Tiger Varadachariar Biography 
Tiger Varadachariar was a Carnatic music vocalist from Kolathur, Tamil Nadu who has been honoured with Sangeetha Kalanidhi title by Madras Music Academy in the year 1932. 'Eediname Sudinamu' and 'Nidu Charanamule' are among his noted compositions. Noted Carnatic music composer and vocalist, M. D. Ramanathan was his popular disciple. He was a disciple of Patnam Subramania Ayyar. He was honoured by King of Mysore - Krishnaraja Wodeyar, who offered him the honour title ‘Tiger’. Since then he came to be known as Tiger Varadachariar.
Tiger Varadachariar was born into a family of musicians in 1876. Many of his family members pursued music. His father Ramanujachariar was a musical discourser. His siblings - K.V. Srinivasa Ayyangar and K.V. Krishnamachariar were acclaimed musicologist and Veena artist respectively. His singing talent was encouraged by Masilamani and Pedda Singaracharyulu, and later he learnt under Patnam Subramania Ayyar. He learnt Carnatic music under his guru for three years since 14 years old. However due to financial problems, he had to take a job at Survey Department at Kozhikode. But he didn’t break his relationship with music and once he returned back to Mysore he pursued a career in music. For his singing talents, he was honoured with the title – Tiger by Krishnaraja Wodeyar.
His music concerts were loved by many. In 1940 he sang at Tyagaraja Festival held at Kalyana Mahal building in Tiruvaiyyaru. He had a deep knowledge on Carnatic music and done a few compositions as well. Begada was Tiger's forte and he had the ability to weave through the raga's complexities as he pleased. Once he received praise from Dhanammal which he considered a rare merit indeed. He was a critic to himself. In his book Naa Kanda Kalaavidharu, Mysore Vasudevacharya appreciated this genius and compared his imagination to precious gemstones. At times Tiger's comic sense of clothing has received attention of many. He passed away in 1950.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 19, 2016
