Thursday 6 March 2014

Veenai Dhanammal

The theme for Europas (special stamps issued by European Postal Administration) this year stamps issues is “National Musical Instruments”.  Since I have no idea what stamps India is going to issue this year, I decided to do something related to this topic.  Having said that India’s National Instrument is veena. When it comes to veenai the person coming to our mind is “Veenai Dhanammal”.

Veenai Dhanammal was born in George Town, Madras (now Chennai) in 1867. Dhanammal hails from the devadasi  tradition ("servant of God")  where women dancers where dedicated to the temple. Veenai Dhanammal was a good vocalist and veena player.

Dhanammal was a maverick choosing the Veena in an era where the instrument was entirely male dominated.  In time she developed an identifiable style of her own, what is now called Veena Dhanammal Style. She devoted her entire life for classical music.

 The above stamps was issued in India in 2010

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