DE – Raga CDs of the Months (02/13): The Talking Violin! – Dr. Kunnakudi R. Vaidyanathan (portrait)

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IMC OnAir – IMCRadio.Net of the promotion initiative “IMC – India meets Classic” presents @ radio multicult.fm and worldwide as web radio the portrait: “Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan – The Talking Violin!“.

Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan © Wikipedia

Our radio show is dedicated to Dr. Kunnakudi R. Vaidyanathan ( 3/2/1935 – 9/8/2008 ), a Violinist of South Indian Classics. Kunnakudi’s brand an expression of his deep religious admiration, rooted in the Hinduism, was visible from distance. The forehead painted with a Vibhuti, with dedicated ashes from cow dung and with a large red Sindoor (Vermilion point), the symbol of love and strength.

Kunnakudi R. Vaidyanathan was an innovatively, technically brilliant musician with high sympathies by the public and masses. Substantial earnings/services come to him he gave the violin a new positioning as solo instrument.

Kunnakudi changed the interpretation of Carnatic music (South Indian Classics) and Indian Light Classics. He simplified the kriti, a musical composition form in his playful rendition, in order to give the musical wishes of the public more space.

dates of broadcasting…

7th February 2012 – 03:00 p.m. EST (09:00 pm CET) @ radio multicult.fm (DE)
(premiere: 19th January 2009 (10:00 pm CET) @ Radio Tide)
InternetStream (web and mobile radio)| PodCasting | broadcasting plan

The father, Sri Ramaswamy Sastri decided to train KV becoming an outstanding Violinis. KV was nine (9) years old. Already at the age of twelve (12) Kunnakudi accompanied some of the outstanding masters of that time, among the great vocalist of South Indian Classics: Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer (1896 – 1970).

At the age of 22 Kunnakudi received attention 1st time by a film star of the Indian cinema: M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavatar. Close to the warderobe of a studio in Madras Kunnakudi played “Bhoomiyil maanida Janmam”, a film score by which Bhagavatar became famous.

Kunnakudi decided at the age of 32 not to arise anymore as accompanying musician. His most urgent desire was to transform the violin of an accompanying instrument into a solo instrument. Kunnakudi wanted to provide a unique status for the violin. Between 1974 and 1985 Kunnakudi accompanied by the Thavil player Chakravarti Valayapatti A.R. Subramaniam gave more than 3,000 concerts. This combination of instruments rarely played, a South Indian drum and Kunnakudi’s simple, melodic violin play got recognitation by a large public.

From his childhood on Kunnakudi had a deep love for film music. Kunnakudi already carried a substantial contribution for acknowledgment of South and North Indian Classics in the Indian film genre and developing the devotional Tamil music. The formative ability to link Raga scales with film melodies was apart from the technical brilliance one of the secrets for Kunnakudi’s large popularity.

Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan possessed a deep confidence into the therapeutic effect of the Indian classical music. Kunnakudi founded 1996 the Raga Research Centre in Chennai, which he managed as a president and which was financially promoted by the federal state government Tamil Nadu for most diverse researches.

In the course of his career Kunnakudi was considered for his achievements with more than 200 titles and honours. In the year 2005 he was distinguished with the prestigious “Padma Shri” of the Indian government, 1993 he received the Sangeet Natak Adademi Award of the “Sangeet Natak Akademi”, the national academy for music, dance and drama with seat in Delhi and Imphal.

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DE – Raga CDs des Monats (02/13): Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan – Die sprechende Violine! (Portrait)

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Indian E-music jeden 1. Freitag (20:00), 2. Freitag (22:00), 2. Donnerstag (21:00) + 4. Samstag (23:00)
IMC – India meets Classic jeden 1., 3. und 4. Donnerstag (21:00), 3. Montag (22:00-24:00) + 3. Sonntag (15:00-17:00

IMC OnAir – IMCRadio.Net der Förderinitiative “IMC – India meets Classic” präsentiert auf radio multicult.fm (Berlin) und weltweit als Webradio das Portrait: “Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan – Die sprechende Violine!“.

Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan (© Wikipedia)

Unsere IMC-Sendung ist Dr. Kunnakudi R. Vaidyanathan ( 2.3.1935 – 8.9.2008 ) gewidmet, einem Violinisten der südindischen Klassik. Kunnakudi’s Markenzeichen und ein Ausdruck seiner tiefen religiösen Verehrung, verwurzelt im Hinduismus, war von Weitem sichtbar. Die Stirn mit einem Vibhuti, mit geweihter Asche aus Kuhdung und mit einem grossen, roten Sindoor (Vermilion-Punkt) bemalt, das Symbol der Liebe und Stärke.

Kunnakudi R. Vaidyanathan war ein höchst innovativer, technisch brillanter und beim Publikum höchst beliebten Musiker. Ihm kommt ein wesentlicher Verdienst zu, dass sein Instrument, die Violine eine Neupositionierung als Soloinstrument gefunden hat.

Kunnakudi veränderte die Interpretation der karnatischen, südindischen Klassik und der leichten Unterhaltungsmusik. Den Kriti, eine musikalische Kompositionsform, vereinfachte er in seiner spielerischen Wiedergabe, um den musikalischen Wünschen des Publikums mehr Raum zu geben.

Sendetermine…

 7. Februar 2013 – 21:00 Uhr CET (03:00 pm EST) @ radio multicult.fm (DE)
(Premiere: 19. Januar 2009 (22:00 Uhr) @ Tide Radio)
InternetStream (Web & Mobile Radio) | PodCasting | broadcasting plan

Der Vater, Sri Ramaswamy Sastri entschied sich, KV zu einem herausragenden Violinisten auszubilden, als er neun (9) Jahre alt war. Bereits im Alter von zwölf (12) begleitete Kunnakudi einige der herausragenden Meister jener Zeit, unter Ihnen der grossartige Vokalist der südindischen Klassik: Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer (1896 – 1970).

Im Alter von 22 Jahren fand Kunnakudi erstmalig bei einem Filmstar des indischen Kinos Beachtung: M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavatar. In einem Nebenraum seiner Garderobe eines Studios in Madras spielte Kunnakudi “Bhoomiyil maanida Janmam” spielte, ein Filmsong, durch den Bhagavatar berühmt wurde.

Kunnakudi entschied im Alter von 32 Jahren, nicht mehr als Begleitmusiker aufzutreten. Sein vordringlichster Wunsch war es, die Violine von einem Begleitinstrument in ein Solo-Instrument zu verwandeln. Kunnakudi wollte der Violine einen eigenen Status verschaffen. Zwischen 1974 und 1985 gaben Kunnakudi in Begleitung des Thavilspielers Chakravarti Valayapatti A.R. Subramaniam mehr als 3.000 Konzerte. In dieser einzigartigen Kombination mit dieser selten gespielten, südindischen Trommel und einem einfachen, melodiösen Violinspiel fand Kunnakudi ein grosses Publikum.

Aus einer bereits in seiner Kindheit ausgeprägten Liebe für Filmmusik leistete Kunnakudi einen erheblichen Beitrag zur Anerkennung der süd- und nordindischen Klassik im indischen Film und für die Entwicklung der frömmigen Musik in Tamil. Die gestalterische Fähigkeit, Ragaskalen mit Filmmelodien zu verknüpfen war neben der technischen Brillanz eines der Geheimnisse für seine grosse Beliebtheit.

Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan besaß ein tiefes Vertrauen in die therapeutische Wirkung der indisch klassischen Musik. Kunnakudi gründete 1996 das Raga Research Centre mit Sitz in Chennai, dem er als Präsident vorstand und das von der Landesregierung Tamil Nadus für verschiedenste Forschungen finanziell gefördert wurde.

Im Laufe seiner Karriere ist Kunnakudi für seine Leistungen mit mehr als 200 Titeln und Ehrungen bedacht worden. Im Jahre 2005 wurde er mit dem prestigeträchtigen “Padma Shri” der indischen Regierung ausgezeichnet, 1993 erhielt er den Sangeet Natak Adademi Award der “Sangeet Natak Akademi”, die nationale Akademie für Musik, Tanz und Drama mit Sitz in Delhi und Imphal.

We remember the 91st birthday of writer, social activist and Rabindra Sangeet vocalist M. K. Binodini Devi (Febr 6, 1922 – Jan 17, 2011)

Maharaj Kumari Binodini Dev Manipuri (source: indianetzone.com)

Maharaj Kumari Binodini Devi (February 6, 1922 – January 17, 2011) was an Indian writer from Manipur, a Southeast Himalayan state in North-east India and a member of the erstwhile royal family of Manipur. She was notable for bridging the two worlds of ancient royalty and modern art. Born as a princess into a palace life which she lovingly recalled in a series of late essays, she made her name in the wider world as a novelist and a writer of short stories, essays, plays and award-winning screenplays, lyrics and ballet scripts. She received the Padma Shri in 1976, one of India’s highest civilian awards, followed by Sahitya Akademi Awardgiven by Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of letters) in 1979 for her novel Boro Saheb Ongbi Sanatombi (The Princess and the Political Agent) based on the true life story of a Manipuri princess, daughter of Maharaj Surchandra Singh. However, she returned the Padma Shri to protest the alleged rape and killing of Thangjam Manorama by 17 Assam Rifles personnel in 2004.

M. K. Binodini Devi wrote under the single name of Binodini. Her screenplays were made into award-winning feature films, directed by her long-time collaborator director Aribam Syam Sharma, such as My Son, My Precious, 1982; The Chosen One (1990), that have also been screened in the London Film Festival as well as the Museum of Modern Art, and Cannes, Toronto and Locarno Film Festivals. Her wildlife and environment themed script for a modern ballet was made into Sangai, Dancing Deer of Manipur, a performance film that won the British Film Institute’s Outstanding Film of the Year Award in 1984.

She died at 8.04 pm at her Yaiskul Police Lane residence in Imphal on January 17, 2011. She is survived by her two sons.

Arts and activism

In her writing and in her arts and social activism, M. K. Binodini is recognized as a pioneer of a non-doctrinaire thinking in Manipur that borrows little from conventional modernism and is rooted deeply in Manipur’s own traditions.

Although M. K. Binodini Devi is known best for her writing, she is an also an accomplished sculptor. While a student at Tagore’s Santiniketan, she became celebrated as the muse of the Indian sculptor and painter Ramkinkar Vaij. Portraits and sculptures of her by Vaij are in the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.

Her vocal renditions of Rabindra Sangeet have aired over All India Radio. She is a Founder Member of Roop Raag, Manipur’s pre-eminent association of writers, poets, dancers, musicians and dramatists since 1960. This association paved the path of a lifelong immersion in the arts for her.

M.K. Binodini Devi served as the first Secretary of the Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy where she pioneered the incorporation of martial arts into the canon of classical Manipuri Dance and took the first all-Manipuri dance troupe on a tour of Latin America, North America and Europe in 1976.

She ignited environmental awareness in Manipur with Thoibidu Warou’houee, her 1972 essay on the state’s wetlands and wildlife. An elegy to the brow-antlered deer, the essay was the basis for her script for Thoibi (1972), an environmental ballet she wrote during the time she ran the Jawaharlal Nehru Manipuri Dance Academy. Other contemporary Manipuri Dance ballet scripts with an environmental message include Keibul Lamjao (1984) and Loktak Isei (1991) a ballet on the wetlands of Manipur. Her environmentalism often takes on an active aspect as with The Nong’goubi Project, a series of community actions taken in 2002 to clean up the Nambul River.

She has also held elected office as was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manipur and founded micro-financing for women in Manipur with the formation of Manipur’s first women’s cooperative bank in 1973.

Awards

M. K. Binodini Devi was honored with India’s National Book Award (the Sahitya Akademi Award given by Sahitya Akademi, India’s national arts and letters academy) in 1979 for her novel Boro Saheb Ongbi Sanatombi (The Princess and the Political Agent). The Sahitya Akademi also commissionedBinodini: A Writer’s Life (2001), a documentary film on her literary career, directed by Aribam Syam Sharma. In 2007, the Sahitya Akademi selected her for their Eminent Senior Writer Award.

Other awards include the Jamini Sunder Guha Gold Medal in 1966 by the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad for Nung’gairakta Chandramukhi, her collection of stories; and the 2002 Kumari Barooah Foundation Award for Culture.

In 1976 she was awarded the Padma Shri (India’s national honors list) by the President of India for her contribution to music, drama, dance, film and literature, She subsequently returned the award in 2001 in protest to India’s plans to alter Manipur’s historical boundaries.

(Source: 02/2013 – Wikipedia.org)

M. K. Binodini Devi makes an appeal on the animals’ behalf  (Oct 2009)

The Funeral Ceremony…

M. K.Binodini Cremation and Ashes Retrieval Ceremony in Jan 2011…

The funeral pyre included a special construct called the keiren keijao in recognition of her status as the youngest daughter and princess born to Maharaja Churachand Singh and Maharani Dhanamanjuri Devi of Manipur.

For the Vaishnav Hindu ceremony called Asti, her older son retrieved her ashes and her younger son took it to the Palace Temple and to her residence in Yaiskul. The procession was led by polo ponies and a sankirtan pala (choir of classical Manipuri music). The contingent consisted of close friends and family and community members.

These two rituals precede the funeral in Manipuri tradition. The slideshow was based on photographs by Oinam Doren.

Related articles

• Interview with writer, vocalist & social activist Maharajah Kumari Binodini Devi… (imcradiodotnet.wordpress.com)
• Profile Of Manipuri Personalities: Maharaj Kumari Binodini (imcradiodotnet.wordpress.com)