Overview
Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (1916–2004), popularly known as M. S. Subbulakshmi or simply MS, was an Indian Carnatic vocalist regarded as one of the most influential classical musicians of the twentieth century. She was the first musician to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, in 1998, and the first Indian artist to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1974. Her renditions of devotional compositions, particularly the Suprabhatam of Lord Venkateswara and the Vishnu Sahasranamam, became part of everyday cultural life across South India.
Key facts
| Born | 16 September 1916, Madurai, Madras Presidency (present-day Tamil Nadu) |
|---|---|
| Died | 11 December 2004, Chennai, Tamil Nadu |
| Birth name | Kunjamma |
| Mother | Shanmukhavadivu, a veena player |
| Spouse | T. Sadasivam (m. 1940) |
| Genre | Carnatic music; Hindustani and devotional repertoire |
| Languages of repertoire | Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada, Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi |
| Notable awards | Bharat Ratna (1998), Padma Vibhushan (1975), Padma Bhushan (1954), Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1956), Ramon Magsaysay Award (1974), Sangita Kalanidhi (1968) |
Background and early life
Subbulakshmi was born into a family of the Devadasi tradition in Madurai. Her mother, Shanmukhavadivu, was an accomplished veena player, and her grandmother Akkammal was a violinist. She received her early training in Carnatic music from her mother and later studied with Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. She was also exposed to Hindustani classical music and learnt from Pandit Narayanrao Vyas.
She gave her first public performance at the age of eleven at the Rockfort Temple in Tiruchirapalli in 1927, and made her debut at the Madras Music Academy in 1929. Her first recordings were issued in the early 1930s.
Career and films
In 1936, Subbulakshmi moved to Madras (now Chennai), where she met Kalki Sadasivam, a freedom activist and journalist associated with the Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan, whom she married in 1940. Sadasivam managed her public career thereafter.
She acted in a small number of Tamil films during the late 1930s and 1940s:
- Seva Sadanam (1938), directed by K. Subrahmanyam, her debut film.
- Sakuntalai (1940).
- Savitri (1941), in which she played the male role of Narada; proceeds supported the launch of the nationalist Tamil journal Kalki.
- Meera (1945 in Tamil; 1947 Hindi version), in which her portrayal of the Rajput saint-poet Meerabai brought her national fame.
After Meera, she withdrew from cinema and focused exclusively on concert performance and recording.
Concerts and international recognition
Subbulakshmi performed widely across India and abroad. Significant appearances included:
- The Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama in 1963.
- Carnegie Hall, New York, in 1977.
- The Royal Albert Hall, London.
- An address concert at the United Nations General Assembly in 1966, where she sang the Sanskrit invocation Maitreem Bhajata, composed by the Kanchi seer Chandrashekarendra Saraswati.
- The Festival of India concerts in the 1980s.
Repertoire and recordings
Her repertoire spanned kritis of the Carnatic Trinity (Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri), compositions of Purandaradasa, Annamacharya, Tyagaraja's Pancharatna Kritis, Tamil works by Subramania Bharati and Papanasam Sivan, and bhajans of Meerabai, Tulsidas and Kabir. She also rendered Andal's Tiruppavai and Manikkavacakar's Tiruvempavai.
Her 1963 recording of the Venkatesa Suprabhatam, released by HMV, became one of the most widely circulated devotional records in India and is played daily at the Tirumala Tirupati temple. Her renditions of the Vishnu Sahasranamam, Bhaja Govindam and Hanuman Chalisa are similarly ubiquitous.
Honours and titles
- Padma Bhushan (1954)
- Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1956)
- Sangita Kalanidhi from the Madras Music Academy (1968) – the first woman to receive the title
- Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service (1974)
- Padma Vibhushan (1975)
- Kalidas Samman (1988)
- Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration (1990)
- Bharat Ratna (1998)
- Honorary doctorates from several Indian universities, including a D.Litt. from the University of Delhi.
Philanthropy
Subbulakshmi and her husband donated proceeds from many of her concerts and recordings to charitable, religious and educational causes, including the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, the Sri Sathya Sai Trust, and various temple renovation projects. Royalties from the Suprabhatam and Vishnu Sahasranamam recordings were assigned to charitable trusts.
Death and legacy
Following the death of her husband in 1997, she withdrew from public performance. She died in Chennai on 11 December 2004 at the age of 88. The Government of India issued a commemorative postage stamp in her honour in 2005, and a 100-rupee commemorative coin was released on her birth centenary in 2016. The Music Academy in Chennai instituted the M. S. Subbulakshmi Centenary Award. The auditorium at Shanmukhananda Hall, Mumbai, and several music festivals are named after her.
Jawaharlal Nehru is said to have described her as the "Queen of Music," and the title Tapasvini (the ascetic) was conferred on her by Sarojini Naidu. She is widely cited as having brought Carnatic music to a mass national audience.