Palkulangara Ambika Devi
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3 December 1939
Palkulangara K. Ambika Devi | |
|---|---|
| Born | K. Ambika Devi 3 December 1939 |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Spouse | Chennithala Krishnankutty Nair |
| Children | 4 |
| Parents |
|
| Awards | |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Carnatic music |
| Instrument | Vocals |
Palkulangara K. Ambika Devi is an Indian Carnatic singer and music teacher from Kerala. She won the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award 1992 and the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Fellowship for the year 2010, from the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, Government of Kerala. She also won many other awards and honors including Best Musician Award (1973) and Sangeetha Kala Acharya title from the Madras Music Academy, Chennai.
Personal life
K. Ambika Devi was born on December 3, 1939, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, to K. N. Kesava Pillai and C.K. Karthayaini Amma.[1] Although her father, Kesava Pillai, who was the head accountant in the Travancore palace, and her other brothers were very strict, seeing her interest in music, everyone agreed to teach her music.[2] Her mother Karthiyaniyamma was also a singer.[2] She started studying classical music from the age of nine.[3]
She started her musical studies at a very young age and later joined the Swathi Thirunal College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram for higher studies, from where she passed the Gana Bhushanam and Vidwan courses with first rank in 1959.[4][1] When she passed seventh grade, it was her brother Sethuraman who took her to a music college.[2] She studied music under the tutelage of eminent people like Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, C. S. Krishna Iyer, Parassala B. Ponnammal, and Nellai T. V. Krishnamoorthy.[1]
Ambika Devi married Chennithala Krishnankutty Nair, who was a professor of mridangam at the Swathi Thirunal Government Music College where she studied.[1] They have four children, Harikrishnan, Shyamakrishnan, Swathi Krishnan and Purandarakrishnan.[2] Their son Harikrishnan R., a Carnatic violinist was also worked and retired as principal of the Swathi Thirunal College of Music.[5] Another son Shyamakrishnan is a mridangam player.[6]
She lives in her house 'Shaleenam' in Thycaude, Thiruvananthapuram.[4]