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Mundaya Venkitakrishna Bhagavathar (1881 - 1957) was one of the pioneer of Kathakali music. He revolutionized Kathakali Sangeetham by introducing the ragas from Carnatic music to the prevailing Kathakali music environment. It started during the middle of the last century. Kathakali, the well known dance drama is famous for its costumes and actors has equal importance to the music as the mood of story reach the audience through the music. The creation of mood to the particular story is very much important and it was learned by Bhagavathar in his early childhood. The basic carnatic lessons he learned from his guru has helped him to do the same with ease. He served as a teacher at Kerala Kalamandalam

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Mundaya Venkitakrishna Bhagavathar

Mundaya Venkitakrishna Bhagavathar (1881 - 1957) was born at Munda Mukha(Mundaya, മുണ്ടായ) near Shoranur, to a village revenue official Kasturi Ranga Iyer and Alamelu Mangai. Kasturi Ranga Iyer had a modest income which helped meet the barest needs of the family. The village is on the banks of the Bharathappuzha river. The presiding deity of the village is Lord Ayyappan. Mundaya Venkitakrishna Bhagavathar was one of the pioneer of Kathakali music. Venkitakrishna initially trained in Kathakali under Moothedath Vasudevan Namboodiri. After performing a few female roles, he quit to pursue vocal music under the same guru. Then along with his brother Raman,Palghat Rama Bhagavathar he began to learn Carnatic music from Vadakancheri Rama Bhagavatar and his brother Subbarama Bhagavatar. He revolutionized Kathakali Sangeetham by introducing the ragas from Carnatic music to the prevailing Kathakali music environment. He redefined and restructured the Kathakali music, to empower the text, contexts and characters. Kathakali, the well known dance drama is famous for its costumes and actors and has equal importance to the music as the mood of story reach the audience through the music. The creation of mood to the particular story is very much important and it was learned by Bhagavathar in his early childhood. The basic Carnatic lessons he learned from his guru made him to introduced a host of Carnatic ragas which were new to the vocal music tradition of Kathakali. He also introduced the sruti box in Kathakali music and insisted that his co-singers too stick to sruti. His music carried Carnatic elements in much stronger dose. For, he hailed from a Tamil Brahmin family with ancestry tracing to Thanjavur belt. His forefathers were into traditional Sampradaya Bhajana that flourished towards the end of the 18th century as a choral singing at temples in praise of gods.