At the age of 90, she is bustling about finding decades-old press clippings and audio tapes and faded black and white pictures from nearly 80 years ago, while unerringly recalling the events of the early 20th century – all to help me with her understanding of her life and work. Even before I go through these records, musician Sugandha Raman has given me an insight into her amazing spirit and energy, coupled with outstanding talent, made her a woman of such formidable achievements including pioneering ones.

Sugandha began learning Carnatic music at the age of 8, when in Chennai. She came under the tutelage of Ettayapuram Rajagopala iyer, direst disciple of Ramnad Srinivasa Iyengar. At first, he refused saying he taught “only devadasis who persisted with art unlike ‘family girls’ who soon got married and gave it up.” Her father finally persuaded him.
Another teacher was her mother, proficient musician and pallavi expert who had learnt 150 rare krithis from the Walajapet School of Thyagaraja disciples. Sugandha also trained under the renowned Papanasam Sivam who came home to give her advanced lessons and the great Srinivasa Raghavan of the Tillasthanam School who taught her rare Thyagaraja krithis. These included “Yeraamuni Nammithino”(Vakulabharanam), “Yavare Ramayya”(Gangeyabhushani), “Neeke Dayaraka”(Neelambari), “Naamarolanuvini”(Arabhi), etc. She sings a few snatches in chowkakaalam or extra slow pace, which is hardly seen in these speed-rendition times,”she adds ruefully. Sugandha is recognized as a treasure-trove of rare krithis.
Sugandha even learnt  few Hindustani bhajans. Soon, she and her sister were singing at many congress sessions in the then Madras. She also received gold medal from an impressed maharani of Travancore in 1936. On a visit to kalashetra, she fell in love with the Veena. She had a teacher, however, only for a few weeks, after which she became a self-taught veena player drawing on her vocal music background to attain proficiency.
After marriage to a supportive music loving husband, Sugandha was performing veena and vocal concerts on Radio and on Stage.
As she reveals: “At a time when only devadasis performed classical dance and music in public, it was unheard of for a ‘Family Woman’ to do so”. So, Sugandha’s performances evoked reactions ranging from admiration and astonishment to shock and even censure.
She even began playing the Hindustani Bhajans, she had learnt as a child on Veena(in Delhi). An impressed vichitra-veena expert, Ustad Ahmed Raza offered to teach her Hindustani Music.
He would sing and Sugandha would reproduce the lyrics on the Veena and later performed the same at concerts. Thus, Sugandha became the first Musician to perform in public, Hindustani Music on the South Indian Veena. Sugandha designed a new Veena – Vichitra-Veena with fixed frets and 13 chikari or resonance strings, which Raza christened as Narada Veena. She subsequently performed Carnatic Music on it. She became a part of AIR’s prestigious National Orchestra setup after Independence.
The indefatigable Sugandha was always looking to expand her repertoire with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. On a train journey to Jamshedpur she heard a musician singing to himself. It was Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sripada Pinakapani – an artist she admired. Sugandha’s father went upto him and introduced himself and his daughter.
She then requested that he teach her a few songs whereupon Pinakapani told them to come to Visakhapatnam where he lived. However, Sugandha, who couldn’t bear to wait that long implored that he taught at least one song on the train itself. Pinakapani sang “Janaki Ramana, Dasharadha Nandana”. She wrote it down immediately with notation, and sang it back flawlessly to an astonished Pinakapani.
Years later, she went to Visakhapatnam after marriage, and learnt from Pinakapani. Sugandha matched this thirst for knowledge with a laudable determination to preserve it for posterity –– she has recorded 900 krithis over 52 notebooks. At her music school, Veenapani Sangeetha Vidyalaya, she trained hundreds of students for 40 years.
What is her advice to today’s musicians? “The aesthetics of the art are all-important. Renditions must be refined and cultured. Also, alapana must be sung with akaaram (as Hindustani musicians do) i.e. as taranana with elongation of the end Aaa-syllable. Singing thadari and then pausing at and stretching the Ee is wrong.
Thathsath is a holy word in Indian philosophy meaning That is Truth. So Thadari which translates to That is an Enemy, is a distortion. Also, when stretching a word within a composition, for eg. “Saamiki”, don’t elongate the end syllable Eee. Instead, stop the Ee and switch to akaara as aa stands for Vishnu, Lakshmi and Saraswathi,” she says.
The Hindu
Bangalore Edition - Dt: 06-11-09