Meet The Hindustani Violinist Who Founded A Unique Tradition Of Only Female Classical Musicians
Rajam, the most well-known violinist playing Hindustani music today, is 84 years old and steadfastly rejects the obnoxious concept of pareshani. The word that comes first on her list of virtues is discipline. Rajam is known as “Ammaji” to everyone, and her unwavering spirit is matched only by her striking persona, which includes an angular face adorned with a distinctively large red bindi, a nose pin, and vibrant Kanjeevarams.
Her extraordinary Carnatic beginnings in Chennai, her groundbreaking work in Benares in the 1950s, a career spanning almost seven decades, and now her position at the center of the female quartet all make for an enthralling life story. She herself, however, is unable to understand the fuss.
Watching and hearing the vivacious Rajam family at work, fully organized and effervescent, has an undoubtedly uplifting effect. When the girls were hardly out of their teens, she, her daughter Sangeeta Shankar, and granddaughters Nandini and Ragini started performing together more than ten years ago. Kala Ramnath, Rajam’s niece, is also a well-known violinist. Additionally, the family has nearly a dozen violinists if you include the offspring of her late brother, the late Carnatic maestro TN Krishnan.
Rajam’s quartet provided the necessary family ambiance for this year’s Festival of Lights at Delhi’s India International Centre. As always, their violins produced a magnificent imitation of human speech, complete with all of its expressive accents like the meend and the gamak.
They play a free-form, haphazard game that is difficult for a team to execute, similar to a jugalbandi multiplied by four. To ensure that the music is seamless, it is necessary to create space, cede control, put one’s ego aside, and show respect for the other’s creative ability.
Vocal cords
Rajam, who was schooled in the Carnatic style by her father, A Narayana Iyer, and the vocal powerhouse Musiri Subramania Iyer, entered the Hindustani scene in Benares at the age of 20. At the age of 14, Rajam made his MS Subbulakshmi debut.
At the period, gatkari or tantrakari, the plucked string technique common to sitar and sarod, was the preferred method of playing the violin in Hindustani. It is a complicated tradition that is connected to various gharanas, including the Allauddin Khan school, and which does not emphasize bol, the technique that can produce sounds resembling human singing.
Rajam received guidance and support from two men who were both strict disciplinarians: her father and Omkarnath Thakur, a legend in the Hindustani vocal genre, in her attempt to vocalize the violin in that style. The latter, a Paluskar student, was reputed to be a strict taskmaster and a volatile individual with strong patriotic sentiments (he is said to have sung for Mussolini at a concert in Florence). He was renowned for using vocal histrionics and emphasizing intense emotion in his singing. Rajam’s decision to play the khayal or thumri on her violin was therefore a natural one.
Generational wealth
Rajam moved to Thane, where she now resides, along with Sangeetha and the grandchildren, after retiring from the Banaras Hindu University, where both her academic and performing careers flourished. The family joke is that Thane is the center of all violin playing right now.
The four are so deeply ingrained in the Rajam technique today that their innovative discussions are remarkably democratic. Nandini and Ragini are creative explorers who freely experiment with new musical expressions, work with other artists and musical genres, and use digital technology.
News Mania Desk
