‘End of era’: Bharatanatyam dancers mourn death of Yamini Krishnamurti

New Delhi, August 3
Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi veteran Yamini Krishnamurti died at the Apollo hospital here on Saturday. She was 84. “She was suffering from age-related issues and was in the ICU for the last seven months,” Krishnamurti’s manager and secretary Ganesh said.
Born on December 20, 1940 in Madanapalli in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district to Sanskrit scholar M Krishnamurti, she took to dance at the tender age of five under the tutelage of legendary Bharatanatyam dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale. Krishnamurti received the Padma Shri at the young age of 28 in 1968, Padma Bhushan in 2001 and Padma Vibhushan in 2016. 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 Rajya Sabha MP and Bharatanatyam dancer Sonal Mansingh said Krishnamurti “blazed like a meteor in the sky”. — PTI