Brahmasri A. Ananthakrishna Iyer

While the late Vid. D.K. Pattamal attained great success on the concert platform as belonging to the guru-śiṣya parampara of Muttuswāmi Dīkṣitar, A Ananthakrishna Iyer, while not a performer, devoted his life to teaching Carnatic music and the works of Dīkṣitar. I highlight below, a few key events of this vidwān’s life. These facts have been taken from a brief biography written by Sri S. Bashyam, who belongs to the Guruguha Gana Vidyalaya school at Calcutta, which was set up by Ananthakrishna Iyer.

Ananthakrishna Iyer was brought into the world of Carnatic music by a chance sequence of events that lead him to be introduced to the eldest daughter of Ambi Dīkṣitar. It was probably pre-ordained that this vidwān would devote his life to spreading the teachings of Muttuswāmi Dīkṣitar, as Ambi Dīkṣitar agreed to teach him on the condition that he take care of Ambi Dīkṣitar till the end of his days. 

As Sri Bashyam beautifully puts it, ‘Ananthakrishna Iyer vowed to do so and thus was born a link which has been responsible for a virtual resurrection of Śri Muttuswāmi Dīkṣitar’s compositions in this century.’

Ananthakrishna Iyer stayed with Ambi Dīkṣitar, learning to play the Veena in the gāyaki style, while also learning several well-known as well as rare kṛtis of Dīkṣitar. A joint love for music and desire to popularize Muthuswami Dikshitar’s kṛtis resulted in the relocation of guru and śiṣya to Madras in 1919. They lived at Triplicane, and after Ambi Dīkṣitar's passing in 1936, Ananthakrishna Iyer moved with his family to Royapettah, and established a school - Karnataka Vainika Gana Vidyalaya- teaching several students vocal and veenai. After strong persuasion from a friend, he moved to Calcutta and set up the Guruguha Gana Vidyalaya. He was also a composer, and till date, as students of this lineage, we render one of his compositions – Valli dēva sēnāpate, in the Rāga Khamās – as a part of our annual music offering on the occasion of Diwali, along with other compositions of Muttuswāmi Dīkṣitar. His mudra, very aptly, is “Guruguha dāsan”.

He is fondly referred to as “Periya sir” by students of this school, and was a Srividya upasaka. Sri Ananthakrishna Iyer attained the Lord’s feet on January 5, 1959 and the mantle of responsibility fell on the shoulders of his son Sri Anantharama Iyer and daughter Smt. A. Champakavalli.