Melody on miniature veena
An encounter with a `real' Saraswati veena inspired Rangarajan to pursue it with earnestness.
SMALL AND SNUG: V. S. Rangarajan with his miniature veena. (BELOW) Giving a full-fledged performance.
"My veena has been an object of amusement with people wherever I go," says V. S. Rangarajan who plays on a miniature two-ft instrument. The frets on which you play actually stretch to a length of less than a foot, says the artiste. What's the idea, you may ask. For Rangarajan, "it was almost a gift from a temple Goddess in Mylapore."
"A regular at the Kesava Perumal temple during the late Seventies, it was during the annual Utsavam one day, out of the blue, that Veeraraghava Bhattachari mentioned that the veena held by Goddess Mayuravalli (during Saraswathi alankaram) was a real one which could be played upon, and not a mere symbol.
Rangarajan was bowled over by the teeny-weeny Saraswati-vadyam that produced a grand nadam when the strings were plucked, after the rituals came to an end. The devotees, who had gathered were amazed and moved. It was as if they were listening to some celestial music, he recalls. An inspired Rangarajan soon ordered a replica of the infant-veena from the same artisan, who had made the instrument for the temple.
"I was only a casual devotional music enthusiast till then. It was the extraordinary naadha of the temple instrument that brought about a change in me. I delved into the nuances, researched on what it offered in terms of scope for ragam and kriti. Years of experimentation and practice made me take to it as a profession," says the veena artiste. Rangarajan has been playing full-length kutcheris from 1984 with the mini-veena and has given close to 1,000 concerts in India, U.S., Singapore and Malaysia. He has released three classical music cassettes with ragas, kritis, Vedanta Desika Pasurams and fast enjoyable numbers of Tyagaraja such as ``Raminchuvaarevarura" in Suboshini.
"Tabla, thavil and mridangam are good as accompaniments, for they balance the shrill notes of this small veena," he says.
Tiny veenas are not novel as such. Veena Balachander designed a `laghu veena' with 12 frets which is now at the Sangeeta Vadyalaya. And another miniature was the one that Balakrishnan used to play with 12-frets, with the upper octave sangatis brought down on the lower octaves. ``Mine is a regular 24 fret-seven-stringed instrument that has been shrunk to one foot of play area, bringing in all the swaras of the two octaves," explains Rangarajan.
"Emani Shankara Shastry is my maanasika guru. Exponents like Emani, Balachander, R. K. Suryanarayana and E. Gayathri have seen and expressed their delight at this baby-divine," says Rangarajan.
``I also play the sitar and santoor for several light music orchestras and films. But people have given a new meaning to my initials. V. S. now stands for Veena `Small' Rangarajan," he says with pride.
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