Special Centenary E book on D K Pattammal 

Sruti’s inaugural issue proved an instant success as it had Sangita Kalanidhi D.K. Pattammal on the cover. She was in many ways a pioneer among Carnatic vocalists, and we called her a trailblazing traditionalist. It is no secret that in the conservative south Indian milieu of the first half of the twentieth century, women were expected to take care of home and hearth, not venturing out even to practise the arts.

The performing arts, not considered very respectable in Victorian India, had just about emerged from the shadow of social stigma, and were now dominated

by men. In a remarkable turn of events that so often surprise us in the melting pot that is India, it was the intervention of the headmistress of the convent school she went to in the temple town of Kanchipuram that prevented young Pattammal from going the way of many upper caste Tamil girls.