Celebrating the musical journey of Thavil vidwan Vedaranyam V.G. Balasubramaniam

Thavil vidwan V.G. Balasubramaniam who has trained many in thavil playing, on his musical journey, stint at the Madras University, AIR concerts and more

Thavil vidwan Vedaranyam V.G. Balasubramaniam is back on the concert circuit after a break. Recently, he and grandson Harish accompanied nagaswara vidwan S.R.G.S. Mohandass, son of Sembanarkoil Sambandam, at Raja Annamalai Mandram. “Although I have not played in concerts for a while, I have been busy teaching,” says Balasubramaniam, who has trained close to 200 students over the years. He has won 17 awards, including ‘Laya Gnana Sudaroli’ in Malaysia, ‘Thavilnada Jothi’ in Kerala, ‘Nada Laya Bhoopathi’ in Delhi and Madurai Ponnusami award. The ‘Isai Perarignar’ award from Tamil Isai Sangam this year is the latest feather in his cap.

Music came quite naturally to Balasubramaniam. “His maternal grandfather Ammachatram Kannusami Pillai was an ashtavadhani and a composer. He could play the violin, thavil, nagaswaram, mridangam, dholak and jalatarangam. He played the thavil for my grandfather Ramasami Pillai. Balu’s maternal uncle Venugopal Pillai played the thavil for my brother Sambandam and me,” says Nagaswaram exponent Sembanarkoil Rajanna. Balasubramaniam’s elder brother was the much sought-after nagaswara vidwan Vedaranyam Vedamurthy. When Balasubramaniam’s family moved to Mayavaram, he began to learn the thavil from Venugopal Pillai.

Balasubramaniam says his uncle’s training was rigorous. He had to get up at 4 a.m. every day and practise on the silambu palagai. “With its two wooden planks, this palagai looks like a double headed stool, and is slightly longer than the thavil. Instead of the usual thavil stick, a pestle-like wooden piece with a small handle and a round head is used. It is called Kottappuli. The harsh silambu palagai training is comparable to chenda training, where the student practises on a stone! The idea in both cases is to toughen the student,” explains mridangam player Pandanallur K. Parthasaarathy, grandson of Sembanarkoil Rajanna.

Leniency during lessons was unheard of, recalls Balasubramaniam. Vedamurthy too was often a carping critic. Balasubaramaniam is thankful for this unsparing criticism, for it helped hone his skills.

Balasubramaniam’s first concert was unplanned. Vedamurthy was to play in the Palakkarai Pillayar temple in Tiruchi, when the temple priest told him to ask his brother to play the thavil for some time. Balasubramaniam got to play on Needamangalam Shanmugavadivel’s thavil in his very first public performance. “It was Shanmugavadivel who bought my first thavil for me, in Needamangalam. I remember it cost 40 rupees,” says Balasubramaniam. From playing secondary thavil and then primary thavil in various ‘sets’, Balasubramaniam progressed over the years, to become a special thavil player, when he was in his 30s.

Balasubramaniam has played in many temple festivals. “In Tiruchendur, I would play for nine hours each on the seventh and eighth day of the Avani festival. Not any more. The modern thavil is heavy and carrying it around is no longer feasible. I can’t use the traditional thavil, because Mayavaram Perumal and Mayavaram Nagarajan, who were experts in tightening the leather straps, are dead, and no one else has those skills.”

Balasubramanian has played in Singapore, Malaysia, the Mauritius, Canada, Thailand and Sri Lanka. In Singapore, many Malaysians and Chinese in the audience were impressed with the ‘kirra’ (the sound akin to a fine piece of paper being torn) he produced. “At the end of the concert, they came up to me and asked me to play the ‘kirra’ for them, repeatedly,” says Balasubramaniam. “To produce the kirra, the left hand is brought over to the right side to drag the stick across the valanthalai. The right hand acts like a pitch bender, providing the necessary modulation,” elaborates Parthasaarathy.