Ranking Carnatic singer S. Sowmya has landed the prestigious Saraswathi Puraskaram for the year 2022. 

The C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, which instituted this award, organised a musical evening in Chennai on Friday to honour Sowmya, who is the Vice-Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Dr. J. Jayalalithaa Music and Fine Arts University and a visiting Professor at The Music Academy, Madras.

 Sangita Kalanidhi Sowmya was conferred the award for her contribution to Carnatic music.  Dr. Vyjayanthimala Bali and Justice Smt. Prabha Sridevan (retd.) were present at the function to honour Sowmya with Saraswathi Puraskaram.

Sowmya is widely acclaimed for her deep knowledge and classical outlook to the practice of this art form.

The Saraswathi Puraskaram has been instituted in honour of Saraswathi Pattabhi Raman, who, along with her husband C. R. Pattabhi Raman, donated the ancestral family property of “The Grove” situated at No.1, Eldams Road, Chennai, to the C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation. 

A versatile personality, Saraswathi Pattabhi Raman was adept in handling myriad musical instruments such as veena, violin, mridangam, harmonium, flute and piano. In 1977, she published a book on traditional music for weddings, festivals and the like.

 In September 2011, The C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation launched the first Annual Navaratri Festival of Music

 The awardees since 2011 include:  M. Chandrasekharan (2011), Dr. R. Vedavalli (2012),  Maharajapuram Shri. S. Srinivasan (2013),  Smt. Veena E. Gayathri (2014), Dr. Padma Subramaniam (2015), Smt. Chitra Visweswaran (2016), Smt. Aruna Sairam (2017), Dr. Premeela Gurumurthy (2018) and Dr. Vyjayanthimala Bali (2019).