In Adoration of Kamakshi

Dr. R. Asha (Sivasree Gopalakrishnan) is an M.A., M.Phil and Ph.D in Sanskrit. A top ranker throughout, she was awarded for prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru scholarship for Doctoral Studies from the Jawarlal Nehru Memorial Fund, New Delhi to pursue her doctorate on the krtis of Sri Muttusvami Diksita under the guidance of Dr. E.R. Ramabai, former Professor and Head of the Department of Sanskrit, University of Madras, which she completed in 1999. After a brief stint as a Lecturer in Sanskrit in Stella Maris College, Chennai and Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Meha Vidyalaya, Tambaram centre, Chennai, she had the opportunity to serve as the Chief Editor for a trilingual quarterly cultural magazine “Sandarshanan”. She was also an active contributor to Tattvaloka, another internationally known magazine on Indian culture. Apart from having attended various conferences, workshops and seminars, she has several writings and lec-dems to her credit. She is presently associated with Adi Sankara Advaita Research Centre, Chennai and also continues to contribute insightful articles on philosophy, religion and culture. Dr. Asha is a disciple of musical veterans “Gana kala Bharati”, “Sangita Kala Pravina”, “Dasa Kala Ratna”, Smt. Seetha Narayanan and veena vidhushi “Diksitarini”, “Sangita Kala Acarya”, late Smt. Kalpagam Swaminathan. She is also well trained in Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi and Mohiniyattam.