Nithyasree Mahadevan
Even before her first formal lesson, a varnam, the young girl had already picked up the corpus of songs that the entire household knew by heart, like Santhi Nilava Vendum, Eppadi Paadinaro, Maamava Pattabhirama.
Nithyasree Mahadevan was born on 25th August 1973 to I. Sivakumar and Lalitha Sivakumar. A more pedigreed legacy would be hard to find, with her paternal grandmother being one of the female Carnatic triumvirate, D.K. Pattammal, and maternal grandfather being mridangam virtuoso Palghat Mani Iyer. Nithyasree, interestingly, was born in Thiruvaiyaru since Palghat Mani Iyer, at the time of her birth, lived on Pushya Mandapam Street there. Nithyasree explains that Palghat Mani Iyer moved often, living in some 60-70 residences in his lifetime.
She grew up almost entirely in Chennai, with her parents, her elder sister Gayathri, and her grandparents, Iswara Iyer and Pattammal, living right across from them.
The family was a very normal, traditional one with a constant stream of unannounced visitors. Everyone related to the other with the easy comfort and security of close ties, unencumbered by professional statures. Nithyasree would frequently be asked to sing and the comments were unfailingly that it was but obvious that she would sing well. “As a result, singing was routine – nothing special or noteworthy. My mother would reiterate that only if I gave my life and soul to the art could I hope to at least get a tiny fraction of what Pattammal, Mani thatha or Jayaraman mama (D.K. Jayaraman, Pattammal’s brother) achieved.”
The above is a short excerpt. The full detailed article appeared in the September 2022 issue of Sruti magazine and is available at the following link: https://www.sruti.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=6&product_id=626
Tamilnadu and in particular Chennai, is the capital of performing Arts and unique Tamil culture spread for 100s of years. India is not the richest Country in terms of Economic wealth but certainly the richest in terms of varied culture, but all striving for the same goal. Thanks Lakshmi Anandji for writing on the ever green singer from the DKP family, Smt.Nithyasree in Sruti Magazine. Certainly we can know more about Nithyasree from the magazine. It is also true, we see Smt.DKP in Nithyasree as she sings, her Grand mothers favourites on stages and in media platforms, as DKP is well remembered for her patriotic songs. Very happy indeed.
Thank you, Sri. Rajagopalan, for your regular reading of articles and for your feedback. Namaskarams.
Iam amazed at the level of your knowledge. The pleasure is on my side, every time i see the Music , Music, & food on your page. More to say, you are the teacher to many.
Music, Moods, & Meals rightly so.