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On 9th December 1919, Sri V Dakshinamurthy was born in Alleppey, Kerala to Sri Ventakeswaran and Smt Parvathy.
He did his early education in Sri Moolavilasam High School Trivandrum. He started learning music at the age of 6 from his mother. At the age of 13, he gave his 1st concert in Ambalapuzha Krishnan Temple under the guidance of Shri Venkatachalam Potti.
Being an ardent devotee of Lord Vaikathappan, Swamy had Nirmalya Darshan for a continuous 3.5 years at Vaikom Temple. In the same period, he sang for 18 hours in the temple everyday laying a strong foundation to his inimitable excellence in music. In 1942, Swami came to Chennai to extend his boundaries in music.
He started taking music classes. His early disciples were P. Leela, AP Komala, NC Vasantha Kokilam and Kaviyur Revamma. He performed kutcheris all over Kerala.
In 1948, he married Smt Kalyani and in the same year he entered the film industry. His first film was “Nalla Thanga”. He composed music for about 300 movies. Some of his Tamil movie compositions are Oru Oodhapoo Kann Chimitigiradhu, Nanda En Nila, Jagadguru Adi Shankarar, Jeeva Nadi. He composed for few Sinhalese movies as well. His music set the benchmark for the Malayalam Music Industry.
The gems who sang under this Sangeetha Bheeshmacharya are Kamukkara Purushothaman, Balamuralikrishna, Augustin Joseph, Tiruchi Loganathan, KJ Yesudas, TM Soundararajan, Seerkazhi Govindarajan, AM Raja, Jeyachandran, SP Balasubramanian, PB Srinivas, Ghantasala, MG Radhakrishnan, Brahmanandan, MG Sreekumar, Unni Krishnan, Madhubalakrishnan, Unni Menon, Vijay Yesudas, Mithun. KJ Yesudas has sung the most number of songs in Swami’s composition.
P Leela, ML Vasanthakumari, Jikki, P Suseela, S Janaki, LR Eswari, Vani Jairam, AP Komala, B Vasantha, Renuka, Kalyani Menon, Ambili, Jayashree, Sreelatha, Chitra, Sujatha, Minmini, Swetha, Priya have also sung in Swami’s compostions.
Swamy and Ilayaraaja have worked together in two movies. AR Rahman’s father RK Sheker has worked with Swami in many movies.
ONV Kurup, Sreekumaran Thampi, P Bhaskaran, Vayalar, Kannadasan were some of the lyricists who have worked with him.
Swami acted in movies as well, namely, Kavyamela and Chandrolsavam with Mohanlal.
He conducted 8 operas and 3 dance dramas in Kalamandalam. Between 1942-1957, he had given around 500 carnatic concerts showing his effortless balance between classical and film industries.
At the young age of 94, Swamy has composed music for a film titled ‘Shyama Ragam’ in Malayalam directed by Sethu Eyyal in which Shri KJ Yesudas and Smt Chitra have sung the songs.
Swami was a pious man. He composed and produced many devotional albums.
Narayaneeyam by P Leela, Ayyappan Ottanthullal and many other HMV devotional albums are to his credit.
He conducted the Sivarathri Thiyagaraja Agandam in Thiruvaiyaru for about 30 years. He had been to Sabarimala for 12 years and to Thagazhi Ayyappan Temple with his family for 48 years continuously.
He wrote 3 books, Thyaga Brahmam in Tamil (1965), Aathma Deepam in Tamil (1989) and Sathya Mithram in Malayalam (1992). He released Gems of Dakshinamurthy having his own Carnatic Keerthanas. He was a multifaceted personality.
He built the “Saraswathi Mandapam” in Makreri Anjaneyar Temple in Cannanore where he placed all his idols of Gods and Goddesses he used to worship. In his 100th year, the Tourism Department of Kerala has built Shri V Dakshinamurthy’s Memento Museum in the Makreri Temple, the first of his kind in Kerala. The Memento Museum was inaugurated on 27th December 2018 and it contains Swamy’s award collection and memorabilia.
He has been given innumerable 25 awards, 18 honours and 18 titles to his credit. To mention a few, Swathi Puraskar, Sangeetha Paramacharya and the Doctorate conferred by Mahatma Gandhi University of Kottayam.
Since January 2013, “Dakshinamurthy Sangeethotsavam” has been celebrated in Peringottukara for 8 years. The same has been celebrated in Vaikom for 5 years since 2015. Having a Sangeethotsavam celebrated during one’s lifetime is a credit only Swami holds.
A crown to his glory is the book “Raghabharanam” consisting of Swami’s 108 Kruthis in each of which he has intricately woven the names of ragas. In his centenary year, the students of “Sri V Dakshinamurthy Vidyalaya” are blessed to pay their humble tribute to the Great Legend by singing Swami’s 18 compositions.
Sri Gurubhyo Namaha. |