ART & CULTURE

Scholars familiar with N Ramasamy’s Biography of Appayya Dikshithar would have known about his grand nephew Neelakanda Dikshithar who settled in Palamadai, 3 kms from east of N.puram. One of his disciples Swami Dikshithar lived in N.Puram around 1620 AD. He was the author of Karthikeya Vijaya.

A descendant of Neelakanta Dikshithar who lived in N.Puram was Veeraraghava Kavi (7th generation). He was the author of Dikshitendra Vamsavali in Sanskrit. Achar Makindra was the brother of Appayya Dikshithar. This book was later published in 1923 by Shri P P Subramania Sastri, Superintendent of Oriental Schools, Madras.

Pudumai Pithan, the stormy petrel of the Tamil short story, has mentioned AruganKulam (aka N.Puram) in his short story ‘Pudhiya Koondu” in 1940.

Writing under the penname of Meenakshi Krishna, this blogger has written three short stories in Kalki (1960 – 71) with Aravangulam as base. It is understood that D S Varadhan son of Desikacharaiar, who retired from Press Information written a number of short stories in English and Tamil in late 30’s and early 40’s.

Mrs.Saradha Srinivasan wife of N S Srinivasan has written a novel “janani: in Tamil based on N.Puram. She is a free lance journalist who lived in Mumbai for a number of years. She lives in Bangalore now with her son.
Indu Balachandran is a niece of N L Krishnan Retd Chairman of Bharath Electronics Ltd, Bangalore. She writes regularly in “The Hindu” magazine, mostly on her experiences while traveling abroad. Occasionally she writes humorous pieces as well.

It is not uncommon for rural folks to be well-versed in Puranas folklore. This blogger can list out a few of them:

(i) Malayandi Konar an agriculturist used to recite Viveka Chintamani in the 40’s with appropriate explanations. His other favourites were “Periya Ezuthu Vikramadhithyan” and Nalla Thangal Charithram. Though narrated in folk lingo they were meaningful and absorbing.
(ii) M Shanmugam, later President, Taluk Congress Committee, was an exponent of Kunangudi Masthan’s songs.
(iii) Maa Subbiah Chettiar was well versed in mythological poetry and used to read Chitraputhra story on the day of Nainar Nombu every year.
(iv) Poogesa Varadhan (alias Boothathan was equally used in folk songs

The Agraharam had its own crop of music makers. Ms.Gomathi Ammal, Daughter of V Sundararama Aiyer dedicated herself to teaching carnatic music and veena till the late 1950s. N S Gomathi and N S Visalakshi were two of her disciples. The latter known as Vijaya conducts Bajans and leads her troupe all over south.

N R Lakshmi, daughter of Ramasubha Vadhyar, was well versed in songs on Krishna sung on the occasion of kolattam, javantarai. During festivals, she and other womenfolk used to entertain the villagers with their limited repertoire on carnatic music imbibed through oral tradition.

Though not of acclaimable standards, these performances were noteworthy as they emanated from villagers who, in those days had very little education, with no scope to libraries or live concerts.

Harihara Bhagavathar was a roving kalakshebam performer, used to visit N.Puram for after dusk pravachanams making people sit in rapt attention till midnight.

Ganapathi Subramanian (Appu Vadhyar) was the organiser of Venkateswara Bhajan Sabha. Apart from pre dawn bhajans in the month of Margazhi, there were uncha vridhi and Deepa Pradakshinams every now and then. He had an equally versatile contemporary in Lakshminarayana Josier of Pazhaya Gramam. Both of them inspired young men of the day in the devotional music.

Mani Bhagavathar of Thiruvannathapuram (on the southern bank of Tambraparani), opposite of N.Puram was a qualified musician. Because of lack of support for music he was running a ‘coffee club’ in N.Puram. he was also an enthusiastic participant in the cultural events of N.Puram. Falling into bad times and bad company, he hit the battle. On most full moon days he drank heavily sat with his friends on the river sands and sang for long hours. Kittappa’s songs were often repeated by him.

On the spiritual side, Neelakanda Iyer (Kandu Sir) used to read Bhagavatham and Ramayanam in the late afternoons loudly. The devout thronged his Thinnai to listen to his narration in the hope of earning punyam.