Tributes pour in as Bharatanatyam icon and Padma awardee dies at 84
Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi veteran Yamini Krishnamurthy passed away at the age of 84 at the Apollo hospital in New Delhi on Saturday. “She was suffering from age-related issues and was in the ICU for the last seven months,” Krishnamurthy’s manager and secretary Ganesh said.
Krishnamurthy’s mortal remains will be brought to her institute — Yamini School of Dance at Hauz Khas — on Sunday. The details of her last rites are yet to be finalised. Krishnamurthy is survived by two sisters.
Born on December 20, 1940 in Madanapalli in the Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, to Sanskrit scholar M Krishnamurti, she took to dance at the age of five at the Kalakshetra School of Dance in Chennai under the tutelage of legendary Bharatanatyam dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale.
Also proficient in Kuchipudi, Krishnamurthy expanded her horizon by learning Odissi from the likes of Pankaj Charan Das and Kelucharan Mohapatra.
Besides learning the various dance forms, Krishnamurthy was also trained in Carnatic vocals and the veena.
She received the Padma Shri at the age of 28 in 1968, Padma Bhushan in 2001 and Padma Vibhushan in 2016. She was also conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1977.
Speaking about her contribution to Bharatanatyam, veteran dancer and one of her first students, Rama Vaidyanathan, said she brought “power, beauty and glamour” to the dance form.
Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy also took to X to pay tributes to Krishnamurthy. “I’m deeply saddened to hear of the demise of Yamini Krishnamurthy garu, the celebrated exponent of Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam. My thoughts and prayers are with her family in these difficult times,” he wrote.
Former Rajya Sabha MP and Bharatanatyam dancer Sonal Mansingh said Krishnamurthy “blazed like a meteor in the sky”.
“Just got the sad news of the passing away of India’s great dancer Yamini Krishnamurthy, Padmabhushan and Padma Vibhushan awardee. She blazed like a meteor across the sky, the firmament of the Indian dance art. She was my senior. We all looked up to her,” Mansingh said.