‘Dancing in the Parlour’ unfurls an evening of Madras Presidency’s Sadir, music, history and story telling, on August 23, 6.15 p.m. at the Luz House, Mylapore, to commemorate Madras Day. The venue is appropriate as this 250-year-old Dutch built heritage site is Buchi Prakash’s (son of Buchi Babu Naidu, the ‘Father of South Indian Cricket’) house, which was home to his ancestor Moddeverappa Dera Venkataswami Naidu, a patron of the arts and Dubash (interpreter and liaison) with the East India company.
The soiree has been researched, conceptualised and will be performed by Swarnamalya Ganesh and the Ranga Mandira ensemble.
Swarnamalya will be presenting some rare compositions. They include the British National anthem written in Sanskrit in 1912 and a Parsi Kavadi Cindu written about Madras and its railways. These compositions have a rich history, and an interesting context. A brief rewind.
Life in Madras in the 19th and early 20th century was a heady mixture of religion, business, diverse settlement groups, traditional practices combined with the newly adapted cosmopolitanism, which included tea parties, tennis matches, dramas, cinemas, sabha performances and lavish banquets.
The English-educated Indian gentry took special pride in their newly acquired habits and mannerisms.
In this milieu, Sadir (dance) and Carnatic music found a special way of reconfiguring themselves. The wealthy merchants, landed gentry and Dubhases including Naidu (mentioned above) became the new patrons.
Composers and musicians, who were exposed to western music, experimented with it, by creating new compositions that married their musical forms to the western system through lyric, melody and rhythm. Some well known works are by Muthuswami and Ramaswami Dikshitars.
Muthuswami Dikshitar composed ‘Santatam pahimam’ in the tune of ‘God Save the King’, the British Anthem, and also many Nottuswarams based on the English and Irish ditties.
Sivaramaiyya of Karur composed a javali in English as well as a multi-lingual (manipravala) javali, where each line was in Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit and English alternately. Nottuswarams were also danced to, as a salutation to colonial officers. Once, such a nottuswaram belonged to the Pudukottai samastanam’s repository of colonial compositions.
When King George V visited India along with Queen Mary in 1911 and presided over the grand Delhi darbar, Pilli Narasimha Rao Naidu (of the Madras Presidency) composed ‘God save the King’ as a literal translation in Sanskrit, as a commemoration. This composition was published in a Telugu work titled, ‘Gandarvakalpavalli’ in 1920. It was written by P. S Ramulu Chetti, a resident of Strotton Muthia Modaly Street, George Town, Madras. Ramulu, educated in London, was a connoisseur of art and a harmonium player by passion. However, little is known about the composer, Narasimha Rao Naidu.
The ‘Oorgaum vazhi kavadi cindu’ takes one through a fascinating 19 century train journey to Kolar. Composed in a Parsi mettu/tune, it forms a part of the provincial repertoires of Madras Presidency.
(Dr. Swarnamalya Ganesh is a dancer and dance historian. She works on Sadir as the subaltern form of Bharatanatyam, reconstructing repertoires and histories.)
