"Parvathi" was a home in the erstwhile Mysore city, a city of palaces, large spaces, beautiful gardens, huge tree lined roads, and where an ordinary person’s vocations lay in a certain peace, pride and quiet brought about by the arts. It lay in its music, in paintings, in drama, in writings, in Yoga (Pattabhi Jois, Krishnamachariar, B.K.S. Iyengar) and in the gleaning of divinity by a reflection on scriptural passages. It was a home that Puttu Rao, then a young, upcoming and successful attorney built and named after the matriarch of his large family. It was a home to which, very soon, music and prayers and congregations would resound at all hours of the day. It was a home away from home to which Chowdiah (and an RK Narayan or a Veena Doreswamy Iyengar) would come at all hours, unheralded, to rest, to play, or to revel in passionate ideas of artistic merit.
"...and who would have thought he could be one in an audience!"
Chowdiah enjoying Radha-Jayalaxmi in 1962 within the quadrangle of "Parvathi"
The maestros Madurai Mani Iyer, Chowdiah, Shivraman perform in the quadrangle inside "Parvathi" in 1963
Chowdiah with the great doyens Semmangudi, Shivaraman, Vinayakraman inside "Parvathi" 1965
The "Parvathi" Concert
April 2, 1965
Vidwan Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer (Vocal)
Vidwan T. Chowdiah (Violin)
Vidwan Umayalpuram Sivaraman (Mridangam)
Vidwan Vikku Vinayakaram (Ghatam)
01-Mahaganapathim-Natai; 02-Evarani-Devamruthavarshini; 03-Kshinamai-Mukhari; 04-Janani-Reetigowla; 05-Vinaradhana-Devagandari, 06-SrikrishnamBhaja-Todi; 07-Chakkaniraja-Kharaharapriya; 08-Biranabrova-Kalyani; 09-Paripalaya-Purvikalyani; 10-Parulana-Kapi; 11-Virutham; 12-Sapasya-Jonpuri; 13-Mangalam
It was a house to which every musician worthy of music came from all over the land, to perform, not for an hour, not for a day or two, but sometimes for as long as thirteen days during the annual ‘Rama Navami’ festival. It was a home that also brought the literati, the writers and the journalists, the thespians of India’s large stage and movie world, the country’s rulers and governors and ministers and the holy Shankaracharyas. Above all, thanks to the bountiful space and desire of its residents, this house came to be looked upon as a "heritage" house to share its music for decades with an entire public....
.....yes, the crowds at "Parvathi" were for real !
...and buses would ferret hundreds of music lovers to any vantage point from which they could lend their ears to the musical concerts, even as the house went about its own everyday private life.
