The Lathangi sisters musical journey

Hyderabad: Archana Upadhyaya and Samanvi are not star-kids. Yet, the sound of their music has already travelled far and wide. Popularly called as Lathangi sisters, the duo started their musical journey at a very tender age.

A 22-year-old Archana and 20-year-old Samanvi started as friends and students of the same teacher. They lived in their guru’s house and learnt their art.

The duo began learning Carnatic music under Vasanthalakshmi Hebbar and later trained under Carnatic vocalist Ranjani Hebbar Guruprasad. However, after her untimely demise in 2013, the Hebbar couple – Vasanthalaxmi and Aravinda Hebbar – decided to train Archana and Samanvi and nurture them as their children. Thus began gurukulavasam, a centuries-long tradition of teaching and learning in which sisya lives with the guru as a member of their household.

“A big turning point came in 2015 when the maestro Chitravina Ravikiran agreed to train us. Since then our music has been shaped under his scholarly guidance,” says the duo adding that they have been performing vocal music on stage and at other platforms since 2014.

“Though one of us shifted to Chennai and the other to Udupi, we still manage to co-ordinate and practice together, thanks to technology. So far we have performed over 200 concerts at New Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Mysore, Udupi, and Mangalore,” Samanvi says.

They have won numerous prizes for both solo and duet performances in highly reputed competitions across India. Among many awards, they secured the ‘Raga Laya Prabha’ award from Sri Rama Lalita Kala Mandira of Bengaluru and MS Subbulakshmi Fellowship Award from Sri Shanmukhananda Sabha of Mumbai in 2021. Also, they have conferred the title ‘Udupi Sodariyaru’ by Paryaya Pejawar Sri Vishwesha Theertha Swamiji at Shreekrishna Mutt, Udupi.

The duo co-authored the book Keerthanas of Karnataka along with Prof. V. Aravinda Hebbar and Dr. B. Surendra Rao. Three CDs are available too of their vocal singing in duet. Lathangi sisters are in

Hyderabad to enthral the audience at ‘Women’s Day 2022’, a musical treat by women on Tuesday at Shilparamam in the city.

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