The following is a guest post, by Aarushi K:
When Americans consider the early twentieth century, they often recall the struggle for women’s rights that thrived until women got what they rightfully deserved. America has always been renowned as a nation propelled towards change--change which molds society to better serve people’s interests. However, America wasn't the only nation characterized by revolutionary change in the 1900s. In fact, the early twentieth century marks a progressive time when Carnatic musicians began to showcase their vocal and/or instrumental talents to the public in sabhas, or concert halls. Musicians consisted of only male vidwans, or virtuosos, such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Lalgudi Jayaraman. At the time, it was considered taboo for female musicians to perform in any sort of venue. In other words, only males were permitted in sabhas. However, a Brahmin girl by the name of D.K. Pattamal would soon open the door to endless opportunities for female musicians with her own audacity.
A vocalist in her own right, Pattamal captured several hearts with her mesmerizing voice at the tender age of 9. Her father was reluctant to let his daughter perform in public, but after some convincing from his friends, he gave Pattamal permission to perform in sabhas. As such, Pattamal was the first woman to break the stereotype and sing in public. Her concerts would motivate other women to showcase their talents in various venues without fearing society’s reaction. The transition wasn’t a smooth one for Pattamal, for not many supported the notion of letting females perform an art commonly rendered by males; however, Pattamal finally emerged as a paragon of virtue as she impressed society with her boldness and talent.
Although she is no more, D.K. Pattamal will always be remembered as a revolutionary character who strove for change in the realm of Carnatic music.
This post was supposed to be posted last month, when it was emailed to me, but I had postponed it due to pending work in ikolam. Sorry Aarushi. :)
A short nice article. Yes, DKP was a trailblazer of that era.
Of course, my heroine of the early era (before DKP) is beMgaLUru nAgaratnamma.
Regards! - mOhana
Yes, really revolutionary she was!
It seems many people were against her stage performances saying no one will marry such a girl! But from the very beginning, her husband Eswaran's father was firm in his idea to get her married to his son and kept up his promise, it seems!
Thank you for your comments! Wow, I never heard of Bangalore Nagaratnamma until I did a bit of research on her. It's interesting how seasoned artists like Pattamalji and Nagaratnammaji proved to be well-rehearsed in not only Carnatic music, but also other types of fine arts.
Bangalore Nagaratnamma is a very great artist. She is famous for three reasons. She was born in a dEvadAsI family and was well accomplished in music and dance. She spent her time in Bangalore, Mysore, Madras and Tiruvayyaru. She was proficient in Kannada, Telugu and Sanskrit. She edited the Telugu poetic work called rAdhikAsAMtvanamu in the early 1900s. She included some erotic poems which were not present in the earlier editions. The book was banned by the then British government. After independence, one of the first acts of the Prakasam ministry in the then Madras Presidency was to lift this ban. She invented in those days a foldable tambUrA, easy to carry while travelling. She also fought against the introduction of the anti-natch act, but she didn't succeed in her attempts. She is presently more known for rebuilding the tyAgarAja samAdhi and temple at tiruvayyAru and continuing the aarAdhana celebrations there. She was the first to introduce the singing by female artists alongside the male artists during the aarAdhana. She wrote an ashTottara in Sanskrit on tyAgarAja which is used even today. I wrote a long essay on her in Telugu which may be read here http://www.eemaata.com/em/issues/200711/1166.html
In it I translated her only kannaDa jAvaLi in Telugu which can be sung to the same tune. You can also see her picture and her statue in tiruvayyAru there. She is thus a foremost fighter for woman's rights. She was given the very rare honour of gaMDapeMDEramu and awarded the title vidyAsundari.
Regards! - mOhana
Nice article....this time we lost two great exponents in both the forms of Indian classical music. In Hindustani form it was Gangubai Hanagal, one more great lady, even she had to face lot of obstacles.