“Mysore Vasudevacharya was a legendary Karnatak classical musician, composer and lyricist in the direct musical lineage of Saint Tyagaraja. Born on May 28, 1865, in Mysore, he passed away on May 17, 1961, leaving behind more than 200 compositions.”
By R. Yadupathi Putty
Many thanks to Star of Mysore and columnist Gouri Satya for having published an article on Mysore Vasudevacharya’s former residence, highlighting its value as an important heritage structure of the city (SOM dated Oct. 28).
The house was home to Acharya till he shifted to Madras in 1953 and to his heirs in the later years. It had been rented out for many years, after the family moved to Bengaluru.
It is learnt that all through, the house was home to cultural and religious activities, even the tenants having evinced interest in maintaining its sanctity.
However, it had gone to desolation since the tenants vacated in 2009. Even though it was a very small group of music-lovers which initiated the restoration of the place in 2017, the support and the participation the campaign gained were of a high order.
Keeping the legacy alive
While the neighbours and the admirers of Acharya came to help (both financially and morally) the team in keeping the place tidy and clean, the musicians evinced unprecedented enthusiasm in keeping the place active almost continuously — artistes, literally from all parts of the globe, have turned up to perform at the house, expecting absolutely no returns.
It should be interesting to note that the over 180 concerts held here in the post-COVID years have all been voluntary, except for the main artistes often paying token remuneration to the accompanists.
Artistes themselves have paid for the sound system and even arranged for lunch often, while the team here has only worked to facilitate the concerts and taken steps to propagate the news among the music-lovers.
While the team invested initially in getting structure restored, all later developments have been sponsored by the musicians or the art-lovers.
The enduring music fraternity, supported by Star of Mysore and a couple of other media, has thus been successful in bringing back to the limelight a gem of a house that had been lost in the city of Palaces.
A befitting memorial
It has been the heartfelt aspiration of hundreds of musicians visiting the place that this house be preserved in its present form and developed into a momentous memorial for the doyen, who finds a place second only to the Trinity composers in the world of Karnatak music.
However, the place remains a private property of one of the legal heirs (of Acharya), who can claim it back any time and handle it according to his needs. Hence, it is now the responsibility of the society at large and the Government in particular, to find out means to preserve the house, which stores pages of the cultural history of this land written in golden letters.
Optimistically, the local MLA T.S. Srivatsa has evinced interest and has put forth a request to the Chief Minister, on the occasion of Dasara inauguration this year, to look into the matter.
It is hoped that his plea has not fallen on deaf ears and that the matter is pursued by the authorities concerned.
I call upon the people, the heritage activists and cultural organisations to persuade the owners of the house to dispose of the place, against meaningful returns, to a party which can develop it as a memorial and to take active part in the process that helps retain the sanctity of the place.
This post was published on November 13, 2026 7:30 pm