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TIRUPATHI PONNA RAO

(Vayuleena Vidya Sagara , Kala Praveena (Music Academy – AP)


Brief Biography:

Sri Tirupathi Ponnarao, a great violinist is among the top ten violinists of India. Born in the
year 1923 at Nuziveedu to Sri Nammayya Suri (violinst) and Smt Ramanujamma. Sri
Nammayya Suri was Asthana Violin artist with Pithapuram Raja – Samsthanam. Sri
Tirupathi Ponna Rao is regarded as the one of the best violinsts of all times. (Source: a book
published from Mumbai). He was Asthana Violinst at TTD, Tirupathi till his death.

Sri Tirupathi Ponna Rao started his career in his childhood and learnt basic techniques from his
father. He had a passion to learn ‘music’ from Sri Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Panthulu. Though
he approached Sri Parupalli in the year 1941, it took one year to reach anywhere near Sri
Parupalli. He started his first lesson on 06.12.1942. It was a Gurukul school, and other students
were Sri Rudraraju Subba raju, Sri Nethi Sri ram sharma,. Sri MV Ramana murhty, Sri
Dattada panduranga raju, Sri Bala Murali kirhsna, Annavarapur ramaswamy etc.

Career :
Sri Tirupathi Ponna Rao started his career at Madras at the age of 22. He was absorbed as
Asst. by Sri Pendyala, Music Director. At that time Sri Ponna Rao has participated in a
number of recordings by other Music Directors. Before settling at Tirupathi, Ponna Rao’s
family used to live at Tadepalligudem, Kovvur. Sri PVRK Prasad, the then Executive Officer at
TTD, was impressed by the Sri Ponna Rao’s knowledge of music and convinced him to stay at
Tirupathi in the service of Lord Venkateswara as Asthana Violinst.

Sri Tirupathi Ponna Rao had a different style of playing the violin and it seems that nobody has
got such a quality in India. His contemporaries say that he had a ‘vinoothna shaili’ or
‘prathyeka shaili’ in playing Raagas. The Great Vocalists like Sri Mangalampalli Bala Murali
Krishna, GNB from Tamilnadu, Sri Maharajapuram Santhanam garu, Sri Nedunuri Krishna
Murthy garu, Sri MS Balasubrahmanyam sarma garu, Sri Nookala China Satyanarayana garu
used to like his style of playing. Sri Tirupathi Ponna Rao had accompanied all the above great
vocalists of India. He had also accompanied to Sri Mandolin Srinivas at a number of concerts.
Sri Ponna Rao had accompanied almost all great vocalists of India of his period, like P Leela ,
S Varalaxmi , Mrs Srirangam Gopalarathnam , Sri Madurai somasunder, Sri D K Pattamallu,
Sri K R Surbramanyam, with violin at different places in India. Sri Tirupathi Ponna Rao was
regarded as ‘A’ grade artist in AIR, and he had got the opportunity to present his concerts at all
the AIR stations of South India.

While staying at Thirupathi, he was very generous to teach ‘music’ to interested students. He
accommodated a number of poor students at his home and taught music. Smt Satyavathi, the
better half of Sri Ponna Rao, was kind enough to accommodate all these students at home and
she used to treat them affectionately as their family members. Some hundreds of students had
learnt classical music / vocal / violin and many of them are presently working at TTD,
Thiruapthi. Some of the students from Tadepalligudem had a great concern for Sri Ponna Rao,
and they put up a statue of Sri Ponna Rao at Tadepalligudem and named the street TIRUPATHI
PONNA RAO STREET. Every year they organise special programmes on June 8th on the
occasion of Sri Ponna Rao’s vardhanti. The Shishya Parampara spread to Godavari Dists,
Krishan Dist, and Vizag Dist and most of them are working as AIR Artists.

Sri Tirupathi Ponnarao had four daughters. Though he had imparted the essence of music to all
four of his daughters, only the second daughter Smt Indira and fourth daughter Smt Padmasri
have followed and learnt Classical Music from their father. Both the daughters are B High
Grade Artists at AIR. Smt Padmasri has been spreading the music values across India which
she had learnt from her father for the past 20 years. She & her husband Mr S P Thyagaraju had
started an organisation called ‘Swara Sudha Jhari’ in the year 2006 only to popularise
classical music.
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Another important part of Sri Ponna Rao’s family is his brothers. As the eldest son in the
family, he had to take care of his brothers, i.e., Sri Tirupathi Ramanuja Suri, Sri Tirupathi
Gopala Krishna, and Sri Tirupathi Thyagaraju. Sri Ponna Rao taught classical music and violin
to all his brothers and they have adopted the style and earned applause from all corners. Sri
Tirupathi Ramanuja Suri was in AIR and composed a good number of Light Music songs. He
is regarded as one of the best Music Directors in light music. Similarly Sri Gopala Krishna and
Sri Thyagaraju have composed a good number of songs in light music and rendered a number
of Kirthanas, devotional songs, light music songs and so on at AIR and Doordarshan.

Felicitations and Awards:

An Association from Kakinada has awarded “Sunadha Violin Vidwanmani” Andhra Pradesh
sangeetha nataka academy in 1988 felicitated and awarded Sri Ponna Rao as “Sangeetha Kala
Sagara” He was given a number of awards by different associations related to music. Some of
them are ‘Raaga Sudhakara,’ Raga Rathnakara, ‘Vayuleena Vidyasagara,’ ‘Kala Praveena
(Music Academy – AP). The following are the felicitations held at different places by his
Shishya Parampara.
• Suvarnahastha kankanam at Rajahmundry, Tyagarja samithi
• Suvarna Sumabhishekham at Rajahmundry
• Swarnahastha kankanam at Tadepalli gudem
• Suvarna pushpa mala abhishekam at Bheemavaram

Visit to Abroad:

Sri Tirupathi Ponna Rao had got an opportunity to go to U S A along with Sri Mangalampalli
Bala Murali Krishna to participate in Concerts.

Writings:

He had written a number of Kirthanas and Varnas and these are yet to be published. Mrs
Padmasri had taken up the job of collecting her father’s writings . He had written number of
Kirtanas with ‘tirupathi’ makutam.

Sri Tirupathi Ponnarao breathed his last in Allahabad in 1993 while attending a Music Concert
on behalf of TTD.

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