Seetha Chidambaram – a quiet torch bearer of music, art, and literature

By Sivapriya Krishnan

Oppillal, a strikingly meaningful Tamil name, comes from oppu and illal, meaning she who has no comparison; she who has no match—inimitable. Oppillal is a name of Seetha Chidambaram's mother in whose memory she started the Oppillal School of Music and Fine Arts in Abhiramapuram, Chennai.

Seetha Chidambaram hails from the family of Sir Muthiah Chettiar. The Annamalai Manram in Chennai is named after her grandfather Annamalai Chettiar and the Tamil Isai Sangam operates out of here. Her father was the famous industrialist M.A. Chidambaram, who was instrumental in building the M. A. Chidambaram Cricket stadium in Chepauk, Chennai. Her father-in-law, C.V. CT. Venkatachalam Chettiar was the pioneer founder of Mylapore Fine Arts. Her elder brother is the industrialist A. C. Muthiah and of her two cousins, one is P Chidambaram, the former finance minister, and the other is M.A.M Ramaswamy the famous industrialist. A.C. Muthiah and Devaki Muthiah take care of Annamalai Manram, the Tamil Isai school, and the music festival. The family has interacted with and supported several great musicians, academicians, freedom fighters, politicians, industrialists and historians, and other achievers. Coming from a remarkable lineage, they embody the principles of artistic preservation, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, and nation-building with ease. 

After completing her schooling at Rosary Matriculation School, Seetha went on to complete her pre-university in Stella Maris College, Chennai. She completed her Bachelors degree at Queen Marys College Chennai. She was an avid debater and ranked first in the University Debating competition. Later, she also earned her Master’s degree in English Literature through correspondence from Madurai Kamaraj University. In parallel, she learnt Sanskrit from Desikan and thereafter from Krishnamurthy Sastrigal of The Sanskrit College and completed Kovida from Mysore University. She was trained to play the veena under the tutelage of G.N. Dandapani Iyer, a senior artist at the All India Radio, Chennai, who joined when the radio station operated out of Egmore. He was in charge of the Vadya Vrinda section and notated many kritis for this, which are still available in the archives. His grandson is S.P. Ramh, also a vainika and vocalist, having trained under Lalgudi Jayaraman.

Seetha Chidambaram started this institution about thirteen years ago, in the name of her beloved mother Opillal Chidambaram, wife of M.A. Chidambaram, also called Abhirami, a great patron of the arts, music, and other cultural studies. Her mother, Opillal Chidambaram, used to play the veena, and that instrument came to Seetha after her demise. One day, as she was looking at the veena fondly, she came up with the idea of starting a school of music in her mother’s name, and thus was born the Opillal School of Music and Fine Arts.

The institution functions out of a small, beautiful, cottagelike house in Abhiramapuram, a hereditary property that has been handed down to her from two generations before She found in Chandrasekhar—a disciple of Kalpakam Swaminathan —a vainika, a good teacher who agreed to teach in her school. She, along with a handful of her friends, became one of the first disciples, and slowly the school expanded to teaching keyboard, vocal music, and dance. She also felt that ancient bhakti music and literature in Tamil should reach many more people, and she started off these classes. The legendary Koti Lingam Ayya and Sargurunathan Oduvar, both steeped in Tevaram, Tirumurai, Tiruppugazh, and Tamil bhakti literature, joined the team as teachers and thus began the journey. While the Oduvar taught the standard recitation of Pann style renditions of the Tevaram, Koti Lingam taught Tirumurai, Tiruppugazh, and Tamil compositions by other composers too, such as the Tamil moovar, Papanasam Sivan, Gopalakrishna Bharati, and others. Slowly, steadily, the institution came to be known, and more students enrolled for classes. She says with joy and pride that they have functioned now for thirteen years successfully, and especially did wonderfully well during the Covid period, with online classes and YouTube videos.

Seetha Chidambaram has an able secretary in Seethalakshmi, who is the functioning director of the school and its events. A Mathematics teacher by profession, Seethalakshmi takes care of the syllabus, running of the school, social media outreach, and so on. Together, they hit upon many brilliant ideas to keep the school going during those lockdown days by conducting classes online. It was at this time that they came up with the thought of a programme to spread awareness of various temples, a brief history about them, unique details, slokas, and music compositions on the deity and kshetra. They have, to date, compiled these inputs on sixty-one temples starting from Pillaiyarpatti and extending up to Kalahasti. These videos have been uploaded online for public viewing. They have got experts like Sharada Nambi Arooran to talk on Tiruvarur, Seerkazhi Siva Chidambaram speak on the Seerkazhi temple, Chitra Madhavan on the Srirangam and Tirukadaiyur temples, and Devaki Muthiah about the Kanchi temple, and so on. The Big Temple of Brihadeeswara in Tanjavur alone has two episodes filled with many unique details that have not been highlighted before. Soundarya Lahari, Lalitha Sahasranamam, and Abirami Andadi - with explanations by Seetha Chidambaram herself in both Tamil and English are also available on YouTube.

They conducted a Skanda Sashti vizha during Covid and mastered the techniques of online usage and dissemination. The school function was also conducted like this, and for the first time, the Opilla Mani award and title were given to Revathy Sankaran for her contributions to art and culture. They introduced many new artists from Sri Lanka and concluded the event with a QFR (Quarantine From Reality) concert of Bhakti music on Lord Muruga in Tamil Cinema titled Singaravelarum Cinema Paadalum by Shubhasree Thanikachalam with her band of musicians.

Apart from these activities, Seetha is credited with bringing out an eleven-volume Encyclopaedia of Hinduism working alongside Annapoorni Veerappan. This publication for the India Heritage Research Foundation is an exhaustive compilation, published by Rupa Publications, and involves a lot of research, coordination, and content, collaborating with academicians, historians, and publishers. She has also released, under the banner of her school, a book titled Tiruvasaga Isai Amudham. This book gives the songs and notations in traditional Carnatic ragas for the entire Tiruvasagam by Manikkavasagar, one of the big four Nayanmars of the Saivite Bhakti tradition. The musical notations were done by G.N. Dandapani Iyer, her guru. Prof. N. Ramanathan has written the preface for this book.

Seetha is of a soft, graceful, and composed demeanour, selfeffacing, eager, energetic, and quietly motivated to do many more good things for the sake of art, music, and literature. Her gentle and affable persona belies the great family she hails from, or her credentials and qualifications, with all the laurels sitting lightly on her head. Her sole focus remains the school, children, staff, and syllabus. Preservation of art and culture requires such patrons with magnanimity and vision, and Seetha Chidambaram stands tall in her zone as an exemplar, true to the name Opillal, one who is incomparable.

(The author is a Carnatic vocalist, writer and management professional)