Tributes

D Pattammal, a great Carnatic music scholar and vageyakara, understood the nuances of ragas to its full extent, which reflected vividly in all her compositions, whether it is sampurna, janya or vivadi raga.

More than 5 decades ago, I became part of her extended family. From day one, Pattammal Manni's love and support played an important part in my life may be because I was also a performing artist in the Carnatic music field.

Her compositions were spontaneous with bhava, simply beautiful, and emotional. One thing that stood out in her creations was, in the pallavi itself, with few swarams and sahithyam, the essence of the raga was fully portrayed. For example, 'Neela mayil vahana' in chala nattai, 'Thunga nadikaraiyil' in Begada and 'Samayapurathu Mari' in Sahana are a few examples. I am proud to mention she is one of very few vageyakaras to compose in all 72 mela ragas in Tamil, a very good teaching aid to students to understand 72 melas better.