Mysore Vasudevachar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mysore Vasudevachar (May 28, 1865 - May 17, 1961) was a composer of Carnatic music and a famous singer.

Vasudevachar was born in Mysore and started learning music from Veena Padmanabhiah, the chief musician of the Mysore court. He then went on to learn from the famous composer Patnam Subramania Iyer. Vasudevachar eventually became the chief court musician at the Mysore court.

Vasudevachar's compositions (numbering over 200) were mostly in Telugu and Sanskrit. Some of his most popular kritis include Brochevarevarura in Khamas, Devadideva in Sunadavinodini and Mamavatu Sri Saraswati in Hindolam. He published a large number of his compositions in the book Vasudeva Kirtana Manjari.

He is also credited with two writings in Kannada, one of them an autobiography called Nenapugalu (meaning "memories") and Nha Kanda Kalavidaru (meaning "The musicians I have met") in which he wrote the biographies of many well known musicians.^[1]

Mysore Vasudevachar also taught in Rukmini Devi's Kalakshetra, (founded in 1936). He was already quite old by then, but because of persuasion by Rukmini Devi, agreed to shift to Kalakshetra. He became the chief musician in Kalakshetra and helped in composition and choreography for the dances that Rukmini Devi selected for performances.