Thiruvananthapuram: Carnatic musician Parassala B Ponnammal who started her prolific music career as a child prodigy and later went on to earn many an accolades and respects for her musical prowess breathed her last at Valiyasala here on Tuesday, owing to age-related illness.
Ponnammal, 96, had many firsts to her credit in her lengthy musical career.
Born as the daugher of Bhagavathy Ammalu and Mahadeva Ayyar at Parassala near here in 1924, she took the traditional music world by storm with her charismatic rendition, at a time when the conservative society of that age considered public music performance by women as something beneath one’s dignity.
Ponnammal was the first girl student to be admitted at Music Academy (Swathi Thirunal Sangeetha College) here.
She caught the attention of the who’s who of the Carnatic music world at a very young age.
At the age of 13, she won a gold medal in a music competition for children organized in connection with the birth anniversary of erstwhile Travancore king Chithira Thirunal.
This extraordinary feat opened the doors of the music college to Ponnammal who later went on to become the first women teacher of the same college.
Ponnammal was also the first woman to perform at Navarathri Mandapam at the famed Navaratri Music Festival in 2006.
The nation honoured her with Padmasree in 2017.
Ponnammal started learning music and Sanskrit under the guidance of Ramaswamy Bhagavathar.
At the Music Academy, her teachers were the legendary ones such as Harikesanallur Muthayya Bhagavathar, Semmangudi, K R Kumaraswamy Iyer, M A Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar, etc.
Ponnammal was an A-grade artist at All India Radio.
She had won several coveted titles including Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award (1976), Acharya Kalabharathi Award and Gayakaratnam Award.
Some of her outstanding classical renditions include ‘Guruvayur Puresa Suprabhatham’, ‘Thrissivaperur Suprabhatham’, ‘Ulsava Prabandham’, ‘Navaratri krithi’, Meenambika Stothram, compositions of Irayimman Thampi and Padmanabha Sathakam of Swathi Thirunal.
Ponnammal is survived by sons D Mahadevan and D Subramanian.
Her husband Devanayakam Iyer and two other children — D Ramaswamy and D Kamala — predeceased her.
Her funeral is planned at Bharmana Grama Samajam crematorium, Valiyasala on Wednesday morning.