Birthdays & Anniversaries
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| 9.9.1914 - 2007 |
Tanjavur Muktha was born in September 1914 to Veena Dhanammal’s fourth daughter Kamakshi. She was one among six children of Kamakshi and 13 grandchildren of Dhanammal. When Muktha was seven and elder sister Brinda nine, they were sent to Kanchipuram Naina Pillai for their musical education. In the four years that they stayed at Kanchipuram, Brinda and Muktha learnt as many as 400 compositions of Tyagaraja, a few compositions of Syama Sastry and Subbaraya Sastry and innumerable Tevaram and Tiruppugazh songs. Naina Pillai was satisfied with their progress and asked Kamakshi to take them back and polish their music in “your mother’s incomparable bani”.
Back home, Brinda-Muktha’s aunt Lakshmiratnam became their guru. She taught them innumerable compositions of Dikshitar, Syama Sastry, Subbaraya Sastry, Gopalakrishna Bharati and their family treasure of padam-s and TRIBUTE T. Muktha: The last bastion of an inimitable tradition javali-s and moulded their music along the lines of their inimitable grandmother. A grateful Muktha would later in life give Lakshmiratnam’s name to her only daughter. Dhanammal herself taught Brinda and Muktha about 30 to 40 compositions.
T. Muktha, of the renowned vocal duo Brinda-Muktha, passed away on the morning of Sunday, March 11th 2007. She was 92. Muktha is survived by her daughter Lakshmi and granddaughters Vardhini Prem and Uma Vasudevan.
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