Narayan Iyengar - Musical Style and Impact

Musical Style and Impact

He was at ease whether at improvising or interpreting the compositions of great masters. One of his concerts held the then Viceroy Lord Wellington and Lady Wellington so spellbound that they cancelled all their subsequent engagements and had him play encore after encore.

His other admirers included the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the Maharajas of Jaipur, Cooch-Bihar, Gwalior etc. Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu, Rabindranath Tagore, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Swami Shivananda also appreciated Narayana Iyengar's music. Sarojini Naidu declared, "In his hands, the gotuvadyam ceases to be an instrument. It becomes a subtle, living voice, capable of expressing every nuance of human passion." Rabindranath Tagore said, "Mr Narayana Iyengar impressed me immensely with his expert expositions".

Veteran Mysore Doreswami Iyengar narrated once (in a speech in Krishna Gana Sabha, Madras, 1994) the extent of Narayana Iyengar's impact in Mysore. Giants like Veena Seshanna and Subbanna felt so insecure with their instruments that they secretly removed the frets from their veenas and converted their instruments to the gotuvadyam, and attempted to master it for a few months. Once the challenge became insurmountable, they reverted to their chosen careers. Mysore Vasudevachar was another great admirer of his music.

Narayan standardised the internal structure, string arrangements, tuning and playing methods of the gotuvadyam. A great artiste like Harikeshanallur Muttaiah Bhagavatar was so captivated by this instrument that he learnt it from Narayana Iyengar for a few years, during their joint stint at the Royal Court of Mysore. V V Shadagopan learnt vocal music from Narayana Iyengar. The latter's technique and style inspired many artistes like Mannargudi Savitri Ammal and M V Varahaswami to take to this instrument. His brightest disciple, however, is his own son Chitravina Narasimhan, who continued to practice and popularise the method and style that his father had created.

Narayana Iyengar, hailed as "the wizard of strings," won numerous awards and titles like Nadabrahma Vidya Varidhi, Digvijaya Nadavani and Gotuvadya Kalanidhi. He had several best-selling gramophone albums to his credit like Mokshamu galada, Parama pavana and Vaishnava janato.

Narayana Iyengar believed that:

"Mastery over the instrument and the art needs a great guru, apart from talent and skill of the artiste. It also requires patience, rigorous practice, perseverance, reverence and devotion to the art and the guru. Once the art is mastered, one can raise one's own soul to the spiritual level and attain spiritual bliss much sought after by mankind."

He died on January 11, 1959, soon after playing a live concert for All India Radio. His music lives on through his son, Chitravina Narasimhan, and his grandchildren N. Ravikiran, Shashikiran, Kiranavali, and Ganesh.