Puvanur Village

Puvanur is a small village hamlet in nidamangalam block in thiruvarur district of tamil nadu state, india. It comes under puvanur panchayath. It is located 28 km towards west from district headquarters tiruvarur. 1km from nidamangalam. 319 km from state capital chennai. Poovanur pin code is 612803 and postal head office is puvanur . Nidamangalam 3km , kottaiyur 4km, vadakaravayal 4km, chettichatram 5km, aravur 6km are the nearby villages to puvanur. Puvanur is surrounded by mannargudi block towards south , valangaiman block towards north , koradacherry block towards east , ammapettai block towards west. Thiruvarur, thanjavur, nanjikottai , thiruthuraipoondi are the near by cities to poovanur. Puvanur is in the border of the thiruvarur district and thanjavur district.

Puvanur N Ramamurthy

N Ramamurthy a classical Carnatic Musician hails from this Village. Fondly called PNR has looks of Madurai Mani Iyer and voice of G N Balasubramaniam was a child prodigy and started singing at the age of 8. Even at the early age, became a fanatic fan of Sri G N Balasubramaniam and travelled across to attend to his concerts. Once while G N B was AIR Producer happened to listen to him and commended with a pat on his back, “How come you have my voice?” and blessed him. Puvanur N Ramamurthy was fortunate to receive Thambura prize in Gopalakrishna Bharathiayar Song Competition from Sri C Rajagopalachari, Governor General during the year 1953. PNR had tuned several Thirupugazh songs and innately talented to set tunes to several other devotional songs. He had set tunes to Thirupavai, Thiruvenpavai and Thirupalliezuchi all 60 songs with varied Ragas. PNR had contributed to AIR since 1953 as direct B High Artiste for more than 5 decades. Puvanur N Ramamurthy was founder Secretary of Triplicane Arts Academy in the year 1955 and worked along Valladi Ramamurthy. As Secretary had organized several music programs of Alathur Brothers, Madurai Mani Iyer, Padmini&Ragini Sisters Bharathanatyam alongside Palghat Sri T S Mani Iyer and Palani Sri Subramaniam Pillai and great Violin stalwarts and Dramas.

During the period 1955-56 had several acquaintances with the legends of Music fraternity. During the year 1955, Puvanur N. Ramamurthy married to Shyamala, great granddaughter of Pandit Natesh Sastri who is an erudite Scholar in Tamil, English and Sanskrit. He was an epigraphist and worked closely with Robert Schwell in the Archaeological survey of India. He had authored books on Hindu Feasts and Ceremonies and fictions like Thalayanai Mandropadesam and Dikatra IruKozhundaigal and Dravida Kanavugal. He was contemporary of U VeSwaminathaIyer. The term Novel was first introduced by him. Smt. Shyamala Ramamurthy is musically talented and rendering of several Slokas. Few of them are Soundarya Lahari, Abhirami Andhadhi, Thiruppavai and more specialized in rendering Thirupugazh and also a traditional Carnatic music singer. They were blessed with three Children, Bala Devi, Natarajan and Viswanathan. Hailing from orthodox family, PNR & Shyamala raised their children in a simple way to equip themselves with bare necessities. They ensured their children not only went to school for studies but ensured them to learn slokas, listen to good traditional music and Sampradaya bhajans and created a passion for uploading Hindu Cultural Tradition since childhood.

Puvanur R Viswanathan

R Viswanathan S/O Puvanur N Ramamurthy, a Post Graduate in Mathematics, Gold Medalist was a seasoned Software professional for close to 3 decades and a well known Mridangam Artist & also an able Konnakol(Sonna Sol) Exponent, started learning the Art of Playing Mridangam end to end from Kumbakonam Sri M Rajappa Iyer for close to 5 years culminating with Arangetram in the year 1988.

Puvanur R Viswnathan was very fortunate to accompany famous musicologist and Sangita Acharya Thanjavur Sri V Sankara Iyer with Smt. T Rukmini on Violin. Puvanur R V Iyer was indeed blessed to perform in the presence of Padma Shri Palghat Sri R Raghu as Chief Guest and Sri Y G Doraiswamy presidening over during the year 1988.

R Viswanathan after completing the “Laya Padandaram” based on his father’s request prefixed his name with PUVANUR Village and henceforth was known as “Puvanur R Viswanathan” in Music Circles.

Later Puvanur R Viswanathan further advanced his skills from great Laya Vidwans like Ramanathapuram Sri. C S Murugaboopathy, Palghat Sri. R Raghu, Dr. T K Murthy & Umayalpuram Sri. K Sivaraman. He was fortunate to have workshops with Palghat Sri T R Rajamani and Sri K S Kalidas to understand the nuances of “Antique Padantharam”.

Puvanur R V Iyer as he is fondly called was fortunate to perform in India and Abroad and accompanied leading Senior Vidwans and Prodigious young talents. Puvanur R V Iyer was fortunate to perform the entire US Tour during the year 1998 & accompanied to Sri Sankaran Nambudiri & Maharajapuram Sri S Ramachandran. He also had opportunities to teach Mridangam to students in New Jersey, USA from 1997 – 2000 for close to 4 years and also conducted several workshops with Students. Puvanur R V Iyer had distinctive privilege and opportunity to be part of Dr T K Murthy research work of playing “Samam to Samam Morah Korvai” in “72 Melakartha Thalas” & “108 Thalas” and was part of both the Release Function(s) during the year 2002/ 2004 in the prestigious Organisation, “THE MUSIC ACADEMY”.

Puvanur R V Iyer was also very fortunate to perform in Tokyo, Japan for Dr M S Subbulakshmi 100th Centenary celebration in 2016 to accompany prodigiously talented Singer Sri. Balaji Shankar accompanied on Violin by Madurai Sri B Balasubramaniam.

Nandini Viswanathan

Nandini Viswanathan acquired her initial musical skills from Sri Srirangachari and later from Sri Ajay Namburduri during her School days. Later she learnt violin from Srimathi Bramhanandam for close to 5 years and from Akkarai Sisters for Close to 4 years and had her Violin Arangetramn during Oct 2014 with the distinctive presence of Sri K S Kalidas, Mridangam Maestro. Nandini advanced her Vocal music from Sri Balaji Shankar and had her Arangetram in Oct 2016 with the distinctive presence of Madurai Sri Balasubramaniam and Sri K R Ganesh. Nandini had won several prizes in Inter School Bhajan Competitions and several other Music Competitions.

Nandini Viswanathan started performing concerts both Vocal Music & Violin Accompaniment continuing the “Puvanur Legacy” and the musical lineage family tree.

Vinatha Viswanathan, Chemical Engineer in the making with good academic track records also possesses innate Musical Talents and had participated in several “Inter School Music Competitions” and won several prizes.

Puvanur R V Iyer will strive to impart more knowledge to his daughters in this Art Form & very keen to promote their musical contribution to “Puvanur Legacy Family Tree” in the years to come.

Puvanur Family

Puvanur R V Iyer is married to Vasantha Viswanathan & blessed with two daughters Nandini & Vinatha. Vasantha Viswanathan is daughter of Sri S V Venkataramanan (Chief Estimator,Retd Railways) and Smt. S Rajalakshmi alias Rajam. Smt Rajalakshmi is an acclaimed musician and did her Sangeetha Bhushanam from prestigious organization “The Music Academy”

Nandini Viswanathan daughter of Puvanur R V Iyer is academically brilliant and Computer Science Engineer and musically talented too.

Nandini Viswanathan’s musical talent was initially identified by their parents and also would like to offer their special gratitude to her maternal Grand Mother S.Rajalakshmi for the strong foundation laid by her to appreciate and understand the “Basic Science of Music” & also from her paternal Grandfather Puvanur N Ramamurthy for nurturing her talents & Nandini further advanced her Laya skills from her father R Viswanathan.