Bangalore Nagarathnamma

Born on November 3, 1878, in Nanjangud, Mysore Kingdom, Bangalore Nagarathnamma mastered Sanskrit, Kannada, and Telugu literature alongside rigorous Carnatic music training under Bidaram Krishnappa. Moving to Madras, she became one of the most celebrated and wealthiest concert vocalists of early 20th-century India. In 1910, she boldly retrieved, edited, and republished Muddupalani’s banned 18th-century Telugu erotic epic Radhika Santwanam, defending women’s creative and emotional autonomy against colonial and patriarchal censorship. A fervent devotee of Carnatic composer Saint Tyagaraja, she spent her entire life savings purchasing the composer's dilapidated resting place in Thiruvaiyaru, constructing a permanent marble samadhi temple. When male orthodoxy refused to allow women to sing at the annual Tyagaraja Aradhana festival, Nagarathnamma fought an unyielding legal and social battle until women artists were granted full equality on stage. In 1952, she was laid to rest facing Tyagaraja’s samadhi, where her memorial stands today.