Aniruddha Knight Biography 
Aniruddha Knight is a budding star of South Indian classical art form – Bharatnatyam. He originally belongs to a devadasi family of hereditary musicians and dancers which claims to a lineage of more than 200 years, and Aniruddha belongs to the ninth generation of descendants. He is the grandson of Balasaraswati, a celebrated and prolific Bharatnatyam dancer, and a recipient of Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan for her outstanding contributions to the field of dance. His granduncles - T. Ranganathan and T. Viswanathan were legendary musicians who excelled in the field of mridangam and flute respectively. He is the great grandson of the legendary Veena Dhanammal, the great exponent of Veena.
He was born on November 13, 1980. His childhood and teens were spent in India and US. He was born to an American, Douglas Knight, and Lakshmi, Balasaraswati's daughter. Douglas got attached to this legendary family of art when he studied mridangam at Wesleyan University, where Balasaraswati and her younger brothers - T. Ranganathan and T. Viswanathan were teaching. Aniruddha was initiated to the world of art by none other than his legendary maternal grandmother Balasaraswati. Since then he was fully exposed to the world of Indian art of dance and music and brought up in an artistic environment as well.
His schooling was done in Tamil Nadu as well as US, and he is fluent in Tamil. He completed graduation from Seton Hall University in 2004. After initiated to Bharatnatyam by his grandmother, he continued training from his mother, who herself is a great artist. He also took training in Carnatic music and veena from Veghavahini, the daughter of the legendary artist T. Brinda. Made his debut Bharatnatyam in 1997, he is now active with live shows across the globe – a torch bearer of his lineage.
Published: N/A
Updated: March 27, 2016
