This post features the Indian singer Damal Krishnaswamy Pattamal (DK) stamp. It is a fact that the contributions of women across all fields are not celebrated enough on postage stamps. This is particularly true for music theme stamps. It is true across the globe, there are not enough stamps with women musicians from the United States, from Europe, or from most of the world. You can read about a few of them on other posts on this blog including stamps depicting Clara Schumann, Billie Holiday and Patsy Cline, among others. This post features one of the most significant women musicians of India: D. K. Pattammal.
D. K. Pattammal
Damal Krishnaswamy (known as D. K.) Pattammal was a famed Carnatic vocalist. She was born in 1919 into a Brahmin family living in Kancheepuram of Tamil Nadu, India. Her father was a lover of traditional Carnatic music, the classical music of southern India, and gave her encouragement to study it. She did not have formal training in the art form, but after attending concerts would return home and make notations of what she heard and copy it. She also sang hymns and songs her parents taught her.
At the age of 8, she won a singing competition. Then, when she was ten, she sang on the radio for the Madras Corporation Radio. Three years later, she gave her first solo recital. Pattammal went to the city of Chennai in order to have more opportunities for her singing career. There she would marry in 1939, just as she was becoming a well-known singer.
Career
Pattammal was especially known for her knowledge about, and renditions of, compositions by the eighteenth-century composer Muthuswami Dikshita. She learned this repertoire directly from one of his descendants. Her renditions of this body of work made many of these older songs popular with twentieth-century audiences.
Scott Number IN 716
Pattammal broke down several barriers during her life. As an upperclass Brahmin woman, it was taboo for her to perform in public. However, she ignored these prohibitions and was the first Brahmin woman to perform Carnatic music publicly. Pattamal also sang music that was the previously only sung by men. In addition, she even sang the Ragam Thanam Pallavi, the most challenging of all Carnatic works and that had only been performed by men. Pattammal’s popularity led her to tour not only throughout India, but to even appear in Europe and North America.
Pattamal was known for her ability to sing this difficult repertoire and for her technical perfection. Indeed, her efforts made it possible for other women to now sing these songs. Pattammal, along with two other women, M. S. Subbulakshmi and M. L. Vasanthakumari, became known as the female trinity of Carnatic Music. Their success paved the way for subsequent women.
Movie Music
Pattamal was one of the first Indian classical musicians to sing in movies. The first such recording took place in 1939. In that movie, the song she sang was about the Indian Freedom Movement. It appears along with freedom fighters marching in procession. For this reason, there was a ban on both the movie and the song by the British government.
She went on to record songs for many Indian films, but Pattamal would only sing devotional or patriotic songs in these films. In 2000, at the age of 80, she was one of the artists to participate in a video album celebrating the 50th anniversary of Indian self rule. Pattamal died in July of 2009 at the age of 90. Learn more about this extraordinary musician here.
Indian Singer Damal Krishnaswamy (DK) Pattammal Stamp
Michel number IN 2840
The Pattammal stamp was one of eight stamps issued by India in 2014 to celebrate Indian musicians. In addition to Pattammal, it also features international superstars like Ali Akhbar Khan and Ravi Shankar. This article describes the public event for their release. The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, stated, “that as we pay tribute to eight of the greatest music maestros of contemporary India, we celebrate their life and work and their matchless legacy.” The design of the stamps, which appear singly or in a commemorative mini-sheet, is by Sankha Samanta. The printing was by the SPP company in Hyderabad.
You can hear a short example of D. K. Pattammal singing below.
