M.S. Anantharaman died at his Chennai home today (February 19, Monday) a half year shy of turning 94. The end came five years after the demise of his similarly prestigious musician sibling M.S. Gopalakrishnan—and 54 years after their Sundaram Iyer inhaled his last.
Iyer had a place with a Tamil family that had moved to Parur, a waterfront town 25 km north of Kochi yet had a place with the Travancore realm in the occasions little Sundaram was conceived in 1891. Indeed, even as a kid, Sundaram Iyer indicated inclinations of being bilingual in Indian traditional music—and by high school moved to Bombay to learn Hindustani. At the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya there, he gained from as a matter of fact its organizer Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872-1931). That tutelage produced a more extensive cut a history: Hindustani music got the violin added to its collection, as 18-year-old Sundaram Iyer played the string instrument at a 1909 show.
Iyer served at the Mahavidyalaya for a short time, however, in the end, got back to Madras. The Carnatic center accordingly ended up being the space for his two children to thrive. MSA and MSG, similar to their dad, picked up authority over the two sayings of Indian old style music. Just that MSG was more known for his solo kachoris—something at which the senior kin likewise was adroit, however, stay satisfied to be a greater amount of an accompanist to Carnatic vocalists.
Precisely like his dad, the 1924-conceived MSA prepared his two children as a musician. Moderately aged M.A. Sundareswaran and M.A. Krishnaswami have throughout recent decades been occupied, artistes. Their sister, M.A. Bhagirathi, is a vocalist, whose little girl Harini is a prominent musician herself. (With respect to their cousins, MSG's kids M. Narmadha and M. Suresh are, once more, known musician.) Sundareswaran's child M.S. Ananthakrishnan, as well, plays the violin, getting some much-needed rest his vocation as an MBA.
