Remembering ‘Gayaka Sarvabhouma’ Parupalli Ramakrishnaiah Pantulu ahead of his 142nd birth anniversary
'Gayaka Sarvabhouma' Parupalli Ramakrishnaiah Pantulu was a gem of a person from that class, who was born on 5th December 1882 to Seshachalam and Mangamamba in Srikakulam village of Krishna district.
Hyderabad: Eminent people like Duggirala Gopalakrishnaiah, Kasinadhuni Nageswara Rao, Adibhatla Narayanadasu not only captured the Telugu audience but the whole nation through their exceptional talent and were cornerstone in establishing prominence for Telugu in Indian arts and culture.
‘Gayaka Sarvabhouma’ Parupalli Ramakrishnaiah Pantulu was a gem of a person from that class, who was born on 5th December 1882 to Seshachalam and Mangamamba in Srikakulam village of Krishna district.
Ramakrishnaiah hails from the lineage of the third generation of disciples of Tyagaraja. His guru Susarla Dakshinamurthy Sastry was a disciple of Akumadula Venkata Subbaiah, a native of Manambuchavadi village in Thanjavur who learnt Carnatic music under Saint Tyagaraja. Under Dakshinamurthy Sastry, Pantulu acquired excellence as a singer and violinist, imbibed immense wealth of voice, developed his education with devotion.
Ramakrishnaiah believed in Manasa, Vacha, Karmana, removed distinctions between caste and creed in order to pass on the tradition of music at that level to his students. His Gurukul house resembled a royal palace and he also taught his disciples all the things necessary in everyday life. His melodic voice and traditional purity won him the love and encouragement of many music lovers in Tamil Nadu.
Pantulu was a long-time expert committee member of the Madras Music Academy and was also a member of the organising committee of the Thyagabrahma Aradhana Utsavams in Tiruvayur. In those days, the Columbia Gramophone Company recorded his performances.
His flute concert in Tenali in 1915 delighted the then Madras State Governor Lord Pentland, who presented him a gold medal. He gave concerts at the All India Congress Conference at Kakinada in 1923 and All India Music conference at Channapatna in 1927.
His talents were unmatched with no boundaries. He was a Rishi with maturity in his art. Hundreds of his disciples are all talented and their names also reverberate in Telugu states. Prominent among them were Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, Nallan Chakravarthula Krishnamacharyulu, Annavarapu Ramaswamy, Neti Sri Rama Sharma, MV Ramanamurthy, Daliparthi Pitchahari brothers, T.K. Yashoda Devi and V. Ramkumari etc.
His pra-sishyas are Nookala China Satyanarayana, Pemmaraju Surya Rao, B. Indira Kameswara Rao, Mutnuri Jalajakshi, Ponnapalli Durga Prasad, Ammula Durgabhavani, M. S. Narasimhamurthy, Modumudi Sudhakar, Y.S. Ramaprabha, Nemani Pardhasaradhi, R. Dinkar among others.
His disciples served as Professors in music colleges and as staff artistes in All India Radio stations. With his efforts, the first Akashvani Kendra and the first music college were established in Vijayawada which created opportunities for students to learn and musicians to earn a living. When the music talent of Kannadigas and Tamilians was becoming popular in South India, he spread the voice of Telugu musicians across the world.
Pantulu reached the lotus feet of Sangita Saraswathi on the auspicious Ashada Shuddha Ekadashi day, July 7, 1951.
–Y V Krishnaiah
Founder, Annamayya Parivaramu