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The annual music and dance festival of the Brahma Gana Sabha was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Governor P S Rama Mohan Rao at the Sivagami Petachi Auditorium on Luz Church Road in Mylapore December 3.
The Governor also conferred the titles of Gana Padmam on veteran Carnatic vocalist Madurai N Krishnan, Naatya Padmam on danseuse Chitra Visveswaran and Naataka Padmam on actor and playwright Poornam
Viswanathan.
 A medal, a citation and cash prize of Rs 10,000 were handed over to the awardees.
The sabha, by honouring these three eminent exponents in various fields, had honoured itself, the Governor said. All the awardees were multi-faceted personalities and richly deserved the honour, he added.
Chitra Visveswaran had rendered signal service to the field of dance not just through her performances but also as a choreographer, besides training a large number of students, he said.
Madurai  Krishnan, who hails from a line of illustrious singers who had undergone gurukulam training for nearly 18 years with late Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, was also a renowned composer, the Governor pointed out.
Poornam Viswanathan has had a long career in the field of drama, both as an actor and playwright, the Governor added.
Chitra Visveswaran said the honour should have really gone to Sudharani Raghupathy,
 who, as a vice-president of the sabha, magnanimously proposed her (Chitra's) name. Sudharani was present in the audience.
The Governor released a book, 'Semmangudi Oru Sagaptham', written by Shankar Venkatraman. Former DGP, V R Lakshminarayanan, who received the first copy, recalled that Semmangudi regretted not having settled down in Travancore in Kerala where he was highly regarded instead of in Chennai where musicians were by and large ignored. He also referred to Semmangudi's sense of
humour.
M Ct. P. Chidambaram lighted the traditional lamp. The inauguration was followed by a dance recital by Bargavi
Gopalan.
RR
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