60 l SRUTI May 2017

PROFILE

Vinjamuri Anasuya Devi. When I met her nearly a decade ago for an interview for The

Hindu, she sang Anbe ellam taruven from film Vikatakavi in a voice that was resonant and riveting at 88. “This harmonium is older than I am,” she said. “These are called Mohana reeds. What sweetness!”

“I belong to a family of poets and artists. My ancestors were diwans and pundits at the Pithapuram court,” she told me with pride. Father Venkata Lakshminarasimha Rao, a Telugu-Sanskrit pundit, was a scholarly author and amateur stage actor. Mother launched and edited Anasuya, the first women’s magazine in Telugu, featuring women writers and Ajanta style illustrations. “The Maharani of Pithapuram sent recipes from the royal cuisine!” Anasuya was named after the magazine.

Influenced by the Brahmo Samaj movement and the freedom struggle, the elders of her family supported widow remarriage and inter-caste marriages—“though not within the family,” Anasuya Devi laughed. The women learnt Sanskrit, and studied literary texts from home tutors. They breathed Telugu poetry. Uncle Devulapalli Krishna Sastri was a major poet of Andhra.

Little Anasuya’s initiation into classical music began with Sonti Lachiah—a descendant of Tyagaraja’s guru Sonti Venkataramanayya, and continued with Munuganty Venkata Rao, guru of Andhra titans Sripada Pinakapani and Voleti Venkateswarlu. “He taught me to sing ragam-tanam-pallavi as well, not just kritis.”

Great Carnatic musicians sang at the local Saraswati Gana Sabha, while Burrakatha, Tol bommalata, Tappatagullu, Chakka bhajana and Golla Kalapam were living traditions in the region.

On trips to nearby Pithapuram, the child watched villagers, as they sang in the fields—songs of seeding, watering,

replanting and reaping harvests. She sang after them enthusiastically. Not long afterwards, Anasuya Devi was to pioneer the collection of such songs, and present them on stage, giving them the status of Carnatic kritis.

Her precocity brought her both praise and trouble. When the harmonium artist played truant from Anarkali, a play masterminded by her father, little Anasuya, raised to harmonium level on cushions, managed to win thunderous applause. At her first music competition, instead of the scheduled kriti, she burst into a full-throated Mogudochi pilachedu that she had heard that morning on the gramophone, sung by Bidaram Rasappa. The judge asked her gently, “Can you sing a Tyagaraja kriti?” Anasuya responded with Nidhichala sukhama.

Impressed, Valluri Jagannatha Rao immediately offered to take her to Madras to record folk songs (then called “comic songs”!) He believed

VINJAMURI ANASUYA DEVIMany firsts to her credit Gowri Ramnarayan

Anasuya Devi and Sitha Devi at a recording session

61 l SRUTI May 2017

that her voice was perfect for the genre, and trained her to intone with its special rustic touch.

When she was barely eight, her Ayyo koyyoda became a hit. Other recordings followed, including one in Calcutta where Anasuya met

K.L. Saigal, who advised her not to sing more songs per day than fittedper day than fittedthan fitted one side of the “plate”.

Light music became her forte from the time she composed the music for her uncle’s verses for the royal wedding at Pithapuram. “The delighted Maharani

gave me a grand royal tanu (skirt) and a silver plate heaped with 101 gold sovereigns. I remember how I stopped to cry between the verses, when I sang about the bride leaving home!” Anasuya demonstrated those Mukhari “wails” with feeling. Soon uncle and niece became regulars at literary meetings, as she illustrated his talk with bhava geetam or “renaissance music”. She sang at Congress meetings, before Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji and Nehru. Her patriotic song was even proposed for the national anthem before Tagore’s song became official.

Anasuya found that her prodigious talent and commercial success did not ensure the realisation of her own dreams. As the family’s main wage earner she had to give up her job with AIR Madras, and her ambitions of research in folk music. She trained

Anasuya Devi playing the harmonium and providing vocal accompaniment (extreme R) for dance with guru K.J. Sarasa

62 l SRUTI May 2017

sister Sitha to accompany her vocally and to fulfil the academic dreams.

Actor-singer A.S. Giri’s ten-year-long pursuit of Anasuya Devi was rewarded with marriage, and five children, including Houston-based dance guru Ratna Papa Kumar. According to the youngest, Seetha Ratnakar, then Assistant Station Director, Doordarshan Kendra, Chennai, “She continued to perform and tour but domesticity made Amma put her career on hold.”

First woman music composer/musicologist in Andhra Pradesh, first woman music director in South India, first woman music composer in AIR, first to sing classical, folk and light music on radio and concert, first to publish Andhra’s light and folk music in Carnatic notation— multi-awards/honours Anasuya Devi’s achievements make a long list. She remains unrivalled in propagating Andhra’s folk music and lalita sangeetam.

The indomitable woman said: “With fewer domestic cares I could have written 50 books. I wrote only two, including my autobiography. I also regret that I have no one to sing in my style after me. Maybe I was ahead of my time. Let me see what more I can do....”

Back in 1983, Vinjamuri Anasuya Devi published seven books of traditional, light and folk songs in Telugu, sung during worship, at home, at work, and at play, with musical notation by her. They included women’s songs, and verses by Devulapalli Krishna Sastri. Some had traditional tunes, others were set to her own music. These works of a lifetime are now out of print.

Two of them—Bhavageetalu and Janapada Geyalu—were released at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on 12 April 2008, to mark Anasuya Devi’s 80th year as a singer. S.P. Balasubramaniam, S.P. Shailaja and Malgudi Shubha sang some of the songs at the function.

Work on these new imprints began at the author’s expense. However, contributions poured in unasked from friends and admirers until they had to be stopped because they exceeded the requirement. The other five books, incidentally, were released later that year.(Based on an article published in The Hindu)

Anasuya Devi receiving the Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Samman from M. Balamuralikrishna

Receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from P. Susheela as Seetha Ratnakar looks on

Padma Subrahmanyam releasing the Anasuya Devi’s book Endaro Mahanubhavulu

The Vinjamuri Sisters