Twenty-two-year-old khanjira artist Anirudh Athreya has a lot of pedigree which a very few in the music field has. His great-grandfathers Sangita Kalanidhi-s ‘Papa’ K.S. Venkatramaiah and Alathur Sivasubramania Iyer were icons in the twentieth century. His maternal grandfather, V. Thyagarajan as a reputed violinist, and grand-uncle V. Nagarajan was a veteran khanjira vidwan (see Sruti 204). Nagarajan initiated Anirudh into the khanjira when he was but nine years old and was his guru for five years. Anirudh’s mother Lakshmi is well trained in music although she never performed on the stage. Anirudh learnt vocal music, first from his mother. After that from Nanganallur Ramanathan and Neyveli Santhanagopalan. But gave it up soon, fascinated by the khanjira right from childhood. Khanjira was introduced into classical music by the legendary Manpoondia Pillai and his disciples, Pudukkottai Dakshinamurthy Pillai and Palani Muthaiah Pillai were great masters in the art. Palani Subramania Pillai, the son and disciple of the latter also brought great glory to the art although he was a mridanga vidwan. V. Nagarajan was, early in his career, a mridanga vidwan who switched over to thekhanjira and became a preferred accompanist to many leading musicians of the day, including M.S. Subbulakshmi. But the rejuvenation of the khanjira as a major percussion