Aesthetic and Scientific Values in Carnatic Music

Vidya Shankar, B.A., B.T., had her training in vina and vocal music under eminent Vidvans-Sangitakalanidhi Sabhesa Iyer, Madras Sabhapathi Iyer, Syama Sastry (great-grandson of the composer Syama Sastry) and Sangitakalanidhi T.L. Venkatarama Iyer. She has taught music, mathematics and Sanskrit in Kalakshetra and was a lecturer in Musicology in the Central College of Carnatic Music, Madras. She was awarded the Vina Shanmukha-Vadivu Prize by the madras Music Academy in 1973. She has been giving vina-concerts and lecture-demonstrations over the A.I.R. and Doordarshan, in universities and institutions in India and abroad; was the convenor for the lecture-demonstrations held at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in 1987 and 1988; directed and conducted the vina workshop, crash course in Musiocology and Vina-playing in the exhibition Stree held at the Festival of India in Moscow inj 1988; delivered the Dr. Raghavan Sashtiabhtapurti Endowment lecture on Maha Vaidhyanatha Sivan's Melaragamalika and Vidwan Sabesa Iyer's Endowment lecture for a Bodhaka on Compositions of Pallavi Doraiswamy Iyer in 1995 at the Madras Music Academy in 1988. She is a member of the Advisory Experts Committee of the Music Academy. At the exhibition of musical instruments held at the Music Academy inj 1992, she displayed a Sruti-Vina designed by her earlier for her lecture-demonstrations on the 22 and additional sruti-s. She was honoured for her services to music in general and her research and deep study of Syama Sastry's compositions in particular by Sri Kamakoti Peeta Carnataka Sangeetha Seva Trust at Thiruvarur in 1993. She was awarded the birudu of Nadakkanal in 1995. She is noted for the traditional style and purity of her vina-technique, vast scholarship and lucidity of expression in her lecture-demonstrations. In addition to the numerous articles in journals, her publications include Syama Sastry's Compositions Compositions of Subbaraya Sastry and Annaswamy Sastry, Five Padas of Justice Ananthanarayanan with gamaka-notation and translation, a biography Syama Sastry published by the National Book Trust of India in 1970 and The Art and Science of Carnatic Music published by the Madras Music Academy in 1983.