Suma Sudhindra
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
As a young instrumentalist and student of maestro L Raja Rao, Suma Sudhindra was eager to explore the veena world. After her PhD thesis on the ‘Evolution of Stringed Instruments in Carnatic Music’, she wanted to take advanced lessons to widen her repertoire. After listening to veena veteran Chitti Babu at a concert, she had the good fortune to meet him in person through her vocalist friend Shyamala Bhave in Chennai.
Suma says this was a turning point in her life as the maestro agreed to teach her. “He was gracious enough to immediately agree and school me. Chitti Babu’s tonal clarity, musicality, and masterly fingering techniques were unusual and distinctive. His instrumentation placed the genre itself in a different perspective and I was eager to learn from him.”
It was during this phase that Suma came to realise how much an “instrument can speak and sing” and how instrumentation can reveal a signature styling of its own.
Mesmerised by the stringed world, Suma contemplated on how she could bring awareness to more people and have forums for its propagation. “This is how I started Tarangini Arts Foundation with concerts, workshops and students being exposed to several genres of learning with vocal and instrumental music. We are happy that this golden jubilee year of the foundation will see a 50-member group present ‘Meera Tarangini’ an ensemble woven around six Meera bhajans chosen for this rare orchestration.”
With nearly 40 musicians in the veena section and the chorus concept designed by Suchethan Rangaswamy, the event includes female and male vocalists with production execution by Keerthi Kumar, with a six-member senior percussion team providing cadence to the novel presentation.

Suma Sudhindra receiving the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
“This is a new experimentation and I hope all our hard work pays off, as Tarangini Arts Foundation has always led the way in welcoming newer instrument programming,” says Suma, adding that she often ruminated on the words of violin maestro Lalgudi G Jayaraman who once said, ‘We have a greater responsibility to take instruments forward as the stringed instruments have a language of their own. Remember to learn and teach this unique language as they have a global audience’.
Trailblazer
What were the lessons from Chitti Babu that she was able to adapt to with ease? “The fact that I did not have a pre-set family school helped me have a more open mind to newer presentations,” says Suma, adding that taking to Chitti Babu’s veena styling was “almost an organic integration” as she was soon part of the super hit LPs brought out by the maestro in the early 1980s.
“He started the 50-veena ensemble with his students and also brought the contact mic for better sound to the otherwise soft-stringed instrument,” recalls Suma.
Apart from broadening her Carnatic repertoire by learning to present kritis the traditional way from doyen RK Srikantan, her cultural association with vainika Vemu Mukunda from England was a epochal phase that exposed her to jazz musicians. “From guitarist Gerard Machado, to pianist Tony Menezes and Ned McGowan, the American flautist in Amsterdam, the world of fusion opened up for me,” says Suma, who also designed a veena to suit her travel requirements.
Suma designed her ‘Tarangini Veena’ following extensive research and guidance from top-notch instrumentalists, and it was crafted by US-based Louis and Company.
“I perform on a 5kg portable veena that can be dismantled and carried like a guitar. The difference in sound is minimal as we have magnetic pick-ups. Of course, it cannot be compared with the naada of the Saraswati veena which is a time-honored, conventional piece, and complete by itself,” says Suma.
Nevertheless, Suma also recalls the tricky phase when her fusion attempts were highly criticised in the early 1980s, but she was determined not to let judgemental opinions from Carnatic conservatives faze her.
Suma is a recipient of the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar, Karnataka Rajyothsava Award, Veena Seshanna National Award and Ganakalabhushana among many more. Born in Bengaluru in 1952 to businessman NS Rao and Saraswati, a gamaka specialist, Suma did not dream she would one day lead veena ensembles on Carnatic platforms or be part of fusion across genres all over Europe and America.
“I have always wanted to be part of the movement in the cause of music dissemination. That is why I enjoy my work with the Indian Music Experience as Director-Outreach, and the annual Bengaluru International Arts Festival,” says Suma, who was also at the helm of affairs at Chowdiah Memorial Hall.
Meera Tarangini is on February 2, 6pm at Chowdiah Memorial Hall. Entry free.
Published – January 30, 2025 05:22 pm IST