Biography of the Smt. N. Rajam
Smt. N. Rajam, a renowned violin master (brilliant solo violinist) and Hindustani classical music performer, was born in the professional music family of the Chennai in the year 1938. Vidwan A. Narayana Iyer, her father, was a great and well known model of the Carnatic Music. She has learned the Carnatic Music from her father and practiced her raga from the Musiri Subramania Iyer and Pandit Omkarnath Thakur.
She got her training also by the renowned expert Pt. Mahadev Mishra. She was titled as a Singing Violin by the music lovers worldwide and as an Emeritus Professor by the University because of her stupendous talent and great service towards the violin music. Her brother named T. N. Krishnan was also a great violin performer.
She was interested in learning the violin from her early childhood when she was just 3 years. By her age 9, she became the professional violin music performer. As a professional music performer she got many chances to perform all across the country as well as outside the country such as the Europe, Russia, Netherlands, USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand etc. She has many disciples such as her own niece named Kala Ramnath, her daughter named Sangeeta Shankar, her granddaughters named Ragini Shankar, Nandini Shankar and Pranav Kumar. Some of her music students from the BHU like Swarna Khuntia, Satya Prakash Mohanty and V. Balaji became the prominent violinists.
She became the music Professor at the BHU, Varanasi in the art faculty for around 40 years. After that she became the head of department as well as Dean of the college at BHU.
Her Music Career
She has started her music career in the early age and became a legend in the music field. She has started performing as a Hindustani violinist at her age 15. She became the great violin performer just like flute performer late Shri Pannalal Ghosh, Sarangi performer late Shri Bundu Khan and Sehnahi performer late Ustad Bismilah Khan. She got many awards, gold medals for getting the first position in her B.A., M.A. in Sanskrit (from the BHU), B.Music (from the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya), M.Music (from the Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad) and Ph.D. in the Music. She became the Chairperson of the Sangeet Natak Academy of Uttar Pradesh.
Awards and Recognitions
- She has been awarded with the Padma Shri award in the year 1984 by the Govt of India for her great contribution in the field of music.
- She has been awarded with the Padma Bhushan award in the year 2004.
- She has been awarded with the Puttaraja Sanmaana in the year 2004.
- She has been awarded with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award by the Central and State Governments and Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowship in the year 1990 and 2012 respectively.
- She has been awarded with the Pune Pandit Award by the Pune Art and Music Foundation in the year 2010.
- She has also been awarded with the Malaviya Award from BHU, Varanasi.
Related Information
Pandit Vikas Maharaj
Gopi Krishna
Sitara Devi
Smt. Girja Devi
Pandit Kishan Maharaj
Rajan-Sajan Mishra
Pandit Hanuman Prasad Mishra
Pandit Mahadev Mishra
Kanthe Maharaj
Pandit Gudai Maharaj
Pandit Ravi Shankar
Bismillah Khan