It was a usual Sunday evening on 12 June 2022, and the road to the venue, Ragasudha Hall near Nageswara Rao Park, Mylapore was filled with cars. The hall was packed with art patrons, musicians, rasikas and music students. The venue had a festive look with several family members and disciples of Maragatham Ramaswamy gathered there awaiting the release of the book, Athisaya Vara Prasadhini, containing notations of 50 rare compositions, which Maragatham Ramaswamy, learnt from her gurus in Chennai. The event was organised by Ramapriya Arts Foundation.
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Vidushi Maragatham Ramaswamy, a respected music teacher who settled in Virginia, U.S.A. is a gold medallist from Central College of Carnatic Music, Chennai, when it was headed by Musiri Subramania Iyer. She learned from many other stalwarts, including Ramnad Krishnan, T.M. Thyagarajan, K.V. Narayanaswamy and B. Rajam Iyer. She had her training in violin from Trivandrum Harihara Iyer, M.S. Anantharaman, T.N. Krishnan, Varahur Muthuswamy Iyer and Lalgudi Jayaraman. Further, she learnt from Tanjavur S. Kalyanaraman for ten years.
As a guru, she strongly believes that the pathantaram of the kritis should be passed on to the next generation of musicians without any dilution. The book Athisaya Vara Prasadhini, is a step in that direction. She has compiled English notations for 50 rare compositions of twenty-two vaggeyakaras for the benefit of aspiring musicians.
The event commenced with a prayer song by Lakshmi Prasanna; and Varalakshmi Anandkumar, Trustee, Ramapriya Arts Academy welcomed the gathering. Vidwan T.K. Murthy, T.V. Somanathan, IAS, Finance Secretary, Government of India, Cleveland Sundaram, vidushi R.S. Jayalakshmi, Sahana Vivekanandan from the Sringeri Jagadguru Mahasannidhanam and vidushi Sikkil Mala Chandrasekhar graced the occasion and also wrote the foreword for the book. T.V. Somanathan, IAS, released the book, and art patron and organiser Cleveland V.V. Sundaram received the first copy.
T.V. Somanathan is Maragatham's nephew (her brother's son). He said in his address, "I have grown with her in the same household. She was a student of two distinct gurus -- Tanjavur S. Kalyanaraman and Lalgudi Jayaraman -- learning both vocal and violin. Kalyanaraman Sir was temperamental with his biting sarcasm. Yet my aunt learnt so much from him for ten years. She was one of her period's best vocalists and violinists though she remained relatively unknown in this part of the concert arena. It was because she decided to put her family before her career. She was not inclined to go behind sabha secretaries and critics seeking concert opportunities. Then she left for America and blossomed as a teacher of great significance by showing infinite patience, care and affection to the students. She wanted to share every bit of her knowledge with her students. She has a battalion of devoted students who will do anything for their teacher."
Cleveland Sundaram said, "I have personally seen how Maragatham has trained thousands of students in the US taking part in the competitions. All the students who performed well in the competitions used to mention Maragatham Ramaswamy as their teacher. If pure music is sustaining in the US, it is due to the untiring efforts of a couple of teachers, and Maragatham is foremost among them. She has amazing control and grip over layam. She received the best teacher award at the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana, and I have never heard her scolding any student."
Sahana Vivekanand from the Sringeri Jagadguru Mahasannidhanam offered benediction. A short video of Maragatham expressing her gratitude to all those vidwans and vidushis who helped her in this project was played. A formal vote of thanks was given by Durga Venkatesh.
The book release was followed by a beautiful concert by vidwan Sikkil Gurucharan accompanied by V. Sanjeev (violin) and Sai Giridhar (mridangam). It was very thoughtful of Gurucharan to include some rare songs from the book.
The book is the result of the hard work put in for one year by Maragatham and her disciples, and is appropriately titled Athisaya Vara Prasadhini to denote the hard work of all the disciples and relatives in Chennai which resulted in the release of this book. Also the composition of Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar in the raga Mandari which starts with the words Athisaya vara prasadini is included in the book.
The book is of high quality printing in the size of 11" x 8-1/2" printed in white maplitho 80 gsm paper with maroon colour wrapper. The number of pages is 192 and the book is priced at Rs.750. The book should be useful to music students and up-and-coming musicians who want to internalise the rare compositions. The book is available with Karnatic Music Book Centre, Royapettah, Chennai, and Sruthilaya, Luz, Chennai.
C. RAMAKRISHNAN
PC: Nick Haynes