Sri K.S. Manjunathan was still a bachelor when AVA started learning under him at the age of 6. He was teaching in a rented room in the premises of Rameswara temple in III Main Road Chamarajapet. He was a very moody person. Very gentle and very tough at certain times. He was very affectionate and highly emotional. But when he sat for teaching, he never used to pardon any of his students for not practicing, not perfecting the previous lessons. He would never compromise on the quality and quantity of practice. He was a strict disciplinarian. He used to teach the lessons any number of times to make the student understand. But if the student did not play it correctly as expected by him the next day, he would become ferocious. Such was his total dedication, sincerity and involvement in teaching.
Method Of Teaching
First, he started with small varases’! After practicing number of these basic lessons, then, he taught quite a number of ‘Moharas’ (a type of structure, having a particular combination of basic solfas or aksharas used in Mridangam lessons). After practicing this, to be able to play these clearly at very high speeds, then, he taught Nadais, different varieties with Urutoos and Mukthayams. Then theermanas, Nadai Bhedams, of different varieties. Playing all these for different thalams and for different edupus (take-off points).
After he got convinced that I could play individually, then, he used to ask me to accompany some vidwans who used to regularly come to his residence. Highly learned vidwans like Sri Thirumalai Srinivasachar, Sri Sundaraja Iyengar, Sri N L Cheluvaraj, Sri Anantharamaiah, Sri Hebbani Venkararama Shastry were very good friends of my Guruji. They used to sing at his residence to give practivce to us.
Along with me Sri Bangalore K Venkataram was also learning. Both of us used to get this sort of training. This method of teaching and imparting of training really gave us all the knowledge of how to accompany and also how to play individually.
GURU SESHAGIRI RAO
My father and my guru were very familiar and friendly. My guru used to practice mridanga for some time under a mridanga scholar named Sri Palghat Shreenivasa Iyer, who was based in Bangalore at that time. Along with him, my father, who was also interested in mridanga, used to learn mridanga from Srinivasa Iyer as a classmate. Thus my father and Mr. Manjunathan became friends and became very close.
Palghat Srinivasa Iyer left Bangalore for some reason and the mridanga lessons for my guru stopped. He was very depressed because of this. My guru was also working in a hotel called “Gajendra Vilas” which was at the corner of Chamarajpet. It was run by his brother-in-law. Idli and dosa prepared in that restaurant were very popular and many people used to go there. Sri L. S. Seshagiri Rao, who was an advocate, used to come there for breakfast without fail. Like yoga, one day my guru brought breakfast to him who came as usual for breakfast. After serving breakfast, my guru was standing on the table next to him, waving his fingers. Noticing that, Mr. Seshagiri Rao called my guru and asked, “Are you playing with your fingers? Do you like to play something?”. To which my teacher told me in detail that he was learning mridanga, that master had left the town and since then the lessons had stopped. Hearing all this, “Do you like mridangam art? Will you continue the lesson?”, as if asked. My teacher excitedly yelled “Whoa!” As usual. “Then come, I will tell you”, said Seshagiri Raya, giving the address of his house, as if to come there in the evening. Accordingly, my guru went and started mridanga practice with him. All these stories were told to me by my Guru. Their curriculum is very tough. The same syllabus was followed by my teacher in teaching me, and I also followed it while teaching my students.
Sri LS Seshagiri Raya is a very talented mridanga player. I remember hearing that he had practiced mridanga with Sri Dakshinamurthy Pillai, a famous mridanga player. Apart from mridanga, there are rare artistes who excelled in all these disciplines such as drumming, nadaswara, violin and singing. Even when I was practicing with my guru, he (my guru) played the mridanga very wonderfully.