Mavelikkara Prabhakara Varma

Mavelikkara Prabhakara Varma (1928–2008) was an Indian carnatic singer.^[1] and teacher who descended from the royal family of Mavelikkara, Kerala.

Biography

He was born in 1928 as the second son of Chandraprabha Thamburatty (daughter of the great scholar A. R. Raja Raja Varma) and Rama Varma of Kilimanoor Palace. While in his mother's womb, Varma was affected by polio^[2] and thus was born with disorder in his right leg, which he had to carry till his death. After his initial studies, he joined the Swathi Thirunal Music Academy in Thiruvananthapuram and after the course, joined the academy as an assistant professor in 1957. He retired as the principal of RLV College of Music and Fine Arts, Tripunithura (1981–84).

He has many illustrious disciples, including the famous Carnatic vocalists Neyyatinkara Vasudevan, Dr. K. Omanakutti and M. K. Sankaran Namboothiri, Mavelikkara P Subrahmanyam, Ponkunnam Ramachandran, Thamarakkad Govindan Namboothiri, Thamarakkad Krishnan Namboothiri, Cheppad Vamanan Namboothiri, etc.

He died on November 2, 2008, at his sister's home at Tripunithura near Ernakulam. He was aged 80. He remained a lifelong bachelor.^[3]

References