E.Krishna Iyer Photo Courtesy Meenakshi Viswanathan
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. It was a strange
coincidence that my father would meet a gentleman in his office who
introduced himself, in the
course of the conversation, as the son-in-law of E. Krishna Iyer. My father informed
him about my training under Kalakshetra, work with Bhagavata mela and asked if he
could arrange a meeting with his wife. That is how I met Meenakshi Viswanathan the daughter of
E. Krishna Iyer. She was a trained dancer herself and accompanied him on his travels to
assist in the lecture demonstrations he held. I was excited and happy that I could meet someone
who was part of our cultural history. Our meeting went
on for over two hours and the end of it she handed over the souvenir released
on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday and some photographs. The souvenir had excellent information which
I used as reference for this article. when I saw an
obituary notice of her passing away. I immediately called on the contact
number and spoke to her
son Ram Kumar. When I launched my book “Bhagavata mela My Tryst with Tradition” I
invited Shri Ram Kumar for the launch as I wanted him to receive the first
copy. I was
disappointed to know he that he will not be in town that day. On the day of
the launch I was delight to
open the door to his sister Uma Sundari and her husband who decided to drop
in. I have paid a
tribute to E. Krishna Iyer in my book as the pioneer revivalist of the arts
in South India. The
country owes him a great debt for his tireless efforts to successfully revive Bharata
Natyam, Bhagavat Mela and folk arts. Although I wrote this a very long time
ago, it remains
unpublished. I am adding it to my blog only now.
Thunderous ovation greeted the end of the play “Malavika-Agnimitra”
staged by Suguna Vilasa Sabha of Madras in 1924. The heroine, Malavika, had captured the hearts of the
distinguished audience of artists and scholars. Among them was Melatur Natesa Iyer, a veteran artiste of
the Bhagavata Mela tradition. He went in to meet the young man who in female disguise who had
demonstrated such skill and talent in both music and dance and asked him if he would like to continue his
training in art. Young Krishna Iyer - for it was indeed
he - declined, afraid that it would distract his practice and study of
law. Finally, Natesa Iyer persuaded him, and at the young age of 27 came a
turning point in Krishna Iyer’s life and he was set at the threshold of a great new world and a
great mission in life. For over 30 years from then he was to dedicate his life to the revival of Bharata Natyam
and the upliftment of artistes. E.
Krishna Iyer was born on August 9, 1879, in Kallidaikurichi, a village near Tirunelveli
district. His parents were Kailasa Iyer and Ananthalakshmi. As was
the custom in those days he was married to Parvathi Ammal when he was still
in school. After
high school in Ambasamudram, which had a reputation of
high standards and discipline he graduated from Madras Christian College
before joining the Law college in Trivandrum.
He had two sons Kailasa Eswaran and Seetharaman and a daughter Meena. His
grand-children Ram Kumar, Kannan, Shekhar, Uma Sundari and Krishna are in various
professions. As a young boy, he had a passion for history and developed great
interest in the English language. In 1918, he took his Bachelor’s and was
soon caught up in the feverish political activity in the country. He was a native member of the Home Rule Movement under Annie Besant and the
Students Convention under G.S. Arundale. He studied law
and was called to the Bar in 1922. He entered serious politics in 1926. He toured all over the south
frequently engaging in political propaganda rousing the people with the high spirited patriotic songs of the poet Subramanya Bharati. He went
willingly to jail twice for the cause of national freedom.
Krishna Iyer became a member of the Madras Corporation Council and for over a decade, he distinguished himself as a model City Father. In 1943 he took to journalism and was Associate-Editor of “Free Press”
a daily from Madras. He was the first editor of the “New Age”, a monthly magazine He also
wrote as art critic for Kalki, Indian Express, Dinamani and the Mail. Born with natural talent in music, Krishna Iyer developed a deep
knowledge in music even in his youth. He had a splendid voice which brought him kudos when he once played
the role of Ratnangi in a play called Sarangdhara. He acquired an insight into the essentials
of the art and its purpose, and developed a critical sense to appraise concert music. After his
meeting with Melatur Natesa Iyer, he trained himself in Bharata Natyam under him and later under the
famous Devadasi Madurantakam Thangambal. He was so inspired by the art that he determined to launch
an efective propaganda to revive and rescue it from near extinction. Due to the biased propaganda by the Anti-Nautch movement initiated by
one Miss Tenant, the public mixed up the art with the evil. At every step, misguided social
reformers looked with contempt at his efforts to revive an art which was connected with the
low and the lewd. Krishna Iyer was accused of bringing ruin to
respectable family life by encouraging devadasis to perform in public. It required great courage and unshakeable faith in his mission to do
what he did. Undaunted by such alarming accusations, Krishna Iyer preached that the spiritual quality
can be brought out if girls from respectable families would take
to it. He dressed himself in a saree when he performed and lectured in public. The most famous items in his recitals was the Cosmic dance.
He began this item by dancing on a plate of water. With a concluding
Thirmanam, he jumped on to a big clay pot. He then executed a complete intricate Thillana
on the pot. This was no mere gimmickry but required tremendous skill, practice and control of the body. A man of great courage and
conviction, E. Krishna Iyer boldly broke the spell of social stigma against Bharata Natyam by presenting it to
the scholars and experts on the Music Academy platform during the decade long Secretaryship of the
prestigious association. This enraged the followers of the Anti-Nautch movement and there began
the historic press controversy over the advisability of reviving dance in decent society.
This controversy which can well be called an important
milestone in the history of our dance, was begun by Muthu Lakshmi Reddi. This aroused public interest considerably and the end
of the heated dialogue gained a significant victory for E.
Krishna Iyer. He discovered several outstanding devadasi dancers of whom Sabharanjitam, Nagaratnam, Mylapore Gouri Amma and Balasaraswati
are well-known. He also sent out a call,
requesting girls from respectable families to take to the art. In fact, it
was after witnessing a performance by Rajalakshmi and Jeevaratnam, two
devadasis that Smt. Rukmini Devi was so impressed that she
decided to learn the art herself. Kalanidhi, a young Brahmin girl was the first to perform in public. In 1934, Krishna Iyer was invited
to an All-India Music Conference in Benaras. He took young Balasaraswati with him and together with his
comprehensive commentary opened the eyes art lovers
assembled there. Rabindranath Tagore, who was present among the august audience was highly impressed by Bala’s peerless art. A man of inexhaustible enthusiasm, E. Krishna Iyer did not rest on his
laurels and one mission successful he promptly set himself another task. He now turned his
attention to the dance-drama form of Bhagvad Mela Natakam. It was due to his pioneering efforts,
relentless research, and scholarly persuasions that the art of the
forgotten villages of Melattur and Soolamangalam was brought to the urban stage, He spent seven years on this mission and brought several
modifications and improvements in its presentation to suit a city audience. The triumphs of Krishna Iyer in every field he took up, made him
search for fresh pastures to work on. Finding the classical had gained sufficient value and importance, he
switched his interest to discover and reform folk music and
dance. As the first honorary secretary to the Madras State Sangeeta Nataka Academy, he toured extensively and organized an All-Madras Folk-Dance
Festival at Tanjore in 1956. He brought to the notice of the public, dances like Poikkal Kudarai
Attam (dummy horse dance) and Bommalattam (Puppetry). Krishna Iyer was convinced of the greatness of
the folk arts and their place in the cultural heritage of the country. With a view to educate
public opinion and to improve their tastes and standards in the arts, Iyer wrote numerous articles
on the subject in both English and Tamil papers. He also became a regular reviewer and critic
for all art programmes conducted in the city. Mr. Krishna Iyer’s reviews of dance programmes made criticism into the
art. He was just, impartial and would never fear to write
what he felt was the correct judgement. At the same time, he never praised a dancer to the skies nor did he drop her to wallow in misery and
self-depreciation. He steered a middle path between the extremes and only an exceptionally good dancer could
get an ecstatic review from him. His words were worth its weight in gold and many a promising young
dancer has been helped and encouraged in her career by this great connoisseur. Having been
through the discipline of training himself and having faced the bitterness of failure and joy of success himself,
he was naturally sympathetic to the aspiring artiste. Thus, Krishna Iyer’s fame as an artiste, writer and public worker
spread and he was invited to give lectures on Bharata Natyam and dances of Tamil Nadu. On many occasions
he was accompanied by another graceful dancer, Saroja
Khokar. Talking to Meena, one gets a picture of the sincerity and greatness of her father’s
nature. Meena is the only daughter in a family of three. Meena has trained under Guru Muthu Kumarappa Pillai and accompanied
her father for lecture-demonstrations. She reminisced, “He never had time for family problems, but involved all of us in whatever work he was doing.
So much so, the problems of the nation were the problems of our family.” In 1957 a grateful
gathering of dancers, musicians, scholars and art lovers, held a public reception to felicitate him on
his sixtieth birthday. Many expressed their personal gratitude to him and hailed him as the foremost pioneer
to whom the country owes the retrieval of our rich heritage from the murky depths of ignorance
and prejudice. His single-handed championship of the arts deserves special mention in
the history of dance and music. If Krishna Iyer was fortunate to see the fulfilment of his mission in
his own lifetime, he also saw how art could be exploited in the
hands of money-making gurus and over enthusiastic parents. He lamented the fact that young children of 7 or 8 should be presented on the
stage, when they could hardly understand what they were doing. Again,
short term crash courses of 6 months or one year will surely destroy, he felt, the highly skillful technique which is the very essence of
Bharata Natyam. E. Krishna Iyer cherished a great desire to establish a central
college for Bharata Natyam. He felt that gurus specialised in one or more facets of Bharata
Natyam. The central college should engage the services of these specialists so that the student
could avail of the experience and knowledge of these experts under one roof. Rukmini Devi’s
Kalakshetra is a dream come true as the ideal school for training in the traditional
Pandanallur style. Keywords: E.Krishna Iyer, Rukmini
, Bharata Natyam, Bhagavata mela, Melattur Natesa Iyer
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