Gayakarathna Shri. Nellai T. V. Krishnamoorthy

Nellai T.V. Krishnamurthy 

Eminent musician, teacher, administrator

Nellai T.V. Krishnamurthy was born in Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, to Muthulakshmi Ammal and Viswanatha Iyer as their fifth child, on 23 November 1920. 

Although his parents named him Shankaranarayana Sharma, his guru would affectionately call him “Krishnamurthy” which became his identity for life. He had 2 older brothers, 3 sisters and a younger brother.

Krishnamurthy started learning the rudiments of Carnatic music from Gottuvadyam Sankaranarayana Bhagavatar and Violin Vidhwan Sri Srinivasan, at the age of 7. 

Noticing the boy’s innate talent in Carnatic music, uncle Gayakashikhamoni Harikeshanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar took the seven-year old under his wing, as the child’s mother and his wife were sisters. 

From the age of nine years, he studied music under Shri Harikeshanallur Dr.L. Muthiah Bhagavathar as per “gurukula sampradayam”. 

He underwent strict training for about 12 years under the watchful eyes of the maestro and practised assiduously which enabled him to internalise the krithis and to develop the manodharma aspects essential to become a concert musician at Thirunelveli. He travelled widely with his guru to neighbouring states and remained a support to him. 

He started giving public performances from the age of 23 yrs and developed a unique style of singing. 

In Tamil, Thirunelveli is also known as “Nellai”, hence he became popularly known as “Nellai Krishnamurthy”.

He has sung many concerts at several Sabhas, temples and the Navratri Mandapam.  In 1944 he performed at the Mysore palace and received rewards from the Maharaja Sri Jaya Chamarajendra Wadiyar. 

He has performed at various locations in Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Bhilai, Hyderabad and many other cities and received honours. 

He is known for his exemplary rendition of “briga” and also known for his unique style of ragam, thanam, Pallavi and Kalpana swaras. His “brigas” and the expertise in singing krithis of rare ragas were critically acclaimed in several newspapers and articles. 

Shri Nellai Krishnamurthy used to talk about a memorable experience with regards to a meeting with his guru Sri Muthaiah Bhagavathar and Sringeri Swamigal. The Bhagavathar informed Swamigal that he had composed a Keerthana as a tribute to him.                                                      

He was asked to come at 3pm that afternoon to sing the song in front of Swamigal.

Till that afternoon Bhagavathar did not say what they were going to sing. After having lunch, Guru was taking rest
and suddenly he said, “There is an “Anandavikatan” magazine lying on the table, bring it to me”. Shri Krishnamurthy saw that his Guru had notated a krithi in Raga Atana, in the last page of the magazine. 

Muthaiah Bhagavathar began singing the composition “Jagadguru…” in the raga Atana.

In a few hours Krishnamurthy practised the song and sang it beautifully along with his Guru. Sringeri Swamigal blessed Krishnamurthy, saying that he will reach the level of mastery in music just as his Guru. Swamiji’s words came true. 

While Muthaiah Bhagavathar became the First Principal of Swathi Thirunal Music college, Shri Nellai Krishnamurthy, retired from his official duties while serving as Principal of the same institution.

At the age of 26 yrs he got married to his sister’s daughter S Gomathi Ammal. In addition to being a good singer, Gomati Ammal was a composer of krithis and Abhangs. She has tuned and taught Sadashiva Brahmendra krithis and was an exponent of Bhakti sadhanas like “Radha Kalyanam”,‘Deepa Pradakshinam” etc.

The couple were blessed with 5 children. 

The eldest daughter Smt Rajalakshmi Narayanaswamy (Ganapraveena-Veena) conducts Vocal, Veena and Bhajan classes in Ahmedabad. Just like her mother, she also conducts Divyanamam, Soundarya Lahari Bhashyam etc. 

Their older son (2nd child) Sri K Vishwanathan is an A-grade violinist, who retired from the AIR Kozhikode. He  resembled Krishnamurthy’s older brother and was equally passionate about violin due to which Krishnamurthy had special feelings for Vishwanathan. He used to sing past midnight and help his son become an expert in violin. 

On a hot sunny day, he went in his bicycle to purchase a “stradivarius violin” for his son. 

These stories of the hardships he faced, to make his son an expert violinist, are popular among the village folks even today.

His 2nd daughter (3rd child), Dr K Jayalakshmi, retired as Head of Department, Dept. of Music, at Maharaja’s college Ernakulam. Smt Jayalakshmi is active in the field of music, with her Vocal and Veena classes, along with Music lectures, Seminars, Lecture Demonstrations, You-Tube channel, compositions in several genres etc. 

Their youngest daughter (4th child) Smt Saraswathy Shankar is a Playback singer and conducts Veena, Vocal and Bhajan classes at Thiruvananthapuram.

His 5th child and youngest son Sri Srinivasan is an expert Percussionist, who handles Tabla, Mridangam and Jazz. He is a Graded artist of the AIR handling Tabla, mridangam and Ghatam. He also promotes and conducts Ghazal performances. 

In 1934, he accompanied his guru to the princely State of Travancore to present Chitrodayam—a Harikatha based on the history of Travancore— on the ocassion of the marriage of Princess Kartika Thirunal Gauri Lakshmi Bai. Bhagavatar’s narrative about Maharaja Swati Thirunal and his compositions prompted Maharani Sethu Parvati Bai to entrust Muthiah Bhagavatar with the task of collating the compositions of Swati Thirunal and popularising them. Muthiah Bhagavatar took stupendous efforts to collect the manuscripts from the Mullamottu Bhagavatar and court musicians. He set the songs to music and taught them to his disciples. Krishnamurthy, along with Srinivasan and Narayana Bhagavatar, were made to repeatedly sing the songs till the guru was satisfied that they could be presented before the Amma Maharani before being taken up for publication.

Upon winning the hearts of Maharaja Chithira Thirunal and Amma Maharani with his musical prowess, Krishnamurthy was directly appointed as Assistant Professor in the Swati Thirunal Academy of Music, Thiruvananthapuram, in 1941 when Muthiah Bhagavatar was its first principal. His uncle also arranged for his performance in the presence of Maharaja Jaya Chamarajendra Wadiyar at Mysore in 1944. Pleased with his rendition of rare compositions of Muthiah Bhagavatar, the king honoured Krishnamurthy with rewards.

His earlier tryst with filmdom came in handy while producing the musical opera Nada Oushadham for the Swati Thirunal Academy in 1959, which focussed on the curative aspects of classical music. 

He tried to establish the importance of “Music as a therapy”, which is a present day research topic, through this work.

The story is about an old man who becomes paralytic and doctors give up hope of his recovery. He listens to the music lessons taught to his grandchildren for months together. As a result, his health improves and he is able to walk and lead a healthy life. The famous singer, Smt Palkulangara Ambika Devi has sung and acted in the play. 

From 1960 to 1963, he was working as a Professor at RLV Academy Tripunithura. 

While he was teaching music at RLV Academy, the famous playback singer K J Yesudas had an opportunity to sing in front of Sri Krishnamurthy. He rendered a Hindi film song which was greatly appreciated and the teacher blessed him saying that he would have a golden future in the field of playback singing. K J Yesudas shared this incident with the public during the Press Conference of “Gurupuja” event as part of the Surya Music Festival.

Krishnamurthy had a brief stint in the tinsel world when the talkies had more Carnatic based songs than dialogues.

As a young boy, he acted as Lavan in Sangeetha Lava Kusa in which he sang 36 songs (in D-sharp sruti) tuned by his guru Muthiah Bhagavatar. The movies were shot in the famous AVM studios. He has sung and acted in films like Radha Krishna (as Krishna), Lava Kusha (as Lava), Tirugnanasambandar (as Nammalvar) and Valli Kalyanam (as Muruga). 

As Carnatic music was his first love, he moved away from the film world.

After successful stints as Professor and Principal at the Swati Thirunal Academy of Music, Thiruvananthapuram and R.L.V. College of Music, Tripunithura, Krishnamurthy retired in 1976 after working for 35 years.

He was very active as an A-Grade artist performing “Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi”, and concerts with Aakashavani Thiruvananthapuram since 1950. He has presented several programmes at local and national levels with All India Radio. In 1992 he was honoured as an “A -Top” artist.

In 1998, he was honoured on the occasion of completing 50 yrs of service at Aakashavani, Thiruvananthapuram.

He has received several awards and accolades from various organisations – Kerala Kalamandalam (1991), Kerala University (1994), the title of “Gayakaratnam” from Swathi

Thirunal Sangeetha Sabha(1995), Thiruvananthapuram Rotary Club (1999). 

In 2001, the Government of Kerala recognised his contributions to the field of music, by honouring him the title – “Manaveeyam-Prathibha Pranaamam”. In the same year he performed at the “National centre for Performing Artists, Tata Institute for Research Work, Mumbai. He presented a 2-hour concert that included only Muthaiah Bhagavathar’s compositions. The audio recording of the concert is available at the Centre even now, to help students who are doing research in music.

In 2002 – he received a fellowship from Sangeet Natak academy. He was conferred the title ‘Sangeetha Rathna’, by Sruthi Bharathi, Thrissur.

He was a Board Member for AIR Major Audition for more than 20 yrs. He has also served as PSC Subject Expert from 1972 – 1983, for appointment of college teachers. He has also served as a Judge for State Youth Festival performances at school and college levels for several years.

In 1991, Helpage India conducted a “smiling contest” at Thiruvananthapuram and Sri Krishnamurthy was selected as “Grandpa King”. 

He was known for his majestic personality along with his honesty and unique conversational style. He would never request favours from anyone for himself or his children, nor did he approve anyone who would take shortcuts or expect favours from him. 

He was an exemplary teacher, flawless musician and excellent administrator, who took special interest in popularising Muthaiah Bhagavathar’s krithis in the ragas Umabharanam, Pushpalathika, Kunthalavarali and other rare ragas, various rare Swathi Thirunal compositions, and songs in “Urmila”, “Manorama” (ragas created by Muthaiah Bhagavathar). 

Many eminent musicians have been his disciples, the names include Sri. K J Yesudas, Sri Perumbavoor G Ravindranath, Sri Thiruvizha Jayashankar, Sri Venkataraman Potti, Smt. Dr. Omanakutty, Smt Jayalakshmi Srinivasan, Sri Neyyanttinkara Vasudevan, Sri M G Radhakrishnan, Smt. G Seethalakshmi, Sri Prabhakara Varma, several teachers in the various music colleges that he worked and some who are still teaching, such as Smt. Bhuvaneshwari Madhusoodanan, Dr. Sindhu, Dr. Saji and Dr Mohana Sharma. He has taught several thousands of students many of whom are still active in the field of music. 

He was instrumental in the construction of a Ladies’ Hostel exclusively for the Lady students of the Swati Thirunal Music college, mainly to cater to their need to do “sadhakam” (music practice) which would have been impossible in the regular hostels. 

During his tenure, on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the college, the Auditorium was renamed as “Dr L Muthaiah Bhagavathar Memorial hall”, as recommended by Sri Shankaranarayana Iyer IAS and a statue of Bhagavathar was erected.

His niece, Smt. S. Rugmani Gopalakrishnan is an A-Top Veena Artist. He considered her as his eldest daughter and “first disciple”. At the age of 18 years, Smt Rugmani received a prize for the Veena Competition held by All India Radio, from the then Indian President, Dr Rajendra Prasad. 

This Vainika Vidushi retired as Principal from the Palakkad Chembai Memorial Music college.

In 2003, due to increase in blood urea content, he was admitted to the CCU at PRS Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. He had to stay there for almost a week, during which, (his family interestingly remembers) how he taught the nurses, Raga Sankarabharanam. 

He used to chant shlokas everyday, and insisted to leave with his 2 colleagues from the Radio station Sri. Venkatachalam and Sri. Surendran, for a programme.

In 2005, his health had deteriorated further, but still his musical spirit was high! Just 2 weeks before his death, he had asked his daughter to sing Raga Saveri  and the Krithi Shankari Shankuru. When they sang “Sukhiyevvaro”, he corrected them for missing a Sangati. Such was his dedication to music.

He passed away on the 25th of January 2006 at 5 a.m. while he was at the residence of his daughter, Saraswati Shankaran.

Though he was born in Tamilnadu, he had spent more than 75 years in Kerala, played a major role in assisting Dr Muthaiah Bhagavathar to revive Raja Swati Thirunal’s compositions, served more than 35 years as a teacher in Swati Thirunal college of music and tirelessly worked to popularise Swathi krithis through his own performances as well as by his students. The question still remains whether we can find a more apt person to receive the “Swati” Award. 

 

 

Life sketch of Shri. Nellai T. V. Krishnamoorthy in MALAYALAM – Click here

 

Life sketch of Shri. Nellai T. V. Krishnamoorthy in TAMIL – Click here

 

Collection of photographs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting prior to concert, and pictures of Muthaiah Bhagavathar Day concerts held at Bangalore

 

Shri. Nellai T. V. Krishnamoorthy has acted in following movies. As Lava in Sangeetha Lava Kusha, Muruga in Thirujhana Sambandar and Nammalvar in film Thirumangai Alwar, and Krishna in movie Radha Kalyanam.

 

 

 

 

 

Collection of Photos of Shri. Nellai T. V. Krishnamoorthy

Eminent Teachers worked at Sree Swathi Thirunal Music Academy, Trivandrum in the year 1969

 

Articles published by Shri. Nellai. T. V. Krishnamoorthy

• Article 1 – Gayakasikhamani Dr. L. Muthaiah Bhagavathar’s contribution to Sree Swathi Thirunal’s Compositions – Click here

 

 

Videos

Shri. Nellai Krishnamurthy and Shri. Neyyattinkara Vasudevan in music concert –  https://youtu.be/QSeR0fWCz7E?si=MBTSo2Dp05qFMlfv