Vedantam Parvatisam

🪔 About

Vedantam Parvatisam was a prominent Indian dancer, Kuchipudi Guru, and scholar, born on September 24, 1920, in Kuchipudi village, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, India. He received traditional training in Kuchipudi Yakshaganas from esteemed gurus such as Chinta Venkataramayya, Vedantam Ramakrishna'yya, and Vedantam Raghava'yya. His musical education was guided by Yeleswarapu Sitaramanjaneyulu, and he studied Telugu literature under Vedantam Lakshminarasimham and Yeleswaracharya. Parvatisam began performing Kuchipudi Yaksha-ganas early in his life, notably participating in a troupe that performed at the Jaipur session of the Indian National Congress in 1930. A significant part of his career involved teaching; he helped establish the Shri Siddhendra Kalakshetram in Kuchipudi in 1957, where he served as principal for several decades until his retirement. He also imparted his knowledge at institutions in Ongole and Tenali in Guntur district. Beyond performance and teaching, Vedantam Parvatisam was a prolific author, publishing definitive editions of central Kalapam texts, including "Bhama-kalapam" in 1964 and "Golla-kalapam" in 1986. His other literary contributions include "Kuchipudi Melakartalu" (1981) and "Nrutya Tarangini" (1988). In 1974, he designed a distinctive flag for the Kuchipudi dance form, featuring a sugarcane stalk and Satyabhama's braid, and also composed and tuned the Kuchipudi patriotic song 'Vande vande vaani bhavani'. For his profound contributions to Kuchipudi, he was honored with the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1994. Awards & Honours: Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1994), Honour by Telugu University, Honour by Nrutya Academy of Andhra Pradesh.