‘State should honour the Queen of Carnatic Music with a statue’

Carnatic singerT. N. Seshagopalan said this while addressing the centenary celebrationsof M.S. Subbulakshmi

Lamenting that there was no statue for the ‘Queen of Carnatic Music’ M. S. Subbulakshmi in Tamil Nadu, popular Carnatic singer T. N. Seshagopalan has appealed to the State government and music sabas to honour the legendary music exponent by installing a statue.

“It is unfortunate that the State has no statue of MS, the first ever musician to be awarded ‘Bharat Ratna’, India’s highest civilian award,” he said addressing the centenary celebrations of the singer, organised by the Karaikudi Kamban Kazhagam here on Saturday.

He said the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) had honoured the ‘Music Queen’ by installing her statue at the Poornakumbham circle in the hill town in gratitude of her rendering Venkateswara Suprabhatam’ and nowhere else in the country, not even in Madurai, her birthplace, her statue could be seen.

MS had helped Raja Annamalai Chettiar in establishing the Tamil Isai Sangam in Chennai and it would be appropriate if her statue was installed in front of the Sangam, Mr. Seshagopalan opined.

The Madras Music Academy or music sabas could also come forward to honour the great Carnatic vocalist, he suggested.

Speaking on the occasion, Pala Palaniappan, secretary of Kamban Kazhagam said the Kazhagam had organised the centenary celebrations as a mark of thanks to the legendary artiste, who presented an audio cassette of her rendering of the entire 31 Kamba Ramayanam prayer songs with royalty to the Kamban Kazhagam in 1992. MS had sung the prayer songs at the instance of Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi, the Mahaswami of Kanchi Mutt, he said. She had also helped to start an endowment in the name of ‘Kamban Adipodi’ Sa Ganesan at the Kamban Kazhagam in Chennai, he said.

CD released

At the centenary celebrations, the Kamban Kazhagam released ‘Kamban Kavi Amudam’, the reproduced audio cassette of MS prayer songs in a compact disk (CD). Rama Kausalya, former Principal of Government Music College, Thiruvaiyaru, released the CD and it was received by Valli Muthiah, the family member of ‘Vallal’ Alagappa Chettiar.

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