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If Madras Music Academy succeeds in appropriating MSS’s exalted legacy, it will pave the way for legitimising TM Krishna as a musical heir of sorts to her
Madras HC restrained Music Academy to confer award in name of MS Subbulakshmi to TM Krishna.
The late PVRK Prasad was one of the rare, saintly IAS officers who sculpted his life in the mould of Rishis. His tenure as the Executive Officer (EO) of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams from 1978 to 1982 was arguably one of the sunshine periods of Tirumala. In an interview he gave to a Telugu channel about eight years ago, Prasad narrated an evocative episode that depicted the innate divinity residing within MS Subbulakshmi (MSS).
By the time Prasad had become the EO of Tirumala, the family of MSS had been reduced almost to penury. A protracted court battle went against her husband, Sadasivam, the co-founder of the iconic Tamil weekly, Kalki. The family pretty much lost everything and moved into a humble rented dwelling. Which is when PVRK Prasad received a message from the Maha Periyava of Kanchipuram, who requested him to help the family. It was a delicate situation. Both Sadasivam and MSS were fiercely independent and self-respecting. Years ago, MSS made a lifelong vow not to charge money for her concerts. She immediately donated any money from a concert that was raised in support of a noble cause.
PVRK Prasad narrated how he received a guidance of sorts from Tirumala Venkateshwara, to whom he prayed for a solution to this intricate problem. Around this time, the TTD’s mammoth and ambitious Annamacharya project was in full swing. The goal was to record the lyrical compositions of Tallapaka Annamacharya — the fabled 15th century Telugu poet and musician — onto LPs, audio cassettes and CDs sung by eminent classical musicians.
Who better than MS Subbulakshmi?
Accordingly, PVRK Prasad visited her home in Chennai and placed the proposal before Sadasivam, who instantly, vehemently disagreed. The reason was rather straightforward: all of Annamacharya’s compositions were in chaste and even archaic Telugu, and MSS had little or no understanding of the language.
Minutes later, MSS walked in and was apprised of the matter. And then, Prasad took out a beautiful murti of Tirumala Venkateshwara from his bag and presented it to her. In a way, that decided the matter. She simply said, “Perumal (generic name for Vishnu in Tamil) has himself come home. There is no question of refusal.”
Then, there was the matter of royalties. After all, Prasad had visited her at the request of the Kanchi Paramacharya himself, a fact that he concealed from the couple. Her reply: “It is a sin to take money for getting this unasked blessing to do seva to Perumal.“
What happened next is beyond the scope of this essay. Suffice to say that the outcome of this fortuitous meeting enriched, ennobled and elevated the world. A five-part series of immortal compositions titled Balaji Pancharatnamala was released by the TTD. It contains fifty chosen compositions of Annamacharya apart from various stotrams and bhajans drawn from the fecund repository of Hindu saints — Shankaracharya, Jayadeva, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu et al. There is almost no Hindu home in South India that has not been enthralled and uplifted by these songs.
MS Subbulakshmi was 65 years old when she first began recording them.
Madras High Court’s Ruling
Without such a backdrop, it will be difficult to grasp the nuances and the full import of the Madras High Court’s ruling yesterday, which restrained the Madras Music Academy and The Hindu from presenting the Sangita Kalanidhi MS Subbulakshmi Award to the far-Left ideologue, TM Krishna. The verdict was issued in response to a petition filed by MS Subbulakshmi’s grandson, V Srinivasan, who challenged the bestowal of such an award upon TM Krishna.
The relevant portion of Justice G. Jayachandran’s judgement is highly illuminating: “If any person is really having reverence and regard for MS Subbulakshmi, then after knowing her desire and mandate, they should not give any awards in her name.”
The “desire and mandate” refers to an explicit clause in her will that prohibits the establishment of any trust, foundation, or memorial in her name after her departure from the mortal world.
The judgement is also the latest proof of the ethics-free depredations of TM Krishna and his far-Left acolytes in Music Academy and The Hindu ecosystem into the sacred world of Carnatic classical music. It is also illustrative of an old Communist tactic dating back to Lenin. Communists begin with scatology, follow it up with incursion and end with usurpation.
It beats every known axiom of credulity to believe that Music Academy and TM Krishna were unaware of these clauses in MS Subbulakshmi’s will. Yet, the characteristic flagrancy embedded in all devotees of Leftism impelled even these denizens in their naked attempt to hijack the last will and testament of a saintly songstress like MSS. This is the classic instance of soul-vulturing.
The Madras Music Academy had to face sustained outrage earlier this year when it unilaterally announced the prestigious Sangita Kalanidhi award to the selfsame TM Krishna. In protest, a good chunk of the Carnatic fraternity boycotted the Academy, refusing to sing in the acclaimed, annual Marghazi music season held in Chennai.
But the far-Left ecosystem which patronises TM Krishna is nothing if not dogged. As far as Krishna is concerned, his maiden, below-the-belt assault against MSS began with a vulgar cover story in the October issue of Caravan, a mouthpiece of anti-Hindu and woke forces. This article established Krishna’s credo as a mid-rung hireling of the Magsaysay and woke network.
The explicit intent behind targeting MS Subbulakshmi was not her per se. The intent was to vilify, soil and demolish what she truly represented — sanctity which is inseparable from Carnatic classical music. This is a rather familiar subterfuge — to destroy Carnatic music by de-Hinduising it. And the most effective, and tried and tested Leftist tactic of accomplishing this was to assassinate her character by imputing illicit affairs.
The late Sita Ram Goel provides one of the clearest analyses of this third-rated tactic in Indian public discourse: “This disparagement of personal character was a significant contribution made to India’s… public life by the language of Leftism. It opened the floodgates for all sorts of questionable characters to…occupy the front seats on the public stage. The full harvest of these seeds sown in the years before independence was reaped in the post-independence period when… public life became progressively a safe haven for all sorts of scoundrels masquerading as servants of the people.” [Emphasis added]
TM Krishna’s decadal onslaughts against everything that the Carnatic fraternity regards as sacred and inviolable ticks every check box that Sita Ram Goel has provided. They also open up deeper questions of psyche and personal paranoia. At the least, they evoke a fundamental question. Despite being trained in the same rarefied Carnatic milieu, why is TM Krishna unable to imbibe the devotion that MSS embodied when she told PVRK Prasad that “Perumal has himself come home?” Why can’t he see what she saw?
Yet, all this hasn’t prevented him from attempting to appropriate her hallowed legacy by getting his Music Academy comrades to confer an award upon him in her name! This, when she herself unambiguously forbade it. Nor has TM Krishna or the Academy had even the basic decency to approach her family in this regard.
Is this hijacking? Or approval-seeking?
A study of Leftist methods points to a near-accurate answer. It is hijacking and appropriation but with a clear, long-term goal. If Madras Music Academy succeeds in appropriating MSS’s exalted legacy, it will pave the way for legitimising TM Krishna as a musical heir of sorts to her. This reminds us of a similar ploy that the Bengal Communists had attempted at the height of their institutional power. In a desperate attempt, they had tried to “prove” that Swami Vivekananda was a “pure” Communist when their earlier attempts to brand him as a “reactionary, militant Hindu communalist” had failed.
MS Subbulakshmi’s grandson deserves our heartfelt acclaim for preventing Music Academy from sullying her honour. The words in his court petition are quote-worthy: “[Giving] an award in her name is questionable since Krishna had been making vile, vituperative, and scandalous attacks on MS Subbulakshmi.”
And based on his sustained and voluminous attacks against the deceased MSS, it is clear that TM Krishna needs help. Of the clinical sort.
The author is the founder and chief editor, The Dharma Dispatch. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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