Mysuru… A Look at its Past

By Gouri Satya, Sr. Journalist

 A house where the doyen of Karnatak music lived was turning into ruins and very few knew whose it was. The modest house within a compound enveloped with wild weeds and climbers on New Sayyaji Rao Road was the residence of the renowned musician and composer of Karnatak music, Mysore Vasudevacharya. There lies a story behind this house.

While living in this house nearly a century ago, Vidwan K. Vasudevacharya composed some of his famous compositions, held weekly bhajans, taught his students, met some of the greatest musicians of his time and visiting officials of the Palace who brought messages from the Maharaja and sang his favourite compositions to his heart’s content.

Vasudevacharya’s grandson Krishnamurthy recalls in his book, Vaggeyakara Vasudevacharya, how from this house on New Sayyaji Rao Road, Vasudevacharya would walk about two miles.

A concert in progress at Mysore Vasudevacharya’s house.

The first halt was at the Varahaswamy Temple within the ramparts of the Palace. He would point to the windows on the gopura of the temple and recall how he would sit there to go over the lessons learnt in his Sanskrit class of the day.

The second stop was at the small temple of Sri Rama on the banks of the dry Doddakere. He would sit on the stone benches by the side of the road and wait for the Garuda bird, to pay his namaskarams.

He would then walk to the Uttaradi Mutt and then to Poornayya’s Choultry and finally stop at Raghavendra Brindavana and sit down to narrate anecdotes from his life to his grandson. This was the evening walk of the great musician.

Krishnamurthy further wonders, the anecdotes were always laced with wit and humour and the grandson always wondered how such a simple, funny person could compose music of such a high calibre that he affectionately came to be called “Abhinava Tyagaraja.”

This house, sanctified by the music of the “Abhinava Tyagaraja” of Mysuru, had turned into a den of anti-social elements for smoking and drinking in the dark and a place for destitutes and disreputable people to rest whenever they wanted; while the temple of music lay in desolation and deterioration with none to care.

Fortunately, this house of neglect has regained life, with musicians — young and senior — rendering the famous compositions of the stalwart in weekly concerts, thanks to the interest evinced by a group of music lovers led by two Putty brothers.

Srinivasa Putty and Yadupathi Putty, one a Professor of Commerce and the other a Professor of Engineering, heard well-known musician R.K. Padmanabha expressing his deep sorrow about the ruined state of Vasudevacharya’s house at a concert in 2017.

They decided to visit the house and were horrified at the scene. It took them three months to clear the wild growth all around and clean the floors and walls. They called on musicians and invited them to come and sing there, impressing upon them the sanctity of the house.

Musicians started performing in the dark dilapidated house, with Veena Vidushi Bhagyalakshmi Chandrasekhar giving the first concert. Since then, several musicians have come forward to sing there.

The concerts are generally held on Sunday mornings as the house does not have an electric connection. The house is receiving moderate care today, with sweeping and swabbing, decoration with rangoli and mango leaves and a painted portrait of the revered musician occupying a place of pride.

Music now wafts all around the historic house, drawing music lovers to listen to the compositions of Mysuru’s renowned composer. The painting is a gift from artist Nanda R. Putty.

The Putty brothers say with a tinge of sadness, “We have no idea how long we can continue this. We have just been volunteers for cleaning and sprucing up the place. It is the musicians who are filling the space with music that had once witnessed such great music being composed by none other than the music Guru of Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar.”

Their concern raises a larger question: what should become of a house that is not merely an old building, but a place intimately associated with one of Mysuru’s greatest composers? One wonders why this heritage house, which once reverberated with music, should not be made a museum in memory of the renowned composer Mysore Vasudevacharya and turned into a destination for musicians and music lovers on the lines of the residence of the famous   author R.K. Narayan in Yadavagiri.

This house was a gift to the Acharya by the people of Mysore in admiration of his contribution to Karnatak music. Constructed in 1932-33, it probably remains largely unaltered even as it heads towards a century. It was here that some of the stalwarts of music of his period, including Sangeetha Kalanidhis Muthiah Bhagavatar, T. Chowdiah, G.N. Balasubramaniam (GNB), M.S. Subbulakshmi, Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sharma, Tiger Varadachar, Gotuvadyam Narayana Iyengar and others, frequently met the great composer till the late 1950s.

The revival of the house has already given it a new lease of life. Since the initiative began nine years ago, more than 190 concerts have been held here, bringing musicians and music lovers back to a place that had once been filled with the strains of great music.

What began as a few music lovers cleaning a neglected house has thus grown into a small but meaningful movement to keep alive the musical legacy of Mysore Vasudevacharya.

The hope now is that this revived tradition will continue and that the house of the “Abhinava Tyagaraja” will once again find its rightful place on the cultural map of Mysuru.