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Musicians, music lovers and others had gathered with enthusiasm at Kalyana Mahal building in Tiruvaiyyaru to organize a festival celebrating the composer Tyagaraja. It was the year 1940 and Kalyana Mahal was not equipped for the use of electric power at that time. Tiger Varadachariar had occupied one of the rooms in the Mahal along with some of his students from Annamalai University. Another group of persons parked camp right across from them. Tiger had retired for the night in the pathway between these two rooms, and his snores seemed to surpass the range of the 22 Shrutis. Engineer (a Parsi), was the first person to come across the musician's recumbent form. Unable to contain his surprise Engineer wondered out aloud in English: "Is this fellow Tiger?? He's making all sorts of funny noises!" Pat came a reply in fluent English "Yes, yes, this fellow is Tiger.  He is set to make a wider variety of sounds shortly!"  And with those words Tiger started to sing, Begada ragam and tanam. A dumbstruck Engineer tried to overcome his surprise....until then he had not met a musician capable of conversing in English, neither had he met a tiger who could talk!

It was only befitting that scholars on an equal footing with Tiger become his critics. When that was not possible, we would just have to rely on Tiger to critic himself! That is because it is not an easy task to critique the depth of Tiger's knowledge or enjoy his musicianship. In spite of this, several reputed musicians have praised Tiger's genius and I now recall the details given by Veenai Dhanammal and Sangita Shastra Visharada, Sangita Ratna, Sangita Kalanidhi Vasudevachariar.

Begada was Tiger's forte, he could weave through the raga's complexities as he pleased, the raga becoming much like a weapon with Tiger wielding control as an accurate marksman. Tiger had taken up Begada to elaborate with ragam and tanam at the Tiruvaiyyaru festival in the year 1940. He had sung Begada in 1937 at a concert in a marriage that had taken place in Veenai Dhanammal's family. On that day in 1937, Tiger's accompanists had briskly joined hands to keep pace with the musician, all in tandem making the concert successful. Papa Venkataramaiah was on the violin and Palani Muthaiah Pillai on the mridangam. Even as he set out Tiger was well aware that he had to wrap up the concert in a timely fashion, he had a train to catch right after. Tiger needed to get back to Chidambaram to his workplace Annamalai University. As was usual, dinner was planned for after the concert. But by the time Begada ragam, tanam, and the kriti along with neraval were through, a solid foundation had been set for swaraprasthara. And there was Dhanammal, rapt in attention and appreciative with a Sabaash! every so often. The concert could not but conclude in its own time, and afterward a somewhat flustered Tiger descended the stage approaching his hostess, "Dhanamma! I've been singing myself hoarse. Did you really have to ask me to sing before you?"  Perhaps the severest critic of the time, her knowledge and tolerance were both legendary. But Dhanammal interrupted the hurrying musician with succint praise that Tiger's music was sweet!  With that word she gifted him a huge trophy made of silver filled to the brim with sugar candy. Tiger was overjoyed: he made a quick jig dancing with joy as he accepted her appreciation. To receive praise from Dhanammal was a rare merit indeed. "What an honour!" he exclaimed as he started out to the train station.

Even if Tiger were to critique himself, the vidwan known for his humility could be nothing but circumspect and self effacing. There was the time when a fellow musician was unable to perform for a radio programme at the stipulated time andTiger had come in to fill that spot. On that day Tiger was accompanied by Chowdaiah on the violin and Mani Iyer on the mridangam. The tambura player awaiting Tiger's arrival was unfamiliar with the pitch of the singer.  He greeted Tiger and requested him for the shruti in order to tune the instrument. Tiger replied without hesitation, "My shruti? I thought it was common knowledge!  It is low, quite low, reaching almost to the bottom of the well."  Here was one of the greatest musicians of all time mincing no words when asked about his sore spot. Tiger's audiences often felt that his voice did no justice to the emotive appeal of his musicianship. At times the opinion was that Tiger's voice perhaps even restricted his imagination by setting limits to what the musician could or not sing.  Tiger's skills in music were unsurpassed despite this seeming limitation.  The Sitar musician Nawab Ali Khan who also happened to be the Talukdar of Ayodhya at the time, visited Madras along with the Simon Commission. [1942?] They sought an opportunity to listen to Carnatic music.  Nawab Ali Khan's words of appreciation were reserved only for the music of Tiger Varadachariar and Veenai Dhanammal.

In 1940 Tiger Varadachariar and Lakshmi Ratnammal the younger daughter of Veenai Dhanammal, spent a couple of months as the guests of Dr. Seetapati Iyer in Kodaikanal. Tiger would set out to practice music everyday at 4am. Lakshmi Ratnammal would also join in. In the cold climes of Kodaikanal, singing out loud in the early hours of the morning required stamina.  Upon hearing Tiger sing, Lakshmi Ratnammal used to say that thinking ill of Tiger's voice was possible only if one could trust a rumour to be true. On that occasion, Lakshmi Ratnammal also learnt a rare varnam in the raga Navroj from Tiger.

In his book Naa Kanda Kalaavidharu, Mysore Vasudevacharya appreciated Tiger's genius by comparing his imagination to precious gemstones. Mysore Vasudevacharya's book is written in chaste Kannada in the definitive language of a scholar, making a translation impossible. In my opinion it is very difficult to arrive at any conclusion about the emotive aspect of a musician's imagination and the depth in his swaraprasthara with only the help of words. However, I can understand what the composer was attempting to convey. Invariably, every time I read Vasudevacharya's writings about Tiger, I am reminded of the incident I witnessed while listening to Tiger Varadachariar several years ago at Ranade Hall in Mylapore. It was Shyama Sastry's anniversary and The Madras Music Academy had organised a festival in his memory. The talk sessions seemed to go on and on almost endlessly, and then it was Tiger's turn.  He came towards the podium, took a minute or two to reflect on Shyama Sastry's compositions within his mind, and suddenly began singing  "kannatalli gAdA biDDayanikanikaramintaina lEdA, ambA?"  - the anupallavi of Sastry's Todi kriti Ninne Namminaanu. Transported to a world of his own Tiger was seen swaying gently and to all outward appearance he was lost in the experience of Shyama Sastry's music.

On another occasion I remember Tiger's concert for one of the Music Conference sessions. He sang at People's Park with Papa on the fiddle and Mani Iyer on the mridangam. Tiger was presenting the Janaranjani kriti Vidajaaladuraa.  Jalatarangam Ramaniah Chettiar who was in the audience, quietly walked upto Tiger and softly requested permission to be excused from the concert as he had to leave early on an urgent mission. Tiger agreed with a laugh attempting to outshine Chettiar with his response: "But of course!  What's going on now is but a session of singing out of key, isn't it?"  Chettiar was stunned. "I haven't heard such a Janaranjani in nearly forty years. What can be more pressing now than to listen to you?" he asked as he went back to his seat.  Within some time, Tiger's voice was in full form and he began Saveri ragam followed by Tulasi Jagat Janani along with neraval and swaram, the accompanists and the singer were competing against each other to be at their best.  Once the main piece was through, Tiger spotted Chettiar in the audience addressing him with enthusiasm "Chettiar, we're even now!  Please attend to that task you said had to get done urgently."

Tiger had a keen sense of humour. If he faced trouble with his voice on some day, Tiger's concert became all the more animated, his gestures particularly noticeable as he took special effort to grunt and clear his throat! He held to his title "Tiger" with a childlike sense of immense pride.  Veena Seshanna had praised him a lion among musicians. Tiger was now Lion Tiger, and in time simply Liger! One year, The Music Academy's conference was held in the grounds adjacent to the Madras Zoo.  When Karnatakam highlighted the aptness of Tiger's concert being held near the Zoo, that remark was first acknowledged in the music community by Varadachariar's close friend Mysore Vasudevacharya.

At times Tiger's comic sense of clothing attracted a lot of comment.  In his writings in Kannada, Mysore Vasudevacharya somewhat charmingly describes his friend's antiquities. Tiger was unduly fond of wearing a monkey cap. It was next to impossible for anyone to catch Tiger without his cap. He was also known to admire his appearance standing in front of a mirror wearing that cap feeling somewhat puffed up with importance, greeting himself with the words "Anjaneya Namaha."  As his friends began pleading with him more and more to discard that woolly cap, Tiger only became increasingly fond of wearing it.  A saying in Tamil compares wearing a cap to being hoodwinked, the simile "making one wear a cap" usually compares to conning someone.  Tiger would often refer to this adage to justify himself: "Before some one else plants a cap on my head, I better be warned and wear one for myself!"  Just as the rats one time faced the dilemma "Who will bell the cat?" so too the topic "Who can make Tiger renounce his cap?" was tossed and turned into solid debate.  Many of Tiger's friends finally went to Mysore Vasudevacharya for help.

One day Tiger happened to arrive at Vasudevacharya's residence when the latter was singing.  Tiger of course was wearing that heavenly possession of his, that monkey cap.  On seeing him Vasudevacharya simply stopped his singing: perhaps it was in reaction to the cap, we don't know. Tiger insisted and succeeded in making Vasudevacharya resume and the music session went on for about two hours as Vasudevacharya sang Kamboji.  Tiger was listening completely transfixed, and soon as he came out of the reverie he consented to grant Vasudevacharya anything that he could wish for. Now here was a rare opportunity that was not to be missed. Vasudevacharya promptly asked Tiger to bless and crown him king with the monkey cap.  When recalling this incident in his memoirs, Vasudevacharya remarks that on that occasion not only was he ecstatic but it seemed to him so too was that cap!  Vasudevacharya also writes that he was used to seeing many people who have the external appearance of a benign cow but turned out to be a raging tiger within. He was absolutely certain that for him to meet anyone like Tiger (who only appeared fearsome) would be a rarity.