Narayan Iyengar
Encyclopedia
Indian
Carnatic
musician K S Narayana Iyengar (January 25, 1903-January 11, 1959) was a master of the South Indian instrument, the chitravina (also known as the gotuvadyam). He contributed heavily to the development of the instrument.
, Tamil Nadu
, India
. His father Srinivasa Iyengar was an engineer and an amateur violinist himself, and his mother Srivaramangai was a music lover too. Though Narayana Iyengar displayed an early fascination for music, he only commenced learning formally at the age of 14.
His initial guru was Kodaganallur Subbaiyya Bhagavatar, a fine vocalist who could also play the gotuvadyam. Parallel to music, Narayana Iyengar also showed some ardour in painting and photography, and honed his skills in these with a stint at the Raja Ravi Varma High School of Arts. He had his general education at the Pattamadai High School. Finally, it was music that held his fascination and he decided to dedicate his life to it.
He was enchanted with the beauty, challenge and scope of the gotuvadyam, which was re-introduced to Carnatic music
by Tiruvidaimarudur Sakha Rama Rao. Narayana Iyengar requested him to draft him in as his pupil. Sakha Rama Rao, a highly principled artiste, who never cared about money, name or fame, was impressed with Narayana Iyengar's talent and attitude and agreed to teach him. A few years later, he agreed to take on another talented lad, who also brought him glory, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.
Narayana Iyengar practised with an obsessed rigour, sometimes up to 18–20 hours a day, and reached great heights in a very short time, which led to people giving him the prefix of the instrument of his choice. He came to be called Gotuvadyam Narayana Iyengar.
ever since its inception and was featured in many of its National Programmes.
and Sri Lanka
, and his concerts won rave acclaim from the public and the press alike.
On October 2, 1939, the Malaya Tribune wrote:
His other admirers included the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the Maharajas of Jaipur, Cooch-Bihar, Gwalior etc. Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi
, Sarojini Naidu
, Rabindranath Tagore
, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
and Swami Shivananda also appreciated Narayana Iyengar's music. Sarojini Naidu declared, "In his hands, the gotuvadyam ceases to be an instrument. It becomes a subtle, living voice, capable of expressing every nuance of human passion." Rabindranath Tagore said, "Mr Narayana Iyengar impressed me immensely with his expert expositions".
Veteran Mysore Doreswami Iyengar narrated once (in a speech in Krishna Gana Sabha, Madras, 1994) the extent of Narayana Iyengar's impact in Mysore. Giants like Veena Seshanna and Subbanna felt so insecure with their instruments that they secretly removed the frets from their veenas and converted their instruments to the gotuvadyam, and attempted to master it for a few months. Once the challenge became insurmountable, they reverted to their chosen careers! Mysore Vasudevachar was another great admirer of his music.
Narayana Iyengar, with his assiduous practice and analytical research, set and maintained such high standards for the instrument that his style has the maximum followers today. He standardised the internal structure, string arrangements, tuning and playing methods of the gotuvadyam. A great artiste like Harikeshanallur Muttaiah Bhagavatar was so captivated by this instrument that he learnt it from Narayana Iyengar for a few years, during their joint stint at the Royal Court of Mysore. V V Shadagopan learnt vocal music from Narayana Iyengar. The latter's technique and style inspired many artistes like Mannargudi Savitri Ammal and M V Varahaswami to take to this instrument. His brightest disciple, however, is his own son Chitravina Narasimhan, who continued to practice and popularise the method and style that his father had created.
Narayana Iyengar, hailed as "the wizard of strings," won numerous awards and titles like Nadabrahma Vidya Varidhi, Digvijaya Nadavani and Gotuvadya Kalanidhi. He had several best-selling gramophone albums to his credit like Mokshamu galada, Parama pavana and Vaishnava janato.
Narayana Iyengar believed that:
He died on January 11, 1959, soon after playing a live concert for All India Radio. His music lives on through his son, Chitravina Narasimhan, and his grandchildren N. Ravikiran, Shashikiran, Kiranavali, and Ganesh.
Music of India
The music of India includes multiple varieties of folk, popular, pop, classical music and R&B. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and developed over several eras. It remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as...
Carnatic
Carnatic music
Carnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu...
musician K S Narayana Iyengar (January 25, 1903-January 11, 1959) was a master of the South Indian instrument, the chitravina (also known as the gotuvadyam). He contributed heavily to the development of the instrument.
Early years
Narayana Iyengar was born on 25 January 1903, near TirunelveliTirunelveli
Tirunelveli , also known as Nellai , and historically as Tinnevelly, is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Tirunelveli District and the sixth biggest city in Tamil Nadu...
, Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. His father Srinivasa Iyengar was an engineer and an amateur violinist himself, and his mother Srivaramangai was a music lover too. Though Narayana Iyengar displayed an early fascination for music, he only commenced learning formally at the age of 14.
His initial guru was Kodaganallur Subbaiyya Bhagavatar, a fine vocalist who could also play the gotuvadyam. Parallel to music, Narayana Iyengar also showed some ardour in painting and photography, and honed his skills in these with a stint at the Raja Ravi Varma High School of Arts. He had his general education at the Pattamadai High School. Finally, it was music that held his fascination and he decided to dedicate his life to it.
He was enchanted with the beauty, challenge and scope of the gotuvadyam, which was re-introduced to Carnatic music
Carnatic music
Carnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu...
by Tiruvidaimarudur Sakha Rama Rao. Narayana Iyengar requested him to draft him in as his pupil. Sakha Rama Rao, a highly principled artiste, who never cared about money, name or fame, was impressed with Narayana Iyengar's talent and attitude and agreed to teach him. A few years later, he agreed to take on another talented lad, who also brought him glory, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.
Narayana Iyengar practised with an obsessed rigour, sometimes up to 18–20 hours a day, and reached great heights in a very short time, which led to people giving him the prefix of the instrument of his choice. He came to be called Gotuvadyam Narayana Iyengar.
Concert career
Narayana Iyengar's first performance was in his early twenties, and he was soon in great demand all over the country for solo performances. Even in his mid 20s, he was invited to be a Royal Artiste in Trivandrum and later in Mysore. Besides, he performed in many prestigious events like the 42nd Indian National Congress meet at Madras in 1927 (which marked the inaugural year of the Music Academy, Madras), the Classical Music Conference, Calcutta, in 1938 and the Navaratri Festivals in Trivandrum & Mysore. Narayana Iyengar was a top-ranked artiste at the All India RadioAll India Radio
All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...
ever since its inception and was featured in many of its National Programmes.
Tours abroad
Narayana Iyengar was one of the few musicians whose music was welcomed in different countries, even in the 1930s. He was invited to perform in Burma, Malaysia, SingaporeSingapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, and his concerts won rave acclaim from the public and the press alike.
On October 2, 1939, the Malaya Tribune wrote:
- "The highest flights of ecstasy to which Carnatic music can raise were revealed by the performance on the famous gotuvadyam by Professor Narayana Iyengar at the Town Hall of Kuala Lumpur. The extent of the profound effects he has produced on the audience numbering nearly a thousand can be gauged from the fact that he was able to hold them spell-bound for over 3 hours, whereas it would be considered a remarkable achievement if a million dollar film could do the same for just over an hour."
Musical style and impact
Narayana Iyengar's style was a blend of many brilliant aspects. It was classical, electrifying, breath taking and majestic. No surprise then, that he had a huge following. He was at ease whether at improvising or interpreting the compositions of great masters. His style transcended all frontiers and captured the hearts of connoisseurs and also perceptive listeners not familiar with his culture. One of his concerts held the then Viceroy Lord Wellington and Lady Wellington so spellbound that they cancelled all their subsequent engagements and had him play encore after encore.His other admirers included the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the Maharajas of Jaipur, Cooch-Bihar, Gwalior etc. Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
, Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu , also known by the sobriquet The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet...
, Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
and Swami Shivananda also appreciated Narayana Iyengar's music. Sarojini Naidu declared, "In his hands, the gotuvadyam ceases to be an instrument. It becomes a subtle, living voice, capable of expressing every nuance of human passion." Rabindranath Tagore said, "Mr Narayana Iyengar impressed me immensely with his expert expositions".
Veteran Mysore Doreswami Iyengar narrated once (in a speech in Krishna Gana Sabha, Madras, 1994) the extent of Narayana Iyengar's impact in Mysore. Giants like Veena Seshanna and Subbanna felt so insecure with their instruments that they secretly removed the frets from their veenas and converted their instruments to the gotuvadyam, and attempted to master it for a few months. Once the challenge became insurmountable, they reverted to their chosen careers! Mysore Vasudevachar was another great admirer of his music.
Narayana Iyengar, with his assiduous practice and analytical research, set and maintained such high standards for the instrument that his style has the maximum followers today. He standardised the internal structure, string arrangements, tuning and playing methods of the gotuvadyam. A great artiste like Harikeshanallur Muttaiah Bhagavatar was so captivated by this instrument that he learnt it from Narayana Iyengar for a few years, during their joint stint at the Royal Court of Mysore. V V Shadagopan learnt vocal music from Narayana Iyengar. The latter's technique and style inspired many artistes like Mannargudi Savitri Ammal and M V Varahaswami to take to this instrument. His brightest disciple, however, is his own son Chitravina Narasimhan, who continued to practice and popularise the method and style that his father had created.
Narayana Iyengar, hailed as "the wizard of strings," won numerous awards and titles like Nadabrahma Vidya Varidhi, Digvijaya Nadavani and Gotuvadya Kalanidhi. He had several best-selling gramophone albums to his credit like Mokshamu galada, Parama pavana and Vaishnava janato.
Narayana Iyengar believed that:
- "Mastery over the instrument and the art needs a great guru, apart from talent and skill of the artiste. It also requires patience, rigorous practice, perseverance, reverence and devotion to the art and the guru. Once the art is mastered, one can raise one's own soul to the spiritual level and attain spiritual bliss much sought after by mankind."
He died on January 11, 1959, soon after playing a live concert for All India Radio. His music lives on through his son, Chitravina Narasimhan, and his grandchildren N. Ravikiran, Shashikiran, Kiranavali, and Ganesh.