Among women performers only the Devadasi women performed music, dance and Harikatha concerts till 1910 and from 1910 onwards Brahmin women and women of other castes also gave performances. But many were "amateur" or non-professional artists. There were Sabhas from 1908 till 1932 called Hindu Ladies Lakshmi Vilas Sabha, where only lady artists performed at the Sabha meant for ladies only. The other regular Sabhas also arranged concerts by women for "ladies only" in Chennai during that period. Even today the number of performing amateur women outnumber the professional women in Chennai city. The musical organization, the Mass media and All India Radio (1930) Chennai encouraged amateur women performers, besides the professional women performers.

‘The Hindu’ (21 Jan, 1939) in an article on "All India Radio" Chennai, reported that "Amateurs were brought from the seclusion of their homes before the microphones to perform in AIR, Chennai" as told by the then Station Director, since the Chennai musicians "thought that the AIR was fabulously wealthy and could pay princely fees." From the post independence period the women artists including amateurs out-number (three times) that of men artists. From the 1980s, the attendance of women audience in music concerts arranged by the music organizations and private parties are 68% of the total audience. (Survey conducted by the author).

As more women entered the music field, the music schools were established. Music schools created the new profession called Music Teacher. Many of the female music teachers did not perform in public concerts. Some do not have the ability to give recitals before the audience. The first music school for girls was founded in Chennai in the year 1888. ‘The Hindu’, April 20, 1889 reported the second anniversary of the Chennai Hindu Girls Music school in Mylapore. Between the 1920s and 30s the number of Music schools increased greatly. After independence there were many music schools, besides music being included in the school syllabus and also as one of the majors in Graduate and Post-graduate levels in the colleges, plus Doctoral levels at the University. The student body of these schools and colleges is largely female. Even in the Open University and Correspondence Education programme for music, which has been introduced in the Chennai University, women students’ out-number men.

It is also interesting to note that almost all Publications on Music in English as well as in vernacular languages were available from the 19^th cent from Chennai. The first work is "Karnatak music in Western notation" published in Chennai by Mr. A.M.Chinnaswami Mudaliar. The first journal exclusively devoted to music known as "Sangita Satsampradaya Dipika" was published in Chennai (1930). From the beginning of the 20^th century, many daily newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines in English, Tamil and Telugu reported the news on musical activities. Articles on music and reviews of music performances were also published to promote the image of the musicians and scholars. (Bharatanatyam) replacing the Indian instrument Mukhavina also promoted musical skill by Mahadeva Nattuvanar from 1860. He too learnt to play the Clarinet from an English performer of Clarinet who was playing the instrument in the Western Band in Chennai.

Chennai City was the centre of musical activities and the first public concert sponsored by Sangita Sabha was in the year 1890. Though there was a music organisation in 1888 – 1889, the Jubilee Gayan Samajam in Chennai, which held regular monthly meetings, and also a yearly conference at which scholarly papers on music were read, the organisation did not sponsor public concerts. In the period from 1888 – 1929, many of the Carnatic music concerts in Chennai were Bhajan concerts and Harikathas, and only a few music & dance concerts were performed. Krishna Bhagavatar, who was a famous exponent of this form in the 1890s, developed Harikatha, a performance genre from Maharashtra, at the Tanjore court. This Tanjore Court musician visited Chennai to give many Harikatha performances from 1898 onwards. His genius was greatly appreciated by the Chennai audience. The musicians from all over South India exhibited their skill in their performances by performing before the Chennai audience and considered it to be a great honour to be invited to perform in Chennai City. The appreciation they received from the Chennai audience gave them immense joy and satisfaction. Thus Chennai City stood out as a center for musical excellence from conducting music competitions at the schools, colleges and music organisations for young performers. The competitions were also held in Chennai in the last century between great musicians, but now the format has changed and the music competitions are held in every nook and corner; boys and girls who are mostly non-professionals participate in these music competitions.

(To be continued next week) .

Dr.S.A.K.Durga