Music halls of Madras

The Hindu

Front view of the Tamil Isai Sangam (Annamalai Mandram). Photo: V. Ganesan

The music season is just winding down. In the last fortnight, I made it to quite a few sabhas, and it struck me that two among the oldest organisations — Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha (115 years) and the Indian Fine Arts Society (82) — do not have venues of their own, but hold their festivals at wedding halls.

That led me on a mental survey of celebrated venues for music in our city. The temples and homes of the rich were certainly the first locations. The Pachaiyappa’s Hall on China Bazaar (NSC Bose) Road had performances from at least 1887. The classrooms of the TTV and Hindu Theological schools in Town became popular from the 1890s. Early in the 20th Century came up Saundarya Mahal on Govindappa Naicken Street, owned by the Salla family. This was much in demand, as it allowed devadasis to perform within its precincts. Other venues were not so liberal in their thinking.

The construction of Gokhale Hall on Armenian Street in 1917 by Annie Besant brought to Madras the joys of a large, airy venue. This became the biggest performance space in the city, even as fledgling sabhas in areas such as Triplicane and Mylapore managed in school buildings. Early in 1929, the Rasika Ranjani Sabha built its auditorium in Mylapore. This would later be modernised in the 1950s. It is now being rebuilt with the same speed as the Taj Mahal. Another location at Mylapore from 1905 onwards was the Ranade Library. It would later be overshadowed by the Srinivasa Sastri Hall that came up on its first floor in the 1950s.

Even in the 1940s, the big sabhas, of which there were three — the Music Academy, the IFAS and the Tamil Isai Sangam (TIS) — did not have auditoriums. The TIS, for instance, operated out of the St. Mary’s parish hall on Armenian Street, while The Music Academy peregrinated from People’s Park to the University Senate House to garden bungalows of the wealthy on General Patters Road (of all places) before moving briefly into Old Woodlands Hotel and then using the RR Sabha and PS High School in Mylapore for several years. The TIS built its auditorium, perhaps the first of its kind in the city, in 1952. Its rival, The Music Academy, had its modernist venue on Mowbrays (TTK) Road by 1962. The burgeoning residential area of T. Nagar added two locations between the 1940s and 1950s — the Sri Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha’s Vani Mahal and the Sri Krishna Gana Sabha. At around the same time was built the Mylapore Fine Arts Club’s premises on leased land.

Thereafter, there was a long lull. It was only in 1988 that the Narada Gana Sabha completed its auditorium. There are, of course, other venues available on rent, such as the Rani Seethai Hall, the Kamaraj Arangam and the Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao auditorium. Given today’s real estate prices, I wonder if any sabha can dream of building yet another auditorium in Chennai.