Terada Yoshitaka’s T.N. Rajarattinam Pillai: Charisma, Caste Rivalry and the Contested Past in South Indian Music is an exploration of South Indian music and culture through an analysis of one charismatic musician. In the recent past there have been many biographies of great singers and performers, referenced within cultural intersections of caste and a stratified society. We tend to disassociate musical performance from social analysis and stratification, concentrating on the excellence of performance. The story of Rajarattinam Pillai is about a musician who was one of the greatest musicians and performers of Carnatic music, and who as a player of the Nagaswaram, consciously faced and addressed the contentious issues and intersections between musical performance, hierarchy and caste. His life and performance offer Yoshitaka the opportunity to study power relations and conflicts between Brahmin musicians and patrons and non-Brahmin musicians.
This book looks at the instrument, the player and the performer, in creative tension within a caste-dominated, discriminatory social milieu. Classical Carnatic music was both a victim of caste, as well as an architect in shaping inter-community musical conversations. The music, despite its hierarchy, had a dialectic between differently stratified groups. When Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar founded the Tamil Isai Sangam and brought in language as a contestation, it introduced a new dynamic into the relationship. The stage for performance shifted to metropolitan Madras/Chennai, and the birth of cinema made an impact on the rigidities of tradition. In December 1943, the Sangam held its own music conference, parallel to that of the Music Academy and the Indian Fine Arts Society, with well-known artists.