Art Transcends Religious Divides
By Sakuntala Narasimhan : Two thousand nineteen marks the hundredth anniversary of the passing away of a remarkable Indian whose seminal contributions to our heritage in the classical arts merit reiterating as a new set of ministers takes charge of shaping our country’s cultural destiny in the next five years. Born in 1859, Abraham Pandithar was – as his name indicates – a Christian. He was a practitioner of traditional (Siddha) medicine in Tirunelveli and became a teacher. He studied western classical music and not only established a music organisation but also published research papers on Tamil music. His book on music, Karunamrutha sagaram, a tome of 1,356 pages, remains, according to experts, “a seminal work on music till today.” He translated kritis (which are usually in Telugu or Sanskrit ) into Tamil, which must count as an extraordinarily pioneering experiment during those days. He also composed...