Radha Venkatesan, the veena teacher lives in a gated colony off Trichy Road. Her living room has the pictures of the music trinity - Syama Sastri, Muthuswamy Dikshithar and Thyagaraja. The partition which divides her living space happens to be a nice cupboard which can hold upto six veenas. She has four left with her right now for she has given away two of them. Radha Venkatesan has taken a lot of care to keep them safe. The veenas are placed on pillow rings and are supported by a tag. They stand vertically and as though they are ready to play soul filling music all the time. The walls have a few collages of pictures which will aid in the visitor in trying to understand her musical journey. The accomplished teacher belongs to the pre internet age. She functioned at a time when books were rare too. One can get to see her collection of veena notebooks and an attendance register. The veena notebooks have songs written by hand. She has written them personally. The notebooks also have details of the ragas, qualities, their unique features and important compositions which bring out the best in them. This Veena Vithagi has also successfully captured the stories of several veena legends. A brief browse will sure enthral a student or lover of music.
Radha Venkatesan, the veena teacher lives in a gated colony off Trichy Road. Her living room has the pictures of the music trinity - Syama Sastri, Muthuswamy Dikshithar and Thyagaraja. The partition which divides her living space happens to be a nice cupboard which can hold upto six veenas. She has four left with her right now for she has given away two of them. Radha Venkatesan has taken a lot of care to keep them safe. The veenas are placed on pillow rings and are supported by a tag. They stand vertically and as though they are ready to play soul filling music all the time. The walls have a few collages of pictures which will aid in the visitor in trying to understand her musical journey. The accomplished teacher belongs to the pre internet age. She functioned at a time when books were rare too. One can get to see her collection of veena notebooks and an attendance register. The veena notebooks have songs written by hand. She has written them personally. The notebooks also have details of the ragas, qualities, their unique features and important compositions which bring out the best in them. This Veena Vithagi has also successfully captured the stories of several veena legends. A brief browse will sure enthral a student or lover of music.
"See my veena, it is made out the wood of a single tree. It has ivory inlay work. I use sandalwood oil for my ' meettis ' the attachments used to play on the strings of the veena. My veena is a master piece. It has been my companion over the years," smiled the octogenarian teacher. She has taught hundreds over the years and still continues to teach. One of her students Deepti, learns from the United Kingdom. She has slots for all her students and has reserved a smart phone for on line teaching ! Her husband Venkatesan hails from Coimbatore. The family had a lot of land at one point of time and it was sold long ago. A well run spinning mill functions out of that place. Radha Venkatesan was a Hindi teacher in the Kadri Mills School for many years. The anti Hindi agitations put a stop to her work as a Hindi teacher. However, she was made to continue as a music teacher in the same school. She lost ten years of service because of this disruption.
Radha Venkatesan was born to Subramania Iyer and Thangammal in Karaikudi, a place known for commerce and culture. Her neighbourhood enhanced her keenness to play veena. She treated the clothesline as the veena and this caught the attention of her mother. Radha teacher started training under the guidance of Sambasiva Iyer. Her Guru requested her parents to let her remain in Karaikudi in order to let her continue her veena classes. Subsequently she moved to Trichy and trained under the famous All India Radio artiste Shankararama Bhagavathar. She was also trained by Thiruthuraipoondi S.Venugopal and Janaki Srinivasan. Mysore T.Chowdiah taught her violin briefly and on observing her love for the veena, he suggested that she continue to play the veena. The violin given by Mysore T.Chowdiah stayed back with her and she gave it away to Ashok Bhaktavatsalam, the Founder of KGiSL.
The Veena Vithagi married Venkatsan on October 20, 1950 and has been living in Coimbatore thereafter. It was in Coimbatore that Radha teacher got the oppourtunity to train under the able guidance of veena artist Pitchumani Iyer along with Andal Durairaj at the latter's residence. Andal Durairaj happens to be the daughter of G.Venkataswamy Naidu of Lakshmi Mills and her husband D.Durairaj is the Past President of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore. Radha Venkatesan was always influenced by rare keerthanas, swarajathis and thillanas of veena maestros like Chitti Babu and Mysore Duraiswamy Iyengar. It was over and above the attention that she paid to the renditions of other maestros. She has played for the All India Radio for many years. Aranganatha Swamigal of the Peelamedu Akilandeswari Temple conferred the title ' Veena Isai Vithagi ' during the consecration of the Perumal Temple at Neelikonampalayam, Coimbatore.
Radha Venkatesan had played in front of Lady Edwina Mountbatten just before the departure of the Mountbattens from India. Once a student spotted a snake which had appeared like magic, while she was playing ' magudi ' in the Punagavarali Ragam. Her journey began at the age of 11 years and the octogenarian has been playing veena for nearly 75 years. "Playing veena is like breathing for me. It keeps me very happy. There cannot be a greater joy for me. I simply love playing the veena. It is a royal instrument. The present version of the veena was endowed by Raghunatha Nayak, the ruler of Thanjavur," stated Radhamma while fixing the sruti in order to render a song to her old students Yamuna and Sujatha who were visiting her. She played the song ' Brindavanamum Nandakumaran ' and a Telugu version of the same tune. This version enthrals the listener and takes one through a devotional odyssey. Radha Venkatesan began to teach veena from the year 1958 and has completed 61 years as a veena teacher.
The veena teacher remembers her senior students Kamala and Namagiri quite well. They were the daughters of Srinivasa Iyengar. She was known as ' Baby ' for some years and her grandmother Karur Alangaravalli had lived in Rangoon ( Burma ). Her aunt Jayalakshmi had brought her up during her childhood years. Therefore she used to call her mother ' Athai ' ( aunty ). Radhamma's family was known as the ' ricemill ' family.
Radha Venkatesan has played in a number of temples, wedding receptions over the years. She has given concerts too. Venkatesan, the husband was eager to show all the photographs and details pertaining to her performances. She loves the song Bo Shambo. Age has taken a bit of toll on her memory but it has left her ' veena memory ' undisturbed. She remembers playing at the Palani Temple, Koniamman Temple, Vasavi Kannika Parameswari Temple and Sharadhambal Temple. " The jeweller P.A.Raju Chettiar was very fond of the song ' Santhamu lekha, soukyamu ledhu ' and he used to enjoy my rendering of the same. I used to teach his grand daughters and great grand children too. Sharatram Durairaj, the son of Andalamma was a very good player. I still remember the young Sharatram playing in one of the sabhas. It was like Saint Raghavendra playing the veena. The Saint had been a great veena exponent. Several members of the KG family were my students. Santhamani Ramaswamy, Shanthi, Anandhi, Vasanthi, Aditya Balasundaram and his father D.Balasundaram, the daughters of K.G.Kannappan and K.G.Vijayakumar were my students. I used to hop from one KG house to another those days. All of them lived in a huge complex which consisted of seven bungalows in Race Course. I think of them everyday. I taught a number of others too and I remember teaching people from the Ramakrishna family and it included Prema. A family moved from Phoenix in the USA, in order to get their child to learn music from me. She had been very fond of the veena, " added the committed veena exponent.
Radha Venkatesan plays the veena with effortless ease. One can say that if ' flows ' in her blood. "The veena is a classical instrument. It is of ancient origin. You can find references to it in all of epics and literature. Adi Sankara, Kalidasa, Bharata, Narada and others have referred to the veena. The Aitreya Brahmana describes two types of veena. The Princes, Lava and Kusha are said to have used the Ekatantri veena during the rendition of Ramayana in the court of Chakravarthi Rama, the Lord of Ayodhya. The veena is found in a number of compositions - Manikya veenamupalalayantim ( Shyamala Dandakam ) and Veena sankrantahastam ( Navaratnamalika stotram ). Listening to the playing of ' tanam ' on a veena is a unique experience. The presence of frets enables the production of music which is of highest purity. Veena Vadana is a yoga for salvation," stated Radha Venkatesan while offering some Mysurpa and mixture in the midst of an interesting conversation.
The Veena Vithagi Radha Venkatesan continues to stay on as an icon for veena lovers. The teacher simply loves to teach.
"See my veena, it is made out the wood of a single tree. It has ivory inlay work. I use sandalwood oil for my ' meettis ' the attachments used to play on the strings of the veena. My veena is a master piece. It has been my companion over the years," smiled the octogenarian teacher. She has taught hundreds over the years and still continues to teach. One of her students Deepti, learns from the United Kingdom. She has slots for all her students and has reserved a smart phone for on line teaching ! Her husband Venkatesan hails from Coimbatore. The family had a lot of land at one point of time and it was sold long ago. A well run spinning mill functions out of that place. Radha Venkatesan was a Hindi teacher in the Kadri Mills School for many years. The anti Hindi agitations put a stop to her work as a Hindi teacher. However, she was made to continue as a music teacher in the same school. She lost ten years of service because of this disruption.
Radha Venkatesan was born to Subramania Iyer and Thangammal in Karaikudi, a place known for commerce and culture. Her neighbourhood enhanced her keenness to play veena. She treated the clothesline as the veena and this caught the attention of her mother. Radha teacher started training under the guidance of Sambasiva Iyer. Her Guru requested her parents to let her remain in Karaikudi in order to let her continue her veena classes. Subsequently she moved to Trichy and trained under the famous All India Radio artiste Shankararama Bhagavathar. She was also trained by Thiruthuraipoondi S.Venugopal and Janaki Srinivasan. Mysore T.Chowdiah taught her violin briefly and on observing her love for the veena, he suggested that she continue to play the veena. The violin given by Mysore T.Chowdiah stayed back with her and she gave it away to Ashok Bhaktavatsalam, the Founder of KGiSL.
The Veena Vithagi married Venkatsan on October 20, 1950 and has been living in Coimbatore thereafter. It was in Coimbatore that Radha teacher got the oppourtunity to train under the able guidance of veena artist Pitchumani Iyer along with Andal Durairaj at the latter's residence. Andal Durairaj happens to be the daughter of G.Venkataswamy Naidu of Lakshmi Mills and her husband D.Durairaj is the Past President of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore. Radha Venkatesan was always influenced by rare keerthanas, swarajathis and thillanas of veena maestros like Chitti Babu and Mysore Duraiswamy Iyengar. It was over and above the attention that she paid to the renditions of other maestros. She has played for the All India Radio for many years. Aranganatha Swamigal of the Peelamedu Akilandeswari Temple conferred the title ' Veena Isai Vithagi ' during the consecration of the Perumal Temple at Neelikonampalayam, Coimbatore.
Radha Venkatesan had played in front of Lady Edwina Mountbatten just before the departure of the Mountbattens from India. Once a student spotted a snake which had appeared like magic, while she was playing ' magudi ' in the Punagavarali Ragam. Her journey began at the age of 11 years and the octogenarian has been playing veena for nearly 75 years. "Playing veena is like breathing for me. It keeps me very happy. There cannot be a greater joy for me. I simply love playing the veena. It is a royal instrument. The present version of the veena was endowed by Raghunatha Nayak, the ruler of Thanjavur," stated Radhamma while fixing the sruti in order to render a song to her old students Yamuna and Sujatha who were visiting her. She played the song ' Brindavanamum Nandakumaran ' and a Telugu version of the same tune. This version enthrals the listener and takes one through a devotional odyssey. Radha Venkatesan began to teach veena from the year 1958 and has completed 61 years as a veena teacher.
The veena teacher remembers her senior students Kamala and Namagiri quite well. They were the daughters of Srinivasa Iyengar. She was known as ' Baby ' for some years and her grandmother Karur Alangaravalli had lived in Rangoon ( Burma ). Her aunt Jayalakshmi had brought her up during her childhood years. Therefore she used to call her mother ' Athai ' ( aunty ). Radhamma's family was known as the ' ricemill ' family.
Radha Venkatesan has played in a number of temples, wedding receptions over the years. She has given concerts too. Venkatesan, the husband was eager to show all the photographs and details pertaining to her performances. She loves the song Bo Shambo. Age has taken a bit of toll on her memory but it has left her ' veena memory ' undisturbed. She remembers playing at the Palani Temple, Koniamman Temple, Vasavi Kannika Parameswari Temple and Sharadhambal Temple. " The jeweller P.A.Raju Chettiar was very fond of the song ' Santhamu lekha, soukyamu ledhu ' and he used to enjoy my rendering of the same. I used to teach his grand daughters and great grand children too. Sharatram Durairaj, the son of Andalamma was a very good player. I still remember the young Sharatram playing in one of the sabhas. It was like Saint Raghavendra playing the veena. The Saint had been a great veena exponent. Several members of the KG family were my students. Santhamani Ramaswamy, Shanthi, Anandhi, Vasanthi, Aditya Balasundaram and his father D.Balasundaram, the daughters of K.G.Kannappan and K.G.Vijayakumar were my students. I used to hop from one KG house to another those days. All of them lived in a huge complex which consisted of seven bungalows in Race Course. I think of them everyday. I taught a number of others too and I remember teaching people from the Ramakrishna family and it included Prema. A family moved from Phoenix in the USA, in order to get their child to learn music from me. She had been very fond of the veena, " added the committed veena exponent.
Radha Venkatesan plays the veena with effortless ease. One can say that if ' flows ' in her blood. "The veena is a classical instrument. It is of ancient origin. You can find references to it in all of epics and literature. Adi Sankara, Kalidasa, Bharata, Narada and others have referred to the veena. The Aitreya Brahmana describes two types of veena. The Princes, Lava and Kusha are said to have used the Ekatantri veena during the rendition of Ramayana in the court of Chakravarthi Rama, the Lord of Ayodhya. The veena is found in a number of compositions - Manikya veenamupalalayantim ( Shyamala Dandakam ) and Veena sankrantahastam ( Navaratnamalika stotram ). Listening to the playing of ' tanam ' on a veena is a unique experience. The presence of frets enables the production of music which is of highest purity. Veena Vadana is a yoga for salvation," stated Radha Venkatesan while offering some Mysurpa and mixture in the midst of an interesting conversation.
The Veena Vithagi Radha Venkatesan continues to stay on as an icon for veena lovers. The teacher simply loves to teach.