Creator, Actor, Director and Mentor – All in One What is common in these greats: S G Kittappa, T K Shanmugam, M R Radha, K P Sundarambal.
We all know they are Super actors.
They also belong to the same acting school.
The acting schools which were called Boys Company in 1910.
They were taught not just acting, but managing the shows and even book keeping.
The School was head mastered by Sri Sankardas Swamigal.
The real & only “Muthamizh Vithagar” A stalwart who dedicated his whole life to the cause of Stage Play. Until 1978, the Tamizh Nadu Secondary Education Board had had one full lesson on Sankardas Swamigal.
Born as Sankardas in 1867 in the port city of Tuticorin to “Ramayana Pulavar” Damodaran Pillai and Kanthimathi Ammal, his early education in Tamizh was from his father. He later studied under the famous Tamizh scholar of the time, Palani Dandapani Swamigal.
Udumalai Sarabam Muthuswami Kavirayar, another legendary Tamil scholar was Sankardas’ class mate.
Sankardas then worked as an accountant in a salt factory. Composing venbaas and songs even as a young boy of sixteen, he found that the job was an impediment in his quest for excellence in the Tamizh language and this led him to quit his job when he was twenty four years of age. Thus, the seeds were sown for the entry of a man on the Tamil Stage scene who would be regarded as its fi rst Guru par excellence, a man to whom many leading stage artistes of the next generation owed their craft.
His prof i ciency in Thamizh grammar, his ability to write poetry quickly – aasukavi and his innate acting talent pulled crowds.
In those days without mics, his dialog roar would not fail to reach the last man in the audience.
Drama company owners Ramudu Iyer and Kalyanarama Iyer were the fi rst to recognise young Sankardas. Sangardas joined their troupe as an actor and later also became a drama writer. He did a variety of roles such as Iraniyan, Ravana, Lord Yama and Lord Saneeswara.
He then joined Samy Naidu’s drama company where he donned the role of the suthradhar in several of their plays. A suthradhar would do a lecture demo of the drama before the start.
His unique presentation methods attracted big crowds.
At this time a disagreement with Samy Naidu broke out. Wexed in life Sankaradas wore sanyasi’s robe and left on a pilgrimage to various shrines of his ‘ishta deivam’ Murugan and then on people addressed him as Sankaradas Swamigal.
He did not marry. Led a life of simplicity & strict discipline.
He was then associated with the famous Kanjira exponent, Manpoondia Pillai of Pudukottai.
Manpoondia Pillai considered Sankaradas Swamigal as his adopted son. Struck by his wizardry and excellence in the various grammatical aspects of the Tamizh language, Manpoondia Pillai enjoyed Swamigal’s company and many a time the duo had sessions where Manpoondia Pillai played the Kanjira to Swamigal’s songs. The famous Mridanga Vidwans of the time, Pudukottai Dakshinamurthy Pillai and Pazhani Muthiah Pillai were students of Manpoondia Pillai at that time. Pillai brought him back again into drama writing.
Swamigal wrote for Valli Vaidyanatha Iyer, Alli Parameswara Iyer and P .S.Velu Nair’s Shanmukananda Sabha. For P .S.Velu Nair’s company that he wrote the songs for Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar’s immortal classic, Manoharan. T.S.Kannuswamy Pillai, the father of the legendary TKS brothers fi rst came to be associated with Sankaradas Swamigal at these times.
Swamigal has written a total of 50 plays. Among them are Cymbaline, Romeo Juliet and Julius Caesar which are plays translated from English.
All the dramas written and directed by Swamy are great. However the following dramas are super special.
1. Satyawan Savitri 2. Pavala Kodi Charithram 3. Valli Thirumanam 4. Arichandra Mayana Kandam 5. Kovalan Charithram 6. Rama Ravana Yuddham 7. Veerapandia Kattabomman 8. Madurai Veeran 9. Chitrangi Vilasam 10. Naladamayanthi Tamizh theater can be classif i ed as before Swamigal’s time and after Swamigal’s time.
Swamigal’s plays kept alive the art of theater even after his time.
NS Krishnan would refer to Swamigal as the Himalayas of the theater world.
In 1918, Swamigal and few of his friends started his own Company, the Tattva Meenalochani Vidwat Bala Sabha. It was here that T.S.Kannuswamy Pillai, who had fi rst met Swamigal at P .S.Velu Nair’s Company, brought his three elder sons, T.K.Sankaran, T.K.Muthuswamy and T.K.Shanmugam to put them under Swamigal. In his memoirs “Enadhu Nataka Vazhkai”, Shanmugam gives an interesting account of his time at the Tattva Meenalochani Vidwat Bala Sabha and his experiences with Swamigal. Swamigal wrote a play, “Abhimanyu Sundari” keeping him in mind for the role of the protagonist. What was remarkable about this?
Swamigal wrote this play of 4 hours in one night. Swamigal was a stickler for discipline and was against artistes consuming betel, tobacco, beedis and the like. Anyone found violating the code was subjected to punishment by Swamigal. Many had run out of his school due to this.
He had a large group of students. The students kept surrounding the Swamigal like bees around honey fl owers.
GS Munusamy Naidu, Saminatha Mudaliar, Srinivasa Alwar, Natesa Pathar, MR Govindasamy Pillai, C. Kannaiah, CS Chamanna, Sundararao, Surya Narayana Bhagavatar, Madurai Mariyappa Swamy, SG Kittappa, R .V.Manickam and T.K.Shanmugam brothers are notable among the male students.
Mrs. Balambal, Balamani, Aranganayaki, Korangi Manickam, DD Thayammal are notable among the students.
K. Sarangapani and R. Balasubramaniam, who later became famous in fi lms, were also students of Swamigal.
Struck with paralytic stroke swamigal lived his last days in Pondicherry, assisted and cared for by his dear students.
The Father of Modern Tamizh Drama became one with Bhagwan on 13 Nov 1922.
–Thiru. Lakshminarasimhan!
