Palani M. Subramania Pillai (1908-1962)
by K.S. Kalidas
Palani Subramania Pillai (Palani) was one of the greatest mridangam and kanjira vidwans of the last century. During the peak of his career, he was the preferred vidwan to accompany many great musicians. His accompanying style used to embellish the music being sung or played rather than intrude and dominate the concert. His style was characterised by 'sunadham', tonal modulation, the balance between the strokes on the two sides of the mridangam and exquisite 'gumkhis'
- the drawn out sounds on the 'toppi'
- which, simply put, was out of this world in its sweetness.
Born to Unnamulai Ammal and Palani Muthiah Pillai (1878-1945) an eminent tavil, mridangam and kanjira vidwan, and disciple of Pudukottai Manpoondia Pillai, Palani was taught the mridangam. He considered Dakshinamoorthy Pillai (1875-1937) as his 'maanasika' guru. Another influence was the tavil wizard Iluppur Panchapakesa Pillai (1905-1935).
As a teenager, he was to accompany the giant, Kanchipuram Naina Pillai (1889-1934). However, at that time, left handed mridangam vidwans were not encouraged, due to blind prejudice. He had to struggle hard to win recognition as many violin artists of the day would not 'relinquish their place' on the left side of the vocal performer on the stage. It took all the persuasion of Sangita Kalanidhi Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar (1895-1974) to get this problem sorted out. Another handicap that Palani faced was the heavy Maya' content his playing consisted of which put off popular vocalists. Again, at the suggestion of Chembai, he consciously
cut down on the laya intricacies so as to concentrate on 'saukhyam' or the aesthetic aspect.
Alathur Venkatesa Iyer (1894-1958) despatched the Alathur Brothers (his son Sivasubramaniam (1916-1965) and disciple Srinivasan (1912-1980)) to Madras so that Palani who had already shifted there and had acquired a standing could help the brothers come up in their career. It was Palani who arranged for a concert of the brothers during prime-time in Music Academy in which he himself accompanied and the concert was a huge success. Then onwards there was no looking back for the brothers and the trio became hugely popular in the concert circuits. Palani taught the brothers many Tiruppugazh songs with proper 'chandams' and there were exclusive Tiruppugazh concerts and Palani would play tani avartanams in Chanda Talas. The Alathur Brothers were awarded Sangita Kalanidhi by the Music Academy in 1964 and 65.
With fame, Palani's income from concerts increased manifold and his lifestyle was the envy of most musicians. The best perfumes, whitest of muslin shirts, new cars which only he would drive and dogs for pets became his hallmarks. He was a very sociable person who liked the company of fellow musicians and rasikas. This writer who was privileged to be his disciple for a couple of years had often seen many famous musicians drop in and share his hospitality. Palani's wife was Kolar Rajammal, agood singer in hertime. The couple had no children although their extended family consisted of disciples, nephews and nieces. Palani was a very religious person who would visit seers well known or otherwise often. When he sold his Boag Road bungalow, hepurchased one on Venkatanarayana Road. He gave away a major portion of the same to the Sringeri Mutt where it functions even today.
Palani trained a large number of disciples and during the 1950s and 1960s his disciples would win almost all the prizes in various competitions as well as scholarships. The foremost among his students were T. Ranganathan, Trichy Sankaran, M.N. Kandaswamy, Dandamudi Ramamohan Rao, Poovalur Venkataraman, Udumalai Mayilsamy and Pallathur Lakshmanan. He devised a unique set of lessons that were carefully graded in' terms of their complexity. He was a strict disciplinarian and would not proceed to a new lesson unless the disciple had perfected the earlier one.
Palani did not forget the struggle he had in his youth to gain acceptance and fame. He took it as his mission to discover and encourage young musical talent. Lalgudi Jayaraman, Tiruvarur Namasivayam,
M.D. Ramanathan and Sangita Kalanidhis M. Balamuralikrishna, K.V. Narayanaswamy, Nedunuri Krishnamoorthy and T.M. Thiagarajan, were beneficiaries. Others who benefited by his accompanying them were M.M. Dandapani Desigar and M.A. Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar. Although mridanga vidwans Sangita Kalanidhis T.K. Murthy and Palghat Raghu were not his disciples, Palani shared his knowledge generously with them and also encouraged them in their careers.
At the behest of his father, Palani built a shrine over the 'samadhi' of Manpoondia Pillai at Pudukkottai and conducted an annual gurupooja there. This practice is being continued by his disciples till date.
Palani's health was not his strong point and he lived only for 54 years. 27* May 1962 certainly was a black day for the music world which has not seen anyone of his calibre thereafter.
