Monday, December 25 2000
The Singer & The Song By- C.S. Lakshmi
By- Kali For WomenThe singer & The Song is the first of C.S. Lakshmi's three volumes of detailed interview with 50 notable women in the arts in India. She recounts the experiences of legendary great in the field of music, both vocal and instrumental, like Gangubai hangal, naina Devi, Dhondutai Kulkarni, Veena Sahasrabuddhe, the Sikkil Sisters, sukanya Ramgopal and many others.
"What I really wanted"' she says, "was to try and understand the artistes as women sharing a historical context, living and functioning as women and as artistes in a patriarchal society that fixed them in particular ways. I wanted them to talk about their lives in general, to learn about how art was to be taken in account as a factor in their everyday lives; how they sustained their art over the years; how it influenced their decision in life, why they continued to pursue it, did they have choices; what their family life was like; and how they looked upon their life as a whole.' In the process she provides us with fascinating account of how individual careers evolved in a constantly changing musical environment, from the days of the devdasis and tawaifs, to contemporary times."
"This rare document is accompanied by photographs and an insightful introduction on the importance of oral history in recording women's experiences." (jacket)
A few chapters of this rare document will be reproduced here over a few issues of Connect. The book is available in most Indian bookstores and online.
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Title : Seven Seas and Seven Mountains : Volume 1. The Singer and the Song--Conversations with Women Musicians
Author: C.S. Lakshmi
Publishers: Kali for Women, New Delhi
Published : Year 2000
ISBN 81-86706-15-3
Pages: 383
Price: Rs. 400.00 ($20.00)
Contents: Introduction. 1. Philomena Thumboochetty. 2. Gangubai Hangal. 3. Naina Devi. 4. Sikkil sisters: Kunjumani and Neela/Mala Chandrasekar. 5. N. Kesi. 6. Dhondutai Kulkarni. 7. Dwaram Mangathayaru. 8. Ranganayaki Rajagopalan. 9. Rajeswari Padmanabhan and Srividya Chandramouli. 10. Lalgudi Rajalakshmi. 11. Neela Bhagwat. 12. Veena Sahasrabuddhe. 13. Aruna Sayeeram. 14. Vidya Rao. 15. Sukanya Ramgopal. 16. Kaleeshabi Mahaboob Subhani.
Seeking The Artists
I wanted to speak to a wide range of artistes for this project. I prepared a list of persons I already knew about, living in Bombay, Delhi, Baroda, Madras, Hyderabad and Bangalore, all dancers, musicians (instrumentalists and vocalists) and painters. I prepared a final list and sent a personal note to all of them. Many of them wrote back, some of them did not. Some replies added a touch of humor to the project. A magazine I had consulted listed Nana Kasar as a female dancer, so I wrote to him thinking he was a woman. I learnt later that Nana Kasar is an important dance teacher at the Triveni Kala Sangam in Delhi, and I was told that his constant refrain while teaching is, ' Be honest to your body!" Nana Kasar had enough sense of humor to write back to me saying that he was actually a man, but perhaps I could talk to his daughters who were dancers.
My list had an age range from eighty-three to twenty nine or thirty. Some others, like the daughters of artistes I had spoken to, were even younger-in their early twenties. Not everyone I spoke to was an active performer or painter, but I needed to hear life stories, too; of how they learnt their art, why they chose to give it up and about their present life. Although I had decided to speak only to classical dancers, musicians and painters, I occasionally extended the list to speak to a ceramist, sculptor or traditional painter if I found their work and lives interesting enough. In Thanjavur, I spoke to Ranu Bai, a poikal kudirai or puravi natyam (dummy-horse show) artiste, after speaking to many classical dancers, because I was interested in knowing about her life and what she thought about her art. Ranu Bai is a famous folk artiste, and because she had participated in the festival of India in Russia, is generally referred to as "Russia Returned". In Gujarat, I spoke to Santokba Dhudat who does traditional folk painting, but u did not realize she was some kind of a "star" on whose life a television serial had been made. This was an interesting encounter. A western scholar spoke to her at length and wrote a monograph on her, which had been thoroughly explained to her. Santokba now spoke about her life only in the way it had been presented in the monograph and scripted for television! I have not included it here for this reason, but some of what she said in an aside, plus a video of her very successful exhibition in Bombay taught me a lot about the limitations of definitions and the specific images associated with them: rural, urban, common man, etc. Santokba dresses up in traditional cotton skirt and half-sari, like many other village women of Gujarat.
During her exhibition of folk paintings she sat at the entrance of the hall. And some visitors dropped coins into her lap thinking she was a beggar! But worse was to follow. Santokba mentioned that she drew her folk paintings while singing folk songs. Journalist and others gathered around her and she was made to stand before each painting and sing a song. Santokba showed her true spirit when she turned to a journalist at one point and said, "Now you have to sing a song too."
I had a carefully prepared a list which did not have any women who had become legends in their own lifetime and about whom everything was known. There are exceptions of course, like Gangubai Hangal (who has spoken about her life to Vijaya Mulay and to the Kannada writer, Bhyrappa) but even here, I thought I might hear something new. Just as one can watch an old film classic any number of times and feel enriched each time, people like Gangubai Hangal can be spoken to again and again. I tried desperately to speak to D.K. Pattammal, who readily agreed, but on the day of our meeting her brother, D.K. Jayaraman, passed away, and after this our meeting never took place. Much later I got a note from her saying that she was tired of talking. I consider that a great loss personally, for her life story would have been special. So would Mogubai's, who I could not contact during the course of this project. Other artistes like Kishori Amonkar, Prabha Atre, rohini Bhate and Rosahn Kumari, M.K. Saroja and Kumudini Lakhia, I could not speak to for a variety of reasons, some mundane, others beyond my control. I was lucky enough to meet Indrani Rahman in New York but was not so lucky with Kamala Laxman. Not being able to speak to Shanta Roa, Devyani Krishna, Meera Mukherjee, Girija Devi, Ritha Devi, Damayanti Joshi and Shirin and Roshan Vajifdar was disheartening, but I feel that what they have done, and are doing, with their lives and art will, in some way, be an invisible part of this study.
The choice of artistes is, finally, and extremely subjective one, informed by one's own understanding of art and life and colored by one's biases and prejudices. In this instance, the selection was also determined by who was willing to talk at a particular time. Many dialogues that should take place never do, but one should be happy that at least some have been possible.
To be continued...
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