The Tamil Padam – A Dance Music Genre of South India. By Matthew Harp Allen. [Published by Jenny Stanford  Publishing Pte. Ltd. Singapore. Pp. 424. Rs. 4,187. ISBN 978-981-4968-56-0 (Hardcover). ISBN 978-1-003-33638-9 (eBook).

 “A padam well sung or danced is one of the quiet corners of this world. There is clarity that comes from the quiet unfolding of order without perceived attempts to attract or dazzle.” This sums up one’s experience with this book as the author gently unwraps the layers of history, traditions, patronage, composers and their music before giving the text, the musical notes and the meanings of 30 Tamil padams along with their performance history.

Beginning with the emergence of Tanjavur as the centre for arts under the Cholas, the author traces the political history of South India under the Nayak kings and the Marathas of Tanjore.  He takes us through the lineage of succession, with a brief history about each of the kings and their contribution towards art – some being scholars, artists and composers in their own right or as patrons to artists and composers in their courts.  He describes the period of anarchy, the handing over of the all of the territories (other than Tanjavur) by Serfoji II to the British and the impact it had on the arts before winding up the chapter with the death of Sivaji II and kicking in of the doctrine of lapse ending the Maratha line at Tanjavur.  This political history weaves within it, the history of the dance and music genre called padam. 

The third chapter focuses on the biographies and compositions of some popular composers.  The author brings out their life stories, influences and anecdotes from their lives, their patrons, other composers whose work influenced them, the attributes of their compositions that stand out and the transmission and publication of their padams.  While talking of the biographies of the Tamil composers, he mentions that ‘it continues to live and grow’ and the biographies are largely spun out of one or two anecdotes and/or from the song texts themselves. And therefore, give us more insights into the values-cultural, religious, musical and artistic -held by the participants, connoisseurs and scholars of the tradition than they do about specific details of composer’s lives.

The composers who are featured are Muttuttandavar, Papavinasa Mudaliar, Marimutta Pillai, Ottukkadu Venkatasubba Ayyar, Arunachala Kavirayar, Ghanam Krishna Ayyar, Kavikunjara Bharathi, Vaidisvarankoil Subbarama Ayyar, Gopalakrishna Bharati.  The author has chosen a few compositions of each of these composers and has enlisted the performance history of those padams with generous anecdotes.  For instance, he quotes M. Arunachalam while discussing the padam, Kalai Thooki by Marimutta Pillai.This song, he says, was one of the greatest hits in Tamil Nadu at that time.  This song also grew in popularity to the dance of Balasaraswati, then a young girl, when her mother Jayammal sang it in a slow, chowkka kala, enabling her daughter to bring out all the expressions, through hand, body and eye movements. He goes on to say that the one documented performance of Kalai Thooki by Balasaraswati was in 1935: her student Nandini Ramani told the author that Bala had danced this song only relatively early in her career. In the appendix for this padam he provides the performance history. Appendix II  has the verses, the transliteration and the meaning of each verse given.

The author then goes on to delineate the concept of padams.  He classifies them into groups based on the direction of the address contained in the poems and concludes that the core repertoire of padams to be centered around a rhetoric of indirect address.  Further, the songs chosen favor Murugan as the nayaka, and are portrayed as the lover or potential lover, while Nataraja is sung of as the great dancing God.  The classicalness or non-classicalness of a padam, with discussions on some chosen ragas and on the concept of Varnamettu is the final chapter of the book. 

This book is a treasure for those who want to understand the Tamil padams holistically – from the composer’s desk to the stage.  The documentation provided is a boon to art historians, dancers, musicians, scholars and academicians in the field of dance and music.  The language is simple and lucid, making heavy concepts easy to understand.  The information flows through the chapters in an uncluttered, organic manner making it easy to find your quiet corner. 

ANURADHA RAMESH