Eulogy to Sri Narayanan Iyengar (a.k.a Guru Poornima Dasan)
| Life |
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Sri Narayanan Iyengar, a staunch devotee of Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar, breathed his last on 28th October 2002, after a brief illness. He was 82 years old.
He was born in Madurai on 7th September 1920 and lived most of his life in Coimbatore. He earned his living as a Writer - a profession which was endangered by the popularity of photocopiers- to lawyers in Ramnagar area. He remained bachelor throughout his life. He was primarily raised by his mother in a large family. He had a great love for his mother, and he used to often mention about her in his conversations. With his profession, he had to struggle hard materially to make ends meet. Although he was not that successful, he made many friends with his strong spiritual spirit. It reminds me of Valluvar's "Arulillarrku Avvulagam illai; Porulillarrku ivvulagam illagi yaangu". He, for sure, secured his place in the other world. Many people extended their helping hands to Sri Narayanan, notably Vakil Sri C.R.Subramanian and Sri Shanmugam Gurukkal in Coimbatore. It is hard not to mention Sri Shanmugam in Sri Narayan's life. Sri Shanmugam, in spite of his personal duties, had been very helpful to Sri Narayanan in his final years at Coimbatore.
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| Characteristics |
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An interesting aspect in Sri Narayanan's life is that it was full of paradoxes. Even in his final days, he often used to say, "People do not fully understand me!". To mention a few: Being born in a Vaishnavite family, he never restricted himself to just praying Vishnu. In fact, he had a great affection to Abhirami Andhadhi. Though he was listening to music throughout his life, he never learnt to play or sing. Though he loved Dikshitar and his kritis so much, he never learnt Sanskrit.
I came to know him in early 90's when I was living in Coimbatore. I used to go to many of the concerts in and around Coimbatore and I had noticed him in many of those concerts. Through a common friend, we got introduced. However, Dikshitar was the common link to bind us together this close. We had an unique and strong relationship since then. I was fortunate to go to Dikshitar Samadhi at Ettayapuram with him. From my association, I understood him as an "anuboothi-maan", or "experiencer". Many things appear trivial at surface, but he used to enjoy the inner meaning of it on their occurrences. He had special affinity to deepam, jyoti, kumkum, flower (lotus in particular), religious pocket books, tambura naadham, poornima, mridangam gumukhi, and many Dikshitar kriti's words, such as kaivalyam, niradhisaya,... His handwriting was amazing even during his final years. He always used to have a quotation in his letters, gathered from variety of sources, newspaper, magazines, pocket books, associations, etc. Selected Quotations in Tamil, in his own handwriting |
| Dikshitar |
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He organized Dikshitar Jayanti function every year almost for 32 years in Coimbatore. The way he organized is very unusual. Not many people in Coimbatore might have been aware about this yearly function. He, just by himself, used to collect very little funds from his well-known contacts. Many of his functions were held at small Ramnagar Pillayar koil (next to famous Ramar koil). His typical function day started with Ganapati ashtotharam, Lalita Sahasranama archana in the morning with few attendees and in the evening a collection of Dikshitar kritis rendered by a musician. He usually preferred low-profile artists due to the low-budget, adherence to strict limit on time schedule (one and half hours), and adherence to just singing kritis without elaborate raga, swarams, neraval, etc… Some years, he did this just with one artist and tambura without any accompaniments.
He was very naïve and put great emphasis on personally involving himself to the cause. Organizing each year's function would have consumed at least three to four months of his time. However, I never heard him bragging about it. His thoughts on Dikshitar - text from 200th Dikshitar Jayanti function, in Tamil |
| Music |
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On musicians, he literally worshipped Ariyakudi. I did not quite get this aspect in the beginning until after I had a chance to listen to many of Ariyakudi's recorded concerts. He used to say Ariyakudi concerts were never a failure. His gentle and unrepetitive sangathis linger in listener's mind until his next concert. Many of his thoughts, not just on Ariyakudi but on many other vidwans, were well portrayed in this Interview with Palghat Mani Iyer. I happened to read this interview just recently.
He used to portray the entire atmosphere of olden day concerts, both on and off the stage: each artist's renditions, their professional, at times political, rivalry, their accompaniments treatment, his personal interaction with them, financial matters, etc. In general, his advice was to stay away from musician's personal life as they are in emotional sphere and to focus on music. He liked many vidwans. To name few of his favorites: Ariyakudi, D.K.Jayaraman, Musiri, T.Viswanathan, Palghat Mani Iyer, Pazhani Subbudu, Rajamanickam Pillai, D.K.Pattammal, T.N.Seshagopalan. Even though many of his favorite musicians were old-timers, he never hesitated to appreciate younger generation musicians. He used to highlight positive aspects of many musicians. To name a few: Madurai Mani Iyer's sruti gnanam, Musiri's kriti rendition, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer's ringing voice, M.S. Subbulakshmi's charity, M.L.Vasantakumari's vast repertoire, Semmangudi's hardwork, etc... He lamented that many musicians did not do as much to Dikshitar as they did to Thyagaraja, especially at Dikshitar Samadhi. He unsuccessfully solicited many musicians personally in early years, but they did not appreciate or understand his efforts. |
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In essence, his life was simple, hard, and dedicated to Dikshitar. |
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He is no longer with us, but his memories live on... |
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D.L.Sivakumar - November 09, 2002 |
