Mysore V Doreswami Iyengar (1920 - 1997)

Doreswamy Iyengar, generally known as Mysore V Doreswamy Iyengar, was born into a family of musicians. His father, Venkatesha Iyengar, was himself a Vainika and a musician in the court of the Maharaja of Mysore.

He started learning the Veena from his father at an early age and soon became the disciple of Veena Venkatagiriyappa one of the foremost Vainikas of the day in Mysore. He gave his first public performance in 1943, in the Bangalore Gayana Samaja. He participated in music conferences including the one in Shiraz, Iran in 1969.

He studied BA in the Maharaja’s College in Mysore. He was the music director of 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 style is marked by the movements from one note to another, achieved with the playing fingers (the index and middle fingers of the left hand) parted. This, along with his unique style of plucking the strings enabled him to achieve the continuity of sound so essential to Carnatic music.

Normally Veena is a solo instrument and is accompanied only by percussion instruments. However, the concerts of Doreswamy Iyengar accompanied by Mysore T Chowdiah on the violin became very popular. He has participated in many ‘Jugalbandis’ including other famous musicians such as Ali Akbar Khan. He also composed music for dance dramas, especially those of P T Narasimhachar, a renowned poet of Kannada.

His son, D. Balakrishna is among the foremost Vainikas of the day. Another Vainika of note, who was Doreswamy Iyengar’s disciple, was C. Krishnamurthy.