Female Composers in Carnatic Music

From the 1^st century CE Sangam period to the present day, there have been numerous female composers from the southern-most states. While some were revered as saints, most were ordinary women who straddled all household domestic responsibilities – some being closet-composers out of necessity.

Under the auspices of Kala Prashala (a division of SciArt Services), hosted on Facebook by Vanitha Suresh and Revathi Subramanian, Sangita Kalanidhi Dr. S. Sowmya and musicologist Dr. Radha Bhaskar shared their ongoing exploration of women composers, aided by vocalists K. Gayatri and Vidya Kalyanaraman. The ladies sang brief excerpts and shared some illustrative recordings of other vocalists too.

A version of this article appeared in The Hindu newspaper.

Karaikal Ammaiyar, 6^th century, one of only 3 female Nayanmars, in her verses, demonstrated her knowledge of the intricacies of music, referring to the saptasvara-s, various percussion instruments, and even the veena, at a time when it was the yAzh that was in vogue.

Andal (7^th/8^th century), the only female Azhwar, composed the Thiruppavai when barely 15. She saw no obscenity or vulgarity in expressing her innermost desires in a very descriptive manner and did not worry about societal expectations. In Nachiyar Thirumozhi, she tells Manmata (the God of Love) that she is nurturing herself only to be given to God. Thus, she cannot be given to just any human being and would not live if that was the case.

The husband of Akka Mahadevi (12^th century) of Karnataka tells her that everything she owns, including the garments she wears, is his. She thus sheds everything, even her clothes, and remains in the nude which, Dr. Sowmya mentioned, is reminiscent of Sadhasiva Brahmendrar. Akka Mahadevi tells her horrified mother that she cares for no earthly linkages and wishes to merge only with her chosen God – Chenna Mallikarjuna. Dr. Sowmya here refers to how, despite such circumstances, these women show an eminent positivity whilst seeing the Divine as their only emotional succour.

Helavanakette Giriamma (18^th century) was the only female Dasa of all the Haridasas. She set her verses to tune herself, mostly in kIrtanai format in simple Kannada.

Dr. Radha observed that women composers saw God in different ways – a partner, as God, a companion, someone to converse with, someone who would just listen. Dr. Sowmya mentioned how, for a woman, emotional support and encouragement are crucial, regardless of what else she has. These composers have also composed from the male perspective and conveyed even emotions like sarcasm.

Talapaka Tirumallamma (15^th century), wife of Annamacharya, was the first Telugu poetess – she wrote Subhadra Kalyanam about Arjuna’s marriage to Subhadra. Molla, also 15^th century, was a young country lass who was the first person to write the Ramayana in Telugu, weaving it with her own imaginative anecdotes, akin to Thyagaraja. 

Avudai Akkal, a child widow of the 17^th century and a follower of Sridhara Ayyaval, composed many verses, specifying rAgam-s for the same. Andavan Pichai mothered ten children and lived until 1990 to age 91. She wrote several compositions, many on Lord Muruga.

Muddu Pazhani (18th century) of Andhra Pradesh, a Devadasi, wrote RAdhika SAntvanam, an erotic narrative poem about the marital relationship of Radha, Krishna and his new wife Ila. Facing severe opposition, it was soon banned by the male bastion, with the original version seeing the light of day only after Independence.

Bangalore Nagarathnamma (1878-1952) composed the popular Kannada javali mAtADa bhAradEno in rAgam KamAs. She was a pioneer in many spheres including bringing the work of other women to light. Nagarathnamma was also able to persuade men to not just join but actively champion her causes including fighting for women to perform at the Thyagaraja Aradhana.

Here both Dr. Radha and Dr. Sowmya referred to many women having to compose secretively thanks to the social mores then. Badly abused and severely traumatized after losing her first six children, K.M. Soundaryavalli propitiated Ghatikachalam and gave birth to seven healthy children. She looked forward to her menstrual cycles when she got time to herself to compose unhindered. She wrote many compositions including some 30 on Thyagaraja for which notations are available. Her daughter and son-in-law actively publicized her work.

Ambujam Krishna wrote several compositions but did not tune them herself – like many others. She entrusted this task to stalwart musicians who also presented them at concerts. Dr. Radha mentioned the importance of family members bringing works to light and the crucial part of musicians singing these to make the public aware of the compositions. Dr. Sowmya suggested that it appeared that many composers had set their pieces to some form of music in their time.

The panel spoke of several other contemporary composers such as D. Pattammal, Mangalam Ganapathy, Kalyani Varadarajan, Neela Ramamurthy (elder daughter of Papanasam Sivan), and Padma Veeraraghavan (explained by Vidya Kalyanaraman) too.

V.M. Kodhainayaki, who was married at age 5 and lived until 1960, was a writer, publisher, novelist and a performing musician. She sang the first vocal concert for AIR Chennai’s inauguration with Rajaji as chief guest. Her husband was most supportive of her activities. She wrote many patriotic songs and was jailed for her activism. Besides mainstream rAgam-s, she also composed in rAgam-s she coined.

K. Gayatri elaborated on her late Guru Suguna Purushothaman’s compositions that reflect tremendous understanding of melody, layam and lyric including rAgam-s reflecting the subject matter, changes of naDai (gait) and different compositional forms like tillAna, kriti-s, varNam-s and rAgamAlika-s.

Dr. Radha mentioned Rukmini Ramani, daughter of Papanasam Sivan, who has composed hundreds of pieces including on the 108 divya desams and the shakti peetams – all via divine vision without visiting the kshetras.

Besides discovering a wealth of composers with excellent lyrical merit, Dr. Sowmya and Dr. Radha saw an evolution from poetesses with a strong underlying bhakti theme to performer musicians who melded lyrical expertise with musical acumen and sophistication. In subsequent sessions, the panel hopes to cover composers from Kerala and current Carnatic composers from all over South India, many of whom are active performers as well.

The two interactive sessions that form the basis for this article can be found here: Episode 1 and Episode 2.

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Charumathi Ramachandran tunes Ambujam Krishna’s compositions