He established "Sapta Swara Devatha Dhyana Mandira" at native village Rudrapatna, Karnataka, memorializing renowned musicians of Indian classical music.

Padmanabha was born in Rudrapatna village, Hassan district, Mysore State (now in Karnataka) where he received secondary education.

[2] Proficient in tanams (one of the methods of raga improvisation),[5] he conducted 500 concerts, as of July 2011[update], where group learning and singing is performed.

[8] Manasi Prasad [kn], a recipient of Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar from the Sangeet Natak Akademi, is his disciple.

[7] He established a cultural centre near Indian Institute of Management Bangalore where he organizes an event of goshti gayanam with his students.

[10] In 2020, he was part of an expert committee formed by Kannada University to investigate the birth place of Purandara Dasa, one of the chief founding-proponents of Carnatic music.

[13] Padmanabha conceived a memorial "Sapta Swara Devatha Dhyana Mandira" at Rudrapatna, where several musicians, scholars and artists originated, in the shape of tanpura dedicated to 6 classical musicians – Kanaka Dasa, Muthuswami Dikshitar, Purandara Dasa, Shyama Shastri, Tyagaraja and Vadiraja Tirtha.

[3] He founded Rudrapatna Sangeetotsava Samiti Trust,[15] which has been organizing a music festival in the village since early 2000s, and acts as its managing trustee.