New Delhi, 3 Aug

Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi veteran Yamini Krishnamurti died at the Apollo hospital here on Saturday. She was 84. "She was suffering from age-related issues and was in the ICU for the last seven months," Krishnamurti's manager and secretary Ganesh told PTI.

Krishnamurti's mortal remains will be brought to her institute -- Yamini School of Dance at Hauz Khas -- at 9 am on Sunday. The details of her last rites are yet to be finalised. Krishnamurti is survived by two sisters.

Born on December 20, 1940 in Madanapalli in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district to Sanskrit scholar M Krishnamurti, she took to dance at the tender age of five at the Kalakshetra School of Dance in Chennai under the tutelage of legendary Bharatanatyam dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale.

Also proficient in the form of Kuchipudi, Krishnamurti expanded her horizon by learning Odissi from the likes of Pankaj Charan Das and Kelucharan Mohapatra.

Besides learning the various dance forms, Krishnamurti was trained in Carnatic vocals and the veena.

Krishnamurti received Padma Shri at the young age of 28 in 1968, Padma Bhushan in 2001 and Padma Vibhushan in 2016. She was also conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1977.

Speaking about her contribution to Bharatanatyam, veteran dancer and one of her first students, Rama Vaidyanathan, said she brought "power, beauty and glamour" to the dance form. "Bharatanatyam is not going to be the same without her.... She was so focused and dedicated to classical dance. I am so fortunate to have been her first student almost 40 years ago. She added the star quality to the dance form," Vaidyanathan told PTI.

Krishnamurti only thought about dance, as if she was "haunted by the dance inside her", she added.

Vaidyanathan remembered a train journey she shared with Krishnamurti and being surprised at seeing her sitting in the dark, as everyone else slept around her, thinking about a dance composition.

"I remember once we were travelling by train. I was in the upper berth and she was in the lower berth. In the middle of the night, I woke up. Everyone was sleeping and I could see her sitting there in the darkness, composing something. She was doggedly and feverishly dedicated to Bharatanatyam," the 57-year-old said.

Condolence messages poured in on X. Former Rajya Sabha MP and Bharatanatyam dancer Sonal Mansingh said Krishnamurti "blazed like a meteor in the sky". "Just got the sad news of the passing away of India's great dancer Yamini Krishnamurthy, Padmabhushan and Padma Vibhushan awardee. She blazed like a meteor across the sky, the firmament of the Indian dance art. She was my senior. We all looked up to her," Mansingh said in a post on the microblogging platform.