa Nayak, who gave away his material wealth to become a Hari dasa. He formulated the basic lessons of teaching Carnatic mu­sic and tried to reform social practices like caste, untouchability, and gender inequality through devotional songs. Several Shaiva Nayanars and Vaishnava Alvars of Tami Nadu, Arunagirinathar, Ramalinga Swami, Maharaja Swati Tirunal of Kerala, the Wodeyar kings of Mysore, the Maratha kings of Thanjavur, and many other great musician-composers of Carnatic music were not Brahmins. Rao Sahib Abraham Pandithar was a Nadar Chris­tian, celebrated for his patronage of musicians and his studies on the origins and evolution of Carnatic music. All this just proves that Carnatic music was not a Brahmin monopoly.

The Music Academy has a right to choose whoever they want as Sangita Kalanidhi, and they chose TM Krishna, undoubtedly a great musician. Krishna also has a right to his political and social beliefs. But the musicians also have a right to withdraw in protest. What is surprising was the impassioned reply of N Murali, president of the Music Academy, claiming that the choice of Sangita Kalanidhi was the Academy’s prerogative [no­body disputed that] and “raising doubts about the intentions behind and the purpose of [the] letter” of Ranjani-Gayatri. Three-time Grammy award winner Ricky Kej has condemned Murali’s letter attacking the sisters, saying that it “reeks of arrogance, hatred and superiority.”

Politics could not stay far behind. DMK MP Kanimozhi posted in X (formerly Twitter), supporting Krishna, while the Dravidar Kazhagam leader K Veeramani and Chief Minister MK Stalin came out in Krishna’s support. All this made the music aficionados of Chennai wonder whether the selection of Krishna was as innocent as the Music Academy claimed, that Krishna “was chosen by the executive committee for his exceptional musical career, devoid of external influence,” according to Murali. Meanwhile, state BJP pres­ident K Annamalai said his party stands with Ranjani and Gayatri. In reply to the Academy’s president, the sisters answered brilliantly, saying that they did not question his prerogative to award anyone, but that they did exercise their prerogative to withdraw and that they refused “to be implicit apologists for genocide mongers and filthy discourse”. They finally attacked “the entrenched Executive Committee for consisting of only Brahmins and royalty.” Tough retaliatory words.

It is surprising that Krishna accepted the award, after his ranting against the Music Academy. The Sangita Kalanidhi also receives the MS Subbulakshmi Award with a major cash compo­nent. After his abuse of the late maestro, he will accept an award and cash in her name.

The most curious aspect of the entire Music Academy award is the timing. Normally, the Sangita Kalanidhi award is announced in June-July or later. Announcing it in March is a first, but it fits a political pattern, for it precedes the elections. DMK came out im­mediately in support of TM Krishna. Naturally, many musicians objected, followed by BJP’s support for the objecting singers. This has enabled the Left and DMK to project BJP, which is gaining strength in Tamil Nadu, as a “Brahmanical” party because it sup­ported the anti-Krishna forces, although Brahmins are less than 1 per cent of the population.

But the outcome is not so simple. There is now a growing coterie of music lovers who have decided to boycott the Music Academy’s December festival. Irreparable damage has been done, firstly to the Music Academy, which is no longer regarded as an institution dedicated solely to the furtherance of music. Secondly, to the music season itself. With so many top musi­cians boycotting, the music season at the academy will not be the same. It is also highly unlikely that Ranjani-Gayatri and the others, the top musicians today, will ever be invited again to sing at the Academy.

The only winner is TM Krishna who, after a lifetime of abus­ing Carnatic icons, will carry home the awards and the cash.

Carnatic musicChennaiKanimozhiMK StalinMS SubbulakshmiMusic AcademyTM Krishna