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COVER STORY
RAMNAD KRISHNAN
Music was his life
I
n an age when the nagaswara-inspired, robust,
masculine, forceful music of G.N. Balasubramaniam,
Alathur Brothers and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer held
sway, Ramnad Krishnan’s choice of the veena-like, delicately
modulated style of singing was a decisive deviation from
the general trend. Regarded as synonymous with raga-s
like Sahana, Begada and Saveri, Ramnad Krishnan was
as passionate about what he believed to be aesthetic and
pure music as he was steadfast in creating his own path
in the midst of several performing greats of his times, no
mean achievement. Yet, none could match his sense of the
aesthetic and suggestive in music. Far ahead of his times,
Ramnad Krishnan was a musician with a revolutionary
streak, who innovated and experimented with aesthetic
brilliance. Today, he is often described as an ideal musician
and role model for aspiring Carnatic vocalists.
Early life and training
Krishnan was born on 14 September 1918 in Alappuzha
in Kerala, to Vaidyanatha Iyer and Brihannayaki, hailing
from Kooniyur in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.
When Krishnan was four months old, his father shifted
from Alappuzha to Ramanathapuram (anglicised to
Ramnad) district in Tamil Nadu to join the service of the
Maharaja of Ramnad. Krishnan was one of eight siblings.
Since the family spent many years in Ramnad, all of them
Savita Narasimhan
prefixed Ramnad to their names. Krishnan began his
first vocal lessons in Carnatic music under the tutelage
of his elder brother Lakshminarayana and his guru C.S.
Sankarasivam (a disciple of Harikesanallur Muthiah
Bhagavatar). Among the brothers, Lakshminarayana and
Venkatachalam learnt the violin, while Raghavan and
Eswaran were trained to play the mridanga. By the age
of seven, Krishnan had mastered Arunachala Kavi’s entire
opera – the Ramanataka kriti-s. His singing prowess
earned him opportunities in theatre while at school in
Ramnad. Even at a young age, Krishnan had an inbuilt
sense of rhythm. His guru Sankarasivam, who sang the
complex Tiruppugazh in difficult tala cycles, accompanied
by Pudukottai Dakshinamurthy Pillai, enjoyed making
Krishnan keep the beat with his impeccable sense of
rhythm.
In 1936, Krishnan moved from Ramnad to Madras, where
he started performing and gaining exposure to the music of
the veterans of the time. GNB was his favourite musician
and Krishnan was a regular at his concerts, seen almost
always in the front row. He was quoted saying, “Just as
Hanuman is present wherever there is nama sankeertanam,
so also will I be seen wherever there is good music.”
Influence of the Dhanammal school
Krishnan was first introduced to Veena Dhanammal
Ramnad Krishnan with his brother Ramnad Easwaran (mridanga)
13 l SRUTI May 2012
COVER STORY
through his friend Mottu Krishnaswamy Iyengar, a direct
disciple of Kanchipuram Naina Pillai. Krishnan’s son
Ramanathan says, “My father vividly recalled his initial
experience of Dhanammal’s music: there was no effect of
that music for the first two weeks, probably because he
could not understand what was happening. But around
the third week, the melody and aesthetic of the style hit
him hard. It was a defining period in his life, when his
perception of the aesthetics of Carnatic music underwent
a sea change. Though he was strong in laya, the bhava
aspect henceforth started dominating his music.”
Krishnan began to expand his repertoire with the help of
T. Brinda, granddaughter of Dhanammal. The padams, javali-s and other compositions he learnt from her
acquired his signature style and sheen while remaining
true to the Dhanammal tradition in spirit. He gained
supreme control over accuracy and vocal precision in any
tempo – slow, medium or fast.
Brinda, who set and maintained very high standards in
music, was known to be an outspoken and thoughtful
critic. It needed such a top category weighing scale to
measure the quality of Ramnad Krishnan’s music.
Style
Krishnan’s voice was one of his greatest assets – a voice
that uniquely combined dexterity and delicateness and
the ability to handle any speed without sacrificing clarity
or nuances. His brilliance lay in how he employed it to
suit his artistic temperament. Most musicians tend to
avoid gamaka-s in madhyama kala – but he managed it
beautifully, a rare feat. He was arguably one of the first
musicians to highlight tonal modulation despite belonging
to the mikeless era. He had an unfailing sense for sruti and
an almost reverential approach to shadja and panchama
vocalisation.
Krishnan always spoke of the significance of contrast
in Carnatic music. His own style was marked by this
aspect, especially in his manner of rendering alapana, slow
gamaka-s juxtaposed with sudden brilliant flashes of
briga, plain notes in the midst of a tapestry of gamakas, a detailed phrase followed by a meaningful, musical
pause, a softly modulated phrase or karvai in the tara
sthayi contrasted with a full and deep throated expression
in the mandra sthayi and so on. He scrupulously avoided
trite, stereotypical phrases. Never one to over-dramatise or
over-emphasise, he was brief and precise in expression, a
possible effect of the Dhanammal style. He was in perfect
control in the higher octave; his voice acquired a special
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caressing softness and sheen to be able to negotiate the
higher notes. He intertwined vilamba kala and madhyama
kala phrases intuitively, to bring forth the inherent gait of
the raga. He was said to be very careful with the prayoga-s
he used in any alapana, eschewing as he did, those that did
not feature in the composition to follow, however attractive.
He included phrases from classical compositions to make
the alapana more wholesome and interesting.
His renditions of compositions stood out for their
almost filigree-like detailing and intricate sangati
structure. For example, through his embellishments in the
sangati-s for Sree manini or Lavanya Rama, he gave the
raga Poornashadjam an added identity by the strength of
his rendition. He modulated sangati-s where required, to
highlight the beauty of the given raga. An instance in point
was Tulasamma in Devagandhari, in which he rendered
the panchama almost caressingly after starting the first
phrase with complete weight and musical force.
His kalpana swara-s were always gamaka-rich and full of
melody, even in the most intricate tala-s. Krishnan had a
fine sense of proportion, his improvisations matching the
composition he sang, in length as well as mood.
Repertoire
Over the years, Ramnad Krishnan evolved a style that
effectively synthesised GNB’s repertoire and Brinda’s
conceptualisation.
Krishnan’s name was synonymous with raga-s like Sahana,
Saveri, Begada, Keeravani, Bhairavi and Madhyamavati.
He was known to handle even secondary or minor scales
in a scholarly and interesting manner. Thus, Malavi,
Poornachandrika, Bahudari, Phalamanjari, Janaranjani
and other similar raga-s acquired sophistication when
he rendered them. Compositions like Nee bhakti and
Yagnadulu ( Jayamanohari), Sree manini and Lavanya
Rama (Poornashadjam), Bhuvinidasudani (Sreeranjani),
Nijamarmamulanu (Umabharanam) and others came to
be associated with him.
Krishnan was aptly called ‘Sahana’ Krishnan thanks to his
approach to the raga – innovative, fresh and passionate,
no matter how often he rendered it. In his alapana for
this raga, he frequently combined madhyama kala with
vilamba kala phrases, using tonal modulation wherever
required. The effect was mesmerising. He treated even
traditional raga-s like Varali, Surati, Sankarabharanam,
Todi and Madhyamavati with the same individuality and
freshness.