Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan Biography 
Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan is a Tamil folk singer and an exponent of Tamil folk art, who has been honored with fourth highest civilian award Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2018. Till now she has published twenty three articles on folk art, and is regular with talk shows on television and radio related to the topic of Tamil folk art. She was the first folk artist from Tamil Nadu to receive a PhD for her scholarly work in the field of folk art. She has been a renowned teacher who retired as a professor from the department of folk arts at the Madurai Kamaraj University. Together with her husband Dr M. Navaneethakrishnan, she has conducted several years of research and study on Tamil folk music and dances. Her husband co-authored 11 books too.
Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan was born in Tamil Nadu on 27 January 1946. She is married to Dr M. Navaneethakrishnan, who is also a renowned folk artist and researcher. The couple were instrumental in taking folk songs as an art form to the masses. They conduct research on Tamil arts together and also publish books, related to the subject. They also conduct stage performances in India and abroad. They are the first folk artists hailing from the state to perform in countries abroad.
They retired as professors in the Department of Folk Arts and Culture from the Madurai Kamaraj University. After retirement, the duo has exclusively reserved their time for research works and is involved in creating an encyclopaedia on Tamil folk art at present. In a career spanning to many decades, they have also recorded more than 1000 cassettes/albums on Tamil folk music. Long ago they had identified the need of collecting and preserving as many folk art forms as possible for posterity, and sharing the wealth of this knowledge with the world.
Published: February 27, 2019
Updated: February 27, 2019
