He hosted home concerts at “Parvathi” for nearly 70 years

By Sachi R. Sachidananda

The world woke up one morning in last September to the sad news that K. Srikantiah (KS), well-known to Karnatak (Carnatic) rasikas around the world as the patriarch of the “Home called Parvathi” had moved on…passing away in his sleep in a Bengaluru hospital in the middle of the night.

A full life of 96 years had come to an end. A titan had moved on. A man who endeared himself to musicians and rasikas around the world by hosting home concerts for nearly 70 years has breathed his last. The famous “A Home called Parvathi, Mysore” would miss its patriarch forever.

To understand the significance of  such a man dedicated to the art of classical music and related arts, we need to know that fifty years ago, in 1975, at his home in Chamarajapuram, Mysore, KS had hosted concerts in the Ramanavami festival featuring no less than ten Sangita Kalanidhis!

 Just a look at the programme invitation shows how the Who’s Who of Karnatak music came and performed in the premises of the famous bungalow, “Parvathi” in every Ramanavami and Ganesha festival — Chitti Babu, Tanjore M. Thyagarajan, N. Ramani, D.K. Jayaraman, P.S. Narayanaswamy, M.D. Ramanathan, Bombay Sisters (C. Saroja and C. Lalitha), Rudrapatnam Brothers (R.N. Taranath and Tyagarajan), Madurai Somasundaram among others.

Everyone who was interested in classical music and lived in Mysore from the 1960s to 2000 knew of the “Puttu Rao Family” and their music concerts. But not many know that the family was behind the establishment of the famous Chowdiah Hall on Sankey Tank Road in Bengaluru. However, the whole world came to know about the family when they started a blog in 2009 called “A Home called Parvathi” to share archived recordings. Many who read the blog and listened to those rare recordings met KS and became lifelong  admirers of Srikantiah.

 Mysore has this ineffable clime for art and music like no other place on earth. It has also produced great musicians, composers and titans among rasikas like K. Srikantiah. The Wadiyars of Mysore were world famous for their patronage of the arts. Not only Yoga, but all forms of music — Karnatak, Hindustani, western bands, western classical music, painting, sculpture — the very best can be traced to Mysore.

The custom of conducting Sri Ramanavami festival was started in the nineteenth century by the famous musician Mysore Sadashiva Rao, who belonged to the Parampara of Saint Thyagaraja himself. There would be Rama Mandiras and Mandalis celebrating Sri Ramanavami with pujas, homas, music concerts and processions. Every home would celebrate Sri Ramanavami with the distribution of panaka and kosambri. The great musician Bidaram Krishnappa founded the Prasanna Seetharama Mandira in Mysore after touring all of India and collecting funds through his concerts, accompanied by his student, the famous maestro Mysore T. Chowdiah.

K. Puttu Rao, a well-known lawyer in Mysore, had played a big role in the running of the famous Bidaram Krishnappa Prasanna Seetharama Mandira, working closely with the legendary violinist Mysore T. Chowdiah. He also built the mansion in Chamarajapuram named “Parvathi” and conducted many concerts, harikathas, pujas, homas and spiritual discourses open to the public. Puttu Rao died in his fifties.

KS was one of the many distinguished sons of Puttu Rao. When his father died in 1959, the 31-year-old Srikantiah, also a lawyer, just married, took up the mantle as a patron of the arts. He had inherited his father’s passion for culture and Karnatak music. He pursued this passion from 1959 till his death in 2024. He spent generously for the concert series year after year, bringing the best of musicians to perform in the special Pandal he used to put up in his large home.

He set up the Sri Rama Mantapam right under the big Parijata tree that he had ensured flowered copiously around Sri Ramanavami every year!

KS did not give up organising concerts till he turned 90 and his family found his efforts to organise the Puttu Rao Festival in Mysore’s Jaganmohan Palace too hard for him. He was a perfectionist and demanded the best from the auditorium, attendees, audio engineers, photographers and, of course, musicians. He was not satisfied until he saw the large 800-seater Jaganmohan Palace auditorium filled up, whether it was a concert of Vid. Yesudas, or Mandolin Shrinivas, or the Mysore Brothers. The venue had shifted from the grounds of Parvathi after the property had been remodelled. Every rasika and musician should visit the blog, “A Home called Parvathi.” It will be an unforgettable treat of music and anecdotes.

Many great rasikas sat in the Parvathi audience, concert after concert like the writer R.K. Narayan, the poet Pu.Ti. Narasimhachar, the Sanskrit scholar Chakravarthy, the great Veene Doreswamy Iyengar, government officials, politicians, actors, writers… In every festival, the leading singers came and performed with the best of accompaniment. For 70 years! The boundless enthusiasm of the patron Sri. KS made it possible for Mysore to celebrate like only it can.

R. Jagannathan, IPS, had written eloquently about the experience of attending Parvathi Sri Ramanavami concerts. He compares it to a dip in the holy Alakananda in Badarinath and then gazing at the snow peaks illumined by the golden sun. How do you describe such an aesthetic experience? Words will surely fail. The same kind of overwhelming experience was felt by audiences in every Parvathi concert where musicians came and gave their best performances. Will not Sri KS, like the ever-green musicians we have seen — Lalgudi, Madurai Somu and GNB — adorn the celestial spheres and live forever in the world of music? In fact, if there is indeed “The Next World” for all of us, it better be full of music, and give us rasikas like Sri KS and the ever-great musicians we know in Karnatak music.