Kapali Temple Mathalam Vidwan Balasubramaniam

Asthana Mathalam Vidwan J Balasubramaniam has been serving at the six kaalam pooja at the Kapaleeswarar Temple for over two decades following in the footsteps of his appa Jayachandran who was at the Saint Poets praised Mylapore Temple for three decades from the late 1960s.  Balasubramaniam spent his entire childhood listening to the Thevaram verses of the Othuvars at the Kapali temple. 

His forefathers hailed from Thiru Kannapuram, a Divya Desam praised with a 100 verses by Thiru Mangai Azhvaar and were Thavil Vidwans at this historical temple. For several decades, his grandfather Srinivasan presented the Thavil at the Sowri Raja Perumal Sannidhi. The ustavams had been grand and his grandfather enjoyed the presentations early morning through the month of Margazhi in addition to playing during the round the year utsavams. It was a serene atmosphere around the temple and vibrant through the year. He was given accommodation and reasonable amount of Paddy as remuneration for his services. Into the 1960s, life turned financially challenging with the exodus of original inhabitants and a slowdown in the utsavams. 

Jayachandran learned mridangam at the Dharmapuram Atheenam for a few years and then moved to the music college in Madras in the mid 1960s to further his proficiency in Thavil. While the situation had turned sour at Thiru Kannapuram and the future prospects looked bleak, he was keen to head back to the Divya Desam to continue the services at the temple after completion of his course at the music college.

However, a pleasant surprise awaited him. In 1968, Kapali Temple’s Nagaswaram vidwan of the time Balu asked him to join his troupe at the temple as they were looking for a Thavil artiste. Instead of taking the train back to Thiru Kannapuram, Jayachandran entered the Kapali temple to present Thavil every day of the year for a dozen years at a monthly salary of Rs. 75.

In 1980, he received the official appointment for ‘Mathalam Sevai’ from the temple and performed at the temple for another two decades.

Balasubramaniam had grown up at the Kapaleeswarar temple from the time he was a crawling child. “The presentation of the Othuvars was a big early influence on me and it played an important role in me becoming devotionally attached to the Lord. From very early on, it had been my devotional dream to present in front of the Swami and Ambal at Mylapore.”

He learned Mridangam from Thanjavur Natarajan, former Principal of the Music College in Madras. End of the previous century, he finally managed to get that opportunity. For close to 25years, he has been presenting Mathalam service during the Deepaaradhanai each day of the year in addition to playing during the Utsavams.

A dozen years ago, he received an offer from the music college but by then he had become deeply attached to Kapaleeswarar. He does not regret the rejection“I would have earned double the salary today had I joined the Music College in 2010 but from my childhood I had been fed on Kapali’s food. If money was the only thing in life, I would have moved out but the message from Ambal and Swami was clear to believe in them and continue my service at this temple. I had no two thoughts about it and firmly had faith in the divine couple that they would take care of me.”

In these dozen years, since that offer, he has also received project based offers to perform but he has rejected each one of them“I could have earned a lot outside as there is high demand but I understood early on that God writes our accounts – I have always heard him ask me as to what I am doing for him each day. Even if I fail one kaalam in my service, he gives me an alert that my mind is deviating from devotional service towards monetary benefits.”

The biggest of donors did not have the opportunity to have darshan during the Pandemic where as he was blessed to be presenting before the Lord. “That’s the kind of devotion he has come to relate to with Kapali and Ambal”

As a young child, his appa initiated into ‘devotion without expectation’ and through the last two decades he has tried his best to follow his appa’s message on service to the Lord. His devotion to Kapali has meant that he has had to skip the weddings of even close relatives. 

On the eve of Pournami this Vaikasi, he was invited to Tiruttani but his mind has been devotionally bonded to Kapali and he did not make the trip.

Sometime in life, he wants to experience Sowri Raja Perumal at Thiru Kannapuram where his forefather had played the Thavil for several decades. That is still a far way off for he has atleast another dozen years of service at the Kapali temple. For the moment, his mind is all on Kapaleeswarar and Karpagambal.