M. S. Subbulakshmi Quotes

Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi was an Indian Carnatic singer from Madurai, Tamil Nadu. She was the first musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. She is the first Indian musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay award, often considered Asia's Nobel Prize, in 1974 with the citation reading "Exacting purists acknowledge Srimati M. S. Subbulakshmi as the leading exponent of classical and semi-classical songs in the carnatic tradition of South India. She was the First Indian who performed in United Nations General Assembly in 1966." Wikipedia  

✵ 16. September 1916 – 11. December 2004
M. S. Subbulakshmi photo
M. S. Subbulakshmi: 7   quotes 2   likes

Famous M. S. Subbulakshmi Quotes

“The singing legend lives on her suprabathams (morning prayer songs) and w:bhajansbhajans.”

Quoted in Ode to a Nightingale in "The Complete Guide to Functional Writing in English}, pages= 11-12
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“She incandesced as she sang. Her singing voice employed more than the process of phonation, more than the scope of the larynx.”

Gopal Gandhi in his book of "A Certain Age: Twenty Life Sketches", page=166
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“Indian music is oriented solely to the end of divine communication. If I have done something in this respect entirely due to the grace of the Almighty who has chosen my humble self as a tool.”

Quoted in Ode to a Nightingale.[Sarada, M., The Complete Guide to Functional Writing in English, http://books.google.com/books?id=R--f51qlYrkC&pg=PA11, 1 October 2005, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 978-81-207-2923-0, 11–12]

“My greatest fear is giving performances. I feel I am responsible for the audience BUT I am also scared of them.”

Quotations by 60 Greatest Indians, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/quotations.html,

“Sarojini Naidu repositioned her own title of Nightingale of India on to Subbalakshmi’s avian frame, it was because that daughter of Bengal saw the gift of song arriving and alighting on this daughter of India’s south, like a migratory bird from the collective genius of our music.”

Gopal Gandhi in his book [Gandhi, Gopal, Of a Certain Age: Twenty Life Sketches, http://books.google.com/books?id=Inp4jPFUHUkC&pg=PA164, 2011, Penguin Books India, 978-0-670-08502-6, 166]
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“Even if Subbalakshmi merely recited the words of her songs without singing them, he would prefer to hear them than anybody else.”

Mahatma Gandhi quoted here.[Johri, Meera, Greatness of Spirit: Profiles of Indian Magsaysay Award Winners, http://books.google.com/books?id=j1iegDJAYakC&pg=PA55, 2010, Rajpal & Sons, 978-81-7028-858-9, 58]
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“Oh! Who am I; a mere Prime Minister before the queen of song.”

Once Pandit Jawhar Lal Nehru heard Subbalakshmi when he could not help exclaiming, as quoted here in "Greatness of Spirit: Profiles of Indian Magsaysay Award Winners", page=58.
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