Tabla artist Sathalinga Desai Kallur

Reputed tabla exponent Sathalinga Desai Kallur, who has had many performances both in India and abroad, is a rare breed of artist who has braved abject poverty and several other adversities in life to emerge as one of the most sought-after tabla artist. Pandit Sathalinga Desai Kallur, who has the honour of being an “A Top” grade artist of All India Radio, is incidentally only the third tabla exponent in the State to have had the honour. The other two artists are Pandit Raghunath Nakod of Dharwad and Pandit Ravindra Yavagal of Bengaluru. Pandit Sathalinga Desai Kallur, hailing from a family of musicians, spent hard days in his formative years, after shifting to Dharwad in his younger years to fine tune his skills in playing the tabla from the great masters of the art in Dharwad. “After making Male Malleshwar Mutt in Dharwad as my home, I used to go on ‘Pankthi Bikshe’ seeking alms in the form of food and food grains to feed myself and the other poor students staying in the mutt to pursue education,” the maestro said. These adversities did not diminish the yearning of Pandit Sathalinga Desai Kallur to fine tune the skills, which he learnt from his father Pandit Shankarappa Hugar.

Pandit Raghunath Nakod admitted this bright young boy from an obscure village, Desai Kallur in Afzalpur taluk in Kalaburagi district, as his disciple and for 15 long years, Shathalinga Desai learnt the nuances of tabla playing to became a maestro. The uniqueness Sathalinga Desai Kallur’s family is that all his four brothers and their children are reputed exponents of the tabla and Hindustani vocal music. Some of them are working as music teachers in government schools and colleges in Kalaburagi district. Pandit Sathalingha Desai Kallur’s elder son Male Malleshwar, who is pursuing his pre-university in Dharwad, is a tabla artist and expert Hindustani vocalist and fluently plays the “Sundari”, a musical equipment; his daughter Bhagyashri, who is also studying pre-university at Dharwad, is a flautist and well versed in playing the violin and the tabla. Pandit Sathalingha Desai Kallur has performed in Paris, France, 16 times and visited Switzerland and Belgium to give solo performances as well as an accompanying artist. At present, he is working as a senior artist in AIR Kalaburagi.