Details of three Vaggeyakaras – Janaranjani Radio Program Scheduled on 23 June 2018
1. Sri Kocherlakota Ramaragu (1876-1946):
The uniqueness of Kocherlakota Ramaraju goes much beyond his incredible ambidextrous
skill. It may sound incredible but in a remote corner of Andhra Pradesh once lived a brilliant
musician and composer called Kocherlakota Ramaraju who was also that very rare
phenomenon –– an ambidextrous instrumentalist! A Savyasaachi! And with two instruments.
He played both the mridangam and violin as a left-hander and right hander too!
The near-forgotten Ramaraju is yet another illustration of how Telugu land has consigned to
obscurity most of its music maestros. Ironical, considering that Telugu is often described as
the mother-tongue of Carnatic music and that so much of Carnatic music comprises Telugu
compositions and Andhra composers.
Ramaraju was born in Uppada to Venkatanarayana and Jaanakaamba and lived in Tatipaka
(both villages in East Godavari district in coastal Andhra). Ramaraju was a very talented
performing musician, a composer and teacher too. He studied Carnatic music at
Machilipatnam from Chebrolu Venkatarathnam and later from Patnam Subramanyam Iyer’s
disciple C.S. Krishna Iyer.
Explains Chennai-based, renowned musicologist and musician, B.M. Sundaram, a student of
Mangalampalli Balamuralikrisha whose father Pattabhirammaya was a student of Ramaraju:
“Ambidextrous playing on the violin and mridangam was Ramaraju’s expertise. He would
wield the bow with the left hand when playing the violin left-handed. The Polavaram Zamindar
Kocherlakota Krishna Rao invited him and honoured him with the Asthana Vidwan position.”
As composer, Ramaraju covered virtually every major genre in Carnatic music — geethams,
swarajathis to javalis, varnams, and kithanas especially chowkakaala and bhajana
sampradaya kirthanas. His best-known swarajathi is Balakrishna Mohana (Mohana).
Interestingly, Ramaraju also composed multi-ragam or ragamalika swarajathis—very unusual
considering swarajathis, generally, are in a single ragam.
He authored Gayaka Manoranjani which included basic lessons, and Srikrishna
Karnamruthamu with 108 kirthanas. Another Ramaraju work was Sreerama Kirthana
Karnamruthamu ––kirthanas on Rama published complete with ragam, talam and notation
(1932, Konaseema Press, Amalapuram, priced 12 annas!). It begins with Ganesha kirthanas
like Srigajanana (Shankarabharanam) followed by Saraswathi kirthanas eg. Vani
Sarvani (Kharaharapriya), has about 100 kirtanas on Rama and ends with mangalaharathi
lyrics including a pancharagam (five-ragam) harathi.
2. Sri Dwaram Venkata Krishanaih Naidu (1893-1964):
Sri Dwaram Venkata Krishanaiah Naidu was born in 1876, in the village Kasimkota, Andhra
Pradesh State. His father and grandfather worked in the British Army, were good at playing
violin purely for devotional music in temples.
Sri Venkata Krishnaiah Naidu worked in the railways as a telegraphist and while working
studied the western bani, western music notations and the western technique of playing violin.
He was fortunate to become the disciple of Sri Nandigama Venkata Pantulu, an eminent
vainika and vocalist on Kasimkota Asthanam. He was also inspired by the association of his
guru’s brother-in-law and sishya Sri Tumrada Sangameswara Sastry, a great vainika of
Pithapuram samsthanam and an exponent of violin.
3. Sri Duddu Seetarama Sastri (1883 – 1949):
‘Sangeetha Mahamahopadhayaya’ late Sri Duddu Seetarama Sastry, a disciple of Susarla
Dakshina Murthy, was the only musician and composer of the yester years, who used to
perform the unique feat of ‘Sangeeta Ganita Ashtavadhanam’ – a combination of Music and Mathematics. He was an exponent in Vocal and Violin and also a Jantra Gatra Praveena
(Singing and Playing Violin simultaneously). His scholarly pursuits were restricted not only to
music but stretched to Poetry, Astrology, Mathematics and other related subjects. He had
composed a number of Geethas, Varnams, Krithis and Javalis.