INTRODUCTION
A short account of MSS and her impact on Carnatic music landscape is an important topic we need to discuss to bring out the values these pages stand for. This is very apt one for the blog on a time, when we live in an age and time where our traditions and values are of utmost importance in keeping the quality of music produced. MSS Amma and her life is a true representation of how modern influences did exist in her journey of a very illustrious life of being the Queen of Carnatic music field. She embraced the fame and modern trends while staying humble and strong with her values in life. A liberal at heart yet embrace the heart and soul of Carnatic music like no-one had ever done before. All expressions and views in here is explicitly views of the author and if any difference let us know for sure.
Person
Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi or popularly known among her devotees as MS Amma ( MS the mother). Born to a devdasi mother, MS was taught the art of singing at a very young age itself. Early in her childhood itself, she had to elope from a marriage arranged by her mother. Fell in love with a married man named Kalki Sadasivam, a leading political leader of India’s freedom fight (from a shameful British rule). Both lovers waited till the man’s wife passed away to continue a life together. After her marriage with Kalki, MSS assumed the role of a traditional house wife, where her husband decided what she did with her career. Even he spoke for her in public.
Biographers who studied to understand the real woman behind this public woman artist find a very interesting persona. They believe that hiding under all theses traditional India woman looks, one can find a rebellious woman, who silently led a war against traditions. She eloped from an arranged marriage, fell in love with a married man, ultimately waited long to marry him. In her later life she madly trusted him and treated him as her soul mate, gave him every respect. The character she portrayed in “Meera” was a true representation of a rebel woman. People at that time believed that she is the real saint singer. A woman who never had to crave for any fame and who almost lived under the public eye from her early age itself, it must have been hard not to obey all the norms. We will try to go through this great legendary singer’s life and music very briefly
Her Music:
She learned all her basics of Carnatic music from her mother and her Hindustani from Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas. She recorded her first album at the age of ten and never had to look back. A sweet voice and the maturity in her singing at that young age wowed the pandits of music at that time.
MSS’s name became synonymous with Carnatic music very rapidly. Her music was very bakhti oriented (devotional) and she had the right sense of singing all various techniques (sangathies) and in her public performances everything was well planned with brigas and aakarams; her singing performances started from a very broad base that culminated in an upper octave. For her, swaras were not just distinct sounds that formed millions of permutation combinations; but they merge into each other which expressed the raaga bhavam, that reached the listeners and carry them to a different world. This was possible only by a maestro like her. It is just the sheer genius that we all had witnessed when she was alive and now convey to us through her recordings.
Here we share one of the most iconic prayers sung by MSS amma. Just by growing up in India every one know this Venkateshwara Suprabatham in her voice on the microphones from local temples for sure. That voice and this prayer in the morning will put one to peace and right mood to start a great day. Give a listen.
Her Movies and portrayal of Meerabhai
She acted in very few Tamil movies. We want to restrict our discussions to one movie that we think really is a classic made in India cinema. It is titled “Meera“. The movie was made in 1945 and directed by an American film director Ellis R. Dungan. In the movie MSS portrayed the character of Meera who believed to have lived in 1400s to 1500s period of time and who is an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna, whom she assumed as her husband; Merra bhai was a Hindu mystic poet born to a Royal Rajput family. She is well-known as the inventor of the Bhakti movement of worship of Krishna. She is known for her fearlessness and disregard to many societal conventional familial ties and her devotion to Krishna is portrayed as the ultimate Krishna Bhakta (devotee). A devotee who believed that her Lord is her husband. According to historians, she was married to a king, called Bhoj Raj, unwillingly, but the king died very soon in a war. Soon her father in law also died in another war related incident. A new King named Vikram Singh became King of Mewar. Stories says that new king tried his best to attain her love, failed miserably to gain a place in a Krishna devotee Meera’s heart. Thus king tried to kill Meera by poisoning her, from which her lord save her miraculous. The legend says her fame was far and wide spread that Mughal king Akbar and his court musician Tansen themseves came in disguise to listen to Meera’s singing. People talked about her singing and Krishna devotion all over India. The movie and stories say that, Akbar left gold coins embedded with King’s emblem for her impressed by her singing. These are all colorful stories portrayed in the movie, there is no historic evidence attached to all these incidents. Although Tansen lived roughly around the same era of 1400 to 1500s according to the references.
A very brief look at Meera’s Poetry
Meera’s poetry are lyrical padas (metered verses). Here is a famous example
Koi Kahe Tene Kaheva Dayiye (Let the worldly people criticize our devotion)
The interest of westerners in the Bhakti marga is still evident in US where Hare krishna movement is still very strong. Go here at their official site at http://www.iskcon.org/.
Meera’s love is almost synonym to the love of Krishna’s worldly love Radha. Earlier in a separate feature we had talked about yet another branch of music from the state of Kerala called Sopanasangeetham. Sure read our beautiful feature on this unique style, where Radha and Krishna’ s love affair is the theme of this music. Meera call Krishna the dark one, here is a translation of some verses.
My Dark One has gone to an alien land.
He has left me behind, he’s never returned, he’s never sent me a single word.
So I’ve stripped off my ornaments, jewels and adornments, cut my hair
and put on holy garments, all on his account, seeking him in all four directions.
Mira, unless she meets the Dark One, her Lord, she doesn’t even want to live.
Also people may be interested to read about a History channel program called Ancient Aliens here . Krishna is a subject we love to explore in addition to Shiva in our features in the coming episodes. These two Gods both are closely aligned to the music and dance.
MSS Amma truly was living a life of Meera and she seems related a lot to this character and to this day a movie made in 1947 stands as a musical experiment done by an American film director along with this musical legend. Here we add one famous song by MSS in the movie. Enjoy.
Her Legacy:
Certain singers leave a legacy behind, that remain timeless and profound. There are as many as thousands of web resources to read on MSS and her singing. Understandably, every one ever listened to MSS Amma will be addicted to her singing. The hope is that all readers of this blog also read and try to know about this legend. All she did was dedicated her life to one cause and that was singing her heart out every time. The rest all happened around her.
We hope we tried to give our understanding of MSS’s life and journey in a way we interpreted her life. Any views expressed here are just to show how dedicated a musician she was and how truly she lived a life true to what she believed. She was ambitious, but her sadakam (practice), and talent made what she is known for today. Lives of legends are written here as way to provide a true inspiration to our young readers.
References:
- MS Subbulakshmi: The Definitive Biography, TJS George, Aleph Book Company.
- https://www.msstribute.org
- https://msstribute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The_making_of_Meera.pdf
POETRY TIME
In this weeks poetry time we are adding a Meera Bhajan originally posted at https://gitananda.typepad.com/gitananda/1_introduction/ and thanks for sharing this with us. Beautiful page visit them if you are interested in understanding the meanings of Meera Bhajans and the meaning of true love.
Meera Ko Prabhu Sachi Dasi Banao – Lord, Make Mira Your True Servant
| O Beloved Lord! Make Mira your true servant. Help me free myself from the evil and worthless worldly dealings and relationships. Whenever I think and use too much of my intelligence, I lose wisdom or power of discrimination between right and wrong. Oh! Oh! How pathetic! There is nothing that belongs to me. I am dying helplessly, confused and sad. O Lord! Come quickly to my help (and save me from drowning in the ocean of samsar). Everyday I listen (read, think and meditate) to the religious discourses and books. I am also afraid of my vicious passionate mind. Always, I serve the saints and holy men and women. I engage my mind in remembering you through meditation. O Dear lord! To this servant of no value show the path of devotion (as you taught the gopis of Vrindavan, particularly Radhaji). Please make Mira your true servant. References :https://gitananda.typepad.com/gitananda/1_introduction/ |
The great India Singers on Smule Sing 