Chakar Rakho Ji

HER lawyer-father Subramaniya Iyer stayed separately with his legitimate family while she lived with her devadasi-born mother, veena player ...

HER lawyer-father Subramaniya Iyer stayed separately with his legitimate family while she lived with her devadasi-born mother, veena player Shanmugavadivu. They were so poor that they had to subsist on rice gruel and coriander-seed 8216;coffee8217;. She fell hopelessly in love with another great Carnatic singer8212;if one of her biographers is to be believed8212;but became the sweet, submissive wife of another man who controlled her every breath, even as his children adored her for her gentle ways.

Back then, who would have thought that Madurai Shanmugavadivu Subbulakshmi, September 1922-December 2004, would one day be seen off to the great beyond by the President, in a state funeral, while the country mourned the loss of its jewel?

But consider the reactions she evoked from the lords of the realm, both spiritual and temporal. The late Kanchi Paramacharya Chandrasekharendra Saraswati thought her divinely gifted and loved having her visit the Mutt for her funeral, she was covered in a shawl he had gifted. In 1930s Calcutta, when she was recording songs for the film Savitri8212;playing Narada to Shanta Apte8217;s Savitri8212;KL Saigal, Pahari Sanyal, Kanan Devi and flautist Pannalal Ghosh beseeched her to sing Carnatic music for them.

In 1944, when husband T Sadasivam took her to Udaipur for the shoot of Bhakta Meera, the erstwhile Maharana exclaimed, 8220;In the old days I would have given my whole kingdom for your Kalyani Raga. Now I shall lend you all the horses and elephants you need for filming.8221; The American director Ellis P Dungan cried like a baby when she sang, even though he couldn8217;t follow a word.

During the film8217;s recordings in a Bombay studio, other singers would fall silent in awe. One slender girl, with two long plaits, reportedly refused to record after hearing 8216;MS8217; sing Mhane Chakar Rakho Ji, the yearning bhajan in which Meera pleads, 8220;Keep me as Thy servant, Lord8221;. It was Lata Mangeshkar, who always loved and respected MS, even referring to her with a special name, 8216;Tapasvini8217;.

Bhakta Meera was released in 1945 in Hindi and Tamil. A wave of affection and sentiment swept India, for surely this was the artistic avatar of the Indian dream: Cutting across regions and languages, the splendid true story of a fragile woman who refused to be cowed by greater powers, living life on her own terms, yet blazing with casteless, creedless bhakti.

Pandit Nehru later famously said, 8220;Who am I, a mere prime minister, before the Queen of Song?8221; And Bapu, who first asked her to sing the Ram Dhun at a Birla House prayer meeting in 1947, said, 8220;I would rather hear a Meera bhajan spoken by Subbulakshmi than sung by another.8221; Bade Ghulam Ali Khan loved listening to her, as did Roshanara Begum. As a young girl, in Madurai, MS would huddle on the stairs late at night, listening to Abdul Karim Khan on her neighbour8217;s radio.

Many great Carnatic maestros applauded her musicality and bestowed songs on her. MS herself was always humble and appreciative. Her luminous beauty made her a natural stage presence8212;forehead lustrous with a big, red tilaka, diamonds winking on her nose and ears, a jasmine veni in her hair, a whiff of French perfume and elegant Kanjivarams 8216;MS blue8217; was a rage in the 8217;60s and 8217;70s.

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In 1963, MS was persuaded to sing at the Edinburgh Festival. On October 23, 1966, she sang for the UN General Assembly in New York after a 32-city coast-to-coast tour of the USA and a concert at Carnegie Hall. The previous evening she had suddenly and terrifyingly, lost her voice. But meditating on her guru, the Kanchi Paramacharya, she recovered just in time.

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One slender girl with two long plaits reportedly refused to record after hearing 8216;MS8217; sing Mhane Chakar Rakho Ji, Meera8217;s yearning bhajan. It was Lata Mangeshkar, who always loved and respected MS, referring to her with a special name,8216;Tapasvini8217;

The story goes that at the state dinner in Manila8217;s Malacanang Palace, following her Magsaysay Award in 1974, she looked askance at the cutlery flanking her plate while Sadasivam inquired, 8220;And what are we supposed to do with this armoury?8221; They quietly ate thayir-saadam at the Indian embassy later.

MS, like her heroine Meera, valued 8216;divine love8217; over wealth. She gave away her money as soon as she earned it, beginning with Rajaji8217;s Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari request for five benefit concerts for the Kasturba Memorial fund in 1944. Her seva went to development and relief work: Tirupati Devasthanam, the Nanak Foundation, the Ramakrishna Mutt, Kanchi Kamakshi8217;s temple, the Sankara Nethralaya, the Cancer Institute and the Voluntary Health Services.

Some critique her for 8220;deviating8221; from 8220;pure8221; music. In fact, all along in the post-colonial confusion about belief and identity, her devotional recordings anchored the 8220;Hindu8221; soul, a sanctuary of sound in which many prayed under cover of listening to music. Even as she sang of being Giridhari8217;s chakar, MS actually lived as one.