Lalgudi Jayaraman

“I am one among your thousands of fans …!” - MGR

Violin did not belong to India and in those days it was not an Indian musical instrument. But today, there’s no Carnatic music concert without violin as its accompaniment. Lalgudi Gopal was one among those musicians who were responsible for making violin compatible with Carnatic music. Lalgudi Jayaraman, his heir, has won a permanent place in the hearts of the lovers of Carnatic music. Jayaraman’s ancestors were direct disciples of Thyagabrahma. Jayaraman’s great grandfather Ramayyar was the samastan vidwan at the court of Mysore Maharaja. His father Gopal Iyer was a violin wizard. Jayaraman shares with Kalyanamalai his experiences and memoirs:

Q: Please tell us about your father Lalgudi Gopal, a violin maestro …

A: My father was not only a maestro in violin; he was a very interesting conversationalist also. He would talk beautifully using puns. And, he was a good painter too. I imbibed the habit of dairy-writing from him only. He was very disciplined, at the same time, very affectionate too. He had lot of things for us to emulate.

Q: You said your own father was your guru. Tell us about your violin tuition …

A: Our family was a music family, so there is no surprise that I am also interested in music. When we were in Lalgudi and I was a small boy, my father used to wake me up in the early morning. There was no electricity then in the villages. My mother would light a small clay lamp. At the wee hours of the day, I would play violin on instructions from my father. The practice will go up to 6.30a.m. I would have my coffee only after that! This training has helped me a lot in my career. There used to be a radio installed at the center of the village for the public. Music programs were broadcast in the evenings and I would play those ragas on violin on returning home. My father would suggest corrections. I used to listen to Hindustani music too. Bismilla Khan’s shenoy is still ringing in my ears.

Q: Even at your young age, you had played violin to many senior musicians. Please tell us about those experiences …

A: In those days, vidwans from the neighboring hamlets would come to our house on Fridays and on the days of Krithikai and would perform. I would play accompaniment to them. The names include Salem Desikan and Puvalur Venkatraman. Even after settling down in Chennai, myself and my father used to play violin together on auspicious days. My wife would make music kolams and light the lamp. Those days were wonderful days. Our program would end at 9 p.m. with deeparadhana. During my early days, I used to go to Trichy to attend the programs of veteran musicians at the 100-pillar mandap. There would be unmanageable crowd for GNB’s program. On returning home, I would play the ragas as usual. When I listened to the programs of great vidwans, I used to long and wish whether I would be lucky to play violin for their programs. But all my wishes came true and I really wonder at this even today. I had played for Madurai Somu also. He would keep going for long hours and sometimes even up to the next day morning! Hindi playback singer Lata Mangeshkar had expressed her admiration for my violin-play. My first solo program was held in an Iyappa sabha in George Town. After that, I had rendered many solos apart from accompaniment.