Thodur Madabusi Krishna, aka T.M. Krishna is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, writer, activist, author and Ramon Magsaysay awardee. As a vocalist, he has made a large number of innovations in both the style and substance of his concerts, thereby inviting controversy from some quarters.

In the year 2016 he was awarded with  Ramon Magsaysay Award for “his forceful commitment as artist and advocate to art’s power to heal India’s deep social divisions, breaking barriers of caste and class to unleash what music has to offer not just for some but for all”.

In his most recent book, ‘Sebastian And Sons: A brief history of Mrdangam makers’, T.M. Krishna talks about the integrity of the Mrdangam on the Karnatik stage and the Dalit Christian communities involved in the making of the percussion instrument who remain on the fringes of the Karnatik community. 

The book traces the history of the mrdangam-maker and the mrdangam over the past century. The mrdangam is an integral part of the Karnatik stage, its primary percussion instrument. Yet—startling as this is— the instrument as we know it is only a century old. T.M. Krishna investigates the history of the mrdangam and meets the invisible keepers of a tradition: the mrdangam makers.

The book explores the world of these artists, their history, lore and lived experience to arrive at a more organic and holistic understanding of the music that the mrdangam makes.

The making process is an intellectually, aesthetically and physically taxing one. From acquiring the skins for the circular membranes and straps to the wood for the drum, from curing the material to the final construction, and at the end of it all, making sure that it has the tone that the mrdangam player wants, mrdangam-making is also a highly nuanced operation at every stage.

While several artists have been credited with the evolution of the instrument, including the stalwart Palghat Mani Iyer, none of them had knowledge of a fundamental aspect of the making: hide. The quality of the hide and how it is cured, cut, stretched, bound and braided impacts the tone, timbre and sound of the instrument. This requires a highly tuned ear and an ability to translate abstract ideas expressed by musicians into the corporeal reality of a mrdangam. Yet, their contribution to the art of the mrdangam is dismissed as labour and repair—when it is spoken of at all.

There are legendary mrdangam players, yes; there are also distinguished mrdangam makers, many of them from Dalit Christian communities, who remain on the fringes of the Karnatik community. Sebastian and Sons explores the world of these artists, their history, lore and lived experience to arrive at a more organic and holistic understanding of the music that the mrdangam makes.

The book received the Tata Lit Live Award for the Best Non-Fiction book for the year 2020.

Krishna on the other hand is one of the pre-eminent vocalists in the rigorous Karnatik tradition of India's classical music. His tutelage is in this form that originated in the southern peninsula of the sub-continent nearly five hundred years ago. His tained under gurus, B. Seetharama Sarma, Chengalpet Ranganathan and Semmangudi Srinivasier. Krishna belongs to a tradition, but is not owned by it. His concert stage, whether in his hometown Chennai or anywhere in the world, is wholly classical, but his concert practice is uncompromisingly his own.

He sings with a musical veracity that goes back centuries but from a musical imagination that unfolds in the present. As one of the most widely travelled musicians of his generation, Krishna has reinforced the Karnatik musical legacy among its cognoscenti and also introduced its majesty to new audiences across continents.

As a public intellectual, who is involved in many oragnaistions, Krishna speaks and writes about issues affecting the human condition and about matters cultural.

T.M Krishna is one of the pre-eminent vocalists in the rigorous Karnatik tradition of India's classical music. His tutelage is in this form that originated in the southern peninsula of the sub-continent nearly five hundred years ago. His training has been under the distinguished gurus, B. Seetharama Sarma, Chengalpet Ranganathan and Semmangudi Srinivasier, placing him in the highest reaches of that time-honored system. Krishna belongs to a tradition, but is not owned by it. His concert stage, whether in his hometown of Chennai or anywhere else in the world, is wholly classical but his concert practice is uncompromisingly his own.

As a public intellectual, Krishna speaks and writes about issues affecting the human condition and about matters cultural. Krishna has started and is involved in many organizations whose work is spread across the whole spectrum of music and culture. He has co-authored Voices Within: Carnatic Music – Passing on an Inheritance, a book dedicated to the greats of Karnatik music. His path-breaking book A Southern Music – The Karnatik Story in 2013 was a first-of-its-kind philosophical, aesthetic and socio-political exploration of Karnatik music. For this he was awarded the 2014 Tata Literature Award for Best First Book in the non-fiction category.

Over the past decades he received innumerable awards. In 2016, Krishna received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, while in 2017 he received the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration Award, and the Professor V Aravindakshan Memorial Award for connecting Karnatik music with the common man.

His long-form essay MS Understood, for The Caravan was featured in The Caravan Book of Profiles, as one of their “twelve definitive profiles.” It has been translated into Tamil and published as a book ‘KatrinileKaraindaTuyar’ by Kalachuvadu Publications. His book Reshaping Art published by Aleph Book Company in 2018, asks important questions about how art is made, performed and disseminated and addresses crucial issues of caste, class and gender within society while exploring the contours of democracy, culture and learning.

He has been part of inspiring musical productions and collaborations, such as the Chennai PorombokePaadal with environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman, performances with the Jogappas (transgender musicians) and co-conceptualising and performing Karnatik Kattaikuttu, an unusual aesthetic conversation between art forms and communities that belong to two ends of the social spectrum.

Krishna is also author of ‘A Southern Music:The Karnatik Story’, besides many other books.

Book: Sebastian and Sons

Author: T.M. Krishna

Pages: 376

Published: January 2020

Reviewed By Verus Ferreira