Person · Carnatic vocalist · India
M. S. Subbulakshmi
Also known as M.S. Subbulakshmi, MS Subbulakshmi, Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi
Tamil Carnatic vocalist (1916–2004) born at Madurai to a Devadasi family, trained first by her mother Shanmukhavadivu, who became the first musician to receive the Bharat Ratna (1998) and the first to perform at the United Nations General Assembly (1966). Her Suprabhatam recorded in 1963 at Tirupati plays every morning at the temple and across the subcontinent; her Vishnu Sahasranamam, Bhaja Govindam and Hanuman Chalisa recordings are the standard references for those texts in modern Hindu households. Her devotional repertoire — Tyagaraja's kritis, Dikshitar, Syama Sastri, Purandara Dasa — defines the twentieth-century public reception of Carnatic music.
- Date
- 1916–2004
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Tradition
- Standard reference and biographical literature; contemporary chronicles and institutional records as applicable.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
Her 1945 film Meera — in which she played the sixteenth-century Rajput saint-poet — brought her nationwide recognition and placed her beside Mahatma Gandhi, who received her at Sevagram and asked her to sing Hari tum haro at his prayer meetings. Gandhi called her Nightingale. The 1963 Tirupati Suprabhatam recording was unpaid, performed at the Dasavatara Mandapam; the audio tape has been played at the temple's 4:30 am opening ceremony every morning since.
About the place
Placed at Madurai where she was born and in the Carnatic music world.
Connections (1)
- Admired byMohandās Karamchand Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi received M.S. Subbulakshmi at Sevagram several times from the 1940s onward and asked her to sing the devotional Hari tum haro at his prayer meetings — her recording of it was played at his 30 January 1948 funeral. He called her Nightingale. Her 1945 film Meera, released at the height of the national movement, was reviewed by Gandhi in Harijan and used Meerabai's sixteenth-century renunciation to speak to the ethical register of the 1940s nationalist moment.