IVL Sastry

His life's mission is to serve the cause of carnatic music.

Indrakanti Venkata Lakshmana Sastry is a man of contradictions. Though short in height, he stands tall in the world of Carnatic classical music and though mild spoken, he is the firebrand personality who single-handedly took the Visakhapatnam culture of classical music forward, initiating thousands of people in the line of music.

His first love is music, the carnatic idiom in particular. His life's mission is serving its cause selflessly. A scion of a family of noted muscians, he was born to Indrakanti Lakshminarayana, a renowned vocalist, trained under the expert tutelage of veena virtuoso Tumarada Sangameswara Sastry, and Annapurna, a tuneful singer of a wide repertoire of traditional songs of piety, at Penugollu on March 23, 1927 and was initiated into vocal music by his father himself at a tender age. Later, he mastered mridangam under the able guidance of the maestro of the instrument Mullapudi Lakshmana Rao besides getting to know playing on flute and kanjeera by self effort. A guru honest to the core, has tremendous enthusiasm for teaching, and most of his disciples and all his progeny including grand children today stand placed as performing vocalists and instrumentalists. With such achievements to his credit, he still is synonymous for simplicity.That is Indrakanti Venkata Lakshmana Sastry, popularly known as IVL Sastry. Despite being on the verge of joining the revered group of octogenarians next month, he looks so deceptive of his age, still energetically guiding the affairs of Sangeetha Kala Samithi, Sangeetha Janakulam, besides being a member on the experts committee, Department of Culture, HRD., president, Samskara Bharathi (local branch), secretary, Thyagaraja Aaradhana Trust., examiner for MA in Music, Telugu University, Cultural Adviser of all Kendriya Vidyalayas, contributing editor of the International Spiritual Magazine, Mihira, so on and so forth.The Sangeetha Kalaa Samithi which has been organising monthly concerts of classical music since 1974, and the Sangeetha Janakulam which has been giving coaching in classical music free of cost besides organising recitals regularly on every second Saturday since 1979, were founded by him.By choice, Sastry was felicitated by many a prestigious institute, Bharathi Gaana Sabha, BHPV Sangeetha Madhuri, Ravidra Kalaasamskrithi, Sanaathana Dharma Charitable Trust founded by Sadguru K. Sivananda Murthy, Rotary and Lions Club's and many of the likes. The list of awards that came his way too is too long. The MN award of the World Teachers' Trust, Charla Ganapathi Sastry award by Sri Vijaya Thyagaraja Sangeetha Sabha, gold medal by Visakha Music Academy, outstanding service for music award by Sankar Foundation, Emani's award by Kalaavani, LSRK award by Poornodaya Star Art Guild besides the titles Poorna Purusha conferred by Viswa Samaikya Gnana Yoga Peetham, 

Sangeetha Vaachaspathi by Maha Saaktha Dharmika Samsthan, Sangeetha Praveena by Sangeetha Kalaa Samithi, Sangeetha Kalaa Tapasvi by Jagdguru Sri Sankaracharya Sarada Peetham are but only a few even among the notables. No wonder, he stands hailed a paragon of self-effacing zeal personified promoting, propogating and preserving the art of traditional music for posterity.A. RAMALINGA SASTRY.

83 years of age, IVL Sastry still continues on his crusade to make the world more musically aware. He enjoys the status of being the president of Samskara Bharati, an expert committee member at the Department of Culute of the Union Ministry of HRD, secretary of the Tyagaraja Aradhana Trust, cultural advisor to central schools in Vizag and the examiner for MA Music of Telugu University. But more than all these, and more importantly, he continues to be a promoter for learning.

The Sangeeta Janakulam holds classes at different levels for different people. Events are conducted too and people are encouraged to participate. His entire family too is dedicated to the cause. His son Kali Prasad is a flutist of repute, while his daughters Prof Saraswathi and Sharada Subramanyam work with the AU Music Dept and as radio top grade artists respectively. Taking it to the next generation, his grandchildren too are steeped in music with Lahari, being recognized as a child prodigy who could tell the names of ragas even at the tender age of two years.

More than being a culture, music is perhaps the way of life for IVL Sastry garu, where not a day goes without it. From 4am to 6am he practices music every day. After regular prayers, he takes classes for students from 10am to 12am. ‘A prominent section of people losing out on this culture is the youth. Our students too see good number of children and adults, however a significant percentage of youth are missing out.’

But maybe they are attracted to the other forms of music, we say. ‘To find the beauty of Carnatic classical music, you have to come seeking it. If only these youth would make it a point to attend few of these sessions would they be able to know what our music holds and the beauty in it.’

IVL Sastry also defines for us whether music is an art or a science. ‘It is a form of art or kala with scientific principles underlying it.’ Music is important for religion too. When mantras are recited with particular intonations, they help in generating vibrations that bring us peace, calm and enhance concentration. True, in times such as hours, it is the power of music that can generate vibrations to reduce negativity, release stress and restore peace.