Sripada Pinakapani Biography 
Sripada Pinakapani was a great Carnatic musician who was also a medical doctor and teacher by profession. For his outstanding contributions to the world of Indian classical music he has been honoured with Sangeetha Kalasikhamani award in 1970, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1977, Padma Bhushan by Government of India in 1984, Sangeetha Kalanidhi, Gyana Vidya Vardhi by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam on his 99th birthday and many more. Pinakapani was the grandfather of popular playback singer Chinmayi Sripada. He was fondly called “Doctor Singer of Kurnool”.
Pinakapani was born on 3 August 1913 at Priya Agraharam in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. Pinakapani Kameswara Rao and Jogamma were his parents. His father was a junior professor at a college. Pinakapani took music lessons from Lakshmana Rao. He also listened to Hindustani music on gramophone records due to his quest to music and also tried to learn. He also trained under violin maestro Dwaram Venkatswamy Naidu. His interest in medicine prompted him to join MBBS course in 1932 and completed MD in general medicine from AMC, Visakhapatnam in 1945. He was also a medical doctor by profession and also worked at medical colleges as faculty. Pinakapani worked as Assistant Professor at Madras Medical College from 1944 to 1949, and later worked in various colleges till his retirement in 1968 as Professor of medicine. During his studies, he took a temporary break from music.
'Producer of melody' Pinakapani was also lovingly called Pani. He loved the renditions and compositions of Ariyakudi and Govindaswamy Pillai. A selfless teacher, Voleti Venkateswarlu, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, Nookala Chinna Sathyanarayana and Malladi Suribabu are among his prominent disciples. He also authored several books on Carnatic music - "Sangeetha Sourabhamu", "Sangeetha Yatra", "Mela Raga Malika", "Manodharma Sangeetham and "Pallavi Gana Sudha". Due to paralysis he got bedridden since 2004. Yet he continued with teaching students. He passed away a few months before his 100th birthday.
Published: N/A
Updated: March 12, 2016
