September 2026- E.Gayathri & Jothi Raghavan

Baby Gayathri, as a seven-year-old vainika, was a rage, a prodigy of sorts during the seventies in Carnatic music. With a charming, cherubic face and double-plaited hair, she was remarkable for her age. Her fingers moved gracefully over the strings of the full-sized veena, as she was partially hidden by its long dandi. This unique blend of talent and charm made her a captivating attraction, drawing attention wherever she performed and inspiring an entire generation of youngsters to learn the veena.

Gayathri was born to Kamala Aswathama, a vainika tutored at Kalakshetra, and G. Aswathama, a renowned music director in the Telugu film industry. Given this background, music was a natural path for her rather than a conscious choice. Baby Gayathri steadily rose in stature and became the renowned Veena E. Gayathri, a name synonymous with veena, ruling the stage for over four decades, until she decided to move away from it. Life took her on a swift rise to fame, demanding the world’s attention as cameras relentlessly followed her every move. Yet, she made a powerful choice to step away from the spotlight, asserting her need for a quieter, more introspective existence. In the sanctuary of her home, she dedicates herself to her music, delving into its depths with clarity and finding strength in the profound nuances of sound, embracing her art on her own terms.

Early childhood

Gayathri recalls hearing from her parents that even as a toddler, just nine months old, she would tap her feet to the beat of songs played by her father or mother. As she grew older, Gayathri sang along with her mother’s melodies on the veena, eagerly experimenting with the instrument while her mother taught students at home. One day, her mother handed her a veena, an impressive instrument that was larger than Gayathri herself. She felt a mix of excitement and nervousness as she held the beautiful creation in her hands. “I had no dolls; the veena was my doll,” says Gayathri.

Her mother, Kamala, taught her the basics of handling the instrument. Gayathri’s mother, a skilled vainika, was trained under Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer at Kalakshetra and later trained with Kalpakam Swaminathan. She was graded by All India Radio and also accompanied her guru in concerts at various sabhas in Chennai. Gayathri states that her mother aspired to become a well-known stage artist; however, her father prohibited this after their marriage — a lingering resentment that she carries even now, at ninety-three years of age.

In 1974, a young Bharatanatyam dancer travelled to the United States to join her engineer husband as a young bride. This was a story that would be repeated many times in the days after immigration laws were passed to help the US bring in trained scientists and other professionals to meet its growing need for such talent. It also meant that many dancers and other artists from India took up permanent residence there during the second half of the twentieth century. 

Settling and making their homes in various parts of the sweeping nation, these artists, each working independently of the others, were to change the landscape of the Indian dance scene in North America over the next few decades. Many of them are now retired or nearing retirement. They leave behind scores of trained dancers who continue to nurture the desi communities that have grown up in places from California to New Jersey, from Texas to Massachusetts, and many others in between. Many of these teachers and their students have, over the years, formed a symbiotic relationship with the Chennai Margazhi season and the dance festivals that proliferate in the USA. Today, we see scores of these dancers both on stage and in the audiences there.

Jothi Raghavan was a young performing dancer in India when she made her way to Boston to become a part of this story. Trained in Bharatanatyam by Swamimalai Rajarathnam Pillai and also having learned extensively from the legendary abhinaya exponent Kalanidhi Narayanan, she carries forward a rich artistic lineage rooted in tradition, rigour and emotional depth.

From small and modest beginnings, the dance school she started in her house with just three pupils evolved into a dance company. As the Indian community grew, so did ‘Nrityanjali’. Several dance dramas have been conceived, choreographed and presented by both the teacher and her students. Her multimedia production, Kanya, was recognised by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. In 2020, Jothi retired and continues to reside primarily in the US and spends more time with her grandchildren.

Ambika Buch belongs to a generation of artists that believes in art for art’s sake. Born in Chennai and growing up in the safe haven of the Theosophical Society, little did she know that she would come under the spell of the visionary Rukmini Devi Arundale (Athai as she is fondly called). This soft-spoken octogenarian embodies the kind of artist Rukmini Devi envisioned. Beneath the unassuming demeanour is a taskmaster who has trained generations of dancers at the Kalakshetra Foundation. With her unwavering faith in the form she was trained in and a strong Kalakshetra aesthetic, Ambika Buch is one of the torch-bearers of her alma mater. She is one of the first generation of dancers to be groomed under the watchful eye of her beloved Athai. Known for her firm nritta balanced with an old-world charm and grace, Ambika Buch was an indispensable part of Rukmini Devi’s famed dance dramas. Retiring as Senior Professor of Kalakshetra in 2001, she continues her artistic activities as a teacher, mentor and choreographer. Ambika Buch was the recipient of the Natyacharya Ratna award from Natyarangam in 2025.

It is not often that one meets a senior artist with more than six decades of experience who is truly content with her artistic journey. When Rukmini Devi said “To be a good artist, one must first be a good human being”, perhaps she sensed that her words would bear fruit in that quiet child with a shy smile who found her destiny through Kalakshetra.

How did you come to Kalakshetra and what prompted you to become a Bharatanatyam dancer?

My parents’ association with Rukmini Devi Arundale (Athai) began even before I was born. My father, K. Nataraja, was a young theosophist living in the premises and he witnessed Athai’s first performance at the Theosophical Society theatre in 1935. It made such an impression on him that even in his last days, he would reminisce on how divine her performance was. He married my mother, Gangeswari, whom he met at the first Montessori course conducted by Maria Montessori in Chennai. I was born in 1943. When I was hardly three years old, he enthusiastically took me to Athai, asking if I could be trained under her. Athai laughingly replied that I was too young and that when I was five or six, I could start learning Bharatanatyam. I am told that when my mother took me for a walk in the society gardens, Athai would stop whenever she drove by and play with me. I was too young to know then that my whole life would be touched by the very hands that patted my cheeks.

In 1949, when I was about six years old, I started my formal training in Bharatanatyam under Sarada Hoffman (Sarada Teacher) and was under her tutelage till I finished my arangetram in 1961.

Rajshri Ramakrishna is one of the leading scholar-musicians of Carnatic music today, whose career has seamlessly combined performance, research, teaching, and academic leadership. She underwent advanced training in the veena under Karaikkudi Rajeswari Padmanabhan and also vocal music under eminent Sangita Kala Acharyas P.S. Narayanaswamy and Suguna Varadachari. Rajshri also studied Hindustani music under Krishnanand.

She is currently Professor in the Department of Music at the Central University of Tamil Nadu, having earlier served for over a decade as Head of the Department of Indian Music, Chairperson of the School of Fine and Performing Arts, and Chairman of the Music and Dance Board of Studies at the University of Madras. Over the years, she has guided numerous doctoral scholars and has played a significant role in shaping music education and research in India. 

Rajshri’s research spans musicology, music education, textual studies, archival documentation, folk music and the emerging field of music therapy. Her work includes major projects on the documentation of post-Trinity composers, Tamil folk music, and contemporary studies exploring the role of music in emotional and psychological well-being. She has authored an extensive body of scholarly publications and serves as Chief Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Smrti. 

A performing musician in her own right, she is a B-High Grade artist of All India Radio and has been recognised with several honours, including the Musicologist Award from Narada Gana Sabha. More recently, she received the Erasmus International Credit Mobility Faculty Grant, through which she taught Carnatic music at Dublin City University, reflecting the growing international recognition of her work.