Notable vainikas

Pioneers and legends

Epic personalities such as Ravana, the lord of Lanka, royalty such as the mighty Vijayanagara emperor Sri Krishnadeva Raya and emperor Achyutadeva Raya, sage Sri Raghavendra Swami and great Carnatic music composers such as Sri Muthuswami Dikshithar were ardent practitioners of the Veena. The particular Veena used by emperor Achyuta Raya was known as ‘Achyutabhoopali Veena’. The Veena used by Sri Muthswami Dikshitar was unique for it’s upturned ‘Yali’ face. The veena used by Narada is called mahati.

• Muthuswami Dikshitar
• Veenai Dhanammal (known for her individual style)
• Veena Sheshanna (Mysore style)
• Veena Subbanna (Mysore style)
• Veena Venkatagiriappa
• Veena Doraiswamy Iyengar (Mysore style)
• Emani Sankara Sastry (Andhra style)
• Chitti Babu (Andhra style)
• Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer (Karaikudi style)
• Karaikudi Subbarama Iyer (Karaikudi style)
• K. S. Narayanaswamy (Travancore style)
• Trivandrum R Venkataraman (Travancore style)
• S Balachander (known for his individual style)

Other exponents

• Ranganayaki Rajagopalan (Karaikudi style)
• Vainika Praveena R.S Keshava Murthy
• Rajeshwari Padmanabhan (Karaikudi style)
• Veena R Pitchumani Iyer
• Vasa Krishnamurthy
• Manchala Jagannadha Rao
• B.Sivakumar
• B.Ananda Rajyalakshmi
• Kalpakam Swaminathan
• K.Rajalakshmi
• Kaza Subhashini Sastry
• Paleti Hemalakshmi
• Ravinuthala Padma Chakravarthy
• Srikantham Nagalakshmi
• Sujana Vadlamani
• Karukurichi A. Balaji
• Vijay Venkateshwar Inala
• N.Anantha Narayanan
• Mudikondan S.N.Ramesh
• Mangalam Muthuswamy
• Sivanandam and Sarada Sivanandam (Thanjavur style)
• R.K. Suryanarayana (Mysore style)
• Sangameswara Sastri (Andhra style)
• Veena Venkatramana Das (Andhra style)
• Kalyanakrishna Bhagavatar (Travancore style)

Contemporary artists

• Padmavathy Ananthagopalan – Chennai based, disciple of Lalgudi Gopala Iyer, creator of a portable veena, advocate of gurukula tradition and founder of Sri Satguru Sangita Vidyalaya music school.
• Rugmini Gopalakrishnan – Thirvananthapuram based, disciple of K. S. Narayanaswamy.
• Jayanthi Kumaresh – Bangalore based, disciple of Padmavathy Ananthagopalan, recognized with Kalamamani Award, founder of Indian National Orchestra.
• D. Balakrishna (Mysore style) – Bangalore based, son and disciple of Doraiswamy Iyengar, recognized with Ganakashree and Karnatala Kalashree awards.
• Suma Sudhindra – Bangalore based, disciple of Chitti Babu, recognized with Rajyotsava & Kalaimamani awards, creator of Tarangini veena, carnatic-jazz exponent.
• Nirmala Rajasekar – disciple of Kalpakam Swaminathan, recognized with McKnight Performing Artists Fellowship and founder of Naada Rasa music school.
• E. Gayathri – Chennai based, disciple of Kamala Aswathama and T. M. Thyagarajan, recognized with “Kalaimamani” and “Sangeet Natak Akademi” awards, Vice Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Music and Fine Arts University.
• D Srinivas – Hyderabad based, disciple of Srinivasan and P. Srinivasa Gopalan, recognized with “Ugadi Visishta Puraskaram” Award, “Ashtana Vidwan” of Shri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham.
• Jaysri-Jeyaraaj – Chennai based artists, disciples of A. Anantharama Iyer and A. Champakavalli, recognized with “Nadha Kala Vipanchee” Award, founders of Veenavaadhini school.
• Rajhesh Vaidhya – Chennai based, recognized with Kalaimani award, founder of Ravna International School of Veena, has worked with various music directors of Tamil movies.
• Revathy Krishna – Chennai based, disciple of Sundaram Iyer, and later with Sharada Shivanandam and K.P.Sivanandam; recognized with Kalaimanani and Kumar Gandharwa Awards, also now for film recordings.
• Punya Srinivas – disciple of Kamala Aswathama and Suguna Varadachari, member of Panchachanyam band, over 5000 film recordings to her credit.
• Prince Rama Varma – disciple of Trivandrum R Venkataraman and K. S. Narayanaswamy, organiser of Swathi Sangeethotsavam and member of the Travancore royal family.
• R. Parthasarathy
• Saraswati Rajagopalan – Dehi based, disciple of K S Narayanaswamy, T.S. Raghavan and Radhamani Sharma; and member of Veena Foundation.
• Bonala Sankaraprakash
• Iyer brothers – Melbourne based, disciples of R. Pichumani and R. Venkataraman, recognized with the Multicultural Award for Excellence by the State of Victoria.
• B Kannan – Chennai based, disciple of Vasantha Krishnamurthy and Pichumani Iyer, Founder-President of Youth Association for Classical Music (YACM) and composer of many thillanas.
• Suvir Misra – Delhi based civil services officer proficient in Rudra veena, Saraswati veena and the Surbahar; inventor of the Misr Veena, known for playing Khayal in the Saraswati Veena.
• Prashanth Iyengar – Bangalore based, disciple of Padmasini Narasimhachar & R.K. Suryanarayana, composer of 90 varnas (including 72-varnas tuned in each of the 72-melakarta ragas), holder of the limca record for a 24 hour marathon veena concert.
• Srivani Yalla – Tirupati based, “A” graded AIR artist, Head of S.V.College of Music & Dance.
• Mr. TR Sambasivam disciple of smt Ranganayaki Rajagopalan follows karaikudi style. A great exponant and he works as a lecturer in Tamil nadu govt music college chennai . He is also an isaikaimamani awardee.