When we think of Carnatic music, a series of names pop into our heads – with female musicians taking up a huge space on the list. What if I told you that they are all here today because of the relentless effort of one bold, intelligent woman who fought tirelessly for equal rights for women in the Carnatic music scene? It was she who singularly and vehemently fought male dominance in the field and even went to the extent of organising exclusive music festivals for women artists, parallel to popular festivals, and finally achieved her goal of giving women musicians equal opportunities.
That is not all. The world-famous Thyagarajar Aaraadhanai owes a great part of its success to the huge contributions made by our heroine, not just in terms of money, but also through her zeal and intellect.
Bangalore Nagarathnamma (1878-1952) was truly an extraordinary woman. She revolutionized the lives of the women in her field. Unfortunately, it’s because of her work in a niche area that she isn’t as remembered as she ought to be.
The Devadasis were a community of women who were attached to temples. These women were ‘married’ to the deity of their respective temple. As such, they were free to take on patrons who would support their art.
For a long time, the community was greatly respected and it was considered an honour to be inducted into its fold. Sadly, with the invasion of the British, Victorian morals labelled the Devadasis as women of questionable values. The community fell on hard times. After a long-drawn-out legal battle, the Devadasis as a community were officially abolished in 1947 with the passing of the Madras Devadasi Act. This made the lives of these artists extremely difficult for no fault of theirs.
Bangalore Nagarathnamma was the last prominent Devadasi. She was a highly accomplished Carnatic musician and very well-known in music circles. She was very well-educated and considered quite a scholar.
She was also a fierce feminist.
Nagarathnamma came from a community that was already on the decline and subjected to social scrutiny. Yet, she ended up becoming very successful at almost everything she set out to achieve.
I would like to focus on two episodes of her life which, to me, really resound with her brand of feminism.
The first is the establishment of the Thyagarajar Aaraadhanai. This is her legacy. The Thyagarajar Aaraadhanai is a global festival conducted annually to honour the memory of the Carnatic composer Thyagaraja. The festival is Thiruvayur’s claim to fame. It contributes greatly to Tamil Nadu’s tourism. Around the world, it is one of the most visible celebrations of the arts. All this because of the work one woman undertook single-handedly.
She travelled to Thiruvayur and saw that the Samadhi of the composer was in ruins. She then purchased the land from its trustees and, in 1925, constructed the temple of the composer over the Samadhi. Today, this is the place where the festival is conducted.
And that’s not all she did. Women were not allowed to participate in this festival. Based on what you’ve read so far, do you really think that the heroine of our story would have taken this lying down? Bangalore Nagarathnamma refused to conduct it without the participation of women. This paved the path for women musicians, and since then, as they say, the rest is history.
The second episode is the publication of Radhika Santwanamu. Radhika Santwanamu, composed in the mid-18th century, is an erotic Sanskrit work by the late Devadasi Muddupalani. Although similar creations existed at the time, this work was supposed to have had a feminist take on the genre. The first edition saw the light of day but with several verses removed by the publishers. Kandukuri Veeresalingam, a leading social reformer, heavily criticised the work. Although he was a supporter of women’s rights in many fields, he was a staunch opponent of the Devadasi community. He tore apart the lovemaking scenes, writing that women should never be allowed to hear such vulgarity. He also wrote that there were a few errors in the work, but that this was not a point of concern since such errors existed in works by male creators too.
Years later, Nagarathnamma came across this edition. She traced the original manuscript, and in 1910, printed this edition with her own preface. In it, she urged people to read the work since it was written and edited by a woman. She then went on to criticise Veeresalingam’s stand on the work. She wrote that the scenes he considered ‘vulgar’ were much tamer than similar scenes in works by male creators. In fact, he had recommended such works to a university! She also pointed out that there was no need to highlight errors in a woman’s work when, by his own admission, such mistakes were present and ignored in men’s works.
Unfortunately, the edition was more or less ripped to pieces by a conservative Telugu newspaper, Sasilekha. This led to what became one of the biggest censorship scandals of the decade. Happily, post-independence, the work was restored by the government to preserve such lost gems of literature.
Bangalore Nagarathnamma lived a very eventful and meaningful life; a life truly dedicated to bigger and long-standing goals. She was a feminist, a social reformer and more than anything else, a relentless doer. If she believed in something, she went ahead and achieved her objective, all hurdles along the way notwithstanding. She was truly the definition of memorable.
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