EMANI SANKAR SASTRY- AN EMINENT VEENA VIDWAN

 

 

 

In the Blog chatter’s A2Z campaign, I will be presenting blogposts on ‘EXCEPTIONALLY TALENTED INDIAN ARTIST’ in the alphabetical order.  Today, E– Emani Sankar Sastry- Veena .  First few lines on the instrument - then about the artist.

 

“Music is the universal language of mankind.” – H.W. Longfellow

 

Veena is a string instrument and in India it is synonymous to Saraswathi-the Goddess of

 Learning. It is a long necked pear shaped lute and a pear shaped wooden piece. It has 24 frets,

 four melody strings and three drone strings.  There are several variations of the veena, which

 in its South Indian form is a member of the lute family. One who plays the veena is referred to as a vainika.

There is an evidence for the earliest use of veena at Veena cave at Udayagiri with a visual depiction of a veena player and it is considered to be as Samudra Gupta.  The veena is played by sitting cross-legged upon the floor and holding the veena in front. The small gourd on the left touch the left thigh, the left arm passing round the stem so that the fingers rest easily upon the frets. The main body of the instrument is placed on the ground, partially supported by the right thigh.

 Emani Sankar Sastry belongs to Andhra Pradesh and he is a great vidwan endowed with innovative skills in playing veena. He is famous as a veena artist and also as a music director. He gained critical acclaim and been appreciated as “Harbinger of Indian art aboard “by Pandit Nehru. He is a contemporary of Veenai Dhannammal of Tamil Nadu. He worked hard to popularise this art form and successful in bringing up many disciples. His renowned disciple is Chitti Babu. 

Emani Sankar Sastry won the admiration of the world famous violinist YEHUDI MENUHIN and at his special invitation he participated in the festival of international music council in 1974. He enthralled the audience by his concert of the veena which was classed as the concert of the century by discerning reviewers. He was one of the most outstanding artists constantly in demand in India and abroad. He contributed a number of recordings on A.I.R. and two long-playing records for U.N.E.S.C.O. for release all over the world.

 To know more about the Vainika, go through his biography ‘EMANI SANKARA SASTRY’- AN ENNOBLING VEENA ARTISTE  by Prof. SreeRanjani Subba Rao. “An authentic biography” states the “THE HINDU” in its review.

(I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z and hyperlink to https://www.theblogchatter.co)