Parassala B. Ponnammal was only 16 when she got a grade as a singer with All India Radio. That was in 1940, when India had just a handful of broadcast stations and the one nearest to her house was at Trichy by the Cauvery, over 400 km from her village in the kingdom of Travancore. Teenaged Ponnammal went on to perform at weddings as a Carnatic vocalist, before her career took a curious turn.
By 1942, soon as she topped a three-year course from Swathi Thirunal Music Academy in Thiruvananthapuram, Ponnammal got her first job: as a teacher in the city. From then, the artiste pocketed several firsts alongside a rising profile, but all under the shadow of a strange irony spanning seven decades. Tamil Nadu, and its capital Chennai, where Carnatic flourished after Independence, totally ignored Ponnammal after the Trichy milestone.
It was only in 2009, when the musician was 85, that the prestigious Madras Music Academy invited her for a concert. This year, the 92-year-old was conferred with a Padma Shri. 바카라People say this should have come to me long ago; maybe yes, but I바카라m fine,바카라 says Ponnammal, graciously. 바카라For the past one decade, I have been unusually busy. Not just in south India, but even abroad (at the Cleveland festival in the US).바카라
A frontline disciple of 20th c icons Harikesanellur Muthiah Bhagavatar and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, even in her native Kerala she wasn바카라t much celebrated either for long. Often slotted as a theorist-teacher, she was seldom heard in the concert circuit. Then, in 2006, she got a big 바카라break바카라 when the annual 바카라the first-ever female artiste to be called to that ceremonial occasion, which was into its 187th edition then. The octogenarian, performing on day one, expanded upon the Sankarabharanam composition of Swathi Thirunal (1813-46).
The historic performance was the result of a 22-year struggle by musician Rama Varma of the erstwhile royal family바카라traditional patrons of the festival. 바카라As a teenager, I kept asking elders why the mandapam had always been an all-male affair. None had an answer,바카라 trails off Varma, a disciple of late M. Balamuralikrishna. 바카라When I won in my mission, I ensured that the debut should be marked by an exponent who breathes music.바카라
Baby Sreeram, another female vocalist to perform at Navaratri Mandapam, attributes Ponnammal바카라s 바카라effortless, errorless and matured바카라 music to her lifelong discipline. 바카라I바카라m told she never gave private tuitions; instead spent quiet hours after her day바카라s teaching in institutions,바카라 notes Baby. Ponnammal joined the Academy as a teacher in 1952 and helmed RLV Music College near Kochi for a decade from 1970.
Madurai-based vocalist K.N Renganatha Sharma, whose father Cherthala Narayana Iyer was a contemporary of Ponnammal at the Academy, values the 바카라restraint바카라 in her music. 바카라She doesn't go for cerebral exercises with rhythms, or that over-flourish in swara progressions.바카라 Author-archivist Krishna Moorthy rues the lack of too many recordings of Ponnammal in her prime. 바카라That would have given better direction to new-gen musicians keen to break tradition,바카라 adds the scholar who has written a biography of vocalist Neyyattinkara Vasudevan.
Sreevalsan J. Menon, a disciple of Vasudevan who learned a few kritis from Ponnammal, cites her dignified approach. 바카라Replicating some of her trademark gamakas is next to impossible.바카라 Chennai-based veena player-banker S. Sivaramakrishnan recalls how the city바카라s music circles are entranced by Ponnammal바카라s lesser-known compositions. 바카라Some hail her as a 바카라golden girl바카라. They have stumbled upon a DKP from Kerala,바카라 adds the aesthete, referring to D.K. Pattammal, who also hewed close to the lower (mandra) octave.
Ponnammal바카라s music mirrors the purity of her mind, says researcher-singer Ajith Namboothiri, a TV anchor for classical music programmes. Adds Kozhikode-based organiser Nochur Narayanan: 바카라She never went after anything. It바카라s all a long backlog of deserving honour coming now.바카라
