A tribute to ‘Father of Tamil Drama’ Sankaradas Swamigal
Creator, actor, director, and mentor – all in one!
What is common in S G Kittappa, T K Shanmugam, M R Radha, and K P Sundarambal? We all know are super actors, but they also belong to the same acting school. The acting school, known as Boys company in 1910, was where they were taught to act, manage the shows, and even do bookkeeping. 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 one full lesson on Sankardas Swamigal.
Sankardas was born in 1867, to “Ramayana Pulavar” Damodaran Pillai and Kanthimathi Ammal, in the port city of Tuticorin. During his early years, he received Tamizh education from his father. Afterward, Sankardas was taught by the renowned Tamil scholar of that era, Palani Dandapani Swamigal. Furthermore, none other than the legendary Tamil savant Udumalai Sarabam Muthuswami Kavirayar was his classmate.
At the age of sixteen, Sankardas had already begun writing venbaas and songs, despite working as an accountant in a salt factory. However, this job hindered his proficiency in the Tamil language and he decided to leave it when he was twenty-four years old in search of excellence. Thus, the seeds were sown for the entry of a man on the Tamil stage scene who would be regarded as its first Guru par excellence, a man to whom many leading stage artists of the next generation owed their craft.
Sankardas proficiency in Tamizh grammar, ability to write poetry quickly – aasukavi, and 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 first to recognize young Sankardas. He joined their troupe as an actor and later also became a drama writer. Further, He did various 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 a 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. Sankardas never married and 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 magic 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. At that time the famous Mridanga Vidwans of the time, Pudukottai Dakshinamurthy Pillai and Pazhani Muthiah Pillai were students of Pillai. Manpoondia 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, he wrote the songs for Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar’s immortal classic, Manoharan.
T S Kannuswamy Pillai, the father of the legendary TKS brothers, was first 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 classified as before Swamigal’s time and after Swamigal’s time.
Swamigal’s plays kept alive the art of theater even after his time.
N S Krishnan would refer to Swamigal as the Himalayas of the theater world.
In 1918, Swamigal and a few of his friends started their company, the Tattva Meenalochani Vidwat Bala Sabha. It was here that T S Kannuswamy Pillai, who had first 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. You may ask, what was remarkable about this? Swamigal wrote this play of 4 hours in one night.
Swamigal was a strict disciplinarian, and he forbade artists from consuming betel- or tobacco-leaf or cigarettes. Those who defied his rule were punished by his expulsion. Many had run out of their school due to this.
Swamigal had a large group of students and the students kept surrounding the Swamigal like bees around honey flowers. G S Munusamy Naidu, Saminatha Mudaliar, Srinivasa Alwar, Natesa Pathar, M R Govindasamy Pillai, C Kannaiah, C S Chamanna, Sundararao, Surya Narayana Bhagavatar, Madurai Mariyappa Swamy, S G Kittappa, R V Manickam, and T K Shanmugam brothers are notable among the male students. Mrs. Balambal, Balamani, Aranganayaki, Korangi Manickam, and D D Thayammal are notable among the students. K Sarangapani and R Balasubramaniam, who later became famous in films, were also students of Swamigal.
During his last days, Swamigal was cared for by his students. Paralyzed with a stroke, he died on November 13th, 1922 in Pondicherry.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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- ‘Father of Tamil Drama’ – Sri Sankaradas Swamigal - March 22, 2023
