The late Pandit Taranath Rama Rao

Pandit Taranath learned from many great tablaplayers but considered Ustad Samshuddin Khan (gurubhai of Thirkwa) his main guru. Panditji was a very great teacher and here you can hear him recite a tabla composition (0:46) while playing the lehra on harmonium. It is then played by his students Sadanand Naimpally and Mohan Balvalli. From a concert at Trinity Club in Bombay 1968.

Thru the net I've gotten in contact with some of Taranathji's american students: percussionist Adam Rudolph, flutist David Philipson, who has a very fine page about Taranathji and Jef Feldman; the latter has published a wonderful book about him, The Tabla Legacy of Taranath Rao, with a biography and tabla lessons. There is also one about Allah Rakha. Highly recommended. You can find out more at his Digitala Page.

There is one short clip from 1985 at YouTube and a page about Panditji at Rao's Taranath Page.

Pandit Taranathji's nephew, Pandit Ravi Bellare has been living and teaching in the Los Angeles area, but sadly he passed away on april 16th 2005. Here you can hear him recite and play the same composition that you heard Pandit Taranath recite above. There is some problem with the lehra when he goes into double speed, but it is anyway interesting to compare the different versions. He recites it very expressively at a slower speed and then playes it in two speeds. This one is from a private concert in Chembur, Bombay 1968. Find out more about Raviji at David's pages. Today, on Raviji's second death anniversary Rupesh Kotecha has started The Ravi Bellare Arts Foundation and put up a short clip with Ravibhai at YouTube

Gurubhai Sadanand Naimpally told me that the composition is the Meghandbar Paran, "The Thunder Paran" by the legendary Kudow Singh Maharaj. Here you can hear Sadanand play it from a concert in Goa 2000. Maruti Kurdekar is playing the lehra. In the feed-back page you will find a longer discussion about that composition as well as some anecdotes about Taranathji.

When my tabla guru went to the states to teach at CalArts I looked south and found my mridangam guru in Tirunelveli where I spent more than a year studying the mridangam.

The late Mridangam Vidwan P.S.Devarajan

Hear him do some Konnakol (4:38) spoken mridangam rhythms.

In 1968, while my friends were trying to get the revolution going in Sweden, my mridangam teacher and I went to the photographer's in Tirunelveli. This is how mridangam lesson 1 (1:46) sounds when he does it. The four basic strokes Ta Di Tum Nam are recited and then played at multiple speeds.

Devarajan was often accompanying the charismatic Swamy Haridhos durimg the time I was with him, so I was also going along for yatras (pilgimages) and a lot of other religious functions, including visits to his Guru Swamy Gnanananda in Tirukkoilur and other holy places. He was a fantastic singer of bhajans and later constructed a beautiful temple town in Thennangur, a work which is carried on by his successor Swamy Namananda, Namaji.

Sopandev & P.S. Devarajan	Swamy Gnanananda	Swamy Haridhos	Swamy Namananda