We are in the august presence of greatness - greatness of the immortal Mani Iyer. Like Veena Dhanammal and Tiger Varadhachariar he has only progeny, not ancestry. His mother tongue was layam.

My thoughts go back to the fifties. I see before my eyes Thavil wizard singing the praise of his younger contemporary Mani Iyer to the Station Director, All India Radio, Tiruchi. "I am hailed as the pioneer of the novel style of echoing the song on the Thavil. Mani Iyer has flattered me by adopting an identical technique and has improved on it so that the mridangam 'sings'.

We have had an opportunity of studying the style of (a) Mani Iyer and Thavil Minakshisundaram Pillai with their fingers emphasising the vocal approach to drumming with their fingers singing, and (b) the other style of Palani.

the Maharashtrians are reputed for revolutionising the mridangam technique with its inimitable Meettu, chappu -particularly Arai chappu, tekka and gumki seasoned in the Harikathas of the Bawas and also Bhajans. The drummers seem to have found their roots in the lilt of Dhrupada and the seven beat 'Ezhadi thaalam'. The Desadi and Madhyadi taalam and Usi taalam (Visarjetam). The Arai chappu and Usi taalam are said to be vanishing specimens of a forgotten past.

Fans of the Tanjore Bani claim, without fear of contradiction, that sensitive ears could detect from unseen distance when a Maharashtrian drummer is tapping the rhythm for pallavi or Anupallavi or charanam.

'The Tanjore Bani' immortalised by the Maharashtrians from the days of Narayanaswamy Appa is a widely accepted and popular phenomenon. The legendary exponents of the Maharashtrian style are (1) Narayanaswamy Appa (2) Chinnaswami Appa (3) Gopala Rao Nayak (4) Babu Rao (5)Vittal Rao (6) Mylatoor Krishna Iyer and Tanjore Ramadas Rao.

We may remember here that Narayanaswamy Appa, Azhaganambi Pillai, Tanjore Pakkiri Pillai, Dakshinamoorthy Pillai, Vaidyanatha Iyer, Ramadas Rao and, last but not the least, Mani Iyer had been accompanists in Harikatha in their career.

Praising T.R.Harihara Sarma (father of Ghatam Vinayakaram) as a mridangam teacher, Mani Iyer at the Music Academy on 27.12.66 said that like himself Sarma was a pupil of Tanjore Vaidyanatha Iyer under whom they both had the benefit of learning a great deal in the art, particularly the Arai chappu. Mani Iyer paid a tribute to their guru for the purity and austerity of his art and practice which refused to allow any popular or extraneous intrusions into the playing.

Special rehearsals for drumming of Bharata Natyam ensembles are inescapable for coordination of the beaten tracks of Theermanams by the Nattuvanar's cymbals, the dancer's jingling steps and the 'dancing fingers' of the drummer. In fact Nattuvanars are invariably expert drummers including Sangitha Kalanidhi Prof. K.Ponniah Pillai and Kandappa Nattuvanar, Guru of Balasaraswathi. Alaganambi Pillai's purvasramam was Bharatanatya or Chinna Melam. Mani Iyer's teacher Tanjore Vaidyanatha Iyer has had his share of training in this branch in Ponniah's silamba koodam (dance hall). Mani Iyer had unequivocal admiration for the mridangam accompanist in Balasaraswathi orchestra. Kancheepuram Kuppuswamy Mudaliar, happily alive in his retirement after 75 years, is the only other mridangam expert to be honoured by the Sangeetha Nataka Academy in addition to Mani Iyer.

Palani Subramania Pillai, like Dakshinamoorthy Pillai, represented Pudukkottai style. This sampradaya did not encourage the repetition of the kirthana on the mridangam in the same style as rendered by the vocalist. The right head i.e., valanthalai dominated over the thoppi so that the mridangam might not be a hindrance to the main singer. Only when Palani Subramania Pillai commented at the Music Academy conference regarding the facelift given to Sampradaya that the public began to understand a little about the new technique. This verbal description of the technique was followed by a unique opportunity given to the music world to watch and listen to both Palani and Mani Iyer playing mridangam alternately for swaram and sahithyam, respectively, for the pancharathna chorus at Tiruvayar. Neither of them had ever mentioned the names of each other.

As contrasted with the Pudukkotta style of playing, the Tanjore style may be said to keep close to the swaras of the singing of the vocalist. The Arai chappu was one of the different things which Mani Iyer had learnt from Vaidyanatha Iyer. This style of mridangists avoided new sols (drum syllables). Vaidyanatha Iyer obviously represented the Tanjore Bani. Pudukkottai Dakshinamoorthy Pillai was influenced by Harikatha needs popularised by Merusami in Pudukkotta Bajan Mandalis and by Narayanaswamy Appa; Palani Subramania Pillai profited by listening to Tabla recitals over A.I.R. Whatever the original, aesthetic refinement could not be ruled out by and by as each of the pioneers was noted for sensitive ears.

The Jugal Bandi has several delicate problems of protocol of seating on the concert platform. They had been solved with varying degrees of success at various times.

Mani Iyer's Manasika guru and even Palani's was Pudukkottai Dakshinamoorthy Pillai of mridangam and Ganjira fame. He was a veteran in the profession and as a

Ganjira player occupied the front seat in concerts in preference to mridangists like Azhaganambi Pillai, Muthiah Pillai, Mani Iyer, Subramania Pillai, Ramdas and others. An incident may here be noted emphasizing the eminent position occupied by Dakshinamoorthy Pillai in the laya world. The Thavil wizard Meenakshisundaram Pillai was an accomplished kanjira vidwan also but he did not bargain to share the music platform with Mridangam Dakshinamoorthy Pillai and himself as kanjira player. The thavil vidwan begged to excuse himself from fulfilling the contract but Dakshinamoorthy Pillai would not brook it and Meenakshisundaram Pillai occupied the back seat as kanjira player. He felt that he had insulted Dakshinamoorthy Pillai and his art and in atonement for the sin he gave up kanjira playing thereafter. The younger thavil maestro Iluppur Panchapakesa Pillai had several strings to his bow for he was a great thavil player and a great kanjira player and a vocalist. He was the nephew of Laya Brahmam Iluppur Ponnuswamy Pillai. He even bartered the thavil profession for a seat as a kanjira player on the same platform with Dakshinamoorthy Pillai.

1. Dakshinamoorthy Pillai 2. Vaidyanatha Iyer 3. Rajamanikkam Pillai

4. Iyengar etc.,

He was both a Mridangam and kanjira expert and a seasonal rasika and so Mani Iyer worshipped him as a Maha vidwan. In his address at the Tamil Isai Festival in 1968 he glorified the art of his Manasika guru who could magnify even a minor laya phrase into a complexity beyond the reach of competitors in the ensemble. Mani Iyer never failed to seek the blessings of his patron-saint guru Tanjore Vaidyanatha Iyer who forewarned Mani Iyer for any trial as strength in Jugal Bandi of tricky korvais of Dakshinamoorthy Pillai. Pillai was the king maker grooming many a hopeful for public recognition as the Music Academy gaddi. 'The Alathoor boys' acknowledged their gratitude to the invisible hands of the immortal Pillai decorating them with Insignia of Sangitha Kalanidhi.

Chembai never made a secret of his indebtedness to Dakshinamoorthy Pillai.

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Solo improvisation in mridangam would be all right for a duration of 5 to 10 minutes. To protract it longer affected enjoyability. Mani Iyer held there was indeed nothing to play beyond that duration.

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Mani Iyer worshipped Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar and his music. Mani Iyer's son once revealed that according to his father, Iyengar's music was the same as Veena Dhanammal's music but at a brisker pace. To the last, Mani Iyer was bitter in his lament that he had missed golden opportunities to cultivate his manodharma as accompanist during his life time of Iyengar. He felt frustrated and helpless locking the stables after the house had been stolen. Iyengar was no more. The article contributed by Mani Iyer to the Ariyakudi commemoration souvenir analyses Ayyangar's Bani as "IRNADUNKETTAN KAALAPRAMANAM".

In like manner Mani Iyer spoke highly of the fertile imagination displayed by Rajamanikkam Pillai in swara kalpana on the violin.