Lying in The Laps of Some, Painting Red The Lips of Some, Sporting With The Bodies of Some, Krishna Played With The Gopis

A Devadasi, No Saint

Vidya Shah

Lying in the laps of some, painting red the lips of some, sporting with the bodies of some,
Krishna played with the Gopis ….

(Translation from a Tyagarja Kriti , Tanayande Premayanuchu, by V.Sriram)

Much has been said about writing alternate histories in recent times. One thing is for certain,
there are histories (or herstories) that cannot be pulped. A recent trip to heartland Tamilnadu
quite reiterated this fact. I performed in Tiruvaiyyaru at the Sacred Music Festival organized
by the Chennai based Prakriti Foundation. This as most Carnatic musicians would
understand, was like an ultimate dream coming true.

Tiruvaiyyaru is a fascinating, sleepy town, which pretty much only wakes up once a year, its
only claim to its glorious past - during the Aradhana (homage) for the most venerated
composer-singer in Carnatic music- Tyagaraja. Only a few kilometers away from the temple
town of Tanjore (Tanjavur), this was once home not only to Tyagaraja but also the other two
in the trinity of Vaggeyakars (composer-singers) in Carnatic Music- Muthuswamy Dikhsitar
and Syama Sastri. The genius of this celebrated composer trinity laid the foundation of what
came to be regarded as the `classical' in the form and content of music in South India. .

The Festival is however a significant effort in shifting this perception, for it is not only the
concerts that are the objective, but also an attempt at heritage preservation and an exposure
to the sacred architecture of the place. It builds into it trips to important sites of Chola
splendor including nearby towns of Tanjore and Tiruvarur. It aims to place Thiruvaiyaru as an
important destination of respectable heritage, for people who once hailed from there to come
by more often, and for artistes to find their own space. My own concert at the Diwanwada,
Husur Palace Palace was a surreal experience. The place is a charming ruin, including a
dovecote in the courtyard, painstakingly and beautifully lit up for the performance. But I was
struck particularly by a predominantly young audience, mostly form the Music College in the
town, which is again a reminder of ‘status’ this town occupies in the world of Carnatic music-
really the sanctum sanctorum.

The center of the world of Carnatic music for a long time – through the 16 th,17th and
18th centuries was the magnificent city of Thanjavur, which lies along the delta of the great
Kaveri River - this until patronage shifted and Madras (Chennai now) became the new capital
of this music in early 20 th century. It was - and is - a beautiful, fertile place, with beautiful
rivers. Temples, especially the mighty Brihadeeswara Temple was an important seat of
music, dance and learning and even now overwhelms with its sheer scale and depth of
architecture. Thanjavur that buzzed with vitality and the best musicians vied for positions of
honor and privilege with the rulers - the Nayaks in the 16th and 17th centuries, and by the
Marathas after that. Marathas, in particular, encouraged music in a variety of ways and they
attracted the best and brightest musicians from all over South India, and so Thanjavur came
to be the place that would nourish, foster and cultivate musical dreams and aspirations.
Several of the Maratha kings actually authored musical treatises, in addition to composing
songs.

An important person in this highly energized atmosphere of music and dance was the
renowned Devadasi – Muddu Palani. She was the court poetess and a concubine of the then
18th Century Maratha ruler, Pratapasimha of Tanjavur. Partapsimha was a great patron and
lover of music, literature and the arts. He honoured and rewarded Muddupalani not only for
her accomplishments in performing arts but also for her scholarly achievements as a learned
poet being well-versed in Telugu and Sanskrit. It seems poignant to say a little about Muddu
Palani on International Woman’s day today – she traces her lineage through her grandmother
and aunt, imitating here the male composers who would always mention their paternal line!

Muddu Palani authored a controversial book – Radhika Santwanam (the Appeasement of
Radha) also known as Ila Deviyamu(Ila’s story). Consisting of 584 poems, it is replete
with Shringar Rasa or erotic pleasure and presents the story of Radha and Krishna in a
different perspective. It speaks of “another” love that Radha had for Krishna. Unlike the usual
interpretations in Bhakti Literature, where Radha is in a divine stupor, her soul is yearning for
Krishna, Muddu Palani delineates a relationship as that of a woman in the prime of her youth
consumed by passion and love for her nephew, Krishna. The twist in the story is when Ila, the
niece that Radha has brought up, is ‘given away’ to Krishna when she attains puberty, much
to Radha’s distress and envy. Krishna, after his marriage to Ila, comes back to appease a
broken Radha.

After a British lexicographer located the manuscript in 1855, the book was published for the
first time in 1887. But it came with an edited introduction, that obliterated what Muddu Palani
had said about herself, her literary and musical lineage, and other couplets that were seen as
“objectionable”. Considered by several scholars as a work of great literary worth, the book
was written off by reformists of the anti-nautch movement, as one authored by an
“adulteress”, and the “shamlessness” of its contents were not surprising, given that it was
written by a “prostitute”.

But most interestingly, it was another Devadasi, an influential and famous one, who took on
the task of republishing this book in 1910, including her own prologue as to why the book
deserved more attention, and why it needed to be read by the world at large. Bangalore
Nagaratnamma, the celebrated Devadasi, makes a distinction between an “adulteress” and a
“Devadasi” in her write up and questions the hyprocrisy of the reformists who allow for more
graphic writings by men as acceptable while those of scholarly women as vile! The book,
again came under severe criticism to a point where it was officially banned in 1911. Copies of
the book were seized and destroyed. And it was only after Independence in 1947, that the
ban was withdrawn by the then Chief Minister of Madras, T. Prakasam.

Nagaratnamma called herself a great admirer of Muddu Palani, and in the same breath also a
devotee of Tyagaraja, whose compositions she sang at several of her concerts. All of this
becomes more curious, funny and even ridiculous to me when I visit the Samadhi of the Saint
Tyagaraja, only to find that it has been constructed, supported and looked after by a trust set
up by this celebrated Devadasi – Bangalore Nagaratnamma.

No pulping then of this elegant tribute to one of the most respected musical Gods in the rather
elitist world of Carnatic music.

@vidyasings

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A Devadasi, No Saint

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