mahabhashyam family of Vizianagaram

Kurai ondrum illai, maraimurthi kanna… All but 99 and going on 100, as he is lying on his bed, with eyes that glow with life and spirit; ears that can catch the finest nuances and nod in appreciation; a voice, though feeble with age, that can preface a raga with an alapana or tag a swarakalpana to a verse at the drop of a hat, Dr. Sripada Pinakapani is a content soul with no regrets in life! The body prefers a supine position but the eyes speak volumes and the mind is filled with a memory that no computer can match! Music and medicine is saved and stored there! Only music is retrieved and experienced all the time since it is way above medicine and who knows it better than Dr. Sripada Pinakapani?

He is a ‘Vyasa’ who has given the Telugu land, a treasure trove called theory of Carnatic music which had been nurtured, preserved and practiced in the folds of ‘dakshina desham’ (south India) by the stalwarts of Thanjavur. Dr. Paani, as the music circuit loved calling him, took pains to note down each and every kriti and thousands of them, over decades, the grammar nuances which gave them the classicality, the tradition of rendering such compositions and document them for posterity. It was a Herculean task going by the fact that he was a practicing doctor who had to earn his bread and butter through his medical profession. “I don’t know why I was ordained to take to music first and then having done that, feel the urge to learn the theory and presentation of genuine classical music that was being practiced in southern India under the banner of Thanjavur baani (school/style). Once I was convinced music has enveloped me totally, I felt a great responsibility seep into me that I should not confine myself to learning and performing or teaching music but should collate everything that was best and time-tested in Carnatic music and bring it under one cover so that it would be passed on to the future now and always. I have trained some very good musicians of today like Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, Voleti Venkateswarulu, Srirangam Gopalaratnam, who have gone ahead and been accorded the nation’s highest honours in the field of music and are today on par with the best vidwans in south India. What else do I need? I am totally content with my contribution and realisation of my objective,” he says with an air of finality.

To him, music was not a path to salvation or spirituality. “I wanted perfect music to be learnt and sung. That was my sole aim; all else fell into place. Bhakti in classical music cannot be at the cost of losing out on the traditions of grammar and syntax that make music. It is a tight framework which cannot be tampered with; perfection makes a man perfect,” he signs off.

The foremost disciple who spent the best part of his learning under Dr. Pani, Sangeetha Kalanidhi Nedunuri Krishnamurthy in all reverence refers to his guru as a ‘sangeetha paramacharya’, a ‘taponidhi’, a ‘gyana brahma’, and a ‘jeevan mukta who is waiting for moksha (liberation from human bondage).’

“If Thyagaraja aimed at purifying the society and human life with ‘shastriya sangeetam’, my guru, Pinakapani’s single-point agenda was to leave a vast treasure of music knowledge to posterity, lest it get lost with just one generation,” says Nedunuri in a voice suffused with deep regard for his guru.

Ask this melodious colossus of music in our region about his first learning experience and he narrates with a chuckle, “There was no fixed time for music. At least not a decent hour by worldly terms! He would get into a mood to teach at midnight and the class would go on till 3.00 am when we would both hear the Secunderabad-Dornakal express hoot and be jolted out of our music world and then decide to go to bed! He could speak on every topic under the sun: from cricket to tennis to medicine to music and poetry. I would follow him like a lamb taking in all that was being conveyed to me, despite feeling terribly sleepy at times. He would talk about the great vidwans of music in the south (Tamil Nadu) in glowing terms and the tremendous knowledge that flowed from him to me is just my divine blessing. Every single aspect of music was at his fingertips and don’t ask me how, because to most, he was a doctor by profession and a musician by passion. His wife was a good singer herself and together we shared a musical rapport. It was a life with sathguru who gave and gave, expecting nothing in return.”

Classical music is a scientific, mathematical, traditional, intellectual, emotional, devotional and finally a divine art form. Thyagaraja was an embodiment of all these qualities. “And so was my guru Sripada Pinakapani. He bestowed on Andhra Pradesh what we call ‘uttama sampradaya sangeetham’ (highly evolved tradition of music). His analysis of music was phenomenal. He could sing, teach, analyse and create. And in doing so, he established a style called ‘Pani’s baani’ where the raga swept like a mighty ocean. Once he asked me if I gained anything through his teaching. I told him that I owe my Sangeetha Kalanidhi title to him,” Nedunuri reminiscences with affection.

Fame as a musician par excellence blessed this sishya who is a professional, while the guru remained a musicologist and not a ‘professional musician’ though he was honoured with a ‘Sangeetha Kalanidhi’ at the Mecca of music. “Another of this pure order may not be born. He is just one of his kind,” salutes Nedunuri

He may not be the only one to hold dual vocations. But Dr. Sripada Pinakapani is definitely a unique phenomenon — he re-wrote Carnatic music for the Telugu land and strove to translate theory into practice by training young, aspiring musicians in the authentic Thanjavur baani (school of music) and passed on this legacy through generations. At the same time, he taught innumerable medical students as a professor of medicine and a clinical physician at various government medical colleges and hospitals he served till superannuation. Medicine and music went hand in hand but never did one mar the efficacy of the other. There are as many musicians as doctors to testify this.

For all those who have never had the good fortune to know this colossus called Dr. Pinakapani, a glimpse of his life will take them back to the 1900s when values, ideals, calling and vocation, responsibility and recreation, dedication and diligence were balanced in the right proportions, with no room for excesses. Born on August 3, 1913 in Priyagraharam in Srikakulam district, Paani as he was fondly called, went on to graduate in medical sciences (MBBS) and later did his post-graduation in General Medicine (MD) from Andhra Medical College at Visakhapatnam. Why and how he developed an all-consuming love for Carnatic music is just anybody’s guess. From a music aficionado, he transited to become music interpreter and later a musicologist and musician par excellence. Medical studies were his priority till he emerged a full-fledged doctor with a government job. Once his finances were secure, Paani decided to pursue music right from the basics and took to learning under BS Lakshmana Rao of Mysore, a fourth generation disciple of Thyagaraja. Later, he advanced under Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu and Sriranga Ramanuja Ayyangar of Madras. His music came to public eye in 1938 in the All-India Radio (AIR) and stage concerts in metros like Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore and certain places in Tamil Nadu. His penchant for music made him choose a musician wife in Balamba.

He was honoured with innumberable titles from across the country including ‘Sangeetha Kalanidhi’ and a ‘Padma Bhushan’. Right from the AP Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1966 , ‘Kala Prapoorna’, then an honorary doctorate from Andhra University, and the highest music award of the Madras Music Academy — Sangeetha Kalanidhi— in 1983 and the Government of India’s recognition with the Padma award in the following year, there was no looking back for Sripada Pinakapani.

The list of his pupils shines bright with illustrious names like Padmabhushan Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, Voleti Venkateswarulu, Srirangam Gopalaratnam, Sistla Vasundhara, Jayalakshmi Shekar and others.

Today as he enters his 100th year, Dr. Pinakapani though battered by age, is still the fountainhead of music which never seems to dry up as he hums a pallavi or a mukthayi with clarity. Musicseems to be the life force that keeps him going.