Doraiswamy Iyengar

Doreswamy Iyengar, generally known as Mysore V. Doreswamy Iyengar (1920 – October 28, 1997), was a Carnatic musician and one of the greatest exponents of the Veena in modern Indian history. Born into a family of classical musicians, he was the son of Venkatesha Iyengar, a Vainika and musician in the court of the Maharaja of Mysore.

He started learning the Veena from his father at an early age and soon became a disciple of Veena Venkatagiriyappa, one of the foremost Vainikas of the day in Mysore. He performed in the presence of the then Maharaja of Mysore at the age of 12. Spellbound, the Maharaja presented him with a fifty-rupee silver coin and asked Veena Venkatagiriyappa to nurture Doreswamy as he was bound to bring laurels to the Mysore State.

He gave his first public performance in 1943, at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja. He participated in music conferences including one in Shiraz, Iran, in 1969, where he was also invited to perform at the Shiraz Persepolis Festival of Arts. Over the course of his career, accolades poured in. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the Chowdiah National Memorial Award, the Sangeetha Kalaratna of the Bangalore Gayana Samaj, the Sangeetha Kalasikhamani of the Indian Fine Arts Society (1994), and the Sangeetha Kalanidhi of the Madras Music Academy.

He received a BA degree from Maharaja's College, Mysore. He served as the Music Director at the All India Radio in Bangalore. The University of Mysore conferred on him an Honorary Doctorate in 1975.

In an age when most of the other Vainikas started using the contact microphone, Doreswamy Iyengar remained a purist and stuck to the ‘acoustic’ Veena. His style of playing is sometimes referred to as the Mysore Style. This distinctive style is marked by the movements from one note to another being achieved with the playing fingers (the index and middle fingers of the left hand) parted. This, along with his prolonged, medieval string plucking style enabled him to achieve the continuity of sound so essential to Carnatic music.

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