TVS a household music name

TVS. Those three letters are magic letters in Tamil Nadu, signifying as they do an iconic business group that meant safety, reliability and punctuality to thousands who used the bus service launched by the grand old man TV Sundaram Iyengar in the last century.

The Carnatic music world boasts yet another TVS, a Sangita Kalanidhi of the Music Academy, no less, someone who could be relied upon to deliver time after time. A vocalist famed for his emotive style of singing based on the sruti-perfect, exciting bani of his charismatic uncle Madurai Mani Iyer, TV Sankaranarayanan came as a breath of fresh air to the scene in the ’60s at a time when the past masters were beginning to fade away.

There had been a time when young Sankaranarayanan was a keen cricketer and cricket follower, besides being a good student and avid reader of English literature. A student of Vivekananda college and Madras Law college, he made his decision on a career in music on the advice of his uncle. Father Vembu Iyer, who was Mani Iyer's disciple as well as faithful caregiver, and mother Gomathi were both Sankaranarayanan's early music teachers, before he began to train with Mani Iyer himself. As Mani Iyer's vocal accompanist on stage, he so impressed veteran musicians that senior violinists and mridanga vidwans encouraged him to ascend the concert stage on his own. He made his solo debut in 1965 when he was twenty, and never looked back, though a tour of the United States ten years later played a decisive role in shaping his future. The concerts and lectures he had to deliver across the country gave him a new confidence, and he came back a more mature artist than when he left Indian shores.

TVS might have been imitative of Madurai Mani Iyer in his early concerts, but he was following a model eminently worthy of emulation. Mani Iyer's pure voice and delightful swara improvisations appealed to the commoner and the elite alike. His artistic integrity was held in high esteem, and Sankaranarayanan, too, chose the same majestic path of immaculate sruti alignment and cascades of sarvalaghu swaras that had become the Madurai Mani trademark. He also paid much attention to raga alapana and niraval, other improvisational elements in Carnatic music. He excelled in the compositions his uncle had made famous, including some lilting numbers in the later part of the concert after the main raga had been exhaustively delineated. To these delightful elements of his guru's ouevre, he added a more full-throated, emotion-filled vocalisation accompanied by dramatic gestures.

Once TVS became a household name in Carnatic music, many awards and honours came his way, with the Padma Bhushan, Sangeet Natak Akademi and Sangita Kalanidhi awards the crown jewels to adorn his glittering career.

Though Sankaranarayanan has kept the Madurai Mani Iyer bani alive, he has not trained as many disciples as some other vidwans have. His son Sankara Mahadevan has shown promise of carrying on the tradition, while his daughter Amruta, too has been one of his notable disciples.

After a few years when he seemed to be plateauing, something every artist goes through at some stage of his career, TVS has in the recent past bounced back, touching mid-season form as it were - as one of his favourite authors, PG Wodehouse, was wont to describe his endearing characters. Sankaranarayanan will receive the title of Nadabrahmam from Narada Gana Sabha this December season.