mullamudu tradition of music

Submitted by UMAMAHESWARI on Thu, 2007-03-08 07:01. Culture

THE Royal House of Travancore has always been patrons of music and other fine arts. Some of the rulers themselves were great musicians and scholars like Karthika Tirunal Balarama Varma, Aswati Tirunal Rama Varma, Rani Rugmini Bayi, and Maharaja Swati Tirunal.
Kartika Tirunal and Aswathi Tirunal had composed Attakathas for Kathakali. The treatise on Natyasastra-Balaramabharatham, penned by Karthika Tirunal is considered his magnum opus. However Swati Tirunal’s period is considered as the golden period of Carnatic music in Travancore. He had set a tradition-the Tradition of Mullamudu which is still in vogue.

This tradition of Mullamudu is 175 years old. Only, a handful of Mullamudu musicians remain today. In an informal conversation Mullamudu musicians talk about their ancestors, their role in popularizing the compositions of Maharaja Swati Tirunal, and how they still maintain rich age old tradition. These musicians pay their musical offerings at the scheduled time on the days of ulsavam (temple festivals) and Navarathri at the Padmanabha Temple and Navarathri Mandapam respectively.
The origin of mullamudu tradition goes like this:
Maharaja Swati Tirunal once happened to listen to Palakakad Parameswara Bhagavathar at the Temple. Enthralled, he made enquiries on the spot and appointed him as the court musician. He provided him a house at “mullamudu” near the palace. Parameswaran is the first musician to represent this great tradition. He later served the courts of Ayilyam Tirunal, Visakhom Tirunal and Sree Mualm Tirunal. Coimbatore Raghava Iyer, was his primary disciple. Aashramam Annaswami, Attingal Sankaranarayanan, Elathur Hariharan, Karamana Venkiteswaran, Kalkulam Subramanian, Parakkai Narayanan, Tanjavore Kathir Kama Dasan, Kadayam Kasi,and Neelakanta Iyer were the few others to name. They assembled at the rustling thickets intertwined with jasmine shrubs and rendered the Maharajas compositions and hence the name mullamudu bhagavathar.

“I have been part of this team since 50 years. My father Padmanabhan was one of the mullamudu musicians” said T .P .Mani Iyer former Principal of the Swati Tirunal Music Academy. We were given rice, vegetables, and coconut daily” remembered Mani.

“My father Venku Bhagavathar was one among the mullamudu musicians. I have been serving the temple for the past 46 years as the violinist” said V Meenakshi Sundaram. “During the festival we render Ulsava Prabhandam which the Maharaja has specially composed in Manipravalam in 1839. It gives a detailed account of the ten days festival celebrated twice annually. It has 12 songs and 42 verses in different meters. We render the corresponding songs of the day” he informed. He specially mentioned the song Shibikayil Ezhunnalledunnu set to the rare raga Mangalakausika.

“We render ulsava prabhandam at night and other Swati compositions in the evening on the festival days. At the Navarathri Mandapam we perform Thodaya Mangalam for half an hour before the main concert. We begin with Jayadeva ke kishora [Natta] and Mathanga Thanayayae [pantuvarali] followed by the compositions of Annamacharya and Purandaradasa. On the eve of Ariyittu vazhcha,[Attingal] there existed a custom to recite Aanadavalli kuru [Neelambari] at the nalukettu and Janani Pahi [suddha saveri] at the sanctum the next day” explained Parameswara Sarma son of late mullamudu Lekshmi Narayana Bahgavathar.
“Lekshmi Narayanan and I, well trained in Ulsavaprabhandam taught other musicians like Palakkad K V Narayana Swami, who later popularized this precious work of the Maharaja. In fact it was Amma Maharani who took the initiative to do so” reminisced T P Mani Iyer and added “on the day of Swargavathil Ekadesi we render Bhaktaparayana in Sankarabharanam at 8.30 pm.”

During ulsavam these musicians follow the vahanams, rendering ulsava prabhandam to the accompaniment of violin and mrudangam even today.
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