Malladi Brothers

 Sincere To Their Heritage.

- Spencer R. Venugopal

It is difficult to believe that an epoch making revolution in the manner in which Carnatic music was practised in Andhra Pradesh came about through the dedicated efforts of one who was not even a professional musician. This legendary person was Dr. Sripada Pinakapani. He was an eminent doctor by vocation but music was his passion. Almost entirely self taught in the subtle intricacies and nuances of Carnatic music, he fell in love with the “Tanjavur bani” of Tamil Nadu and decided to import and propagate it in his own Andhra Pradesh. He had no guru to guide him in his mission but commenced the journey on his own, deciding to absorb whatever he listened to and found good from the stalwarts of Tamil Nadu.

Every hour he could steal from his professional preoccupation he devoted to this mission, travelling to Chennai or other places for the purpose of listening to the greats of those days and absorbing the essence of their styles. He wrote instant notations of whatever he found worthy in his listening sessions. During his peregrinations he cultivated personal contacts with senior musicians like Ariyakudi, Semmangudi, Mudicondan, Musiri, Brinda and several others. He had a special affinity to the Dhanammal school. His repertoire drew liberally from the historic collections of Rangaramanuja Iyengar. In addition, he developed his own extensive repertoire of padams and javalis from a variety of sources. Apart from composing varnams of his own, he set to tune more than a hundred kritis of Annamacharya in his unique, aesthetic style.

He authored several books running to thousands of pages, on various subjects in music, including notations for around a thousand kritis. His books on pallavi singing and manodharma in music were pathbreaking.

Dr. Pani received all the high awards reserved for great achievers in Carnatic music. It is incredible that he accomplished all this as a non-professional, part-time musician.