M.S Subbulakshmi (born September 16, 1916 at the temple town of Madurai, Tamilnadu, India) was a legendary Carnatic vocalist, usually a domain reserved for men. Born in a family of musicians, both her parents Subramanya Iyer and Veen Vidushi Shanmukavadivu were singers and veena (a plucked instrument) players and her grandmother, Akkammal, was an illustrious violinst.
Known popularly as M.S or M.S.S, she was married to Kalki Sadasivam in 1940. She had no children of her own but raised Radha and Vijaya, Sadasivam’s children from previous marriage, as her own. Both often accompanied M.S with Radha singing and Vijaya playing the Tanpura. M.S stopped giving public performance since the death of Sadasivam 1997. M.S passed away on December 11, 2004 after a brief illness at Chennai in Tamilnadu, India.
Education and Musical Career
At the age of eight, M.S made her maiden public performance at the Mahamaham festival at Kumbakonam. Her first recording was released when she was ten. She learnt Carnatic classic music under Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Hindustani classical under Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas. At the age of 17, she began giving concerts by herself including at the prestigious Carnatic music centre, Madras Music Academy. M.S performed at east in different languages as Tamil , Sanskrit, Telugu , Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali , Kannada, Marathi and Gujarati and in a range of musical forms.
Widely traveled performing around the world, her concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the UN General Assembly on UN day in October 1966, London’s famous Royal Albert Hall in 1982 and at the Festival of India in Moscow in 1987 were noteworthy landmarks.
Awards / Achievement
M.S received India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, the first ever for a musician. She was also the recipient of Padma Bhushan in 1954, 'Sangita Kalanidhi' title in 1968 (the first woman recipient), 'Sapthagiri Sangeeta Vidwanmani' title at the Thyagaraja Festival where performed regularly, the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1974), and the Padma Vibhushan (1975).
She was also awarded honorary Doctorates by the Rabindra Bharati University, Delhi University and Sri Venkateswara University. She is credited with being a pioneer to popularize Carnatic music in North India as well as in the West where she performed at prominent venues as the Edinburgh Festival and at the United Nations. She donated most of the prize moneys she received to charity.
Important works
M.S. entry into films was with the Tamil film 'Sevasadanam' in 1938. She played Narada (a male role) in 'Savitri' (1941) for fund raising for her husband’s ‘Kalki’, a nationalist Tamil weekly. With title role as Meera, the Rajasthani saint-poetess in the eponymous film (1945) which was also remade in Hindi (1947) gave her national prominence. M.S sang the famous Meera bhajans, with music by Dilipkumar Roy. She however quit films to wholly concentrate on concert music.
Her famous works include Bhajagovindam (composed by Adi Shankaracharya in praise of Lord Krishna), Suprabhatam (Early Morning Hymns), Vishnu Sahasranamam (1000 names of Lord Vishnu), Kurai Onrum Illai (composed by Rajagopalachari), and Hanuman Chalisa (Prayers to Lord Hanuman). Her song Vaishnava Janato was heart rending bringing tears to anyone who hears it. She rendered her songs with such devotion with flawless tone, pitch and pronunciation.
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