On New Year’s Day 1968 I heard Swamy Haridhos for the first time in Bombay and was struck by his charismatic personality and great singing. I was brought to hear and meet him by the family of K. Sridhar and K. Shivakumar with whom I was staying studying tabla and Hindustani music.

At that concert (that you can hear on this album) I was knocked out by the mridangam playing of his accompanist P. S. Devarajan. After the concert he showed me stuff on the mridangam and we got very friendly. As my tabla guru Pandit Taranath had been called by Ravi Shankar to teach at his school in L.A. I later on moved to his house in Tirunelveli for full time studies of the mridangam and moved around a lot with Swamy Haridhos and his devotees.

During those early days of 1968 Devarajan was a frequent visitor in our house in Chembur and I had a some opportunities to record him practicing, teaching and playing with young Shivakumar in the house. Some of these recordings are remarkable so here are a few of them. Take special note of the unbelievable konnakol solo in track 2.

Stockholm January 26, 2026, Bengt Berger