Violin for the soul

How the purist violinist R.K. Shriramkumar absorbed music from the gentle M.S. Subbulakshmi and collaborated with the fiery T.M. Krishna

- BY CAPT G.R. GOPINATH

Rudrapatna on the banks of the river Kaveri in Karnataka has been the cradle of an amazing number of classical musicians—vocalists, violinists and veena players. The name of this beautiful hamlet is visible in the initials of well-known musicians like R.K. Venkatarama Shastry, R.K Srikantan, the Rudrapatnam Brothers R.N. Thyagarajan and R.N. Tharanathan, R.R. Keshavamurthy, R.K. Suryanarayana and R.K Padmanabha.

Most of them have performed all over the country. Shastry migrated to Chennai in the 1930s and played the violin for legendary vocalists of his time. His brother R.K. Srikantan, an acclaimed vocalist, received the Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy, Chennai, 30 years ago. Shastry’s grandson R.K. Shriramkumar, a violinist like him, is the latest winner of the award, considered the highest accolade in Carnatic music. He will receive the award at the annual music festival in December.

Shriram is a music scholar and a highly regarded teacher, and he told me with unaffected reverence: “My greatest blessings are my gurus.” Gurus such as Savitri Satyamurthy, his own grandfather and V.V. Subramanyam, another renowned violinist. The famous vocalist D.K. Jayaraman was another guru.

He performed with illustrious musicians such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, M.S. Subbulakshmi and D.K. Pattammal, absorbing their chasteness and knowledge. He is noted for his purist approach in his performances, rendered with a supreme sense of sensitivity and integrity. He perhaps evolved in the womb listening to Subbulakshmi, who sang for his mother’s seemantham, the baby shower ceremony. His grandfather was Subbulakshmi’s violin accompanist for several years, and eventually a youthful Shriram could accompany her till her last days.