Three years ago, the Department of Posts had announced the issue of a set of four commemorative stamps on Indian musicians, including D.K. Pattammal. The issue did not come through. The announcement was repeated the next year, in 2013, adding four more names to the list. Again, there was no issue. Therefore, when the Department included the same list in this year’s calendar, without indicating the date, philatelists kept their fingers crossed. Mercifully, the stamps came out on September 3, 2014.

The Department has in the past issued multiple stamps on several themes; however, this is the first time it issued a set of eight stamps on musicians. (The last issue of a set on musicians was on December 3, 2010 – on T.N. Rajarathnam Pillai, T. Balasaraswati and Veena Dhanammal.)

The eight stamps commemorate legends Ali Akbar Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, D.K. Pattammal, Gangubai Hangal, Kumar Gandharva, Mallikarjun Mansur, Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan. The main release function was held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi, where the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, released the stamps. Paying tribute to the eight great music maestros, he said that they not only achieved personal perfection but also made extraordinary contributions, in their respective fields, to the development and evolution of the schools of music in which their talents were nurtured and honed. Their contribution and its enrichment of our cultural heritage were inestimable, and their names would be mentioned with great reverence and their music cherished by connoisseurs of Indian music for generations to come. He described the music of India in all its diversity as one of the greatest gifts to human civilisation. Functions were also held the same evening in Chennai, Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam and Mumbai. In Chennai the function commenced with an invocation by Tanujasree, great-granddaughter of D.K. Pattammal. DKP was the only Carnatic musician among the eight musicians whose stamps were released that day. Nithyasree Mahadevan, grand-daughter of DKP, was a special invitee. The function was followed by a music concert by Vijay Siva, disciple of the late vidwan D.K. Jayaraman, brother and disciple of Pattammal. (Courtesy: Sruti)