Sampradaya is a 30-year-old archival and documentation organisation based in Chennai.

It now has a home inside the famed Kalakshetra campus.

It that has done extensive documentation and archival work in the field of south Indian music traditions.

Scholars, researchers, rasikas and musicians make use of this facility.

Vocalist T M Krishna recently took charge as President of this organisation. And he and his team recently launched 'Samvada – A Conversation', a series of unique conversations with Masters of Carnatic music.

The aim of Samvada is to create a public forum where the great masters of art can come and share with students, other musicians and the art lovers their musical journey.

The idea behind this is that many of the greats leave behind a huge musical legacy in the form of their music but less is known about their musical process and their life’s journey.

In order to facilitate this, Krishna and his team have arranged this series of events. In order to make the conversation focused, in depth and revealing, some of the top musicians of today will hold the conversation with the masters.

There will be one interview every month. The first was with guru R K Srikantan from Bangalore. In conversation was 'Chitravina' Ravi Kiran. The photos alongside were taken at this event in Chennai.

Below is a short e-mail exchange with T. M. Krishna.

1. What do you bring to the table in your new role?

Our focus is now three fold. We are in the process of completely digitizing our audio library and are also looking at the possibility of digitizing our reading library. Secondly we are looking at different ways of dissemination of the material we have. We have actively restarted our documentation work of various artistic traditions. We have also planned many programmes on a continuous basis which includes a folk festival in November.

2. Sampradaya has had some serious financial issues - are they still a problem and how do you address the issue?

Yes this is an issue but we are in touch with various funding organsations and hope to get support. We also need more hep from the corporate world.

3. Is Sampradaya going to continue in the Kalakshetra campus? Have you sought help from Delhi?

Yes we will function at the Kalakshetra campus. I did speak to the Culture Secretray to the Govt. of India and he was very keen in supporting the digitisation work.

4. What else is the focus of your goal?

I think our main thrust must be continuity of documentation much beyond only the Carnatic genre and we also need to make ourselves internationally accessible. We need to look at ourselves as the best resource centre for South Indian performing arts.