(b Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, 13 May 1918; d ? Madras, 1984). South Indian dancer and musician. Her family included many distinguished dancers and musicians since the 18th century; during the 19th century some of her forebears studied with Subbaraya Śāstri. Her formal training as a dancer started when she was four under the noted teacher Kandappan Pillai (1899–1942), himself the inheritor of a great tradition, and her mother taught her music. When she was seven her arankerram (formal début) took place at the Kāmāksi Amman temple, Kanchipuram, and her professional début was two years later in Madras. As a girl she was already an accomplished and mature dancer with a very large repertory, but she continued to study, notably the basis of abhinaya (dramatic expression) and its improvisation. She became a musician in her own right and a leading exponent of forms such as padam and jāvali.
She toured extensively throughout India and internationally. She also taught in the USA, notably at Wesleyan University with her brothers T. Viswanathan and T. Ranganathan. In 1973 she was the first dancer to preside over the annual conference of the Madras Academy of Music, and the first dancer to receive the title Sangita Kalanidhi. With Venkatarama Raghavan she wrote a book, Bharata nātya (1959). She received the presidential award for dancing and the Padma Vibhushan.
T. Balasaraswati and V. Raghavan: Bharata nātya (1959)
V. Raghavan: ‘Her Infinite Variety’, Journal of the Music Academy, Madras, xxxiv (1963), 124–31
J.B. Higgins: ‘Padams and Balasaraswati’, The Music Academy Madras: Forty Seventh Conference 1973 [no page numbers] 1973
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