Carnatic Vocalist Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar also known as Vaidyanatha Iyer. Chembai was noted for his powerful voice and majestic style of singing. His first public performance was in 1904, when he was nine. A recipient of several titles and honours (including the Madras Music Academy’s Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1951), he was known for his encouragement of upcoming musicians and ability to spot new talent.
The family’s connection with classical music spans five centuries. Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar’s father, Anantha Bhagavatar, was a violinist and singer from Chembai, near Palakkad, to whom a local Maharaja awarded the title “Ghana Chakratanam”, indicating his mastery of a special closed-mouth style of singing tanam. At age 3, Chembai began to learn Carnatic music from his father in the customary guru-sishya tradition, and also began violin and flute training in 1912. Chembai is also one of 12 names of Sirkazhi, the birthplace of saint Gnanasambandar 7th century CE in Tamil Nadu.
He had composed some 155 kritis in Malayalam, Tamil and Sanskrit under the mudra ‘Lalita dasar’ and requested Chembai to popularise them. Chembai set the kritis to classical music and got them published under the name Lalita Dasar Keertanaigal. He made it a practice to sing these kritis in most of his concerts.
Chembai had a vigorous, strong, vibrant, ringing and resonant voice. He would sing in a clear, open-throated style that requires high levels of physical and mental endurance to pull off, yet, he did so in a seemingly effortless manner. He had a wonderful sense of accurate kala pramana (time measure). He could do a niraval and swaraprastara from any given point, which bespoke of mental alertness in a concert. His empathy for his accompanists and disciples was noteworthy and he would go to great lengths to encourage them.
His prominent disciples include Chembai Narayana Bhagavathar, Mangu Thampuran, Guruvayur Ponnammal, T. V. Gopalakrishnan, V. V. Subramaniam, P. Leela, K. G. Jayan, K. G. Vijayan, K. J. Yesudas, Kudumaru Venkataraman and Babu Parameswaran, among others. He also mentored many young accompanists, including Palghat Mani Iyer, Lalgudi Jayaraman, M. S. Gopalakrishnan, T. N. Krishnan, Palani Subramaniam Pillai and L. Subramaniam. Memorial music festivals have been held in his honour annually since his death in 1974
