தமிழிசை இயக்கம்
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N. Ganesan
Apr 13, 2026, 6:29:00 PM (2 days ago) Apr 13
to Santhavasantham
தமிழிசை இயக்கம்
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தமிழிசை இயக்கத்தில் எம். எஸ். சுப்புலட்சுமி ஆற்றிய பங்கை கே. பாலகுமார் தனது கட்டுரையில் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார். புரந்தரதாசர் காலத்தில் இருந்து நம் காலம் வரை ஏற்பட்ட கர்நாடக சங்கீத உலகின் மாற்றங்களைக் குறித்த நல்ல கட்டுரை இஃது.
https://swarajyamag.com/culture/sanskrit-the-mountain-telugu-the-river-tamil-the-soil-carnatic-music-never-belonged-to-one-language
"ஆர்த்த பிறவி" - மாணிக்கவாசகரின் திருவெம்பாவைப் பாடலுக்குச் செம்மங்குடி சங்கராபரணம் இராகத்தில் இசையமைத்துத் தந்துள்ளார். அதனை எம்.எஸ். 50 நிமிடங்களுக்குத் தமிழிசை மன்றங்களில் பாடியுள்ளார்.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZqp7b4U0bo
தமிழிசை இயக்கம் பற்றிப் பின்னூட்டுகளில் குறிப்பிட்டேன். சீகாழி மூவர் பற்றி மு. அருணாசலம் ஆய்வுகள் பற்றியும், ராஜா அண்ணாமலைச் செட்டியார் ஆதரவும் அரியவை. தனியாகக் கட்டுரை எழுதுவதாகப் பதில் கூறினார். பாரதிதாசன் வாழ்த்து: https://nganesan.blogspot.com/2014/01/bharatidasan-on-raja-sir-1941.html
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/tamilisai-moovar-of-sirkazhi-the-pioneering-trinity-of-tamil-kritis/article67654489.ece
Carnatic Music - why it got the name in English, I try to explain using the British colonial era maps in feedback to @kbalakumar post. Cauvery delta region that fostered this music and where the Carnatic Trinity were born (Tiruvarur) was called Carnatic in the 19th century.
அனைவருக்கும் தமிழ்ப் புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்து,
நா. கணேசன்
https://swarajyamag.com/culture/sanskrit-the-mountain-telugu-the-river-tamil-the-soil-carnatic-music-never-belonged-to-one-language
"MS leads a rebel movement
This triggered a rebellion. On one side was the muscle of Sir Annamalai Chettiar, who founded the Tamil Isai Sangam in 1943. But the heart of the movement was fuelled by a group of prominent Brahmins like the writer Kalki Krishnamoorthy and C Rajagopalachari (Rajaji).
Among senior performers of the era, there were varying degrees of hesitation towards expanding the Tamil offerings in concerts. The influential concert architect Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, whose format had largely standardised the modern kutcheri structure, believed strongly in the centrality of the Trinity's compositions. For him, they represented a tested musical inheritance, and radical alteration seemed unnecessary.
Similarly, stalwarts such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, though not hostile to Tamil compositions, often leaned heavily on the canonical Telugu and Sanskrit kritis that had long formed the backbone of the concert tradition. Their position was less about linguistic resistance and more about musical continuity.
The Tamil Isai movement's secret weapon, however, proved to be MS Subbulakshmi. Often remembered as the super-conservative upholder of tradition, MS was, in fact, a musical rebel. She risked the ire of her own gurus and seniors to join the other side, as it were. When the Academy effectively banned her for five years for singing Tamil songs in the major sections of her concerts, she didn't blink.
She worked, as she always did, on improving the variety of Tamil songs that could be sung in concerts. Kalki Krishnamurthy reportedly crafted the song Vandadum Solai Tanile (Harikamboji) specifically to provide MS with the lyrical meat required for elaborate niraval, thereby proving that Tamil could be as intellectually expansive as any Telugu masterpiece. It was around that time that MS also introduced in her concerts the song from Silappadhikaram, Vadavaraiyai Mathakki (Ragamalika). In the concluding segment, when she goes, "Kariyavanai kanatha kannenna kanne, kan imaithu kaanpar tham kannenna kanne", even the most atheistic Tamil heart would become a believer.
Her guru Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, though initially sceptical of the movement, eventually lent his monumental craftsmanship to the cause. He set Manickavachakar's ancient, soul-stirring verses Artha Piravi in majestic Sankarabharanam. MS eventually returned to the Academy on her own terms, and her musical satyagraha proved that Tamil could be as euphonious as Sundara Telugu.
Those who batted for Tamil
What made this episode historically fascinating is the coalition that batted for Tamil isai. It disrupts the simplistic narrative, which later hardened into political rhetoric, that Brahmins as a community were opposed to Tamil music. In reality, some of the most articulate advocates for Tamil compositions in Carnatic concerts came from within the Brahmin intellectual world itself.
The controversy, on the whole, revealed something more nuanced than a simple cultural clash. It merely showed the inevitable tension between tradition and adaptation that every classical art form must eventually negotiate. Carnatic music had inherited a magnificent body of compositions in Telugu and Sanskrit because of the historical circumstances in which it had flourished. But its audiences were changing, its geography was shifting, and its emotional vocabulary was expanding.
The debates themselves helped broaden the repertoire, and the Tamil Isai movement gave renewed attention to composers such as Arunachala Kavi, Marimutha Pillai, Subramanya Bharati, and Gopalakrishna Bharati. Sabhas began slowly accommodating more Tamil pieces within concerts. Musicians realised that the emotional immediacy of a language understood by listeners could create a powerful connection. "
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தமிழிசை இயக்கத்தில் எம். எஸ். சுப்புலட்சுமி ஆற்றிய பங்கை கே. பாலகுமார் தனது கட்டுரையில் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார். புரந்தரதாசர் காலத்தில் இருந்து நம் காலம் வரை ஏற்பட்ட கர்நாடக சங்கீத உலகின் மாற்றங்களைக் குறித்த நல்ல கட்டுரை இஃது.
https://swarajyamag.com/culture/sanskrit-the-mountain-telugu-the-river-tamil-the-soil-carnatic-music-never-belonged-to-one-language
"ஆர்த்த பிறவி" - மாணிக்கவாசகரின் திருவெம்பாவைப் பாடலுக்குச் செம்மங்குடி சங்கராபரணம் இராகத்தில் இசையமைத்துத் தந்துள்ளார். அதனை எம்.எஸ். 50 நிமிடங்களுக்குத் தமிழிசை மன்றங்களில் பாடியுள்ளார்.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZqp7b4U0bo
தமிழிசை இயக்கம் பற்றிப் பின்னூட்டுகளில் குறிப்பிட்டேன். சீகாழி மூவர் பற்றி மு. அருணாசலம் ஆய்வுகள் பற்றியும், ராஜா அண்ணாமலைச் செட்டியார் ஆதரவும் அரியவை. தனியாகக் கட்டுரை எழுதுவதாகப் பதில் கூறினார். பாரதிதாசன் வாழ்த்து: https://nganesan.blogspot.com/2014/01/bharatidasan-on-raja-sir-1941.html
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/tamilisai-moovar-of-sirkazhi-the-pioneering-trinity-of-tamil-kritis/article67654489.ece
Carnatic Music - why it got the name in English, I try to explain using the British colonial era maps in feedback to @kbalakumar post. Cauvery delta region that fostered this music and where the Carnatic Trinity were born (Tiruvarur) was called Carnatic in the 19th century.
அனைவருக்கும் தமிழ்ப் புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்து,
நா. கணேசன்
https://swarajyamag.com/culture/sanskrit-the-mountain-telugu-the-river-tamil-the-soil-carnatic-music-never-belonged-to-one-language
"MS leads a rebel movement
This triggered a rebellion. On one side was the muscle of Sir Annamalai Chettiar, who founded the Tamil Isai Sangam in 1943. But the heart of the movement was fuelled by a group of prominent Brahmins like the writer Kalki Krishnamoorthy and C Rajagopalachari (Rajaji).
Among senior performers of the era, there were varying degrees of hesitation towards expanding the Tamil offerings in concerts. The influential concert architect Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, whose format had largely standardised the modern kutcheri structure, believed strongly in the centrality of the Trinity's compositions. For him, they represented a tested musical inheritance, and radical alteration seemed unnecessary.
Similarly, stalwarts such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, though not hostile to Tamil compositions, often leaned heavily on the canonical Telugu and Sanskrit kritis that had long formed the backbone of the concert tradition. Their position was less about linguistic resistance and more about musical continuity.
The Tamil Isai movement's secret weapon, however, proved to be MS Subbulakshmi. Often remembered as the super-conservative upholder of tradition, MS was, in fact, a musical rebel. She risked the ire of her own gurus and seniors to join the other side, as it were. When the Academy effectively banned her for five years for singing Tamil songs in the major sections of her concerts, she didn't blink.
She worked, as she always did, on improving the variety of Tamil songs that could be sung in concerts. Kalki Krishnamurthy reportedly crafted the song Vandadum Solai Tanile (Harikamboji) specifically to provide MS with the lyrical meat required for elaborate niraval, thereby proving that Tamil could be as intellectually expansive as any Telugu masterpiece. It was around that time that MS also introduced in her concerts the song from Silappadhikaram, Vadavaraiyai Mathakki (Ragamalika). In the concluding segment, when she goes, "Kariyavanai kanatha kannenna kanne, kan imaithu kaanpar tham kannenna kanne", even the most atheistic Tamil heart would become a believer.
Her guru Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, though initially sceptical of the movement, eventually lent his monumental craftsmanship to the cause. He set Manickavachakar's ancient, soul-stirring verses Artha Piravi in majestic Sankarabharanam. MS eventually returned to the Academy on her own terms, and her musical satyagraha proved that Tamil could be as euphonious as Sundara Telugu.
Those who batted for Tamil
What made this episode historically fascinating is the coalition that batted for Tamil isai. It disrupts the simplistic narrative, which later hardened into political rhetoric, that Brahmins as a community were opposed to Tamil music. In reality, some of the most articulate advocates for Tamil compositions in Carnatic concerts came from within the Brahmin intellectual world itself.
The controversy, on the whole, revealed something more nuanced than a simple cultural clash. It merely showed the inevitable tension between tradition and adaptation that every classical art form must eventually negotiate. Carnatic music had inherited a magnificent body of compositions in Telugu and Sanskrit because of the historical circumstances in which it had flourished. But its audiences were changing, its geography was shifting, and its emotional vocabulary was expanding.
The debates themselves helped broaden the repertoire, and the Tamil Isai movement gave renewed attention to composers such as Arunachala Kavi, Marimutha Pillai, Subramanya Bharati, and Gopalakrishna Bharati. Sabhas began slowly accommodating more Tamil pieces within concerts. Musicians realised that the emotional immediacy of a language understood by listeners could create a powerful connection. "
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