parampara. Born in a comfortably affluent family, Sri. Venkatesa Iyer flowered forth into
a rarely excelled musical maestro well equipped in both lakshana and lakshya. His sense of
laya was supreme; he enjoyed a rich repertoire of the compositions of the Trinity, Meesu
Krishna Ayyar, Tirupati Narayanaswami, Vedanayakam Pillai, Suddhananda Bharathi and
others at a time when such an asset with musicians was rather rare. The rhythmic and
lyrical expressions in Tiruppugazh enamoured him and he gave musical expression to it in a
style rich with intricate laya.
Venkatesa Iyer is considered to be one of the greatest masters Carnatic music has ever
had! Venkatesa Iyer was a disciplinarian and was strict in imparting training. He did not
have a huge stream of disciples since his style was highly traditional and writ with difficult
rhythm expositions which required austerity and highly dedicated practice amongst the
students. Among his popular disciples include the Alathur Brothers, the clarinet maestro
A.K.C Natarajan, popular vocalists such as Sarojini Sundaresan, Chingelpet Ranganathan,
J.Venkatraman, the matinee-idol of yester decades, the sweet-voiced M.K.Tyagaraja
Bhagavathar and a handful of others. Alathur Brothers, Sangeetha Kalanidhis Siva
Subramanyaiyer and Srinivasa Iyer were the most popular of his disciples, the former being
his son. In the present day, A K C Natarajan, Sarojini Sundaresan, Chingelpet
Ranganathan and J.Venkatraman are still keeping the great Alathur style alive.
Coming from the lineage of Saint Thyagaraja, he had passionate devotion towards him and
his songs. He founded the Sadguru Sangeetha Sabha at Tiruchirapalli and organised
annually a ten-day Thyagaraja Utsava (festival).
He developed a style that is well known for richness and precision in laya and methodical
presentation of rare and well-known Krithis. Though he was a life-long devotee of
Thyagaraja, he specialized in rare Dikshathar compositions and out of his respect for the
great composer, he purchased the site at Tiruvarur where Dikshitar's house stood to
construct a shrine for Dikshathar.
Sri Venkatesa Iyer set to tune and composed intricate chittaswaras for Meesu Krishna Iyer
Krithis predominantly in Janya ragas. Special mention must be made here about the krithi
'Naada Brahma ' set to tune in the Naada Brahma raaga which is one of its kind in Carnatic
Music. He taught them with fervor to his senior lady-disciple Sarojini Sundaresan.
The Alathur style is famous for singing Ragam Tanam and Pallavi in difficult patterns of
Talas (rhythms). Foundation for this difficult exercise is set at a very early stage for the
students of this style.
Alathur Venkatesa Iyer is also respected as a great Harmonium artist by critics and
connoisseurs to date.
RAAGALAYA Foundation commemorated this great legendary figure of Carnatic Music
on December 05, 2003 in Chennai, India, when Sarojini Sundaresan released two CD
albums dedicated to her Guru Alathur Venkatesa Iyer, as Alathur Favorites. Stalwarts in
the field of Carnatic Music such as Dr. N. Ramani, A.K.C Natarajan, Madurai T.N
Seshagopalan, Prof. T.V Gopalakrishnan, Chingelpet Ranganathan, T.K Govinda Rao,
P.S.Narayanaswami, M. Chandrasekaran, K.S.Mahadevan, Karaikudi Krishnamurthy (of
London) and several others paid their homage to the maestro and felicitated Sarojini
Sundaresan for her Guru Bhakti and dedication in upholding the tradition of the Alathur
style and spreading it all over world.
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