Music historian and editor of sangeetham.com, V. Sriram, delivered a talk on Carnatic Music and the Raj at the British Council on March 30, 2005. He touched on the small, unknown bits of information on Carnatic music during the period of British Raj in India. Introduced to the audience by the historian S. Muthiah, Sriram brilliantly presented his talk supported by video clippings showing the photos of early music composers like Patnam Subramanya Iyer and Raja Serfojee, who devoted his entire life promoting arts after voluntarily giving away his kingdom to the British.

Sriram talked on how Ramaswamy Dikshitar encouraged all his three sons, Muthuswamy Dikshitar, Baluswamy Dikshitar and Chinnaswamy Dikshitar to listen to the band music palyed at Fort St.George, Chennai.

He played the audio clippings of the original English tunes of a few nottuswara sahityas composed by Muthuswamy Diskshitar, influenced by the band music. He even sang the lyrics!

The use of English words such as 'landaru'(lantern in English) and 'shaalu' (shawl) in Tyagaraja's kritis was interesting to note. He gave instances of kritis like 'varaleela gana' and 'Raminsuvarevarura' based on English notes, composed by Tyagaraja himself, who is considered a cut above, among the composers even today.

Here are other nuggets - a jawali in Kharaharapriya in manipravala style with Telugu and English words, usage of English lyrics by Harikatha exponent, Saraswati Bai in her harikatha 'Vibheeshana Sharanagati', competition for the Carnatic composers during thecoronation of King George and 'Poochi' Srinivasa Iyengar winnning the first prize and Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer receiving the 'best performer' award on the occasion, filled the notes of the curious listeners.

Compositions by Ghanam Krishnaiyar on Sir Thomas Munroe, Papanasam Sivan on Dr. Annie Besant and a mangalam in praise of King George, which figures in the book 'Gandharva Kalpa valli' were interesting bits to know. The 'not-to-forget' English note, popularised by Madurai Mani Iyer was well remembered by Sriram and he mentioned about the note being played as a custom at Sri KApali Temple, Mylapore, when the deity is brought to the 16-pillar-mandapam during the festival days, even now.

To sign off, Sriram played the audio clip of the the English song sung by M. S. Subbulakshmi at the UN in 1966, when the then Secretary-General of the UN, U Thant, invited her to give a special concert at the United Nations.

The talk was organised by the Association of the British Scholars, a forum which networks all those who have studied or trained in the UK.