Know My Favourites No:38 Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan

Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan Preface Music is the only source of God's creation which makes human beings engrossed to all his six senses. We must have come across many musicians in our life. Music is never created, it is just mapping up of human's physical intervention into nature's readily available Saptha Swarangal which has no description. We only make permutations and combination of such musical entities already designed by the nature. Musicians play with instruments to produce music but Kunnakudi is blessed with an unique God Given Gift to make his violin talk. I was privileged to watch him at close quarters when he performed a musical concert in our Kasiviswanathar Temple at Ayanavaram where he made the audience spell bound for more than 10 hours during an Arudhra festival during the late 70s. We all stayed at the temple throughout the night to watch his concert . He also played even devotional film related tunes at the request of every music lover in the audience. Violin is the truly synonumous with Kunnakudi and his demise left a big void to fill in. Early life Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan (March 2, 1935 - September 8, 2008) was an Indian classical music violinist. He was born to Sri Ramaswamy Sastri and Smt. Meenakshi at Kunnakudi , a temple town of Lord Murugan in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu . His father was an erudite scholar in Sanskrit and Tamil besides being a great composer and exponent of Carnatic Music and Kathakalakshepam. Vaidyanathan started learning South Indian Classical Music from his father at a very young age. Vibhuti or sacred Ash and a big Vermilion dot smeared prominently on his forehead were his trademark symbols. Career The Violin was his forte. Known for the dexterity and subtlety in handling the violin, he catered not only to the music scholar but also to the layman. His play reflected his own different moods and the demands of his audience with whom he established and enjoyed a good rapport. He dwelled with ease and competence in the high as well as the low octaves. At the young age of 12, he accompanied great stalwarts like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar , Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Maharajapuram Santhanam in concerts. He also performed with legendary Nadaswaram vidwans like T.N.Rajarathinam Pillai and Thiruvenkadu Subramania Pillai. He stopped accompanying vocal artistes in 1976 to concentrate more on solo concerts. He was famous for his fingering techniques on the violin. His interest in new attempts and innovations led him to work with veteran thavil vidwan Valayapatti Subramanian. They performed over 3,000 shows together which were also very successful. Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan had deep faith in the therapeutic merits of music. Film Music & Films He also made a significant contribution to Tamil devotional music. A. P. Nagarajan giving him his first break in the movie Vaa Raja Vaa . He had several hits such as Agathiyar and Raja Raja Chozhan , for which he scored music. Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan made a special appearance in the 2005 Tamil blockbuster movie Anniyan directed by Shankar , on the Tyagaraja Aradhana festival sequence for the song Iyengaaru Veetu which is a recreation of the real festival. He had guest appearances in many other films too. He tried his hand at film production with a feature film in Tamil Thodi Ragam , with T. N. Seshagopalan in the lead, which failed enthuse the audience. Awards He was awarded the prestigious " Padma Shri " title by the Indian government , Kalaimamani award, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1993, and the Karnataka Isaignani award . He has also won Best Music Director awards for his background scores for films. Other Associations Vaidyanathan, had a long association with the All India Radio . An able administrator, Mr. Vaidyanathan served as Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nadaga Mandram. As the Secretary of Thyagabramha Sabha , Thiruvaiyaru in Thanjavur district he also conducted the Tyagaraja Aradhana for several years. He also served as president of the Raga Research Centre. Death Vaidyanathan died at 8.45pm on September 8, 2008 at a hospital in Chennai.