Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer

Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer

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Category: Music

Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer Profile

  • Name:
  • Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer
  • Father:
  • Veena Vidwan Subbiah Iyer

Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer Biography

Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer was a famous veena player of Carnatic music who lived in the 20th century. He was a native of Thirukokarnam, Tamil Nadu. He was the first recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Veena, and he was awarded in the year 1952. The same year Madras Music Academy honoured him with Sangita Kalanidhi Award. A leading veena artist in the first half of 1900s, he had numerous disciples including Karaikudi Subramanian, Rajeshwari Padmanabhan and Ranganayaki Rajagopalan. He lived in Chennai and taught music to students at Rukhmini Devi’s Kalakshetra. Iyer was known for his hard work, simply termed as "Asura Sadhaka".

 

He was born in Thirukokarnam, Tamil Nadu in the year 1888 into a musical family. His father was Veena Vidwan Subbiah Iyer. His elder was also a veena player. Sambasiva Iyer learnt to play the music instrument both from his father and elder brother. He belonged to the 7th generation of musicians who play veena and he too carried forward the tradition. Known as "Karaikudi brothers", the siblings played veena for numerous music concerts since their teens. It was broken in the year 1934. The brothers also tried their best to keep the music to its purest form without any innovations or modifications.

 

A stalwart of veena of his time, he taught numerous disciples also. He is the first recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for this music instrument. Ariakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Allaudin Khan and Mustaq Hussein Khan were the other major musicians who were awarded the same year, and they were honoured by India’s first president Rajendra Prasad. Throughout his life he spent all his time within Kalakshetra campus, where he had solitary walks in the mornings and evenings. He also rarely visited temples and religious order. The only holy person whom he visited was Mahaperiyaval, His Holiness Sri Sankaracharya of Kamakoti Pitam. He had immense faith in Sri Sankaracharya's teachings. He passed away in 1958.

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Updated: March 27, 2016

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