Revathi has been learning music since the age of five, but she got to pursue her passion only after her marriage. She is a veena teacher and has trained thousands of her students, and even at the age of 62, she aspires to learn more.

Dr. Revathi Raman is a veena player and teacher.

Revathi lives in Bengaluru.

Recalling her childhood, Revathi says she started learning music at the age of five, along with her siblings. She developed an interest in veena after listening to Veena Gayathri, who has been her inspiration. She used to participate in various singing competitions during her school days. She did her schooling at Dr. Rathnavelu Subramaniam Muthialpet Girls Higher Secondary School. Then, she did a BA in Economics at a government arts college.

Sharing her journey, Revathi says that she started learning to play the veena under the guidance of her first guru, Shrimati Saraswathi. After completing her BA in Economics, she wanted to pursue an MA in Music, but could not do so due to certain circumstances. She got the chance for the same only after her marriage with the encouragement of her husband.

Talking about her challenges, Revathi says that she used to practice the veena in her school during the music period, which would come two times a week. She could not practice regularly in those days. However, when she started learning varnas, her parents brought a veena for her to practice on. She feels it was the guidance of her guru that made her basics strong. After her marriage, she continued to learn from Dr. Arvinda Shankarachari, who advised her to pursue further studies in music. She did her Masters and M. Phil. from Mother Teresa’s Women's University and her PhD in Music from Madras University and wrote her thesis on Dr. Mangalam Ganpati's compositions. She has also written two books on music composition. Thereafter, she started teaching and has taught thousands of students.

When asked about her role models, Revathi says that her father is her biggest inspiration, and she has learned a lot from him.  Dr. Arvinda Shankaracharya has been her guide and philosopher and Dr. Bhageerathi, who encouraged her to write books, is also an inspiration. She feels blessed to have a supportive husband.

In her spare time, Revathi likes to chant mantras and listen to musical compositions.

Revathi’s life mantra is to keep going, crossing every hurdle that comes in her way. She advises all the music students to practice regularly and make their basics strong.