"Don't demolish Thyagaraja's house"

In an e-mail to KutcheriBuzz, Gopal K. Navale, Director, Guruskool, Bangalore says the following...

"This is with reference to the news confirming that the house where the most revered of Carnatic composers, Sri Thyagaraja lived about 250 years ago, is to be demolished and a great modern memorial in concrete is to come up on that very place ostensibly to house a library, and meditation hall according to a note from the Thyagabrahma Mahotsava Sabha.

I was lucky to be able to visit Thanjavur, the cradle of Carnatic music recently. Our visit to Sri Thyagarja’s house in the nearby village of Tiruvayaru was very rewarding. It is a ‘row’ house bearing it’s age quite well, with a small verandah, which also serves as an office for the memorial management, leading into a hall about 20ft by 12ft with a ventilated twin arch roof, furnished with old photographs of musicians and some pictures of dieties. It was perhaps here in this very space that Thyagaraja's compositions were manifested - the music which today are studied, performed, recorded and enjoyed every day by thousands of musicans and music lovers. The compositions which could be said are the very flowering of thousands of years of Carnatic music. The aura one experiences in this room is indeed inspiring...

As we were about to leave, we noticed an architectural model in the verandah. The management trustee proudly informed us that this house which Thyagaraja lived in about 250 years ago is to be demolished and a great modern memorial in concrete is to come up on that very place! The source of inspiration, quiet contemplation in the very same space that the universally venerated composer breathed, sang, composed and just lived would be lost forever due to the misplaced zeal of local stalwarts. Future generations of musicians will never forgive this blunder if allowed to take place.

Talk about misplaced priorities - on one hand there is no money to buy a simple tape player in the existing memorial on the banks of the Cauvery nearby and here on the other, lakhs of rupees are proposed to be spent to build a modern monstrosity, complete with an overhanging mammoth concrete tambura! Perhaps this can happen only in India. Can we imagine Beethoven’s home would be destroyed by Europeans and they building a concrete piano there.

This cannot be let to happen – Sri Thyagaraja’s house should be declared a national monument and restoration work carried out to protect it from the elements. There is a premier arts body of the Central Govt. body, namely the South Zone Cultural Centre at nearby Thanjavur who we trust have the sensitivity to comprehend the significance of this national treasure being destroyed and could be requested to step in and to save it for posterity. Funds, for the restoration work can be easily raised by voluntary contributions from music lovers, if government funding is not available, but only a government agency can possibly authoritatively do the needful as the local zealots seem bent upon grandoise arcitectural mediocrity, far removed from the amazing musical genius, whom they are thus trying to honour.

We have to act fast. I request those among your readers who are sensitive to this to write to me at guruskool@gmail.com so that we can lobby as a group for good sense to prevail."