The Pachaiyappa's Hall, China Bazaar.
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On December 22, 1885,
M.E. (later Sir Mountstuart
Elphinstone) Grant-Duff,
Governor of Madras, attended
a performance of "native
Indian" music. That was at the
Pachaiyappa's Hall, China
Bazaar (now NSC Bose) Road.
A veritable who's who of the
city had assembled there that
evening at 4.30. The Madras
Branch of the Poona Gayan
Samaj organised the event.
They may not have realised it,
but it really marked the beginning
of the sabha culture in this
city and, therefore, of the Music
Season as well.
The event was delayed by 15
minutes as the gubernatorial
party took its time to arrive.
Grant-Duff was a last minute
stand-in for Lord Reay, Governor
of Bombay, who was then
visiting the Madras Presidency.
The Poona Gayan Samaj established
in 1874 was an influential
body in the world of fine arts
in Reay's territory. Its hardworking
secretary Bulwunt
Trimbuck Sahasrabudhe had
managed to get the Europeans
interested in the Samaj, which
had done some serious work in
getting Indian music to be
understood by Westerners.
In 1883, the Madras branch
of the Gayan Samaj was inaugurated
on August 18th. Calling
itself an Oriental Philharmonic
Society, it was inaugurated
by Sir Charles Turner,
Chief Justice of the High Court
of Madras. After a long speech
by Sir Charles, "four native musicians
then ascended the platform
with their instruments,
which consisted of two violins,
the vina, the tamboor, the sarbat
and a drum, and played a few
airs." (The Madras Mail, August
20th).
Thereafter, the Madras
branch began organising music
performances. The first of these
happened on January 21, 1884
at Lakshmi Vilas, the Luz residence
of (later Sir) V. Bhashyam
Iyengar. This was attended
by Sir Frederick Roberts (later
Lord Roberts of Kandahar), the
Commander-in-Chief of the Indian
Army. A sprinkling of local
worthies including several
Indian businessmen was also
present. "The musical fare provided
was particularly interesting,"
wrote The Madras Mail on
the 22nd. "In addition to performances
by professional musicians
like Messrs Shankar Row
and T Singara Charlu, and distinguished
amateurs like Professor
Sheshigiri Sastri, vocal and
instrumental expositions of
high merit were given by various
pupils of the schools. One
little boy in particular excited
great enthusiasm by his brilliant
performance on the violin."
The next meeting was in
November that year, which
took place at the Pachaiyappa's
Hall. Sir Charles Turner presided
and Sahasrabuddhe read
the annual report. The branch
had made commendable progress
in the intervening year.
Prince Alfred, the Duke of
Connaught (the Queen's
younger son), had consented to
be its patron and shortly thereafter
the Maharajahs of Mysore
and Vizianagaram and a Princess
of Tanjore had added
themselves to the list. Scholars
such as Capt. C.R. Day and
Suryanarayana Sastry Pandit
(Parithimal Kavignar) had enrolled
as members. Ten entertainment
meetings had been
held and the Samaj had received
as a gift a manuscript
copy of the Sangita Ratnakara,
one of the earliest treatises on
Indian music. Two schools for
teaching music had been begun,
one in Triplicane and the other
in George Town. The students
comprised "government servants,
graduates, undergraduates
and others prosecuting
their studies in schools and colleges."
The students were fifty
in number and the instruction
was by T. Singaracharlu and his
brother. They published a series
of textbooks for the schools, all
of which are landmark publications
in the world of Carnatic
music even today.
The meeting witnessed a
performance by a B.N. Natekar
playing on the "the bin, the satar
and the sraotha" (probably
veena, sitar and sarod). This was
much applauded and the event
concluded with the National
Anthem sung in Sanskrit (a
version of God Save The
Queen?) by "Papaya Sundra
Iyer, Singara Charlu and his
brother."
Which then brings us to the
event from where we started,
the performance on December
21, 1885. Lord Reay could not
make it at the last minute owing
to his being unwell. Grant-
Duff, accompanied by Lady
Reay, officiated. Sir T. Muthuswami
Iyer, Judge of the High
Court, read a paper on Hindu
music. This was reported in full
in the Madras Times the next
day. What is of greater interest
is the musical programme that
followed and very little sense
can be made of it today. From
what can be understood, several
artistes came forward and
performed individual ragas. The
list reads as follows:
CR Krishna Row, TA
Murthei Iyer and M Seshachella
Naidu – Vocal (ragmalika
or a chain of ragas, viz-
Pratab-Chintamani, Abhaj and
Poorna Chandrika).
N Shanker Row – Vocal
(Kalanithi)
N Visvanatha Row – Instrumental
(Khaffe)
B Soonder Iyer – Vocal
(Athana)
Venkat Ramaya – Vocal
(Kalyanee)
Messrs Singara Charlu &
Brother – Instrumental (Kuntal
Varalee)
Professor Shashagiri Shastri
MA and his brother Mr Venkatesa
Shastri – Instrumental
(Yinjotu Eishmanohari)
Back home in Government
House, Grant-Duff updated his
journal which would later be
published as Notes from a Diary,
Kept Chiefly in Southern India.
And this is what he had to say:
"With Lady Reay to an entertainment,
given by a Society
for the encouragement of
Indian music. The songs and
other performances said to me
just nothing at all. More interesting
was an address by Muttusami
Iyer. In contrasting our
music with theirs, he remarked: The dominant factor in the
Hindu system is melody, and
that in the European system is
harmony.
Lady Reay repeated to me a
saying of Kinglake's, when he
had been listening for some
time to the zither: I like that
music; it is almost as good as
none at all."
So much for Grant-Duff's
understanding. The Gayan
Samaj, however, kept at it. In
1887 it changed its name
thanks to the Maharajah of
Vizianagaram to The Madras
Jubilee Gayan Samaj in commemoration
of Queen Victoria's
diamond jubilee. It faded
away in the 1890s but not
before laying down certain
powerful precedents – explaining
to a largely Occidental audience
the nuances of Indian
music, the setting up of schools
to propagate the art, getting
aspiring artistes to perform to
an invited audience and, finally,
getting a Chief Guest who
had no feel for the art to
inaugurate its events!
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