Sangeetha Kalanidhi Papanasam Sivan
(1890-1973) A four part video documentary on Sangeetha Kalanidhi Papanasam Sivan (1890-1973) featuring Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, MS Subbulakshmi was released in 2007. - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
 "Papanasam Sivan composed more than 2000 songs, mostly in Tamil. 800 of these were for Tamil films. Etext of a set of 400 of his Carnatic music were prepared in a voluntary effort by K.Srinivasan (1.1 -1.49), Lalitha and Siva Mani (1.50 - 1.101, & 4.1 - 4.101), and Vijaya Mallikarjunan (2.1 - 3.101). They are rendered here in Unicode. The compositions are also available in PDF. The source of these compositions are the four volumes of his compositions by Dr.Rukmini Ramani, daughter of Sri Papanasam Sivan himself. The books also contain detailed notation for singing. We recommend that you buy these books, to encourage such publications. Copies can be obtained from the author.
Dr. Papanasam Rukmini Ramani,
B-5 Rohini Gardens,
Raja Annamalaipuram,
Madras 600028, INDIA.
Sri Papanasam Sivan received several titles including "Tamil Tyagaraja". Some of the films for which he composed songs are Ambikapathy, Nandanaar, Sakuntalai (sung by M.S.Subbulakshmi), Savithri (sung by M.S.Subbulakshmi), Sivakavi (sung by M.K.Thiagarajah Bhavathar), Thyagaboomi (sung by D.K.Pattammal). The Music Academy of Madras was extremely late in recognizing him. Papanasam Sivan was born in 1890 in Polagam near Thanjaavoor to Sri Ramamritha Iyer and Yogambal. He was called Ramaiah by people close to him. The Papanasam of Sri Sivan is between Kumbakonam and Thanjavoor, with its own railway station served by passenger trains. That is where his brother stayed and he used to pass much of his time there. From 1898 to 1910 he lived in Thiruvanthapuram. In 1917 he married Lakshmi, daughter of Sri Ayyaaswami Iyer of Nagapattinam. He also translated many Malayalam and Sanskrit works into Tamil. He passed away in 1973 at the age of 83. " based on a note by Kumar Mallikarjunan.
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 The Life of Papanasam Sivan - Ashok Ramani"...He started composing songs as early as in 1910 and he used to sing them himself. While singing he always closed his eyes and he had expressed that he was on such occasions in communion with god. It was in this decade that he came to be acquainted with Koneirarajapuram Vaidyanathaier, a faithful exponent of Carnatic music and acclaimed to be the greatest musician of the times...
As a composer “Sivan ranks with the great giants who followed the trinity in the middle of the ninetheenth century”. He did not use any lexicon or dictionary for choosing rhyming words. Almost all eminent vidwans of yester years, viz. Ariyakuri Ramanuja Iyengar, Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Musiri Subramania Iyer, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and others have sung numerous compositions of Sivan in their performances. Sivan’s compositions cover a wide gamut of songs ranging from varnams, krithis, and operas to padhams and javalis...
Sivan composed songs for films, for about 15 years from 1936, charging spiritual fervor into them and this was responsible for phenomenal success of many film producers...." more |
