The violin made of ivory remains a testimony to the collaboration between the Western and Carnatic music. A visitor to the ancient house of the Thanjavur Quartet — Chinnaya, Ponnaiya, Sivanandam and Vadivelu — at 1880, West Main Street, Thanjavur, can see the instrument which was played by Vadivelu, the youngest of the family.
“It was presented to Vadivelu by Travancore King and composer Swathi Tirunal in 1834. Conch, the emblem of Travancore, has been carved on the right hand side of the instrument,” said dance teacher K.P.K. Chandrasekar, who belongs to the eighth generation of the Thanjavur Quartet.
Vadivelu had learnt the instrument from a Christian priest at the Thanjavur palace. He had also accompanied his brothers in their concerts with his instrument.
There is a difference of opinion over who first introduced the violin to the Carnatic music. One section says it was Baluswami Dikshitar, the brother of Muthuswami Dikshitar, and the other says it was Vadivelu.
Since Baluswami Dikshitar (1786-1859) is senior to Vadivelu (1810-1845), it is believed that he was the first to adopt the western instrument for Carnatic music.
However, dance teacher K.P. Kittappa, Mr. Chandrasekar’s father, who taught Vyjayanthimala, Hema Malini, Sudharani Raghupathy and Narthaki Nataraj, in his book, Bharatha Isaiyum Thanjai Nalvarum, published by Tamil University, Thanjavur, said it was Vadivelu who first played Carnatic music on the violin. He had cited musicologist Sourindra Mohun Tagore and British scholar Charles Russell Day to support his argument.
‘Singer of repute’
“A singer of repute and composer of many ‘varnas’ and ‘svarajatis’, he is believed to have introduced the use of the European violin in Southern India,” wrote Day in his book, The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan. Day spent his days in India as an Army officer before being sent home because of an injury. According to Kittappa, the brothers, after developing a difference of opinion with Maratha King Serfoji II, left Thanjavur for Travancore. “Swathi Tirunal built a house, Sankara Vilas, for the brothers in Thiruvananthapuram,” he wrote.
Swathi Tirunal presented an ivory violin and a case made of ivory. But only the violin remains in a wooden box today.
“It has four strings and has not been taken out of the box for decades. We lost the key and I remember my family opening it once when I was a child,” Mr. Chandrasekar recalled.
