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DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, November 18, 2001: Percussion maestro and South Africa’s doyen of Carnatic music Gopalan Govender passed away here on November 17. He was 77 years of age. During the 1900s in the apartheid years, he started a renaissance among generations of indentured laborers, instilling in them a sense of pride in their rich cultural heritage through music. He taught the percussion instruments tabla and mridangam — and propagated the learning of devotional songs culled from the texts of ancient texts such as the Thevaram and Thirupuggazh. Whatever knowledge imparted, he did so free of charge. Govender took his initial training under his first guru Murugas Naidoo of the Transvaal and later, from M.V. Murthy and Ranganathan while studying in Chennai, India. He started the New India Orchestra in 1940 and was a popular musician with South Africa’s most famous band, the Ranjeni Orchestra. His awards included the Indian Academy of South Africa’s prestigious Nadaraja Award in 1985, Natal Tamil Vedic Society’s Mahalakshmi Award and the time-honored gesture of respect, the Ponn Aadai or Golden Shawl. He was a trustee of the Natal Tamil Vedic Society as well as a lifelong Honorary Vice President of the southern hemisphere’s largest temple, the Shri Vaidyanatha Easwarar Alayam. He is survived by his wife Sarasvathi.

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