Thirty-six year old Divya Mohan’s dream finally came true after 16 years when she was able to join an undergraduate degree course in Carnatic music in Coimbatore. Soon after school, with an ardent desire to acquire a BA degree, she approached the Department of Carnatic Music at PSG College of Arts and Science (PSG CAS) in 2000, only to be told that the department was closing down that year due to its inability to continue the course. Three out of the four faculty were retiring, and the number of students seeking admission was not encouraging.
Disappointed, she settled for a diploma course at the Tamil Nadu Government Music College, Coimbatore, affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Music and Fine Arts University. She completed the course and set up an institute for training students. Now, with many students and two institutes, she could have continued to be a teacher, but when she heard PSG CAS was reviving the department, she decided to turn student and joined the first batch in 2016.
Speaking about its revival, managing trustee of PSG and Sons’ Charities, L. Gopalakrishnan says that though Coimbatore has been a torch-bearer in many engineering and technical advances, it was never well-known for the art and culture segment. “Many years ago, PSG and Sons’ Charities used to conduct an annual music fest in December. Somehow, it could not be continued and there has been no other music fest here on the scale of the one being held in Chennai every December. So, instead of merely starting a December season fest, we decided to begin from the basic and hence the Department of Carnatic Music was revived,” he says.
Principal R. Rajendran says it took almost three years to put the department back on track. S. Vijayajaya, who used to teach in the department was made its Head and things started falling in place rapidly. Instruments that had wasted away were thrown off, and those that could be salvaged were re-wired, repaired and tuned. Eight students were admitted after a voice test.
The course has Carnatic music as major, veena as minor, music theory, Tamil, English, and Telugu as other subjects. The course follows the same pattern as any other that is affiliated to Bharathiar University, with internals, practicals and semester examinations.
It began in June 2016 and except Divya, the others were all beginners. So, it came as a shock to them when in October, they were asked to get ready for ‘PSG Kadambari’, a music fest, in January. The management was keen to begin the fest and decided to begin it on a low key with its own students rather than with accomplished artistes.
P. Vidhyashree from Bikaner who joined the course for the love of Carnatic music even though she hailed from a traditional Rajasthani family is happy that she convinced her parents to allow her take up the course. A chance visit to a temple in Tamil Nadu when she was in class VII made her witness a Carnatic music and Bharatnatyam performance. From then on, Vidhyashree’s dream has been to pursue Carnatic music professionally. She aspires to complete a Ph.D. in music.
Then there is M. Bagyashree from Nagercoil who discontinued her engineering course to join this music course. While private training or a diploma in music is enough to become a vocalist, according to Ms. Vijayajaya, a degree is an essential prerequisite for those planning to teach music. And, when one wants to teach professionally and in a recognised college/university, a Ph.D. is preferred.
The college has stipulated a minimum fee structure for the course, though it is a self-financing stream. It looks at admitting 16 to 20 in every batch so as to ensure personal attention to each student. There is no age limit and the minimum eligibility is a pass in Plus-Two.
