Mysore Vasudevachar

Mysore Vasudevacharya (28 May 1865 – 17 May 1961) was an Indian musician and composer of Carnatic music compositions who belonged to the direct line of Thyagaraja's disciples. Vasudevachar's compositions (numbering over 200) were mostly in Telugu and Sanskrit. Some of his most popular kritis include Broche varevaru ra in Khamas raga, Devadideva in Sunadavinodini, Mamavatu Sri Saraswati in Hindolam, Bhajare Re Manasa in Abheri and Ra Ra Rajeevalochana Rama in Mohanam. [1] He was a recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.[2]

Mysore Vasudevacharya
Background information
Born	(1865-05-28)28 May 1865 Karnataka, South India, India
Died	17 May 1961(1961-05-17) (aged 95)
Genres	Carnatic
Occupation(s)	Composer, lyricist, instrumentalist
Instruments	Vocals

He is credited with two writings in Kannada, one of them an autobiography called Nenapugalu (memories) and Na Kanda Kalavidaru (the musicians I have met) in which he wrote the biographies of many well known musicians. Mysore Vasudevachar also taught in Rukmini Devi's Kalakshetra, (founded in 1936). He was already quite old by then, but thanks to Rukmini Devi he agreed to shift to Kalakshetra. He became the chief musician in Kalakshetra and helped in setting the Ramayana to music. He died in 1961 at the age of 96. He lived a simple and austere life devoted to the study of Sanskrit and music.

S. Rajaram, his grandson worked at Kalakshetra eventually taking charge of the institution at Rukmini Devi's request. Vasudevachar had composed the music for only the first four kandas and it was left to Rajaram to finish the work. An accomplished musician and Sanskrit scholar, he was amongst the few musicians, the sole repository of Vasudevacharya's compositions. S. Krishnamurthy (1922–2015), his other grandson worked at All India Radio and translated his Vasudevachar's memoirs into English.[3] He has also published a memoir of his own.

Early life

Vasudevacharya was born in an orthodox Madhwa Brahmin family in Mysore and started learning music from Veena Padmanabhiah, the chief musician of the Mysore court. He also mastered Sanskrit and allied fields such as Kavya, Vyakarana, Nataka, Alankaram, Tarka, Itihasa, Purana having studied at the Maharaja Sanskrit college in Mysore while learning music privately. [4]

He then went on to learn from the famous composer-musician Patnam Subramania Iyer supported by the Maharaja's generous stipend and imbibed the music of not only his Guru but also other great maestros of the Thanjavur-Cauvery delta. Vasudevachar eventually became the chief court musician(Asthana Vidwan) at the Mysore court. He was known for his madhyama-kala tanam singing which he learnt from his Guru. Patnam Subramania Iyer often requested his sishya "Vasu" to help him with the sahitya (lyric) aspects of his compositions. This aspect of his training undoubtedly helped Vasudevacharya as a composer. He was adept in all the aspects of Carnatic music especially Raga Alapana,Thanam,Pallavi, Niraval, and Kalpana swaram.[5]

Career

He published a large number of his compositions in the book Vasudeva Kirtana Manjari. His compositions in Telugu have such sweetness and lilt, and beautifully blend with the tune of the raga as do the Sanskrit compositions, which are mellifluous. His songs reflect his mastery of Sanskrit and show his erudition and scholarship in Sanskrit literature. He considered his insight into Telugu as a gift from Thyagaraja (Thyagaraja's bhiksha). Unlike the Dasa kuta songs, his compositions don't have any Dvaita undertones but many have the words "Paramapurusha Vasudeva" or "Vasudeva" which means the supreme Vasudeva/Lord Vishnu which incidentally is also his mudra or signature.[6]

True to his Vaishnava heritage and the Thyagaraja shishya parampara to which he belonged, most of his compositions are in praise of Lord Rama. In addition to Kritis and Keertanas, he also composed Varnams, Thillanas, Javalis and slokas. His admiration for the trinity of Carnatic music specially Thyagaraja resulted in Srimadadi Thyagaraja Guruvaram in Kalyani, Shri Ramachandra (a ragamalika) and two other ragamalikas in praise of Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Sastri. Vasudevachar's compositions are thus like sugar candy which gives one instant pleasure and yet lingers on in the mind and heart long after. [7]

Compositions

Composition	Raga	Tala	Type	Language	Audio Links
Nannubrova rada	Madhyamavati	Adi		Telugu
Mama hrudaye	Reetigowla	Kanda Jati Tripura tala		Sanskrit
Marachitive	Purvikalyani	Adi		Telugu
Bhajana Seyarada Sriramuni	Dharmavati	Rupaka		Telugu	Vairamangalam Lakshminarayanan (Part 1) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5WNYzUXbe4 Vairamangalam Lakshminarayanan (Part 2) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcS0nExnwHk
Broche Varevaru ra	Khamas (raga)	Adi		Telugu	MS Subbulakshmi - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqd9Pmksx8s Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2QkYh9Eesc Bombay Sisters - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHwqrpXxHms G. N. Balasubramaniam - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulwdujl433U
'’Vanajaksha- Varnam	Mandari	Adi		Telugu
Lambodaramavalambe	Kambhoji	Tupamaros		Telugu
Girija ramana natajana sharana	Gambhiranata	Adi		Sanskrit	Vani Sateesh - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TpEJtzi-aw
Gokula Nilaya	Abheri	Adi		Sanskrit	TM Krishna - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fHEVqhre7o
Mamavatu sri sarasvati	Hindolam	Adi		Sanskrit	Priya Sisters - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnvGV7GtKlM Sudha Raghunathan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_-UV1mLZug
Mari Mari Vaccuna Manava Janma	Kambhoji	Adi		Telugu
Nikela Daya Radu Ramachandra	Kadana Kutuhalam	Adi		Telugu
Nimishamaina Sri Ramayana Rada	Sama	Adi		Telugu
Ninne Nammitinayya Sri Rama	Simhendramadhyamam	Misra chapu		Telugu
Ra Ra Rajeeva Lochana	Mohanam	Adi		Telugu
vara lakshmi namostute	Gowrimanohari	Rupaka		Sanskrit
Sri Chamundeshvari	Bilahari	Adi		Sanskrit
Devi Kamalalaye	Garudadhwani	Adi		Sanskrit		Shankari Ninne"	Kamavardhini	Misra Chapu	Sanskrit
Bhajare Re Manasa	Abheri	Adi		Sanskrit	S Sowmya - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy7iP-8fSKU

References

1. Pranesh, Meera Rajaram (2003). Musical Composers during Wodeyar Dynasty (1638-1947 A.D.). Bangalore: Vee Emm Publications. OCLC 854725751.
2. "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
3. Govind, Ranjani (5 December 2015). "Carnatic musician S. Krishnamurthy passes away". The Hindu. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
4. "Mysore Vasudevachar". musicalnirvana.com.
5. Chandaraju, Aruna (11 April 2008). "A slice of musical history". The Hindu.
6. Ramnarayan, Gowri (20 April 2001). "Magic of the Mysore musician". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 13 December 2003.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
7. Ramnarayan, Gowri (5 June 2009). "Rare composer". The Hindu.

See also

• List of Carnatic composers